Nigel Bell (Nige B) is the winner of the Instrumental Artist of the Year award. (submitted photo/Nigel Bell)

By Derek Cornet

accomplishment

First ever Sask. Music Award for northern artist Nige B

Dec 12, 2022 | 4:58 PM

Nigel Bell, known professionally as Nige B, has received his first ever Saskatchewan Music Award.

The Lac La Ronge Indian Band member was announced as Instrumental Artist of the Year at the Saskatchewan Music Awards held Sunday in Regina.

He was nominated in two categories with the other being Electronic Artist of the Year.

“It was unexpected. I didn’t think I was going to win, so I didn’t prepare a speech at all. I was in shock. It took me a couple of minutes to process it,” Bell said.

“I think I still have that I’m still a fresh solo artist kind of like mentality. Some of the artists have been playing music longer than I have, so I just expected one of these other artists to win.”

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Bell won Instrumental Artist of the Year for an EP entitled Retrospect, which was released as a SoundCloud exclusive in September. He described it as an indie-shoegaze record that he played all of the instrumentals for. Bell noted it only took him two weeks to record all six songs, adding that was another reason he was surprised to have won an award for it.

“I’m also thinking about re-releasing it with vocals and have a better production sound for it,” he said. “I mixed and mastered it, but kind of to a demo standard. I only took two weeks on it, so I didn’t work too hard on this record where, if I had vocals on it, I would have worked extra hard to get more of a crisp sound.”

In recent months, Bell has been working on a separate record and he plans on releasing a teaser in the next week or so. He recently received a master copy of a single he plans to release in January. The release of the entire record will likely happen in April.

“I have a bunch of features that are going to be on this record from all over,” Bell said.

Bell, who has lived in La Ronge for most of his life but now resides in Saskatoon. has been playing music since 2003. He released his debut EP Circa 1990 in 2021.

Community Arts Mentorship Program (CAMP) was also a winner at the Saskatchewan Music Awards for Industry Achievement. Founded by Eliza Doyle, it is the second time in a row CAMP has earned the award, which is meant to recognize excellence in the provision of skills and/or services by those helping to build the music industry of Saskatchewan.

Eliza Doyle, right, holds the award for Industry Achievement. (Eliza Doyle/Facebook)

Doyle has been working to boost music education in northern Saskatchewan since 2019.

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derek.cornet@pattisonmedia.com

Twitter: @saskjourno