When this year’s Juno nominations were announced with great fanfare, the list included two local acts competing for the hardware.
The freshly minted rock band Stereos fronted by St. Albert’s own Pat Kordyback is vying for two awards – New Group of the Year and Pop Album of the Year.
Also, Janelle Reinhart of Legal, a two-time nominee known simply as Janelle to her legion of fans, is up for the Contemporary Christian/Gospel Album of the Year.
The nominations were announced Wednesday, March 3. Vancouver crooner Michael BublĂ© leads the pack with five nominations. Country singer Johnny Reid follows with four and jazz chanteuse Diana Krall received three nods. The Juno Awards will be broadcast on Sunday, April 18 from St. John’s, Nfld.
The Lloydminster-based Reinhart was nominated for her 2009 rock-pop album What I Gotta Say. Released under Life-Vision Communications, she invested more creative energy into this project than her previous two albums, co-writing eight out of 10 songs.
Her edgy rock single I Delight in You charted No. 1 for six weeks across Canada on the Canadian Christian billboard and Here I Am stayed at No. 1 for two weeks.
“It expresses much more clearly where I am musically and where my faith journey is,” says Reinhart, now taking a hiatus from touring with her band One80 to care for her three young children.
She plans to attend the ceremonies and is looking forward to jawing with the other artists in her category — FM Static, Matt Brouwer, Steve Bell and Thousand Foot Krutch. “It’s a competition, but we Christian artists are in it for a good cause and so it’s a good vibe. We are all striving for a better product and Christ deserves the best.”
Reinhart also received a Juno nomination in 2006 for the Christian Pop Contemporary album Livin’ For Something.
Although Pat Kordyback, lead singer for Stereos, was unavailable for comment, his mother Sandy Kordyback, principal at Vital Grandin Elementary School, offered a few insights into the band’s reaction.
“As Pat says, it’s a nice acknowledgement of what they’re trying to do for themselves and the public. They’re nice boys and I love when nice things happen to nice people.”
Stereos is the Cinderella story of the music industry. The previously unknown pop-rock band snatched a great deal of media attention and public support after appearing on MuchMusic’s talent show disBand. Formerly Edmonton based, the fivesome signed with Universal and moved to Toronto.
Stereos released their self-titled album in November 2009 and successfully launched two No. 1 singles on iTunes, Summer Girl and Throw Ya Hands Up.
Now touring in the United States, the band teams up with Hedley next week on the West Coast for a cross-Canada tour that stops at the Shaw Conference Centre on Monday, March 29.
“Pat is living his passion and dream. They’ve all wanted this. They’re not just connected professionally, but personally and we’re very proud of them.”
