Should East Coast rockers Hey Rosetta! be victorious at this year’s Canadian Independent Music Awards, it would mark a rather lucky streak for the rising Newfoundland-Labrador sextet.

Two weekends ago in Corner Brook, N.L., Hey Rosetta! picked up three East Coast Music Awards for Group Recording, Recording of the Year and Alternative Recording for its 2008 disc Into Your Lungs (and around in your heart and on through your blood).

On Saturday night at Toronto’s Fairmount Royal York Hotel, the group will find out what fate bestows upon them for the affectionately dubbed Indies.

“Sometimes you go to some of these industry-oriented festivals in which the shows are closed to the public and there’s very little feedback from the crowd,” frontman Tim Baker, whose band is up for favourite album and favourite artist/website, tells Metro. “But CMW’s cool. At least the shows we’ve done for it have always been exciting. The vibe there is so electric.”

The Trews lead all Indies contenders with four Indies nominations. Other multiple nominees include City and Colour (Alexisonfire guitarist Dallas Green’s side project), Crystal Castles, Kathleen Edwards and The Weakerthans. Taylor Swift, America’s rising country sensation, tops all international acts with three nods.

Certainly, the Indies lay claim to acknowledging, promoting and honouring achievements of Canadian and international artists in the independent music sector. Yet both Jean-Phi Goncalves, one-half of Montreal’s trip-rock duo Beast, sides with Baker in that it’s less about the awards being handed out and more about getting a buzz from the audience reacting to good indie music.

“The people you have in front of you give you this incredible energy, and at the same time you give back this same energy to the crowd,” Goncalves says. “I remember our first music industry festival show a couple of years ago. (Singer Betty Bonifassi and I) were so stressed because we were playing to people who didn’t really know our music. But somehow we lit a fire and wound up doing well.”

Beast will be performing alongside the likes of other nominated contenders such as Arkells, Crystal Castles, The Midway State, USS and Indies Hall of Fame Inductees Anvil.

“It’s certainly great that industry people will come out to see you play and perhaps might be able to help move your career along,” says Dan Griffin, keyboardist-singer-guitarist with the Hamilton-based Arkells. “What they will see at the Indies is a lot of variety — electronica, alt-rock, you name it … and us sort of representing the classic rock genre. And we look forward to any and all shows — it’s essentially what keeps us going.”

On the web
More info can be found at www.cmw.net/cmw2009/awards_indies.asp.