The Saskatchewan Music Association recently announced the nominees for the seventh annual SCMA Awards and a Prince Albert musician and music writer is a double nominee
Scott Roos, who in his regular life is a music teacher, has been nominated as part of the North Sask Music Zine (NSMZ) team for Industry Achievement and individually for Music Professional of the Year.
“It’s incredible,” Roos said of the double nomination.
“I’m just honoured for both nominations and I’m really happy. My team of volunteers at North Sask Music Zine is absolutely over the moon to receive that nomination again for the second time.”
The Industry Achievement Award recognizes those helping to strengthen the music community of Saskatchewan. Roos said the same goes for his Music Professional of the Year nomination.
“It’s just an honour to just be nominated,” he said. “It’s a good feeling. It’s a validation that I’m maybe doing something that is worthy of acknowledgement, I suppose, but it also validates me going and taking that leap of faith and stepping forward and trying those things and validating my passion as well.”
The NSMZ started around 2020 and has been growing ever since.
“The idea was just to use the written word and photography as a medium to try and elevate artists who maybe wouldn’t have otherwise got the spotlight shown on them, and a lot of that had to do with the fact that they literally couldn’t play anywhere,” Roos explained.
The North Sask Music Zine was previously nominated in 2022 for the same award.
“It’s cool to be nominated again,” he said. “It’s an honour and it’s great to get that kind of recognition.”
Roos said the NSMZ was a team of volunteers.
“In that ‘role’ as managing editor, which basically means that I’m just more of an HR sort of guy just seeing what people are willing to do and where they’re willing to go what they’re willing to write about, and so on and so forth,” Roos said.
He explained that the purpose of the work is to elevate people and things and shine a spotlight on events. He said that means the subject of the article often gets the recognition instead of the writer, so he’s grateful when the writer gets honoured too.
“It’s not so much about getting the recognition, but it’s nice when it happens,” he said. “You don’t go in expecting for people to like roll out the red carpet because you’re a writer or a photographer.”
He said that the Music Professional nomination is the flipside of the NSMZ nomination. He described it as recognition for all of the other parts of what he does.
This includes being a freelance music writer for the Daily Herald, event photographer, and creating the Prince Albert Youth Jazz Band.
On the personal musician side, he plays in the Prince Albert Concert Band, the Tisdale Big Band Experience, a jazz combo with his wife Deanna Roos and in the Prince Albert Concert Choir.
“I’m on the board of the Saskatchewan Band Association and I’m the vice president of the PA concert band. I see that music professional of the year nomination is kind of everything,” he said.
Roos said he loves everything to do with the music industry, whether is performing, writing or directing.
“I feel really personally creatively fulfilled and I’m really fortunate to have had a lot of people who have supported me and backed me along the way who are still doing that,” Roos said. “They’re still helping me out and it’s been nice.”
Roos and his family moved to Prince Albert in 2018 from Yellowknife.
“It’s been great to move into a community where I have those opportunities available and afforded to me,” he said. “I continue to try and learn a lot and grow as a musician, a writer, photographer.”
Roos said he got a piece of advice from a Director of Education in Yellowknife when he asked what they wanted done with the band program. The advice was essentially ‘try things and see what works.’ Roos said he has taken that advice down through his life journey.
His passion to do and try many things also came from his father. Roos said that he watched his father be a soccer official, board member for the outdoor club, and secretary of the Lions Club, among others.
“He never shied away from just learning,” Roos said. “Where his interest took him is kind of where he would go and he would figure it out as he went. I think I’ve inherited some of that passion for learning and growing as an individual, as a musician, as whatever. I just kind of followed that. I never let not knowing how to do things when I jumped in hinder me from figuring it out.”
The Industry Achievement Award opened for public voting on Jan. 22.
Another Prince Albert music industry figure nominated in the same category is Joel Rohs.
The award show will take place at the Regina Performing Arts Centre in Regina on Sunday, March 2, 2025.
michael.oleksyn@paherald.sk.ca
