Ledaswan

Ledaswan proudly supports the 3rd annual Local Music Week 2012. Co-Sponsored by the SA Current and some other new great sponsors. Jaime and I volunteered to help make this city wide cross-promotional event. Many people have asked me if Local Music Week is a festival or if we are trying to make San Antonio like Austin? To answer the first question, no LMW is not a festival. And the answer to the second question is a loaded question….the way that I envision Local Music Week is to first improve the relationships of the people within the music scene, because scene still means “community.” If we can create a music scene starting from organizing and educating musicians and anyone else that is tied to the business of music, then we can at least start at the source of the people that care about creating a music scene. Creating a music scene takes a village and cannot be done by the musicians alone, but with city support, and support from independent businesses and music advocates. The venues need to play a bigger role in our music scene…and respect and care more for the bands in their city. For example, venues should still book in-house, try to pay the bands as much as they can, investing in soundproofing their venue, and invest in a great sound system with a great sound person. These are essential in creating a music scene today. Fostering bands because those bands may be the next “big” thing. If bands do not have a place to be fostered then there can be no music scene. Creating a music scene in 2012 means venues invest in their club aesthetically and sound-wise. I spoke with another musician the other night and he said something that is true here and in every city that doesn’t quite have a thriving scene. He said that we (musicians) are all waiting for that great venue and it doesn’t quite exist yet. Some places have come very close. 502 Bar being one of the newer musician friendly venues. Kudos to them. They’ve actually invested in a green room for all bands and print well designed colored flyers and posters in house. They pay their local bands as much as they can. So far my experience working with 502 Bar has been a pleasure. They’ve invested in a dedicated sound person and excellent sound. Something all venues need to be proud of. Of course there are many other aspects to answer the second part of that question. And way too much to go into now. But writing about it puts things into perspective. I don’t have all the answers but those are just things I’ve learned along the way. Hopefully bands will become less clique-y and take the time to get to know other musicians as people and not just care about getting ahead.   I’m hoping to make more efforts in being the change for that instance and remaining positive.  I hope everyone makes an extra special effort to get out of the house and support a local band next week.  Please check out our shows page as we have several events during LMW and excitingly some ALL AGES events as well.  Scene = community. Without a community there is no scene.  check out http://local782.org/schedule