Artisan winners of NZ Music Awards

The NZ Music Artisan Awards were handed out last night and Joel Little walked away with two awards, Best Producer and Best Engineer, for his work on the second Broods album, Conscious.

At the standalone event last night – one month ahead of the Music Awards ceremony – awards were given for Best Producer, Best Engineer, Best Music Video and Best Album cover. 

The Massey University Best Producer and Best Engineer Awards were both won by Little, for his work on Conscious with the sibling electro-pop duo Broods. 

He spoke to Kim Hill from his home in Los Angeles about the win, working with Lorde, and the difference between an engineer and a producer.

He says he is working less with Lorde, who is exploring sounds with other producers, as the relationship between an artist and a producer is "not monogamous".

Little says that Broods have pushed him to become better engineer, whose job it was to record everything and make it sound good. 

"They had a lot of ideas, and wanted to play with live instruments and sonically wanted to do new things. That took a bit of figuring out - I'm not a trained engineer at all, I've just been stealing ideas off my friends for years." 

As a producer, he says he doesn't aim to make 'hits', but naturally likes pop music.

"We're just trying to make something that feels good to us. There's so many other things that play a part in a song becoming a hit or not, besides it being a really good song. There's timing, record company push, maybe the radio programmer is in a bad mood that day." 

Currently based in Los Angeles, with a home studio, Little has been working with acts such as Tove Lo, and Imagine Dragons.

Also Awarded at the 2016 NZ Music Artisan Awards:

The NZ On Air Best Music Video was won by director Chris Lane for his visually sumptuous clip for Avalanche City’s ‘Inside Out.’

Visual artist Anns Taylor won Best Album Cover with her design for Lawrence Arabia’s Absolute Truth, with its cunning combination of portraiture and topography.