Dave Faulkner speaks out on AMP shortlist controversy

23 February 2012

by Nathan Jolly

A number of judges have publicly criticised the shortlist for the Australian Music Prize: News Limited journalist Mikey Cahill called the list "a safe collection of albums"; Fairfax journalist Bernard Zuel suggested hip hop artists are continually overlooked; SPA's Andrew Mast has boycotted the final round of voting. Dave Faulkner from The Hoodoo Gurus has been in the AMP judging committee every year bar one – band commitments kept him from voting last year – and sees the controversy as being an inevitable result of democracy.

"It’s always a difficult thing," Faulkner admits. "So many people have so many different opinions and obviously I’m completely out of sync with most of them. I guess Andrew Mast feels particularly that way this year as he has nothing on the shortlist he likes. I only have one from my [initial] shortlist in the nine; there are two others I really like [in the nine] which didn’t make my shortlist. I love the Drapht album [Life Of Riley], and also the Phrase album [Babylon] and Laura Jean’s album [A Fool Who'll] and Ron Peno and the Superstitions; they didn’t get a look in, but what are you gonna do? Unfortunately it is democratic, there is no mystery about how it’s done.

Faulkner refutes Mast's claim that their was "a change in the voting system." 

"The only thing that wasn’t done this year that has in previous years, is the budget didn’t allow them to fly in lots of judges to go to Sydney and Melbourne to the shortlist meetings face-to-face - it was all done online," Faulkner explains. "But that said, face–to-face doesn’t tend to change anything. People come in with those opinions and go out the same way.

Faulkner admits that Bernard Zuel has a point regarding hip hop being overlooked, but argues that it is more a reflection of the current musical climate, and that it hasn't always been this way.

"Urthboy came very bloody close [in 2007 with his record The Signal]. No-one knows this, but if it wasn’t for the fact that the Mess Hall album that year [Devil's Elbow] was so bloody good, and it just got over the line. But what do you do? I have some ideas which may be improvements to the contest, but ultimately you have to go with the fact that a lot of people voted this way. You can’t second-guess what different judges feel, but I certainly think we should keep an eye on things so that mainstream music doesn’t dominate too heavily. Like it or not, mainstream music now is indie rock. People still think it’s Bon Jovi or something, it ain’t! It’s bloody indie rock."

The winner of the AMP will be announced March 8 at The Basement in Sydney.