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 GEARED chats to Big Sound 2010 Executive Programmer GRAHAM ASHTON – known locally as the man behind Footstomp Music and one of the busiest people in all of Brisbane.
GEARED: First of all Asho, who are you most excited to have at this year’s Big Sound?
GRAHAM ASHTON: For me, Michael Azerrad would be the key thing as a music fan. The American hardcore music and the DIY ethic that he wrote about in Our Band Could Be Your Life is probably the main reason I’ve committed my life to music, so to have him coming and opening the conference is very inspiring and exciting.
G: I also have a very close relationship with that book...
GA: That’s my heart – in my head as the programmer, there’s a handful of guys and none of them are really big names in the industry, but I’m confident that 10-15 of them are going to be big names that people talk about and legends of the industry. The way I want to approach Big Sound, the word “relevant” was really important to me all the way through. I see all these guys from the UK, US and Southeast Asia that people may not necessarily know who they are at the moment, but if they look at their CVs and the artists they’re working with, they’ll see that they’re incredibly relevant to what’s going on in the music world today.
G: I see [Australian music industry stalwart] Michael Gudinski is also going to make an appearance.
GA: Exactly – we’ve got Michael Gudinski doing a keynote address, which is wonderful. Again, the relevance thing in our approach is certainly not ageist and I do passionately believe that he’s very relevant.
G: Can you tell me a bit more about your role in Big Sound?
GA: I moved back to Brisbane about four years ago and started going to Big Sound at the same time I started going to SXSW every year. In my role as the head of marketing at Dew Process, I’ve seen Big Sound grow and become more substantial with each year, and I would walk away from it each time having immense pride in being part of the local music community. Late last year, I got the opportunity to program the event for the next couple of years. I secretly hope to surpass [previous Big Sounds] in the next couple of years with the presentation of both the showcases and the conference. That’s been my role and I see the programming of the conference just as important – if not more so – than looking after the artist showcases. Looking at the sixty artists we’ve got, I’m just stoked. When I looked at it all, my dream bill was to try and come up with Homebake without the headliners – which I think we’ve done. After coming back from Splendour, I think we’ve got the lion’s share of the acts that are going to have real careers in twelve months’ time.
G: Out of the local acts on the bill, who do you think is poised for big success?
GA: That’s a hard one. I think there’s 15 or 16 really diverse acts from South East Queensland, and I know from the international delegates that all the different ones are covered. There’s A&R people who are really focused on alt-country and there’s A&R people who are really focused on indie, so without trying to sound too political, I don’t want to name any Brisbane names. We’ve got a few that I’ve got a gut feeling about, but I think all of them have got a huge chance of having an impact because of the diversity of the acts involved and the delegates.
G: It definitely looks like this year’s Big Sound is going to be bigger and more resonant with the local music scene than last year’s was.
GA: I certainly hope so. We’ve got six venues involved and all of them will – even if you walked really slowly or were really drunk – will still take you about three minutes to get from one to the other. They’re really close and because there are six bands on at the time, you can see a couple of songs by each band if you want to. Fortitude Valley will be absolutely humming!
G: That’s a good way to describe it.
GA: There’s so many looking at the showcase program. When I go to a festival, I pull out a highlighter pen and circle the bands I want to see like everybody else, and at Big Sound I pretty much want to see at least some of everything, so I’m going to be running.
G: Thanks Asho!
A three-day music industry conference including panels, workshops and artist showcases, BIG SOUND 2010 takes place at The Judith Wright Centre between Sep 8-10. For more info and ticketing details head to www.qmusic.com.au/bigsound/2010.
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