What Goes on Behind the Scenes at an Award Show?

Join Duran as he shares his experience of Rare Americans' journey to the Junos, otherwise known as the "Canadian Grammys"

Have you ever watched an awards show on TV and wondered what it’s like to actually be there? Well we just went to one last week, so let’s give you the behind the scenes scoop through the eyes of our drummer, Duran.

The Road to the Junos

Back in late January, we were absolutely blown away to be announced as a nominee for “Breakthrough Group of the Year” at this year’s Juno Awards here in Canada. It was unexpected and we were honored by the nomination. Jamesy himself even flew down for the nomination ceremony. You can read all about his experience here.

Needless to say, we were all incredibly pumped about the whole thing. We’ve put in a ton of work over the years and getting noticed by our own country is a huge step for us. We’ve always been secretly worried that our name “Rare Americans” might have always kept us from getting much attention here in Canada, so it feels good to get a little traction here.

The Juno Awards are split up into two nights: The Gala, and the main event. The Gala takes place a day before the main event and is a way to announce all of the award winners that aren’t going to be televised. They actually only present 6-8 categories during the main event, so they split everything up into two nights to make things a little less boring.

Our category was set to be announced during the Gala event, which would mean that we were really just spectators during the main event (Although there is a red carpet component to both nights, which I’ll discuss in a bit).

Getting Our Outfits

After a quick chat with our PR team, it became obvious that we are considered the “new kids on the block” for the event. We have a huge fanbase that we’re incredibly proud of, but compared to other Canadian artists like The Weeknd, Just Bieber, Shawn Mendes, or Nickleback, we’re pretty small fish.

Our PR team suggested that if we want to stand out at the ceremony, we have to look the part. We couldn’t just wear a normal suit, or show up in our dope Milk Man hoodies, we have to look different.

Being different is totally our thing, and we wanted to be noticed at the event, so we jumped at the opportunity. Under the guidance of our merch manager, Michele, all of us took a day to go shopping to grab some new clothes. It took one, very long day, but each of us ended up walking away with at least one outfit.

Since there were two nights we needed to dress up for, we all still needed a second outfit. Jamesy had actually come back with a black jumpsuit as his main outfit, but our manager Eric suggested that we all have a unified look on at least one of the days, so we chose to all get one ourselves.

After that, we all had to do grab some accessories, special shoes, and hats, but we pretty much had our outfits for the two nights.

Lastly, Jamesy wanted to get his hair back to blue, and I wanted to go blonde, so both of us went to get our hair done. Thanks to Moods salon and Titanium Studios here in Vancouver for generously donating their time and skills to making us look like rock stars.

I’m not crazy about fashion, but we don’t go to awards ceremonies very often, and I think trying to make an impact by looking a little different was totally the right move. In part, the whole thing was really a strategy to get some love from the Canadian press (which I think it paid off)

In the end, I had a good time shopping with the band, trying on bizarre clothes, and seeing just how out there we could get.

Night 1: The Gala

This was my favorite night of the weekend. It was where we were going to find out if we had won our award or not, so we had the most energy going into it.

I didn’t actually know this is how it works, but each artist is given a “red carpet time” for the event. This is the approximate time artists should arrive in order to get photos. They do this to keep things more organized, and to make it easier for artists to plan ahead for the evening. Whenever I watched red carpets on TV, I always assumed folks just showed up whenever they wanted, but I guess I was wrong.

Our red carpet time was 5:00pm. We didn’t want to pay a bunch of money for a limo, so we called an Uber to take us there. We hopped into a Dodge Caravan (or vanbourghini as Eric calls it), and headed to our red carpet event.

Once we got there, I realized that awards ceremonies are a lot less glamorous than I initially thought. Everything is a little chaotic, unorganized, and there aren’t people with white gloves handing you champagne the second you leave your vehicle.

Instead, we had to wait in a really long line.

The 1st Red Carpet

While we were waiting in line, our PR representative came to visit us. She told us that the more interesting we behave during the photos, the more likely we are to get featured somewhere. So while we were in line, we practiced our poses and landed on a strict 2 second pose rule: every 2 seconds, we’d move a little bit to keep things interesting.

The red carpet is literally just a well lit red carpet with a wall behind you that says the name of the event and the sponsors. In front of you are about 15 different cameras all shooting at once. People are yelling at you to look at them, of which you have no idea where the voices are coming from.

When it was our turn to walk out, we did our best. Personally, it was my first go at something like this, so I felt a little stiff. Jamesy is pretty used to interviews and cameras, so he did a great job, Jongo always looks amazing in a suit, and Lubo just oozes cool, so the rest of the team killed it.

Overall it was a strange but fun experience. I think we looked pretty good, so I’d consider it a success. Our strategy paid off a bit too, as our red carpet “arrival” was featured on the Junos instagram page, which you can see here:

thejunoawards

A post shared by The JUNO Awards (@thejunoawards)

Pre-Show Drinks

After you walk the carpet, you enter a large room, which is the holding area for all the artists before the Gala begins. This was my favorite part. There are people walking around with food, and a lot of bars where you can get drinks. Not to mention, all of the artists are hanging out with each other.

