Simon Gavin is reprising his role as a judge on Channel 4’s talent competition, Orange Unsigned Act.

Simon is the head of A&M Records, the company who will ultimately sign the winning band in the competition and release their record.

We caught up with Simon to chat about his role on the show, how it compares to ‘other’ TV talent shows, and what the bands can expect if they win the competition.

Hi Simon! You’re a member of the judging panel for this years Orange Unsigned Act competition. Can you tell us what your role as a judge entails?

What my role as a judge entails is to find the best unsigned singer/songwriter or band that’s entered the show. It’s my job at the end of it to make a record and put a record out on my label. So, I’m there to find and make sure that I get the thing that has the best shot of selling the most records.

Can you tell us a bit about how bands enter and how they’re shortlisted for the show?

Everyone has to upload their songs onto the Orange Unsigned website. They are voted for by the public, so you go on, you listen, and you vote for the one you like the best. So it’ll be basically everyone mobilising their fanbase to get votes.

Then, there’s a panel, which I’m not on, of music industry experts, some from Universal, some from Sony Ericsson, some from Orange and some from Princess and Channel 4. They sit there and pick another 25 that didn’t make it on the public vote.

Then there’s a wildcard show which Jo Whiley and James Oldham judge, and if you haven’t been voted through by the other two means, you can turn up, play your instrument in front of these guys and they can put 10 people through as well.

So that last round’s kind of like an open mic night?

It is, yes.

The first series of the show attracted 1,700 applicants, but this series you’ve had over 7,000 entries. You’ve had to shortlist this number down to just 50 for the live shows. How have you found the standard of acts this year?

Oh, much better. Way above last year. I think at this stage – obviously we’re recording ahead of the transmission date here – there are seven artists left in the competition and none of those artists (from last year) would have got in the seven.

It’s voted for by the public, it’s a public vote. There’s a live final with a public vote.

I’ve been trying to put myself into your shoes and imagine what you’re looking for in the winning act, possibly a mix of commercial viability and something different to make them stand out. From your point of view as head of A&M records, what is it that you’re looking for?

Well, I actually don’t mind if it isn’t different. I mean, part of my job is to understand what the market is doing and what it wants. It’s not always my job to challenge the market. It’s a tough climate at the moment, so I’m just looking for something that I can put out fairly quickly and sell records.

Also what I’m looking for is some kind of spark of originality. I would like to balance the art and the commerce thing as well as I can. What I think would be great for the winner of this show if it was the less obvious one. I think people expect a similar type of artist to win these TV talent shows. I think this is different because it’s about people singing their own songs and playing their own instruments – they have to have that talent.

The competition has opened up to include urban acts this year. What’s been the standard coming from that genre?

It’s few and far between actually. We had Lethal Bizzle on as a guest judge last week and he played me his new tune on his iPod and it was amazing. It’s a pop, urban record and it’s brilliant. But nothing we’ve seen on the show comes close to it. So, for me there’s not enough of it.

Do you think the lack of entries comes from people associating the competition with bands and singer/songwriters?

Yeah, possibly. Because that was all that entered last year. Well, we had some urban acts last year, but they weren’t very good. It’s there for the taking really.

It’s inevitable coming from a reality TV website, but as a music based talent competition, do you get comparisons with shows like X Factor and American Idol? How does Orange Unsigned Act differ?

I think that’s possibly a lazy comparison. I mean, the X Factor gets 14 million viewers on a Saturday night. It’s not about the best artist, it’s about the best karaoke singer singing someone else’s song. It’s not about music, that show, it’s about entertainment. This is a show about music.

Well, the winning band or artist on this show gets to make an album, their album. It’s their songs. For me, it’s not about singing someone else’s songs.

I get the impression that the two shows have different objectives for the acts that win. Like if the winner of X Factor manages a couple of good albums, that’s the pinnacle of their music career. Is there a different expectation for the winner of the Orange Unsigned Act?

Whoever wins the show, we make their song available for download on the Monday morning. So, if you’re a fan of the band, you’ve got something, and then we go into the studio as if we’d signed a band without the TV show. So you then go into the record making process.

Whoever wins X Factor, there are twelve songs in Simon Cowell’s drawer that they’re going to sing. And that’s fine, that’s his business and he’s made a great living out of it. It doesn’t pretend to be anything else. I think there’s room for everything really.

It all comes from the record – you have to make the record first and foremost. Make sure you’ve got three singles on there, then you’ve got to go and play live to gain an audience, then you’ve got to get some press. Marketing really only comes into play when you’ve putting an album out. The rest of it is all promotion and setup.

And do the bands get help with their songwriting?

If they need it. In the competition, they have to come on and sing a new song every week. They’ll have to write their own songs, they won’t be given songs to sing. But if they need any help, if they need to do some co-writing, if it’s a singer/songwriter, then that’s a normal route to go.

Taking on the role of judge on this type of show must have interesting consequences…

It just means that when you go to a gig, everyone says “You’re that bloke off the telly. I’m better than that band that was on last week.” I try to be honest and I try to be constructive. I’m not there to make people feel stupid and I’m not there to make people feel bad about themselves. I’m there as the person who has to put the winner’s record out, so I have to make sure that the winner is someone I can work with.

I suppose you probably get loads of demos pushed at you now?

Oh yeah, loads! I could go to a restaurant and people go “I’m a singer.” Every waiter I know is in a band or a singer.