Head on: A sxsw journal

MANILA, Philippines - Tuesday: 13 March 2012

9:02 p.m.

I’m standing at the back of our rented Dodge Ram pickup staring at the starry Austin sky when it finally hits me: I’m here at South by Southwest (SXSW)!

My band, Taken by Cars, had the good fortune and luck to be the first Filipino band invited to play at this festival, the second largest in the United States. It’s held in Austin, Texas every March, and this was the second leg of our three-city tour of the States, a dream gig that was also on our personal bucket list.

Attracting not just bands but also industry peeps on the lookout for “the next big thing,” SXSW allows musicians the opportunity to make connections and play shows that alter careers. It enables artists to network with other artists, producers, concert promoters, label honchos, as well as influential bloggers and website operators to get your content out there and broaden your listeners.

We got our artists wristbands. This pass will bring you to the talks and shows around the city.

That night, we decided to explore the main area of Sixth Street to get a feel of the festive Mardi Gras-like atmosphere. This was one hell of a street party. Every single bar had a live band, one of 2,000 acts present at the five-day event, clamoring for attention. There were street performers and dancers aplenty, with the big-breasted bikini-clad hula-hoop girls particularly catching our attention. After checking out the venue for our Thursday gig (The Loft on Sixth), we settled on a quiet sports bar and talked about our action plan for the festival.

We only had two whole days to take advantage of this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, and all bets were off.

Wednesday: 14 March 2012

9:05 a.m.

We immediately claimed our artist wristbands at the Austin Convention Center to get an early start on our day. It was time to get down to business. The morning was to be dedicated to the various talks featured at the fest.

Our group split up to make the most of what was available. Some of my mates went for “Leveraging Social Media,” while others went for “Online Music Marketing.” The talk I attended (together with our manager Mike Shih) was “How to Get Your Band into the Right Festivals & Venues.”

This particular talk was hosted by big-shot promoters from each major regional market — the UK, US, Canada, and Western Europe — and we were startled firsthand at how machine-like and competitive the music industry is on a global scale. With literally millions of bands to choose from, an artist had to stand out among a sea of competition. The basic advice given was simply to get your act together. This means having a professional band and press kit, complete social media activity, aggressive marketing of musical content online, networking with as many foreign artists as possible, and most importantly — having great songs and picking the right singles to promote. Foreign promoters won’t book you just because you have 100,000 likes on your Facebook page. You need to prove to them that you have a real fan base away from your hometown, who will actually pay to watch your gig. We were also reminded not to waste our opportunity to make a mark at SXSW: “I saw The Black Keys here for the first time almost a decade ago. Now they’re headlining Coachella next month,” remarked one of the panelists.

Here’s one of the many talks we attended. To be honest, we just wanted to see if Sean Parker looked like Justin Timberlake (the answer is a resounding no).

That afternoon, we headed out to the streets armed with CDs of “Dualist” (our second album) and flyers promoting our gig. Our goal was to meet and chat up as many people as we could and invite them to check out our show the next day. And of course, it was an opportunity to catch a bunch of our favorite bands. Some of us were able to watch Fiona Apple’s comeback gig after waiting in line for two hours, while other acts we were able to catch included great sets by Anoraak, The Drums, Matthew Dear and Free Energy. 

At the back of everyone’s minds though, we couldn’t wait to put on a killer show the next day.

Thursday: 15 March 2012

8:00 p.m.

After the obligatory Texan Barbecue dinner, it was time to head to our gig. We nervously waited at The Loft on Sixth for the venue to fill up while the first band, French trip-hop group Zenzile performed a groovy, disco-tinged set to warm up the crowd. 

Finally, at 9 p.m., with great pride (and a bit of nerves), we got on stage to play our showcase. The place had thankfully filled up with the audience waiting to see what this indie band from halfway around the world could belt out. We then blasted through our eight-song set like a bat out of hell, a product of three grueling months of late-night rehearsals. It wasn’t a perfect performance (we had some technical difficulties and minor playing mistakes), but we believe we did enough to make sure those who were watching took notice to grant us some generous applause. It was just incredible. We had officially played SXSW!

After toasting our celebratory beers in the afterglow of our set, we headed for the food trucks (choice of grub for SXSW attendees) to recharge, and then split up into groups again. Bryce Zialcita, our other guitarist, left to watch Bruce Springsteen (a much-coveted slot he won through a lottery), while the others went to catch The Gossip. Sarah Marco, our vocalist, and I headed straight for the show we were most dying to see at SXSW: The Jesus & Mary Chain (man, were they awesome!).   

And just like that, it was over. Off to the airport for our 6 a.m. flight, off to another city and gig, everyone grateful to be leaving a part of themselves in Austin forever.   

We are very thankful to have Quark Henares and Tony Rago from Chicago fly out to Austin to experience (and film) our SXSW experience. This was the last photo taken in Austin before we headed out to LA for the last leg of our US tour.

It had dawned on us that this whole thing was bigger than Taken by Cars. We needed to get a Filipino Showcase out there for the world to hear. Pinoy artists can kick some serious ass and compete with the finest musicians on a global stage. The challenge is simply a matter of economics. Only a select few are lucky enough to be able to do music full-time and comfortably provide for their families. The rest of the pack, no matter how talented, lack the resources to properly record their songs and tour to promote their material. With various countries already having individual showcases at the festival (Japan, France and Spain to name a few), we can only hope that someday our local music scene, backed by a throng of individual, corporate and even government sponsorships, can amass the funding needed to bring a bunch of our best bands to play there. The challenge may seem daunting now, but it has to start somewhere, somehow. Just like the old AC/DC proverb says: “It’s a long way to the top, if you wanna rock ‘n’ roll.”