My third SXSW and my second time driving from LA to SXSW was as always, the best. I love this festival so much because it is so soulful compared to many of the larger festivals held on fairgrounds or parks around the country. Having multiple shows hosted back to back across hundreds of local venues allows each day, each show and each line up to be curated to feel different, to have a vibe, to allow you to be the curator of your own day. I love this festival because I can engage with our Interscope artist at the larger spaces like Kendrick Lamar’s Spotify night at the Warehouse or with my friends performing at informal gigs across the freeway on the East 6th side. On this trip, I heard Dave Grohl give the keynote address which inspired me because he taught me about the concept of “my own”. Whatever you do, no one can mess with it or criticize it or touch it because it is YOUR OWN. The weekend ended with Gay Bi Gay Gay at a wild park in greater Austin.

On the drive down from LA, Cioffi and I stopped in the small Texan city of Marfa. Its current population is 1,981 and it is 1.6 sq miles large. It was an abandoned military base town until 1971 when NYC artist Donald Judd moved there, bought two airforce hangars and permanently began installing his art there. The highlight was seeing the Prada store installation just 37 miles outside the city, where, along an isolated, dusty road, a fake Prada store, seemingly functional, was erected by Elgreen and Dragset in 2005.

At SXSW, we stayed with founder of She Shreds magazine, Fabi Reyna, who invited me to play the first ever She Shreds Sessions. In the concept, a guitarist links up with a drummer she has never played with before to recreate a song proposed by the guitarist. (http://sheshredsmag.com/post/46906108649/she-shreds-sessions-a-tip-on-jamming) Here are two pieces we came up with on her Austin ranch:

On behalf of Frankie Frankie (frankiefrankie.com), I got to interview Marnie Stern and Zach Hill when I was in Austin as well. We talked about out of body experiences, the need to be a drummer and what a musician looks for in a drummer.

Our favorite acts this year were:

Robert Glasper Experiment: http://www.robertglasper.com/

Marnie Stern: http://www.marniestern.net/

Chaos Chaos: http://www.chaoschaosmusic.com/

Alt-J: https://www.facebook.com/altJ.band

Sinkane: http://www.sinkane.com/

Death Grips: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7kWdpEnJfxI

Kendrick Lamar: http://www.kendricklamar.com/

Frank Turner: http://www.frank-turner.com

Body Parts: http://www.bodypartsband.com/

Body Language: https://www.facebook.com/bodylanguagemusic

Delicate Steve: https://www.facebook.com/DelicateSteve