Inside Brisbane's Bigsound summit

01 September 2010

by Lars Brandle

With Brisbane's ever-expanding BIGSOUND summit and music festival fast approaching, TMN speak to executive programmer Grahan Ashton about what attendees can expact from this year's event.

One of the calendar’s best music conferences comes back around September 8-10, and it’s all good news.

Brisbane has been called many things, but “music capital” isn’t one of them. For a handful of days this week, the BIGSOUND conference changes all that. The September 8-10 summit and showcase event is coming back round for the ninth time with a solid lineup of speakers and performers, a new curator in charge, and virtually no competition.

Times are clearly tough for anyone in the business of selling music. Just don’t expect a wave of gloom to flow down from the BIGSOUND stage, explains Graham Ashton, who this year takes the role as the event’s executive programmer. The hot topics of touring, new technologies and music publishing will all spend time in the spotlight of BIGSOUND 2010. The downsides won’t be dwelled upon.

“By my nature, my cup is always overflowing. I’m a supreme optimist,” comments Ashton, a veteran label executive who has worked with EMI, Polygram and more recently, Dew Process. “It’s the way I’ve always approached things, and it’s the way I’ve approached this conference.”

A former “aspiring prosurfer” as a teen, Ashton changed course when he discovered hardcore punk rock and its brigade of Husker Du, Bad Brains and Minutemen. He admits his competitive nature is still very much intact, and is stamped on this year’s BIGSOUND program. And a wish-list for the 2011 event is already taking shape.

Looking ahead to this year’s summit, organisers have assembled more than 80 speakers from allcorners of the business. Among those taking turns at the lectern will be US author and journalist Michael Azerrad, The Windish Agency’s founder Tom Windish, Go- Betweens great Robert Forster and Mushroom Group of Companies chairman Michael Gudinski, whose 2008 appearance at BIGSOUND was nixed when the veteran exec. was taken by illness.

With the “sold out” sign all but posted for another year, Big Sound can claim a genuine place in music industry’s calendar. But with a 450-capacity, the Aussie confab is an altogether more intimate experience than Austin’s enormous SxSW festival, and the giant European events Midem and Popkomm.

Mushroom’s Gudinski is one of a handful of execs who has done the rounds this year. A keynote speaker at Midem in Cannes earlier this year, Gudinski is keen to impart some tips on how Australian artists can get a leg up in the hyper-competitive music game. “I’m very excited about D-I-Y, but people shouldn’t get carried away with it,” he explains. “There’s a point where doing-it-yourself actually sacrifices success. It’s important to know when to stop doing it yourself, and how to make that next move.”

During the daytime conference, the art of songwriting will enjoy close attention by way of a masterclass, helmed by the likes of Hoodoo Gurus frontman Dave Faulkner, and Ed Kuepper, founding member of The Saints and the Laughing Clowns.

“I love music and I love talking about it,” explains Faulkner, who was inducted into the ARIA Hall of Fame back in 2007. “As much as we all like explain creatively like bolts of lightening form the sky, there is also an element of craft and of preparing yourself for those bolts of lightening. And I can talk about those things in a practical manner.”

The BIGSOUND night-time program promises to be a vibrant one with more than 60 acts, including Megan Washington, Children Collide, Katie Noonan, The Gin Club, Last Dinosaurs, Bridezilla and The Jezabels. In the past, Brisbane’s Fortitude Valley has proved a particularly happy hunting ground for the likes of Townsville’s The Middle East and Melbourne’s The Temper Trap. In 2008, TTT used the platform of BIGSOUND to grab the attention of Australia’s taste-makers, many of whom went on to tip the group in their 2009 forecasts for ‘bands to watch.’

According to Ashton, some 350 bands submitted to showcase this year, up from about 200 last year. “There’s been an embarrassment of riches,” he admits. “Our reserves bench would have made up a great starting line-up.” This year, organizers have tightened up the venues circuit so gig-hoppers won’t have to venture any more than three minutes by foot.

A handful of performers are yet to be announced which, according to Ashton, are as big as any on the list. “To be honest,” he quips, “it would have been hard for me to fuck this up.”

With Sydney’s bi-annual AMBC calling time with its 2009 edition, Adelaide’s Fuse Festival in March is a distant memory and Perth’s One Movement for Music still looking to establish itself on the calendar, BIGSOUND can boast a reputation as the country’s pre-eminent music industry conference.

“We have a responsibility to resonate and inform. And it’s my responsibility to surpass last year’s event,” notes Ashton.

An initiative of not-for-profit peak industry body Q Music, BIGSOUND is backed by the Queensland Government through a sponsorship with Trade and Investment Queensland and through Arts Queensland.

“If we had a goal for BIGSOUND, it’s relevance,” says Ashton. “I’m feeling pretty confident it’s going to be a pretty special event.”

Brisbane - “music city.” It’s a lofty title few industry types would begrudge, at least for a handful of days.