Getting drinks with the other nominated artists was really fun. We met lots of cool bands, artists, and folks in the industry.

The Gala and Our Category

After the pre-show hang, they opened up the doors to yet another large room. This one was full of tables and a big stage, set up for the main event.

We were seated at table 10, which happened to be at the front near the stage. I thought to myself, “this is a good sign. Surely they’d have the winning bands sit at the front”. However, we were tucked away in the corner, so I couldn’t be too sure.

Even though this was the secondary event to the Junos, the Gala was a good time. It was only being live streamed online, but they still set it up as a full show. There was food and drinks, two hosts, and performances from some of the other nominated artists.

Eventually, our category came up. I was pretty nervous about it, but in the end, my nerves weren’t necessary as we didn’t end up winning. I was mainly excited about the nomination anyway. We were up against some great artists, so I didn’t mind that much at all. Truth be told, a part of me was hoping that they’d call out our name, but I figure we’ll hear it on the next one.

Night 2: The Main Event

Two days later, it was time for the main event. This is what is actually billed as “The Junos” and is the televised event that everyone watches on TV. As I said before, they only announce 6-8 categories during this event, so it’s really more of a show/concert than an awards ceremony.

We decided to rock our matching outfits for the evening. We all had on our black jumpsuits with different color accents. Kind of like the ninja turtles. Jamesy was blue, Jan was white, Lubo was red, and I was turquoise.

Our red carpet time was set for 5:00pm again, so we hopped into another Uber vanbourghini, and went on our way.

The 2nd Red Carpet

Little did I know, but this red carpet was going to be far more intense than the first one.

The event was taking place at Rogers Arena in Edmonton, which is a huge building, and we had no Idea where to go.

We were running late, and there was a ton of traffic, so we decided to hop out of our Uber in the freezing cold and walk to the red carpet. Not sure what people there thought when they saw 4 dudes in black jumpsuits running around the arena, but it felt very Rare Americans to me.

Naturally, we couldn’t find the right entrance, and probably spent more time running around outside than we needed, but we eventually found a back door and got some quick directions to where we were supposed to go.

Thankfully, things were just as unorganized as last time, so by the time we got there, we weren’t all that late. We hopped into another line, and then awaited the red carpet madness.

Unlike the first red carpet, this time we had a 20 minute gauntlet of photos and interviews to go through.

Things started out with our photos. If there were 15 cameras last time, there must have been 30 this time. Everyone was yelling at you “look over here”. We held to our 2-second pose rule, and in my opinion, nailed the photos.

After that, the interviews began. We entered an extremely bright and well lit room with dozens of cameras and microphones from various media outlets. There you’ll find news, entertainment magazines, radio stations, blogs, and whatever else you can imagine.

Another thing I didn’t know is that anyone walking through the red carpet is assigned a press representative. Your representative goes to each media outlet, tells them who you are and what awards you’re up for, to which they either approve or decline to interview you.

It’s a funny process for your first time. Things are moving so fast, you really don’t know what’s going on. All I remember is someone grabbing me and pulling me in front of a camera, saying “CBC music”, or something, and then asking us questions. Meanwhile, they are trying to speed you up because a bigger celebrity is waiting to be interviewed next.

Not only that, there are also fans watching the whole thing, so you’re trying to sign autographs and take photos all at the same time.

Overall, we did about 4-5 interviews. Again, interviews are something Jamesy is much better at than Jan, Lubo, or myself, so thankfully he did the most talking. It was a whirlwind event for us noobs, but overall a really fun experience.

The Main Event

After the red carpet, you are normally supposed to go into another waiting area similar to the Gala, however we were late, so we ended up missing the whole thing. It was a bit of a bummer, because as we were getting pushed through, you could see that prime rib was served. Was it good? I guess we’ll never know.

Then you enter the arena. Another thing I expected was for us to be seated fairly close to the stage for the cameras, however this wasn’t even close to the case. We were seated pretty far away from the stage as you can see from the picture.

They do have the nominees sat in tables in front of the stage, but those were reserved for either the artists that were up for awards that night, performers, or the bigger celebrities that they want to catch on camera. Since our award was chosen during the Gala, we really didn’t have much to do for the main event.

Despite our pretty lame seating arrangement, the show was enjoyable. I think you can find some of the performances streaming somewhere out there.

The Wrap-Up

Overall, I think our first awards weekend was a success. It was a first for all of us, and we walked away with a better understanding of the “celebrity industry”, and how these types of events work.

If you ask me, I’m happy touring and performing for our real fans instead of attending big, flashy awards ceremonies anyway. Regardless, it was still a very cool experience.

It really was an honor to be recognized for what we do. I don’t think we would have even been there had it not been for all of our amazing fans, so what I’m really proud of is this amazing community that we’ve built.

Thanks to the Juno Awards for honoring us, and thanks to all of you for reading, subscribing, and continually pushing us to new levels we never could have dreamed of.

Much love,
- Duran