David Slade and Collins Kilgore play in the indie band American Princes.  The band's fourth record Other People was recently released on Yep Roc Records

 
Anyone who’s ever had serious hopes of being a professional pop musician has heard of South By Southwest.  Specifically, they’ve heard the dictum “You’ve gotta play South By Southwest.”  Implied in that statement is the promise that this festival is an essential springboard for a band’s career that, upon playing, will rocket the group to the upper echelons of rock n’ roll stardom.  And of course everyone believes this the first time they play SXSW.  They quickly learn, however, that they have been misinformed.  We have experienced this disillusionment personally and, while not as life-shattering as one would think, it has certainly reshaped how we view the whole thing.

South By Southwest and its Northeastern counterpart CMJ differ from the “music festival” in the classic sense of the term.  Unlike Woodstock or Reading, where already famous artists play for crowds familiar with (or already receptive to) their work, SXSW and CMJ are effectively music industry sample sales, where a horde of unestablished talent competes among itself for the attention of tastemakers – journalists, record label employees, radio promoters – whom, presumably, are the gatekeepers of fame and fortune.  The bands believe that, if they work hard and put on an amazing show, their hard work will be recognized by People Who Matter who, in turn, will discover the Band and Make Things Happen.  Consequently, South By Southwest will be the most amazing week of their artistic lives. There are a few myths and one truth to this scenario, outlined below.

THE MYTHS (note: Don’t be too bummed by any of this.  Remember, there are always exceptions to any rule!):

1. You Will Get Discovered at South By Southwest: You will no more be discovered at South By Southwest than you will playing in your practice space at home. The likelihood of an A&R rep walking in and signing you on the spot is identical in both cicumstances. This is the case for a few reasons, the first being that all of the people interested in signing bands at SXSW go into the festival with a list in hand of the artists who are already hot, and this list is long. If you’re not a regular mention on Pitchfork, or aren’t already the toast of Portland, Brooklyn, LA, London, Lisbon, or Chicago, you won’t be dropped in on by Jonathan Poneman. He’s busy checking out those other acts.

Another reason that record label decision makers aren’t going to come to your set is because they’re busy hyping the people they’ve already signed.  SXSW is a proving ground for fledgling acts on a roster so, often, the labels and managers are too busy going out and hustling attention for their own groups to be concerned with whatever you’re doing.  As you are trying to improve your market share, so are they.

2. You Will Generate “Buzz” By Playing at South By Southwest: This is where we get into a lesson on prepositions. Specifically, the difference between the words “before” and “at.” Going into SXSW with no one having heard your name outside of your incredibly small hometown (say, Little Rock, AR), you won’t leave Austin with your name on the lips of every festival attendee. As is also the case with Myth #1, the bands who leave SXSW with buzz are the same bands who went into the festival with buzz. To illustrate, we’ll recount what could have been an actual snippet of dialogue from this year’s festival:

REPORTER FROM A FANCY MUSIC MAGAZINE: Where did you just come from?

FREELANCER WHOSE REVIEW OF VAMPIRE WEEKEND YOU JUST READ: The Merge [Records] showcase.  I saw She & Him.  Zooey Deschanel is so hot.

REPORTER FROM A FANCY MUSIC MAGAZINE: Tell me about it.  Man, that record’s good, too.  

Here is a dialogue snippet that absolutely did not go down at this year’s festival:

REPORTER FROM A FANCY MUSIC MAGAZINE: Where did you just come from?

FREELANCER WHOSE REVIEW OF VAMPIRE WEEKEND YOU JUST READ: Well, last night I was walking down the street, and this guy came up to me and handed me his band’s CD.  They’re from Terra Haute, and this is the first time they’ve ever played here.  I listened to it and it blew me away, so I just went to their showcase.  It was incredible!  I’m going to make sure I tell everyone I know about them.  Here, let me give you their MySpace address.

REPORTER FROM A FANCY MUSIC MAGAZINE: Awesome!  I’m always on the lookout for something new.

3. Playing A Lot Of Shows Will Impress People and Your Hard Work Will Pay Off: At our first SXSW (2006) we remember hearing about a certain buzz band at the time (Tapes ‘N Tapes) and how they were playing a record 6 shows that year.  "How ambitious and hard-working they are," we thought to ourselves.  “Clearly, this has a causal relationship to the fame they are enjoying.”

The following year there were a number of bands that played at least six shows, and the New York Times ran an article about The Black Lips (who played eight shows), discussing how they were the "hardest working band at SXSW."  This year we tried it out and played 6 shows (in 2 days we might add) and it just so happened that THIS WAS THE NORM for bands playing in Austin in 2008.  We heard rumors of one band playing a remarkable 11 shows, and more absurdly, a band that made 12 appearances.  That works out to 3 shows a day for 4 straight days, or possibly 6 shows a day for 2 days.  However you parse it out the important thing is that the New York Times wrote about neither of these bands. We're not sure if they got any real hype from playing this many shows, other than providing an eyebrow-raising factoid for musicians to scare each other with.

Back in ’06, Tapes 'N Tapes were probably not the first band to play 6 shows at the festival, but they had been all over the blogs in the weeks leading up to the festival, and their frantic schedule was one thing that people zeroed in on when giving them praise. It illustrates the principle that bands only attract buzz at SXSW by bringing it with them.

The term "hard working at SXSW" is a myth insofar as it's a redundancy.  The first two times we played the festival, doing only 2 shows apiece, our experiences were equally as taxing as our 6-show stint this year.  No matter what you do you will A) be on your feet entirely too long, B) drink entirely too much, and C) will likely to expend far too much mental energy hoping that someone there will have the power or the will to break your band.  Festivals like SXSW and CMJ serve mostly as a way to say "Hey, we're here" or “Hey, we’re still here.”  It's just a matter of paying your dues, like appearing at your monthly Rotary Club meeting. Except instead of paying the Rotary treasurer you pay Sonicbids.

THE LONE TRUTH:

1. You Can and Should Have Fun at South By Southwest:  Make this a pleasure before business experience and you’ll have a blast.  While there are a lot of downsides to every band in the known world descending on a single town, the upside is that a ton of phenomenal music is made available to you, all within walking distance.  Further, you literally cannot escape the festival without being showered in free alcohol and barbecue so, if that’s your bag, then get psyched.  We’ve stumbled onto incredibly intimate, awesome shows of unknown bands who have become some of our favorite artists.  We’ve also gotten to see crazy, huge stuff like Mastodon, David Byrne, John Doe, and Iggy Pop for free.  You can also get free shoes.  We know this for a fact.

Fundamentally, festivals like South By Southwest or CMJ are week-long celebrations for a ton of people who are, for whatever reasons, completely committed to a bunch of different aspects of music, from making it to selling it and all the points in between.  It shows just how wide a sampling of cultures throughout the world are affected by pop music‚ to the point where people will travel for days and days just to celebrate its existence (and to hype their own little piece of the cake, but still, we want to end this on an up note).  While these festivals aren’t going to make you famous (unless you’ve already got something going for you, such as being Zooey Deschanel), that fact is effectively beside the point.  You go to these things to play shows for the pure sake of playing shows, and to experience music for the pure sake of experiencing music.  And this is the best thing that one could possibly want, ultimately.

- David Slade & Collins Kilgore