The 2015 Carlton Dry Independent Music Awards, supported by Rdio as a major partner, is held on Thursday October 22 at Meat Market in North Melbourne. Performers will be announced soon.
This year, the amount of trophies handed out will number over 100. In recent years they have been 90. It’s a far cry from the inaugural awards in 2006 held in Sydney at the Blackett Hotel, when four awards were handed out. Hilltop Hoods took two of them for independent artist of the year and best performing independent album, while Gotye took home most outstanding new independent artist and Blue King Brown were lauded for best performing single/EP.
Over the years the awards have become a good indicator of who was hot (John Butler Trio, The Drones, Adalita, Paul Kelly, Violent Soho) and who was rising (Gurrumul, Courtney Barnett, Flume, British India, Chet Faker, Hemitutde, The Jezabels, Dan Sultan, King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard, Remi).
There have been passionate acceptance speeches, and stand-out performances by the likes of The Basics in 2006, Gurrumul, Eddy Current Suppression Ring, The Drones, CW Stoneking, The Amity Affliction, Illy, Paul Kelly, Hermitude, Archie Roach, Seth Sentry, Violent Soho, Big Scary, Meg Mac and Remi.
This year also marks the 20th year of AIR. This was around the time that the Australian independent sector was flexing its muscle, and introducing alternate models which allowed artists to control their art and make more money than those signed to major labels. There were some issues and challenges that had to be discussed, and a lobby group was clearly needed for the indie sector to be treated on a level playing field and to develop global opportunities.
The idea of an independent association was conceived in 1995, when a number of indie labels would meet casually in a pub. By mid-2016, AIR became an incorporated association, with a donation from the Australian indie sector’s visionary Sebastian Chase (of Phantom and MGM fame). The founding members were Chase, Graeme Regan (Hot), Ed Jonker and Michael McMartin.
Within two years it had 25 label members, which grew to 180 by late 2,000 and well over 200 now
