What Are This Year's Winners Doing with Their Junos?

Karen Bliss, Dose.ca
April 19, 2010

Before fog and volcanic ash delayed many a Juno-goer from escaping St. John’s, Nfld., Dose.ca asked some of this year’s winners an important question: What will they do with their Juno? Are they a Gene Simmons type who displays their trophies in a room filled with various awards and gold records, or will they keep their Juno hidden or just plain packed away?

Billy Talent (Winner – Rock album of the year):

Jon Gallant (bass): “It’s kind of weird…”

“To brag,” interjects guitarist Ian D’Sa. “I have them up in my kitchen so you can’t really see them.”

Gallant: “I have a couple of ones on display, the group of the year ones, because I’m proud of those ones. All the other ones are scattered around the house.”

Ben Kowalewicz (vocals): “I have them in my living room, which is a small little like den so they’re kind of hidden, but they’re there if people want to see them.

Aaron Solowoniuk (drums): “They are tucked behind family pictures on my fire place.”

D’Sa: “He’s got a few on the dashboard of his car.”

Kowalewicz: “And he drives in front of the high schools in muscle shirts.”

Amelia Curran (Winner – Roots & traditional album of the year: solo):

“It’s my first award ever. I’ve been nominated for a lot of East Coast Music Awards and never took one home. And over the years I’ve made a lot of jokes about the back of a toilet being a great place for an award. And at this point, I actually do not know. I sort of feel like leaving it at Fred’s Records [in St. John’s] because it’s just so special. Tony Plowman manages the record store and he and I are very, very good friends and he was first encouraged me to record music and to keep writing so many years ago.”

Metric (Winner – Alternative album of the year, Group of the year):

Emily Haines (vocals, keys): “I can probably answer it having been friends with everyone in the band for 10 years that no one is a Gene Simmons type. Or someone would have a reality show by now.”

James Shaw (guitar): “We were actually talking about how one of us has one with a lampshade on it somewhere in the house. You can spot it.”

Johnny Reid (Winner – Country album of the year):

“Definitely not a Gene Simmons, no. I try and keep things simple. I think that’s been the key to my success to be honest is I’m always approachable and I’ve never really gone above myself. We have a rear room at the house we put everything. I’ve been very fortunate that I’ve been recognized a bunch of times with CCMAs so this is my first Juno and I know exactly where it’s going to go.”

The Arkells (Winner – New group of the year):

Which member of the group is a trophy collector like Gene Simmons?

“Tim Oxford,” they all chime.

“Here’s why,” explains keyboardist Dan Griffin: “Tim Oxford’s dad, the great Max Oxford, Slapsi Maxi as they used to call him, is a collector of very valuable things. He has a whole collection of [sports] things in his basement that’s unbelievable.”

So it runs in family? “It would be small potatoes is what it would be.”

Charles Spearin (Winner – Contemporary jazz album of the year):

“I’ve got two Junos from Broken Social Scene and for the first few years I had no idea what to do with it so the first one I put beside the soya sauce in the cupboard just as a surprise, and it worked, and the second one I put way up high on the hutch. It was just recently that my wife brought them where people can see them so now I’ve got three. To be honest, growing up as a musician, I was much more into my own personal community of musicians than I was the music industry. And the Junos for a long time was a bit of a joke. I don’t want to diminish it too much, but when I was growing up it was like ‘that’s the music industry,’ which is that world out there and I have my own group of friends and I was really proud of my community of musicians — and that was Broken Social Scene, primarily. I felt like we were on top of the world. So when I got a Juno I was a little dumbfounded; I didn’t know how to take it because it was kind of against my religion to a certain degree. I was more into the personal than the public. So since this is my third one, I have to accept the fact that I’m in a different arena now.”