by Carol Hazel
The 32nd Annual New Mexico Music Awards ceremony was held Sunday, May 19th at the beautiful Sandia Resort and Casino in Albuquerque, NM. The awards focus on music made in New Mexico by recognizing New Mexico musicians, singers, songwriters, producers, and engineers. Awards were presented in forty categories from a variety of categories reflecting the cultural diversity of our state.
Included in this year’s finalist were two local nominations from Portales, NM, representing the eastern part of our state. Rotten Apple Project, featuring Sharon Dictson, Mike Davidson and Danny Jones, were one of six nominations for 2019 Best Music Video “Duke City Dutch” an original song written by the band. Additionally, Mike Davidson was one of five nominations for 2019 Best Mastering Engineer for ‘This Pretty Planet’ by Andy Mason.
Mike shared that The Rotten Apple Project is a hybrid band. “We go into the studio to record bass and drum tracks, sometimes adding a keyboard, and use those as a computerized backing track to play live guitar and vocals to. It gives us a 5 or 6 people sound with 3 people. Using this method also allows us to use guest musicians that can’t perform with us physically and it gives us the ability to automate our light show and much of our mix. It is intensely gratifying to incorporate the technology available to us and at the same time it is one of the most demanding situations we have ever been involved with because there is no margin of error. You have to get it right.”
The band enjoys playing originals and producing videos to their songs. It can take up to 6 months for them to complete a project primarily because they are not only writing the tune, but also recording, mixing and mastering the music as well as shooting and editing the video themselves. Mike stated that they could, “farm out these tasks but honestly that is part of the enjoyment which is the reason we do this in the first place.”
As for his involvement with musician Andy Mason, Mike said “In order to have a successful mastering project you have to have something ‘worthy’ of mastering in the first place and Andy never fails to deliver in this regard.” This Pretty Planet was a complex project. We had a couple of studio tracks then 15 or 20 tracks of kids recorded in the field with two kids per track. Some kids singing at the top of their lungs and others quiet as mice. Many times, on the same track. But when I first put the headphones on, I was hooked. I heard kids singing their hearts out. Putting out 110% effort with no inhibitions, no restrictions, just having fun. Once again, as an adult musician, I was reminded what we can learn from kids that are playing music for all the right reasons.”
In spite of not winning the top awards, band members felt it was an honor to be chosen a nominee with the caliber of musician representing New Mexico and they look forward to future events.
