ADA: How do you respond to people who bitch about the "overwhelmingly corporate nature" of the conference?
BG: I'd point out that we have a vast majority of acts with no corporate affiliations whatsoever. Most are unknown and are here to try to get the attention they need. Also I'd say that we ourselves are a tiny tiny company by most standards. With the film side and everything, we have fewer than 30 employees here. At peak conference time we have about 500 volunteers working, but that's everything. The acts themselves want to be seen by the corporations, that's why they're here. Without the major label presence here to see the indie bands, most of them feel they would have less purpose to play the conference. I really don't believe we have become this corporate beast some like to make us out to be.
ADA: What reaction do you have to all the counter-conference showcases that go on -- all the "South by So What" kinds of things?
BG: A lot of the time I feel like if we weren't delivering something that was genuinely useful for the musicians, all those things wouldn't be popping up around it. Kind of like imitation is the most sincere form of flattery. The bands who play those things typical want the same audience, otherwise they'd do it at a different time of the year and not while all this was happening.
ADA: What kind of policies do you have about bands who are playing conference showcases playing elsewhere in town during the festival -- I recall a couple instances last year where bands who had planned to play shows at smaller venues under different names were threatened with their official showcases being pulled if they went through with it.
BG: The only thing we ask is that they don't play more than one show under the same name as a public show. In other words, only one main show for each band so that the top Austin draws don't play all over town and take attention away from other lesser known bands. Now if someone has a standing gig, a regular show that's part of their regular paycheck, that's fine. And if they play under a different name that's fine too. But if anyone was threatened to have a showcase pulled if they played under a different name, that was the doing of the record label sponsoring the showcase and not of the festival itself.
ADA: How do you answer those who say that the festival focuses too much on white alternative rock acts and avoids other music, indigenous and otherwise?
BG: Well, we are always conscious of that and we wish it was different. We'd like to have the greatest diversity we can. White rock acts have seen direct results from having performed at the event because there's enough of that industry here paying attention. We'd like to see jazz, hip-hop, Tejano, we'd like to see all of it grow. But the acts need a reason to be here -- the industry needs to be here. What has made American music as successful and desirable as it is is the mixing of cultures, and we want to encourage that.
ADA: How do you see the past ten years of SXSW conferences affecting the music in Austin?
BG: Well most apparent is the boost in the arm economically that the venues get every year. Some of them can realize three months of revenue in a single weekend while this is going on, and that helps them survive. And since it's during Spring Break, the places would otherwise be empty. And acts can establish relationships with other acts and enter into a creative relationship, collaborating and trading gigs. It's a chance for the industry to get together and see Austin acts, so they can get the attention of the indies and the big ones and everything else.
ADA: Do you think the massive musical traffic in this city every March has had any sort of residual effect on the music scene here?
BG: I think that for the most part Austin musicians are pretty oblivious to that effect. They play because they want to play, and they know they can be comfortable here and play what they want. First and foremost, the musicians here play what they want to play and aren't paying much attention to the dominant style or fashion of what happens every March.
