Sophie from Punch is at SxSW….

Today has been manic – I literally havent stopped. Well, I did stop to buy a chicken fajitia taco and the guy told me I had such a sexy English accent. So there you have it – Americans think a confused Nottingham/Birmingham accent is cool.

The day started at 10am with a seminar about blogging – how blogs are changing the way we communicate and how information is shared and received. I was really looking forward to this talk, I wanted to learn new things and become inspired about how our BASS blog (here’s the plug – click here to read it) can become better and most importantly how can we ensure our readership grows and we give people what they want. However, the panel were quite inward looking I thought, they all wrote about music they loved, they werent critical and werent neccessarily offering people information – just their opinions. That’s cool if that’s how you want you blog to be but I think it should be more, a blog should be a hub to lots of information. I asked them this question (yup, I put my hand up and actually spoke!) – I asked them whether they thought a blog should offer more than just an opinion and their answer was that they all have day jobs and therefore dont have the time to blog and be able to offer all the information and criticism that their readers would perhaps like to see. Generally, I found the panel to be quite geeky and not particularly inspiring….

I then headed over to get some lunch and came across a free BBQ hosted by Memphis music, BBQs are good for a while but I am totally sick of BBQ sauce, chicken and spicy beans… Texans love their meat and Mexican food!

I then headed in to the big speech of the music conference – Quincy Jones. What an amazing man, I never really understood just how influential he has been over the last 6 decades, he spoke a lot about his battles growing up as a young black man in a community where gangs, guns and drugs were rife. He told a story about stumbling across a piano in someone’s house and just being drawn to it. He said that music saved his life, saved him from a life of racism and violence- when he first put his fingers on the keys of the piano he felt his whole body come alive – he felt a heartbeat in every part of him and he knew from that moment on that music would be his life. It had chosen him.

He spoke about the power of music, how music engages both the right and left side of your brain. He spoke about his struggles when he branched out from working on jazz/bebop tracks, he said he got stick from his peers when he decided to work with Michael Jackson (Quincy produced the legandary Thriller album). Quincy believes that musicians should diversify their practice and believe in whatever they think is interesting and inspiring. He mentioned a number of times a quote that he lives his life by ” Dont let one drop of your worth depend on another person” – what he means by this is do what you believe in and have faith in your actions.

Quincy spoke at length about his relationship with Michael Jackson, explaining how he grew the relationship between MJ and MTV – Michael was the first black man to appear on MTV. He spoke about working with Ray Charles, Frank Sinatra and many, many other US legands. He also explained that he believes that music is a higher power and we are merely the channels it comes out through. I also liked the fact that Quincy is relevant today just as much as he was 50 years ago, he mentioned he has worked and met with contempoary artists like 50Cent, U2 and Akon.

Quincy is also passionate about change and believing you have the power to change things. At the moment he is spearheading a campaign to get a Secretary of the Arts into the US- the US have no Minister for the Arts or anything like what we have in the UK, which is shocking when you think about the massive amount of artists and art created in the states. Quincy is asking people to sign his petition, click here to see what is about.

Here is a quick video of some of the speech, its not great as I had to sneakily film it as we werent allowed!

After Quincy I went to a brilliant seminar about programming festivals. As we are programming our BASS Festival this was really relevant to me. I’m also totally new to programming so to hear professionals speak was really inspiring. The panel included Gerard Seligman, the Director of WOMEX and Martin Elbourne from Glastonbury. They spoke about what Ammo has also told me – a festival doesnt get going until its 3rd year at the earliest and that they should be viewed as long term plans over a number of years. We discussed the issue of visas and working permits and whether these issues and red tape affect artists and programmers. We spoke at length about the impact of a failing global economy – losing sponsorship as corporate sponsors cut back their budgets. It was concluded that the real impact of the economy wont be felt until the next few years, at the moment a lot of the bigger festival models are tied into multi year contracts.

Martin from Glastonbury told of the battles of working with local authorities, something I often come across as a challenge. In particular he spoke about how support from LAs, councils and agencies is vital. He also highlighted a point that’s been relevant in Birmingham recently – local residents complaining about noise. In Birmingham the fantastic venue The Rainbow has been threatened with closure as people in nearby newly built flats dont like noise after 5pm….. Womex Director Gerard told us that he once had to pull a gig from a programme as Environmental Health people thought it too loud following complaints from residents. Its an interesting debate – residents vs music. I had a good chat with Martin after (turns out he programmes for the John Peel stage) and will take what they say about festivals with me forever as new found knowledge. Good advice is hard to come by but these guys are the big players and talked a lot of sense.

I then headed to the African music showcase to find that the first act “hadnt turned up”, shame as I was looking forward to seeing the Ethiopian band scheduled. So another band, from Austin, filled in and this is one of the most bizarre performances I have ever seen. African dance music to the max! It was energetic, fierce and weirdly engaging. Although American the band play only Zimbabwean music. Because the first band hadnt showed up the band started the evening by ”calling the spirits of our ancestors”, wow, it was intense. Luckily they then totally changed pace and exploded into a dance band! Here’s a video, doesnt really do the band justice but see if you can spot the crazy man dancing in his white socks, I had to smile, the audience were wild, all dancing barefoot except the one guy in his socks pulled up almost to his knees!

I then saw another couple of bands, one from Nigeria and a singer called Chiwoniso from Zimbabwe. I ended the night in the Velveeta Lounge back on 6th Street where I watched Luke Doucet. He’s a Candian guitarist/singer who I like. Here is a short video of him doing his stuff

There is so much to take in at this conference, I could write forever. I am noticing all the small things-shifts and changes in cultural approach, I am assessing live vs recording, promotion and marketing, all the artists here are working hard to get noticed, they arent sitting back and waiting for the break, they are actively seeking it by handing out CDs, stickers, coffee, chatting to you. Today as I watched some live music it really hit me that music is full of passion, people live it and breathe it, others enjoy it as a hobby, others find it a form of expression. As Quincy says, music has the power to make you feel alive and to feel the heartbeat of your existence….