My SXSW Experience
If I had to describe the South by Southwest (SXSW) festival in one word, it would simply be “music.” SXSW’s main attraction is their overwhelming amount of live performances, one area of the music industry where the connection between the artist and fan cannot be duplicated. Live performance is the area of the music industry that is still somewhat authentic, and an area of the industry where the artists can really separate themselves from the millions of other artists out there.
I never knew about 6th Street in Austin, Texas until going to SXSW this year. For those who are clueless like I was, 6th St. is a strip full of bars and performance venues, and during the week of SXSW every single bar has live music being performed all day in addition to thousands of people walking the strip, enjoying the food and street performers.
For example, I was able to see one of my favorite hip hop artists, Talib Kweli, at one venue, and when his set was over I could go next door to another venue and see an indie rock band that I’ve never heard of before. The convenient proximity of all this live action created the perfect environment for spontaneous entertainment and new musical experiences.
One band that I never heard of before, called Death, stood out from all of the other acts I saw at SXSW. Death not only rocked the crowd, but they also have some historical significance about them that very few people know about. Death is actually the first black punk rock band, and many credit them as being the first punk rock band in general. Their first recordings can be dated as far back as 1975. As they told us in the audience, they had to battle many industry executives and racial tensions back then which inevitably discouraged them from releasing anymore material until now. The band has now regrouped minus one of the members, David Hackney, who passed away in 2000. Despite having only three instruments in the band, bass, drums, and guitar, Death’s sound is still very big and heavy. As I was standing in amazement watching the band for my first time, I was thinking to myself, “they wrote these songs in 1975? This stuff could work now!” They played for about 45 minutes and all of their songs connected with me. Following their set I immediately, started asking other fans at the show that had knowledge of the band prior to that night about Death’s history and where I could get their old releases. I found out that Drag City Records just released all seven of Death’s old records on an LP entitled For The Whole World To See. An album I definitely plan on purchasing.
On the business side of things, SXSW offers plenty of opportunities as well. While performances take over 6th St., Austin’s downtown Convention Center is filled with panel discussions about various topics related to the music industry. I particularly found the panel about how artists can become more appealing to brands to be the most interesting. I enjoyed this panel the most primarily because I’m writing about this exact topic for my final thesis. The panelist included Jeff Daniel from Rock River Music, Edsel Dope from Banshee Music, Jakob Lusensky from Heartbeats International, and Claude Mitchell from ESPN. All of these panelists had incredible insight on the new opportunities and revenue streams artists can create for themselves by partnering with a brand. I spoke with all of the panelists following the session and made it a point to get their business cards.
In addition to all of this, the main reason for attending SXSW was for AEMMP Records’ day party at District 301. The purpose of our party was to showcase the two bands currently signed to AEMMP, Big Science, and Pet Lions. Both of these bands are gaining plenty of attention in Chicago and we wanted to expose them to some new fans in Austin. Over the course of the day our day party attracted approximately 300 attendees. As the host for the event I kept the crowd informed of what acts were coming up next and tried my best to keep the transitions between acts as smooth as possible. There were some last minute changes to the line up that had to be made since our headliner Japanther cancelled on us at the last minute, but our team worked together to make the appropriate adjustments. Our bands were very appreciative of our efforts and were happy to play in front of a packed venue.