TORONTO - Many in the music industry await Grammy nominations with bated breath, but Montrealer Caroline Robert didn't realize she was even eligible for an award.
"I didn't know there was a category for packaging. I found out when I was told I had been nominated," Robert said during a recent telephone interview conducted in French.
"I didn't even know there was such a prize at the Grammys."
Had she been clued in, the news might not have come as such a shock — after all, Robert earned the recognition by designing the packaging for Arcade Fire's deluxe re-release of their 2010 opus, "The Suburbs."
The spiffy package included the original album with two added tracks, a DVD copy of the Spike Jonze-directed short film "Scenes From the Suburbs" that the album inspired and an 80-page booklet featuring stills from the film, behind-the-scenes photos and lyrics.
Of course, it's the same record that won album of the year at last year's Grammys, leaving an arena full of industry folks stunned that a gaggle of Montreal-bred indie-rockers could upend a cluster of platinum-certified pop giants.
Robert watched the big moment with interest at home in Montreal. The 28-year-old — who hails from Lyon, France, but shifted to Quebec four years ago — has known the band since working on "Miroir Noir," the Vincent Morisset-directed documentary that covered the group during the leadup to their sophomore record, "Neon Bible."
Usually, Robert says the group is hands-on, but they largely left her alone to create the artwork for the deluxe version of "The Suburbs."
"They gave me a selection of images they really liked that I could use as a kind of a basis to make the booklet," she said. "But what we finished up with wasn't really that different from what I had originally shown them. There were two or three photos they asked me to change.
"Usually, they're very involved in the creation, but in this project they let me do the montage myself."
She says she's been a designer for six or seven years — meaning she's "considered junior." It stands to reason that winning a Grammy could raise her profile, but Robert says she's not counting on anything.
"It will be a bonus because I wasn't expecting any of this," she said. "I will be very happy if I win but I won't be at all disappointed if I don't."
But Robert won't be venturing down to Sunday's show in Los Angeles — she'd rather remain at home in Montreal, the city where all these opportunities began.
'Everyone tells me I should (go)," she said.
"But between being all alone out there and being here with friends if I win, I prefer to be here.''
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With files from Canadian Press reporter Donald McKenzie in Montreal.