Patrick Watson with members of his band, which is also called Patrick Watson: From left in frame, Robbie Kuster, Simon Angell, and Mishka Stein. (Secret City Records)
Close to Paradise, the second album from Montreal singer-songwriter Patrick Watson, was awarded the Polaris Music Prize on Sept. 24. The award is for best full-length Canadian album of the past year.
All 10 nominees were part of the country’s indie rock scene, including big names like Arcade Fire, Feist and Junior Boys. But it was the talented and lesser-known Watson (along with bandmates Mishka Stein, Robbie Kuster and Simon Angell) who took home the $20,000 prize. Their music has been compared to the work of Jeff Buckley and Rufus Wainwright.
Last year’s Polaris winner, violinist-songwriter Owen Pallett, (a.k.a. Final Fantasy), announced Watson’s win at an awards show at the Phoenix night club in Toronto, where five of the 10 nominees performed live.
As he accepted a giant cheque, a gleeful Watson spoke highly of his fellow nominees. He singled out idiosyncratic Calgary musician and visual artist Chad VanGaalen, whose performance earlier in the evening “blew him away,” and playfully bragged to Jace Lasek, who produced part of Close to Paradise, and whose band The Besnard Lakes was also up for the award.
He was clear about his designs for the prize money, saying that his band recently received a $16,000 bill for crashing a rented van while on tour in the U.S.
CBCNews.ca spoke to Watson after the award ceremony.
Q: What’s your reaction to winning the Polaris?
A: Winning music awards is a strange thing because each band we were nominated with does different things. You have rock ’n’ roll bands, you have quiet bands, you have really amazing lyrical bands. And each band you need in your life. You don’t need just one type of band. So to win is a big honour and a great thing, but all those types of bands are really necessary in your life as much as the others.
Q: What are your thoughts about your fellow nominees?
A: Tonight my biggest discovery was Chad [VanGaalen]. I had no idea who he was, to be honest with you. But I saw him play tonight and I thought it was one of the most beautiful things I’d seen in a really long time. And when we won, I kinda wished that he had won. I was stunned. We talk about Sufjan Stevens and I didn’t even know we had [an artist] just as strong here in Canada. It was really gorgeous what he did, I was totally floored.
And Miracle Fortress. Nobody knows who Miracle Fortress is in Canada, but artistically [frontman Graham Van Pelt] has an amazing production. So it’s amazing when people come here. It’s, ‘Jesus, there’s some really good music here.’ It’s not like some hype because the New York Times writes about it. It’s because it’s true. Tonight I was floored.
A: Buy a big hot tub. A hot tub made out of gold.
A: We go back with those guys and Jace [Lasek] helped us record our record. It’s just funny. He’s probably like, ‘Man I shouldn’t have made that sound so good!’ We see each other on the road. The funniest thing about travelling as a band is that you’re in different cities every night, so if you see a band you know it’s kinda like a taste of home. It’s a friendship that grows, bands on the road. It’s almost as close as brothers, as families.
A: Probably the biggest thing about winning an award like this is that it kinda puts you on the spot. It’s probably going to kick our ass to work three times harder. We’ve got another record to write and we have a lot of touring to do. And for me personally, I want to make sure that we deserve what we just won.
Jakob von Baeyer writes about the arts for CBCNews.ca.
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