SxSW: A Veteran's Perspective

There seems to have been a hint of resentment at this year’s coverage of the annual South by Southwest (SxSW) conference in Austin, Texas across the internet in these past few weeks. For a while, a handful of friends and colleagues of my own have also criticised the festival’s practices and the enormous expense involved in bringing international acts over to showcase their wares therein. I can definitely see their points of view.

But to be brutally honest, a lot of this antipathy is often harboured by musicians who haven’t been selected to play, or by embittered, parochial music snobs hunched in front of their laptops venting their spleens in anonymity. If you live a rather charmless, difficult, mundane life in a grey, suburban town; then watching self-satisfied indie kids in dark-glasses supping margaritas must be incredibly galling. I understand. Although known as an enthusiast, I am also a cynic first and foremost.

And why would or should an artist travel thousands of miles to play at somewhere unimaginably crammed full of other acts? There are so many festivals in our own back-yard now. Austin is stifling hot; it’s extremely hard to navigate the streets and packed venues with equipment; there are thousands of industry cynics careering around in the hope of catching the next big thing; and the competition between bands is rife.

But therein lies the answer. If you want to be taken seriously and noticed by the right people, SxSW is still one of the best places to start. You will find the cream of the crop here. Every year, the world’s finest and most inspired gather in one place to swap ideas across interactive, film and music conferences. Shouldn’t Scotland take part in this, even if it is difficult and expensive to instigate and initiate? Personally, I think so.

To think that the artists, media and tastemakers are here on a ‘jolly’ is also preposterous. It’s hard work for all involved. Yes, there are rewards in the form of tasty food, sunny weather and mind-altering tequila on offer, but only after your work is done. Filing articles at 4.30am, recording twenty interviews in one day for radio, carrying camera equipment for miles, and staying on your feet for 14 hours at a stretch is definitely not for the faint-hearted. It’s a job, albeit an exciting one. The bands don’t always enjoy it either. It can feel like a meat-market, or just simply too stressful.

I’ve been attending SxSW for 12 years now and like many other veterans, I have seen the festival develop, mutate and transform over that time. But there are distinct reasons I return every year. I stay one step ahead of the curve on which acts could potentially make waves in the oncoming year; I watch and help the Scottish presence expand, influence and infiltrate the festival exponentially; and I meet disparate people from all sections of the global music industry in one place. Yes, there’s networking here but in a very informal and casual way. Content is definitely the most important thing at SxSW.

"If you want to be taken seriously and noticed by the right people, SxSW is still one of the best places to start"

If in 2003 when I first arrived in Austin, there was only one Scottish band playing; now we have annual showcases where some of our most exciting, ground-breaking artists can really connect with fans who can genuinely help with their ongoing musical career and build their audience. We can present our blossoming culture to anyone interested, and prove there is more to it than tartan, shortbread and bagpipes… although I must confess I am partial to a bit of all three!

What’s more, people are interested. When acts like Young Fathers, Chvrches, Frightened Rabbit, Franz Ferdinand, Camera Obscura, Rustie, We Were Promised Jetpacks or King Creosote take to a stage here, they show themselves to be pioneers and creative equals on a global stage. Anyway, enough of the flag-waving; basically I think it’s important to be at events like this.

There is an obvious downside of course, and it stares right into the faces of every young hopeful scrambling to perform at the festival in an attempt to crack the USA and beyond. You can spend a large sum of money, travel a long way and work extremely hard to be completely ignored. I’ve seen it on many more occasions than our numerous success stories in Austin. With an estimated 2500 groups playing to 20,000 delegates over 5 days, it can be very hard to stand out from the crowd and make any sort of impact. Has the event perhaps simply grown too big for its own good?

To see legendary Rolling Stone scribe David Fricke, BBC campaigner and journalist Steve Lamacq, or Germany’s Reeperbahn Festival bookers, decamping to the Showcasing Scotland gig which I hosted this year was heart-warming. But it’s probably just as likely that an artist will fly over to play to nobody but a few, drunken rednecks in a dive bar. It has so much to with curation, planning, hard work and downright luck.

There’s a strict selection process where SxSW personally invites artists who have applied. But the event has developed to such a size that it requires an ever-growing team of panellists and pickers to work all year round organising it. It’s very much the luck of the draw as to where you might end up playing. I suppose this is where strength in numbers comes in handy. Having the one-stop-shop that is the ‘British Music Embassy’ in the centre of Austin is a very sensible move. Under that banner and with that focus, industry and fans know where to find you. 2014 was possibly the UK’s most successful and prominent year yet at the festival too.

SxSW is stilled inundated with showcases from all over the world. Europe, Scandinavia, Japan, Canada and Latin American countries all curate events and labels and brands such as 4AD, Bella Union, Warp, Merge, NME, BBC Introducing and even our own Creative Scotland and Lucky Me are involved. They realise the importance of bringing new names to the forefront.

But with 2014’s festival now attracting uber-mainstream acts like Lady Gaga, Jay Z, Kanye West, Damon Alban and Coldplay; how can an unsigned act from Kirkcaldy possibly compete? There is still huge scope to discover cutting-edge, new music but today it’s best to avoid the central section of 6^th street, known as ‘Dirty 6^th‘. Whereas before, this area catered for a hotbed of venues and thrilling performances; now the street fills with thugs, chancers and voyeurs each night and a growing feeling of commerciality has been utterly co-opted.

To find the most exploratory, dangerous, DIY music, you need to venture under the highway to the East side of 5^th and 6^th streets. Here you’ll find real, unadulterated rock’n’roll, freaky electronic music and boutique, self-run venues such as the excellent Hotel Vegas.

Austin’s laid-back lifestyle is now attracting would-be Californians with its astonishing weather and ramshackle charm. And with a lot of space and real estate up for grabs, money goes that little bit further in Texas. Have you heard this story before? As more hipsters and entrepreneurs move in, so property prices are eventually hiked sky-high and a feeling of past authenticity is lost. It seems like a far cry from its roots as a bohemian bubble in this right-wing, Christian, conservative state.

But against all odds, it somehow does retain its character and remain a sea of blue in an ocean of red. The SxSW that I found in 2003 is still here and the locals definitely take pride in their motto ‘Keep Austin Weird’. They’re not going to let some corporate lackeys beat them down just yet! Enormous amounts of small business start-ups and idiosyncratic ideas evolve here, with a focus on the small, the ethical and the idealistic. With its yard art, and health-food quaffing, youthful population, not to mention the Mexican music and culture; it is still very appealing in a counter-culture way, and in March it fills up with even more tech, celluloid and rock’n’roll geeks from across the globe.

Without a doubt, the city has changed immeasurably over the last decade. Formula 1 has a home here, Austin has an international airport and a myriad of enormous, multinational tech companies; apparently now the 11^th biggest city in the USA, even eclipsing San Francisco. But walk a block or two from the glittering, shiny, overbearing sky-scrapers and you will see why it is still one of the most colourful, crazy, chaotic places on earth. This is why everyone still wants a piece of it and it’s why I return year after year.

RECAP: THE SKINNY AT SXSW 2014

SxSW Diaries: Part 1: Keeping Austin Weird
SxSW Diaries: Part 2: Insomnia Afterhours
SxSW Diaries: Part 3: Beyond Tartan and Shortbread