Local band hits the big time
For 10 days, South by Southwest provides an insider’s angle of the recording industry, illuminating the underground musician’s winding passageway to the top of the rock ‘n’ roll pecking order. Beginning today, some 1,300 bands and 10,000 ticket-holders from all over the world will gather in Austin, Texas, for one of the premier amateur music and film expos in the nation.
And a USU folk quartet will be among the crowd.
St. Boh̬me is traveling gratis to South by Southwest, courtesy of City Weekly magazine. After winning Showdown to Slammys Feb. 10 at the Depot in Salt Lake City, the Logan band received four festival passes, airfare and lodging Рand 1,000 bucks to boot. The platinum passes alone are worth $700 apiece.
Record label scouts have cemented deals – and rock star statuses – at South by Southwest for 21 years. For those who aim to self-release and self-promote, the festival doubles as a tour-arranging network for independent musicians, be they established recording artists or up-and-coming performers.
Though South by Southwest brings St. Bohème one step closer to its musical aspirations, the band maintains realistic expectations. St. Bohème doesn’t have a slot in the daytime festival lineup but will try to take advantage of Austin’s renowned evening scene. The city boasts a vibrant nightlife that, from March 9 to 18, will cater especially to the SXSW crowd, said percussionist Phil Lefler.
To aid their cause, St. Bohème has two tracks on a Utah compilation album that will be distributed to everyone at the festival.
“We hope to get in contact with the people who will help us help ourselves help them help us,” Lefler said, referring to the jumbled process of breaking onto the national stage.
In St. Bohème, Lefler rejoins guitarist Matt Cline and bassist Bill Hepworth, formerly of funk-based Hasenpfeffer and the Bomdiggity. The trio forms a familiar nucleus fronted by Beaux Underwood, whose Kentucky bluegrass roots are the cornerstone of St. Bohème’s eclectic gypsy-rock style.
In a pop-music culture dominated by bubble-gummy radio rock and over-produced hip-hop, it’s impossible for a talented folk group to not get attention. But getting the industry to buy into an acoustic throwback is a different matter.
Underwood said St. Bohème was surprised to win Showdown to Slammys, a three-round, 40-band contest headlined by pop, punk and grunge-metal acts. St. Bohème won the final round by popular vote, ousting hometown bands Alex Boye, The Rubes and Medicine Circus. Underwood was flattered upon hearing the Depot production manager, who extended a personal invitation for repeat performances, had voted for St. Bohème himself.
“It holds a lot of water in a venue like that,” Underwood said of the distinction.
St. Bohème derives its name from Puccini’s opera “La Bohème”. The budding quartet was nameless until, faced with the possibility of attending South by Southwest, they chose a name out of necessity.
“The name means as little or much as you want it to,” said Underwood, who’s attached a new “self-identity” to the moniker. After some quick research, Underwood discovered the Puccini opera centering on poor, sick musicians who’ve embraced “starve-for-the-arts” sentiments. Underwood said he wants music to be his life and hopes South by Southwest will lead him to career that is artistically fulfilling and viably lucrative.
Drawing from dramatic resources, St. Bohème has adopted a multimedia presentation that is visually and aurally memorable.
Hepworth said the band is inspired by the cabaret style popularized in the artsy Montmartre district of Paris (Moulin Rouge) at the turn of the century. Small wonder Underwood has all the accoutrements of the quintessential leading male from a Hammerstein musical.
The band’s genre-bending folk-rock is hard to label, so much that Hepworth jokingly asked the Depot audience to help classify its sound. St.Bohème integrates mallet percussion, accordion, banjo, mandolin, upright bass, a concert-sized bass drum – a remnant of a ’20s marching band – and ethereal guitar effects that are tastefully applied.
Underwood said St. Bohème, which isn’t yet three months old, is still formulating musical and festival expectations. The ultimate goal, he said, is to get a record label.
This spring break, while some students exhaust bank accounts and empty pocketbooks in pursuit of the optimal party locale, a USU folk quartet is right where it wants to be.
-dsweeney@cc.usu.edu