Meet SXSW | Everybody and Anybody in One Day!
Listen: Up at 3:00am (thank you, daylight savings time), on a flight at 6:00am, a few hours of layover in Denver, and then finally — Austin. For the past few weeks, as my local Milwaukee-realted work duties bubbled over, SXSW creeped up on me in that silent, overwhelming way. Honestly, I haven’t had a terribly large amount of time to prepare for the festival, so when we landed, I didn’t have much more than an usually strong urge to talk to strangers and a microphone.
Normally, when I’m editing a raw interview into a short-form audio piece for airplay, I think back on the overall feeling of the interview. If it was a solemn discussion, I try to make the resulting piece deliberately paced with a thoughtful tone. If the conversation was enthusiastic, I shoot for a bright and exuberant piece that captures the energy of the interviewee. You get the idea.
So on our first day in Austin, Tarik and I approached SXSW like one big interview. How could we capture this huge, sundry macrocosm using audio and visuals? For everybody who couldn’t make it to SWSW, especially our audience in Milwaukee, how could we communicate the madness? By talking to as many people as we could. Anybody and everybody. At first, I thought getting a real representative feeling of SXSW as a whole would be impossible, but by the end of the day, I think we got reasonably close.
Below, find 16 interviews we conducted throughout the course of the day, all with very different and interesting people, starting on the SuperShuttle between the airport and our hotel and our last stop of the night, the pre-party for the film Beijing Taxi, a showcase of Chinese indie bands. I know it’s a lot — start with a couple people who’s pictures draw your attention.
Zelda!
“So… you here for SXSW?” I knew what her answer was going to be. Meet Zelda from Huge Inc, who shared our airport shuttle to the hotels and was fortunate enough to be our very first interview of the trip:
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Anybody ever interviewed you on a SuperShuttle before? And through some odd twist of kismet, Zelda kept popping back into day — see more below.
Nick Barbaro!
While we were in SXSW’s nerve center, the Austin Convention Center, I walked up to the press desk and asked if any representative of SXSW would be available to give an official interview. I just wanted an orientation and general description of what goes on at SXSW. Since they have so much going on as the event is in full swing, I didn’t have terribly high hopes. So who did they manage to scrape up for me? Co-Founder and Co-Director of the whole shebang, Nick Barbaro! Wow!
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He’s been putting together SXSW since 1987! Wow! I can’t believe we managed to talk to Nick — it’s like walking into a casino, putting a quarter into the first slot machine, and hitting the jackpot.
Adam the Piercer!
I’m pretty sure Adam the Piercer’s job is to stand in the street outside of the tattoo/piercing shop he works for and convince people it’s a good idea to look like him. He gave me some pretty interesting incites on Austin commerce patterns during SXSW:
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I kept seeing him throughout the day and gave him a meek “Hey dude” every time I walked by. Tarik mentioned he might be interested in getting a tattoo at some point on the trip. MKE2SXSW?
Guzman the Bluesman!
Guzman the Bluesman, the best harmonica player in South Texas. Think you’re better? Think he needs to pay his rent? Guzman doesn’t think so:
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Clearly, there is only one Guzman the Bluesman. However, there are plenty of Guzman the Bluesman-esque folks on the streets of Austin.
Janae!
All day, Janae walked around with a Flip Camera and Mashable stickers, trying to get people to say “Mashable Rocks!” in one form or another. When she had me on camera, I said “I love Mashable,” when I probably should have said “I like Mashable.” Oh well:
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We went back to the Mashable party later, the one she was promoting, and the line was about half a mile long. Seriously. Can’t wait for the lines later in the week…
Domingo the Dogger!
When foot traffic increases by 5000%, I assume street-sausage sales do the same. Domingo, a musician who sunlights as a Dogger, fills me in:
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Domingo definitely earned some Wisconsin points for selling Bratwurst!
Matthew And Martin!
