With the festival under our belts, we were now looking forward to the three standalone Aussie BBQ shows that would take us around the country. The first, in Mumbai, served as an official after-party of sorts for the Nokia Music Connects Conference held nearby; a two day event that looked at the business of music, and India’s place in it all.
While most of the bands explored Mumbai, I attended the conference as both a speaker and an onlooker, eager to get a gauge on what was happening in this emerging market. My panel was part of an afternoon of Australia themed discussions during the event’s first day. First up was the Federal Minister for the Arts, Simon Crean, who kindly met with the Australian delegates in attendance before delivering a speech and almost bringing Michael Chugg to tears. You can view the entire speech below, which definitely shows a Federal government more invested in the arts – in particular music – than it ever has been. Someone just needs to tell him how to pronounce Gotye.
Mr. Crean discussed how OzFest was being used to help develop a culture of engagement within the arts and creative industries between the two countries, helping to foster people to people relationships, while acknowledging that it has come about due to strained relationships between the two countries. With Australia recently named the sixth largest music economy in the world, it’s no wonder that music has been an emphasis of this initiative. He went on to point to projects like Generate (which the AU review as well as The Aussie BBQ were a proud part of) as examples of how the current Government is helping develop skills in the music business.
He called The Aussie BBQ “a symbol of the mateship within the Australian music industry”, and since we’ve been trading with India since 1788, it seems “an obvious goal” for collaborations to occur within the music scene. As for his favourite Australian acts, Crean pointed to Boy and Bear as well as AC/DC, who got plenty of cheers from the crowd. He left with a poignant note: “I urge you to chase the anything and make it possible”. You can view the rest in the video above.
Next up was Michael Chugg in a one-on-one with Ralph Simon, following an emotional discussion with Simon Crean on the support from the Government he’s been waiting his whole lifetime to see happen… now all we need is support to change the radio quotas, he went on to discuss.
Chugg spoke a lot about his own past, that by now most of us are familiar with; so I won’t go into that here. What was particularly poignant, however, were his pleas to the local musicians and promoters. He pointed to the failed, money losing tours of some of the world’s biggest artists in the region due almost entirely to high ticket prices. Chugg told local promoters to tell the old “has-beens” to piss off and stop letting them degrade and devalue their emerging scene. If they continue letting them do so, they’ll never have the chance to grow as a market. Focus instead on the smaller acts, the local acts and STICK TOGETHER… say what you want behind each others backs, but to the rest of the world you need to appear as one body, banded together for your industry. It was a sentiment that would be repeated throughout the conference.
He also went on to call Robbie Williams “the greatest performer I’ve ever seen”, while on Prince: “incredible show… but man, what a weirdo!” I forgot to mention that there was a swear jar in place at this event. Apparently Chuggi set a new record for that one in his impassioned discussions, though I’m sure you wouldn’t be surprised.
So how does one follow a man like Chuggi? Well, unlike 2010 and when Chugg followed myself at SXSW, this time I was joined by four other Australian panelists in a discussion about ways Indian artists can get their music heard in Australia. We walked through the market, the importance of triple j, but I remarked on the fact it all seemed a bit premature. There was still years of work to be done in growing the local market before any of that was a reality. I echoed Chugg’s earlier comments and can only hope that the conference attendees took something valuable from our time on the stage.
The highlight of the conference, however, came on day two when the legendary producer Steve Lillywhite appeared in conversation once again with Ralph Simon. He talked about working with Dave Matthews Band, who he just recorded a new record with – reunited after ten years. He talked about how much he loved the days of the “record”, where sequencing was so important. He talked about how he wanted to “earn creative people’s trust”, and that “as long as there is weed, there’ll be albums”. He went on to say this: “I believe in art. I’m a lover and a believer of arts and commerce in that order. Music is an art form that can last 40 minutes. You go through a journey. Pop music is usually a much smaller journey… and I don’t believe you can make a ‘classic’ record on a laptop – or at the very least I don’t think it’s been done yet.”
He acknowledged that “I made the worst Rolling Stones record… at least until the next one…” and called Keith Richards “the fun one” of the group. A fun tidbit: Keith never buys clothes. He just trades with people because who would want to say they’re wearing Keith Richard’s clothes? Meanwhile, he’s wearing your brand new jacket. Another fun fact – no money changed hands when U2‘s “Vertigo” was used for the Apple iPod launch campaign. These were the sorts of stories he was full of, and what made it so interesting. Of his own skills, he remarked that “I can’t make something average great, but I can make something good great… you ALWAYS need a great riff” and that working on the Spiderman musical was a “nightmare” … “it was horrible right from the start!”. As for bands he hasn’t worked with, he said he’s like to “make Muse listen to people like Marvin Gaye for a month”, so they know what music from the heart, and not from the head sounds like.
And with two days of business and talks out of the way, it was now time for the afterparty… The Aussie BBQ… why we were all here after all! But more on that later…
READ THE OTHER NINE PARTS OF THIS SERIES HERE.
