Eleven Scottish bands, DJs and producers will showcase as part of the annual South By South West (SXSW) music festival in March 2012. This latest crop of hopefuls will be following in the footsteps of likes of Franz Ferdinand, Frightened Rabbit, Camera Obscura, Rachel Sermanni and Admiral Fallow and will be looking to the annual Austin music jamboree to provide them with the platform to take their music and their careers to US and international success. The festival-come-industry-frenzy is the world’s biggest and most important event for new music with 16,500 industry delegates seeing close to 2,000 bands over five days and jostling to do business with the best of them. 

‘Showcasing Scotland’ is the name of the overall Scottish presence at the event and this year for the first time it will be coordinated by the Scottish Music Industry Association (SMIA) working alongside DF Concerts & PCL Presents and BBC Scotland’s Vic Galloway. The SMIA have taken on this coordinating role from Creative Scotland making the trade mission an industry-led. They are also administering the investment for the bands and artists on Creative Scotland’s behalf. 

There will be two Scottish showcases at SXSW:
Wednesday 14 March – Easy Tiger 8pm – 2am
We Were Promised Jetpacks, Django Django, Three Blind Wolves, French Wives, Tango in the Attic and Woodenbox.

Friday 16 March – British Music Embassy – Latitude 30 2.30-5.30pm
The Twilight Sad, The Xcerts, Three Blind Wolves and Jackmaster. 

The full list of Scottish artists showcasing at SXSW are:
French Wives*

Hudson Mohawke

Django Django

Jackmaster

Tango in the Attic*

Three Blind Wolves*

The Twilight Sad*

Twin Atlantic

We Were Promised Jetpacks*

Woodenbox*

The Xcerts 

Those with a * are also receiving investment to support the costs of them showcasing there. The investment is based on £800 per band member and goes towards the costs of flights, visas and accommodation. An additional £800 is available if the band has management who are based in Scotland, helping these management companies to grow and to allow the managers to pursue the vital business deals on behalf of the band. 

The Showcasing Scotland presence will build on that of previous years and will help those Scottish bands and artists who are less well-known in the USA and internationally by providing a well-regarded Scottish presence and showcasing platform and well-attended showcases. One of the best things about SXSW is the collaboration and co-working it encourages among Scottish artists and companies.

There will be a number of representatives of Scottish music companies attending the event to advance their own businesses. International digital music distributor EmuBands will be attending (with support from Scottish Development International) and will be seeking new international business for their company. Edinburgh-based management company Rawk Music (who represent bands such as Capitals and Meursault will be attending to build their own contacts and knowledge and skills as artist managers and also to get a better understanding of how to successful showcase a band or artist at the event, with a view to future Showcasing Scotland missions to SXSW. 

“Scotland’s presence at SXSW is one that grows year-on-year and one that is very highly regarded by delegates at the event,” said Stuart Thomas, the SMIA’s Operations Manager. “The overall Scottish presence offers less well-know bands a great platform from which to operate at SXSW. It is great to see bands like We Were Promised Jetpacks who opened our showcase in 2009 or The Twilight Sad, who first played in 2007, have now developed to become headline acts. The continued importance of SXSW to Scottish artists is illustrated by bands like Admiral Fallow, who just had their music used in a Superbowl advert, or artists like Rachel Sermanni who toured extensively across Europe last year and played shows as far afield as India,  after both having highly successful trips to SXSW in 2011.” 

Caroline Parkinson, Director of Creative Development, Creative Scotland: ‘Austin in March is a superb platform for Scotland’s bands, particularly now, during the Year of Creative Scotland. As well as the chance to showcase their work to a crowd of interested promoters, bookers, radio DJs or other executives, bands can learn a lot about where they want the next stage of their career to go.  It’s an excellent opportunity and, with the backing of the Scottish Music Industry Association, Creative Scotland expects that many acts will take their careers to the next level.’