Currently, SXSW is in the full swing of its Interactive Session — that means there are a ton of Web/Technology in the mix. Two of Zelda’s coworkers at a New York web development company named Huge, Matthew and Martin, give their candid reflections on what they’d seen so far:
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Unfortunately, I don’t have a pass to attend the Interactive Session (it was pretty expensive), but you’ll hear more about the digital side of SXSW from Tarik in the coming days.
Chris!
We watched a presentation from Chris Coppola (not sure about his relationship to the other film-making Coppolas) about Project Accessible Hollywood (PAH), a project that allows community members from all over the country to make short films I caught up with him afterwards:
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I’d love to bring Chris to Milwaukee someday, as his work lines up really well with what we do at RadioMilwaukee. Also, he is a total character.
Wendy!
Having lived in Austin for awhile, Wendy’s had a chance to observe how the festival has grown — also, she kissed Bruce Willis at SXSW:
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He really kissed her! And then she really ran away! What could have been…
Crazy Vic!
For whatever reason, bike rickshawing seems to be a pretty developed industry in downtown Austin. I managed to catch Crazy Vic between rides:
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Someday, I hope Milwaukee’s Cream City Rickshaw can grow the pedicab business in Milwaukee to rival Austin — it’s an awesome convenience and novelty.
Stephan!
Like us, for most of the day, Stephan walked around Austin just taking it all in. He’s a film student at the University of Texas, and he was just as overwhelmed as we were:
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I’m sure we’ll bump into him again…
Minneapolis Drummer!
You know those guys that stand on the sidewalk at night and go nuts on a djembe? I talked to one of those guys, who had come to Austin from Minneapolis. He didn’t stop drumming for the interview but did to check a text message:
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Unfortunately, I didn’t get the recorder recording until after he introduced himself, so he will forever be known as “Minneapolis drummer.” I think he’d be okay with that.
Katie and Andrew!
We bumped into film makers Katie and Andrew outside of a packed movie theater, waiting to see a film named Jimmy Tupper vs. The Goatman of Bowie. Last year, they exhibited a film — an incredibly nerve wracking experience. This year they were on the screening committee, which means they had the unenviable task of wading through 60 films and making recommendations. Nuts:
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They watched 60 films and picked 2! Crazy! That gives me a whole new respect for the film makers who get to show at SXSW.
Unique!
Meet Unique. On the surface, he was the typical Spokane, Washington hip hop artist. Tough, hardened, and mean. Dig a little deeper, and you’ll find that starry-eyed dreamer, looking to hit it big in Austin:
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Really, there was a wonderful spark of sincerity in Unique that made me like him a ton. In fact, we even ended up buying his CD.
Lauren!
After the previous 14 interviews, I was a little tired. I put the microphone away and told Tarik that I’d only do another interview if something really special came up. We met film maker Lauren Wolkstein outside of the Hilton, waiting for the shuttle to take us to the NPR/PBS party:
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At this point, my interviewing was a little loose — Tarik pointed out that I didn’t even ask her a question about her film, Cigarette Candy. Oops… Here is a promo:
Miao Wang
We finished the night on a flourish, wandering into the pre-party for Beijing Taxi, which doubled as a showcase for a handfull of Chinese indie bands. I asked the two wonderful and older Chinese folks at the merch table who I should talk to about the film. “Our daughter!” So we cut through the crowd, right to Miao Wang, director of Beijing Taxi:
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I even ended up buying the DVD. Can’t wait to watch it! Here is the trailer:
So many characters! If you’ve managed to make it all the way to the end of this post, thank you. I know it was a swirling, whirling, haphazard look at SXSW, but I think it provides a good foundation for the days to come. Brace yourself — I know I am.
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I so wish I could have got off work to go to Austin for the SXSW & Red Gorilla !
My friend Mary Hart was interviewed by Adam Carr.
Will that interview be available to see or hear ?
88.9 is my favorite station by far !!
I hear songs from many of my friends bands played almost every day.
Thank you
Mike Westfahl