“Those moments are legion” TLOBF talks Polaris with Prize Founder Steve Jordan

13 September 2011, 11:00

Directly in the aftermath of the announcement of PJ Harvey as the winner of the Mercury Music Prize, TLOBF caught up with Polaris Prize founder Steve Jordan to talk about the forthcoming Polaris Prize. Before TLOBF could get a question out, Jordan’s love of music was immedeatly apparent. What was the reaction like to Peej’s win? Who should he check out? Who do you think should have won? It is refreshing to be able to feel someone’s keenness over an intermittent Skype connection from a country a whole ocean away. And, in it’s own way, it was appropriate timing, given the perhaps surprising influence the Mercury Prize had on the early days of the Polaris.

For some time before the inaugural Polaris Prize in 2006, Jordan had been monitoring the Mercurys as a way of discovering music that hadn’t made it over to Canada yet – the Eureaka moment coming when he discovered The Bees (or, as they are known in Canada, The Band Of Bees), and the idea came that it would be fantastic to provide a similar way for people both in Canada and further afield to discover music that they could fall in love with. At the time, Jordan suggests, there was a growing frustration with what he terms the “uber-familiar” twelve or thirteen artists that were dominating the playlists of the commercial media outlets. Jordan set out to find a group of journalists, bloggers, broadcasters, radio personalities and the occasional professor with a shared love of music to act as a jury to find the critics’ pick of album of the year. “We’ve never claimed to be perfect…” Jordan says, “someone’s favourite is always going to get left out. But we try to be representative and have a good balance of sex, age, geographic dispersal, er…height. It’s about having the conversation about music.”

Rather than artists or labels having to put themselves forward for the prize, the wider jury is asked for their 5 favourite records for the year. Those with the most votes then get put forward to a 40 act longlist. The announcement of this longlist again ties in with Jordan’s initial vision of the Polaris as a way to introduce people to music they might not otherwise have heard. The Polaris website even has a regular feature where individual Jurors are allowed to state their original nominations- allowing even those that didn’t make the cut to be championed. Explaining the logic behind the publication of these nominations, Jordan suggests that people can choose to engage as much as they wish- some may just want to know the winner, some may choose to dig a little deeper. As for what makes it on to the longlist, it seems nothing surprises him anymore. “I can’t be specific but I do go though a heartbreaking process every year where I feel the elation of something really exciting looking like it’s going to make the list tempered by the letdown of something really worthy slipping out of contention.”

With the Polaris shortlist representing a mixture of the debutant and the established, and with a wide spread of genres, it’s difficult to pick out quite what it takes to be a Polaris-worthy record. “Polaris is run on a strong belief that categorization is stifling and unhealthy for artists and music.” Jordan explains. Regardless of genre, release method (The Weeknd’s “House of Balloons” is the first Polaris Shortlisted record without a physical release), or language, Polaris strives to provide a level playing field for the artists, something Jordan is justly proud of. While last years winners Karkwa took some by surprise, he points out that, like Patrick Watson when he beat Arcade Fire to the prize back in 2007, Karkwa were an established artist in their native Quebec with numerous albums under their belt. “Language is not the barrier people think it is when it comes to music.” Karkwa’s performance in Trafalgar Square at Canada Day on July 1st (during which they were joined onstage by Mike Myers) seems to be testament to that fact.

So, 6 years on, how does Jordan feel Polaris has fared? Has he had any ‘Bees’ moments as a result of Polaris. “Ahhh.” he says “ those moments are legion. I think overall I’m proudest that our original vision has not been compromised. And that vision was to execute a critics’ prize for music that engaged music fans in a transparent and exciting way.” With Polaris running ‘Listening Salons’ for new releases in Toronto, they hope to bring the debate about records that happens within the jury to the audience at large. There are also promotions running for the prize in Rough Trade and Resident (Brighton) where you can pick up a limited seven inch featuring some of the shortlist nominees, all in the name of spreading the brand and in doing so introducing more people to music that they might not have otherwise known about.

And what about the prize itself? The man himself will not be drawn on who he thinks will win. That’s for the grand jury of 11 people to decide. “Bottom line: no matter who Polaris picks, it’s going to be a surprise.”