SXSW Field Blog // Day 2 // Interviews, interviews and showcasing
Good day dudes!
Yesterday was lots of fun. It started off with a breakfast in the ubiquitous diner across the road with unlimited coffee refills (WIN), before getting a cab to the wrong place in town…but it meant we got to see the set up for Auditorium Shores on Lady Bird Lake.
First of all we headed to Treasure Island for an interview with Northern Irish band Strait Laces, that we caught live yesterday lunchtime.
I was asked to interview Shell Shag yesterday afternoon in a Clear Internet mobile studio – the whole thing was really cool, the interview was broadcast wirelessly to televisions in the city while we drove around Austin, and was also broadcast live online.
A video will be available in about a week so I’ll shove that up at a later date. Here’s a screen print:
Clever huh!?
Last night, we headed to The Driskill – a lovely old hotel for our showcase with One Little Indian Records…
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Orchid and Hound were great. They were marked as one of the ‘top ten to watch’ at South By Southwest, but obviously nobody reads these lists as the room wasn’t even a quarter full. Shame…they missed out.
They’ve only been gigging under this name since last September and brought a humorous and theatrically-entertaining show to The Driskill. Not my bag really, but they were plenty of fun to watch, enjoying themselves on the stage with perfect harmonies and timeless style. Plus pianist Lawrence has great hair and boots.
Polish Julia Marcell is one talented young madam. During soundcheck, she was milling about meekly through the Victorian Room. When she came on stage, I barely recognised her. Her backing band are strings-based (although a la Hanne Hukkelberg, the use of tapping on random objects was commonplace!), while Julia herself owns the stage with her forceful yet sometimes whispery vocals regaling tales of the past through a classical punk medium.
Olof Arnaulds is another one-to-watch at this very moment. Hailing from Iceland, and mostly singing in her native tongue, you can check her out yourself singing ‘Klara’ (which is also on our charity album!) below:
Phew!
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