Just last month the second annual Louisiana Film Prize debuted the first ever Louisiana Music Prize.

Five of the area’s top musical acts competed for a $2,500 prize and a recording session at Shreveport’s own Blade Studios. Local acts Blood Punch, The Lackadaisies, Art Majours, Ghost Foot and AJ Haynes met in a showdown at Voodoo Café: An Art Bar on the Thursday preceding the Film Prize.

In the end, Haynes et al. emerged victorious.

I caught up with AJ recently to talk about her experience at the Music Prize and her plans moving forward. My first question was how she was dealing with all the local fame. When I jokingly asked her if she had been stopped on the street yet, she couldn’t remember. “It’s just weird that people know my first and last name.”

As we recounted her memories of the night of the show, Haynes told me that she was most excited about being on such a stacked line up and finally getting to play a show with one of her favorite local acts, Blood Punch. “I was really nervous because at first I had submitted my acoustic stuff, but then I decided I wanted to do the stuff that Connor [Davis], Jesse [Gabriel] and I had written. So, we did something completely different than we planned.”

It worked out well for Haynes. The three have been playing together for some time, and the combination of raw talent, a high energy performance and the chemistry between band members brought home the gold, and the bacon. Yet, the always humble Haynes was just happy “to play a show where the music was so important; where it wasn’t just background music.”

Twenty five hundred dollars can do a lot for a group of musicians trying to make it in the dog-eat-dog world of show business, but Haynes and Co. did a surprising thing with their winnings. Rather than buying guitars and amps, or booze and fun, AJ and the boys saw an opportunity to give back. The group donated half of their winnings ($1,250 by my calculations) to Renzi Education and Art Center, a local nonprofit that offers free after-school programing to school children K-12 in Shreveport-Bossier.

“They need it,” Haynes responded when asked about the donation.“They fulfill a need in this community. They do so much with so little, so it felt right to contribute to it.” As a former teacher at Renzi and on her way to a Masters in English Education, Haynes said it was an easy choice to donate the money to Renzi. “You reap what you sow. You get back what you put in.”

We can all rest assured that this is the mentality that the group will take with them as they go into the world class Blade Studios to record a full-length album with Brady Blade, Jr. in the early part of next year. The recording time is the other part of the winnings from the LA Music Prize, and I think everyone with a love for music should be as excited about this as Haynes herself.

“It’s really cool because I think Brady has a good vision of what we want,” said Haynes. “It’s still really surreal to me. I guess I haven’t digested the magnitude of everything. I’m just trying to focus on the material and everything.”

Haynes, Davis and Gabriel plan to stay together as a trio. For now it’s all about writing new material and finding out exactly what the new sound they are going for is. After the album is finished the band plans to take the show on the road and travel up the west coast.

Find out more about AJ Haynes at myspace.com/ajhaynestunes, and learn more about Renzi Education and Art Center at renzicenter.org.

– See more at: http://heliopolissbc.com/Article/aj-haynes-catching-first-la-music-prize-winner#sthash.5QU758v8.dpuf