Held last weekend in Perth, this year’s West Australian Music Industry (WAMi) awards showcased and rewarded the best artists to have come out of Australia’s western state for 2010/2011. Psych-rock quartet Tame Impala and rising indie favourites Split Seconds dominated the evening, pocketing four awards each. WAMi also saw its first category tie ever with this year’s Best Commercial Pop Act gong awarded to electro-pop outfit Tim & Jean and folk-pop songstress Felicity Groom.
Tame Impala scooped up the awards for Most Popular Act, Most Popular Live Act, Best Guitarist (Kevin Parker) and Best Rock Act. This topped off an extravagant 12 months for the Perth band, having also taken out Triple J’s J Award award in November last year. Split Seconds showed a promising start to their career, taking out Favourite Newcomer, Best Male Vocalist (Sean Pollard), Most Promising New Act and Best Indie Pop Act.
With Dom Alessio (Triple J’s Home and Hosed) and Dylan Lewis (Video Hits) hosting proceedings, the evening was also charmed by performances from indie-blues chanteuse Grace Woodroofe and indigenous singer/songwriter John Bennett.
PUBLICLY VOTED AWARDS
Most Popular Act – Tame Impala
Most Popular Live Act – Tame Impala
Most Popular Website – FasterLouder
Most Popular Album – Birds of Tokyo
Favourite Newcomer – Split Seconds
Most Popular Music Venue – The Rosemount Hotel
Most Popular Music Event – St Jeromes Laneway
Most Popular Single / EP – Jebediah, She’s Like a Comet
Most Popular Music Video – The Brow Horn Orchestra, Don’t You Wanna Sing Forever
CRAFT AWARDS
Best Live Sound Engineer – Luke Willott
Best Record Producer / Engineer – Dave Parkin
Best Male Vocalist – Sean Pollard (Split Seconds)
Best Female Vocalist – Abbe May
Best Guitarist – Kevin Parker (Tame Impala)
Best Bassist – Rob Stephens (Sons of Rico, Russian Winters, Simone & Girlfunkle)
Best Drummer – Todd Pickett (Kill Devil Hills, Davey Craddock and the Spectacles)
Best Instrumentalist – Glen Sarangapany (Birds of Tokyo, Sons of Rico)
Best Electronic Producer – Tomás Ford
Best DJ – Rok Riley
INDUSTRY VOTED AWARDS
Most Promising New Act – Split Seconds
Best Rock Act – Tame Impala
Best Hardcore / Punk Act – Injured Ninja
Best Hard Rock / Metal Act – Eleventh He Reaches London
Best Funk Act – Boom! Bap! Pow!
Best Urban / Hip Hop Act – Drapht
Best Blues & Roots Act – Abby May
Best Jazz Act – Jack Doepel Quartet
Best World Act – Grace Barbé
Best Country Music Act – Ruby Boots
Best Indigenous Act – Yabu Band
Best Electronic Music Act – Tim & Jean
Best Indie Pop Act – Split Seconds
Best Commercial Pop Act – Felicity Groom / Tim & Jean
Best WA Based Record Label – Jarrah Records
Media Award – Individual – Aarom Wilson
Media Award – Organisation – RTRfm 92.1
Management Award – Luke Rinaldi
Golden WAMi – Luke Rinaldi
Words By Celline Narinli
Title Image by Ryan Pierse via Getty
