The 2012 mtvU Woodie Awards honors the best music selected by the U.S. college audience. Held in Austin, Texas, the ceremony will begin March 15 with performances by Chiddy Bang, Walk the Moon, Wallpaper and several others.
Bethany Cosentino from Best Coast, Nicholas Petricca, lead singer and keyboardist from Walk the Moon and renowned disc jockey Steve Aoki joined a conference call with university students to talk about the upcoming awards show and their nominations.
Question: Could you talk about the making of the video “Our Deal”? What went into it and how do you feel about it being recognized by the Woodie Awards?
Bethany Cosentino: This video was 100 percent Drew Barrymore’s vision. It was something that she created entirely and I received the treatment.
I just thought that it really sounded just like a beautiful story that fit with a beautiful song. Working on the video was really fun.
To now be nominated for Best Video at the Woodie Awards is a really awesome opportunity and we’re very excited. I’m planning my acceptance speech during my off time.
Q: Who would you say are your influences?
BC: My biggest influences are definitely the Beatles, the Beach Boys, Fleetwood Mac, Connie Francis, Loretta Lynn. Tons of big, booming-like female voices.
Somebody like Connie Francis I could listen to for days on end and never get sick of a beautiful voice like that. I’m very inspired by a lot of older music. But I do think, in my soul, that I’m an old person at heart.
Q: How does it feel to come up so quickly and be recognized by the Woodies?
Nicholas Petricca: It’s a mixed bag in some ways. When (the band) came together with these four guys, including myself, beginning in 2011, it was just the right puzzle pieces were in place.
We had just released an independent record and put out the "Anna Sun" video. It felt like it was meant to be (with) the way the guys came together at the right time. The hardest thing is finding people who are committed and who have their heart in the right place, so I feel very lucky to be with these guys.
Q: How can college musicians can make the greatest use of the college environment to promote their own music?
NP: The best thing about college is that it’s going to be people from all over the place. Not people that you’ve grown up with, but people who’ve grown up in all sorts of different places.
What really affected me was sponging up all the different tastes and interests of the people that I met and listening to the music that they liked.
Taking advantage of that culture and playing gigs and organizing events and putting music together in the college environment is invaluable.
Q: What is it like to be remixing such big names in music? Do you ever worry about what they’ll think when they hear it?
Steve Aoki: Yes, of course. Of course I think about if they’ll like it because, you know, with the remixing ... I mean, you want to remix it in a way that it defines your sound, but you also want to meet them halfway and make sure it fits with what their sound is all about, too.
I just finished Mike Posner’s remix for “Looks Like Sex,” and I’m very proud of that one. It’s a different kind of process of writing an original track.
Q: You were nominated for the first Electric Dance Music Effect Woodie. What do you think that means for electronic dance music now?
SA: The state of EDM in America is bubbling. The awareness has blown up, and I’m on this tour called Dead Meat, touring across the U.S. for two months in a bus bringing live production.
That kind of thing wouldn’t happen maybe like four years ago. We’re in a really interesting time for EDM, and popular culture is now seeing it. It’s becoming part of the radar of popular culture.
I think that’s why that this award is now part of the Woodie Awards. I think it’s just a start for America to accept this kind of music more and give more opportunities to a lot of these different artists.
Catch the mtvU Woodie Awards on Sunday, March 18 on MTV at 5 p.m.
Reach the reporter at mkthomp5@asu.edu
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