Across the Threshold: Liverpool's grassroots festival turns five

When we speak with Threshold Festival co-founder Kaya Herstad Carney, she has just arrived back in Liverpool from work relating to her day job at the University of Chester, helping to plan an in-house music festival. Soon, she will face an evening discussion with Threshold’s head of artist liaison to discuss some lineup changes for the festival’s upcoming edition at the end of March. Taking over Liverpool’s Baltic Triangle for a weekend each year, Threshold is named after its home on the fringes of the city’s L1 postcode – and after its dedication to supporting emerging musicians and artists of all kinds.

The festival came into being when Herstad Carney and her husband, Chris, running a themed cover night called Under the Influence, were commissioned to put on entertainment by the Contemporary Urban Centre. While the first festival was a success, six weeks before Threshold II the CUC closed down – something Herstad Carney admits was stressful. “The good thing about that is that we became independent,” she says. “We decided to go with Camp and Furnace, which wasn’t really open yet then. We’re not so much involved with Camp and Furnace [now] because we tend to go with the venues that are upcoming, to work more with our grassroots feel.” Although Threshold still has a room within Camp and Furnace – the Blade Factory – the festival has moved to two new locations this year, the larger Constellations and the Lantern Theatre. This variety allows space for Threshold’s array of artistic as well as musical programming – spanning visual art, dance and theatre.

Herstad Carney hopes that Threshold has encouraged collaboration not only between local artists and venues but also between promoters. The festival involves Merseyside music events and promoters including Astral Coast Festival, Above the Beaten Track, Mellowtone and Liverpool Acoustic, conveniently placing them under one umbrella and showcasing their talent, and also boasts past ties with the Lomax club and Liverpool Sound City.

“It’s important for us to have room for those who might not be part of the trending scenes” – Kaya Herstad Carney

“Sound City is fantastic for the music industry on an international [level],” Herstad Carney comments. “We’re much more [about the] emerging local scene so it’s more of a step-up, rather than Sound City which is [about] the next big thing. Some of the artists that are playing Threshold won’t be the next big thing… Some of them will also play Sound City and also play the bigger festivals. It’s important for us to have room for those who might not be part of the trending scenes as well.”

Threshold’s 2015 lineup certainly demonstrates a commitment to diversity, pairing artists like 17-year-old acoustic singer-songwriter Dominic Dunn with MOBO-winning hip-hop poet Akala and the Afrobeat band K.O.G & the Zongo Brigade. This eclecticism is encouraged by the festival’s open application process, which attracted a whopping 1780 applications this year. Only around 10% of artists performing are from outside the Northwest, fitting the festival’s community emphasis and its shoestring budget. Herstad Carney emphasises that this is a natural process for Threshold, with the festival very much artist-led. “We all have other full-time projects and most of us are musicians, DJs and performers,” she explains. Her own band, The Science of the Lamps, are due to play a slot on the festival’s traditionally experimental Friday night, “alongside other suitable acts that are not so conformative to the general pop world. We’re not four boys into Telecasters and playing indie music either!” she laughs.

In response to the question of how Threshold will be honouring its fifth year, Herstad Carney’s reaction is surprisingly muted. “We were talking about whether it was time to call it quits and say, 'Five is still a pretty good number,' but I think we’re all too invested: Threshold people have become part of our extended family. I think we wouldn’t be allowed by the rest of the team if we said that it’s just time.

"We’re probably going to do something in the festival launch that will be of a more celebratory kind. It’s [Manchester-based experimental artist] Paddy Steer’s 50th birthday on Saturday, when he’ll be playing at 24 Kitchen Street, so we’ll have a birthday cake there.”

With the future already on the horizon, one of Herstad Carney’s hopes for next year is involvement with the new Warp warehouse due to open in L1, “if they’re interested.” Threshold is not necessarily rooted, she says, but it is clear that, to her, the festival’s home is in the Baltic. When asked whether this is central to its ideology and if there is more to come, she emphasises that Threshold's mindset is very much spontaneous, with the festival still figuring out its mission statement. “I think we’ve managed to do a lot of things that we’re really proud of,” she says, “but what we set out to do… I suppose it’s a bit more organic than that.”

FIVE TO SEE

Nubiyan Twist 
With a variety of competing influences, 12-piece Nubiyan Twist could fall apart at any moment, but they manage to ride a gamut of styles from North American jazz strands, to soundsystem culture, without ever losing a deeply cohesive groove. 

Natalie McCool/Drohne/Silent Cities 
Three of Merseyside’s brightest lights team up at Threshold, with Natalie McCool’s art-pop constructions fusing with the dark melancholia of new O Genesis signings Drohne, and Silent Cities’ more pared-down acoustic textures. Much intrigue promised.

Akala 
Initially in the shadows of older sister Ms Dynamite, Akala’s career has grown and grown, with the MOBO Award-winning rapper and poet constantly updating his influences – which range from his native London’s grime scene, to the experimental bents of soul and R’n’B explorers like Gil Scott-Heron..

Paddy Steer 
Visually recalling the pioneering analogue synth musicians of the 60s and 70s, with all sort of odds and ends often splayed around him on stage, Paddy Steer’s shape-shifting mutant pop is anything but trad, constantly finding new nooks and crannies to slip between. 

DJ Rasp 
Among a generation of turntablists inspired by Scratch Perverts/mash-up culture’s hyper-accelerated cut and pastes of the early 00s, DJ Rasp’s selections are varied but always make sense, the DJ capable of pulling anything from The Temptations to Alex Metric together in twisted harmony.