“It was amazingly unexpected,” says Kim.
She adds just to be nominated was the honour, and winning didn’t even cross her mind. Apparently neither did the audience.
“Everybody there was shocked, but everybody was also thrilled.”
That was just after the first award. After being whisked off to the back of the stage, she was brought around to the door to go back to her seat. All eyes were quickly back on her however.
“I walk in the door, and I hear them call my name. The whole room turns to look at me, and there must have been 1,500-2,000 people.”
Kim says she didn’t even know why her name was being called at first, but was directed to get back onto the stage. At that point Kim figured out she won another award, and says she was speechless.
“The only word I could come up with was ‘wow!’”
Nominations for the awards came from a peer review from the industry, however voting was done by all of the ECMA members. The list of nominations in her categories was impressive too, she adds, and some had been in business for many years.
Kim doesn’t know what put her ahead in the voters minds, however she figures it has to do with working closely with the artists and their teams, as well as sponsoring shows at the ECMA’s. However her goal was not to win the awards.
“The goal was to promote the ECMA membership,” she says.
It takes a lot of work to promote east coast music, she says. However there are a lot of musicians, industry professionals and radio stations that are willing to promote it, and she says those people deserve a lot of thanks.
It wasn’t just accolades that made it a great night for her though. In addition to her own awards, several of her clients came home with awards as well. In total, three of the artists she works with took home five ECMA’s between them.
“I walk in the door, and I hear them call my name. The whole room turns to look at me, and there must have been 1,500-2,000 people.” - Kim Sinclair
Chris Colepaugh & the Cosmic Crew took home Entertainer of the Year, which is done by fan votes. The group also took home rock recording of the year, which no small feat says Kim.
“They won what are considered the biggest awards.”
David Myles took two with Single of the Year and Folk Recording of the Year, while Slowcoaster brought home Alternative Recording of the Year.
“It’s truly a great honour and a privilege to work with the people we work with”
As for the ECMA festivities, she has many great things to say about it.
“Your not going to find a greater concentration of music, musicians, and industry professionals on the East Coast.”
She says it’s a great place for music lovers to be part of, with music coming out of everywhere almost 24 hours a day.
An example she gave happened one night while eating dinner at the hotel.
“All of a sudden these two guys get up on stage and start tuning their guitars. You’re not paying attention because you’re eating dinner, and then it turns out that Dave Gunning and George Canyon just start singing,” she says.
Spincount put on two stages as well, which had it’s own moments as well. On night had Kim Stockwood singing with Ron Hines, in a little venue that held 100 people.
“If you were at the right place at the right time, you got to see Ron Hines and Kim Stockwood singing on stage,” she says. These are the kind of musical events that happen there,” she says.
“It’s a real music lovers festival. But even if you didn’t love music, you’d enjoy this. The whole vibe, the energy in the air, is just something to experience.”
