Royal Teeth took to the roof of their hotel to meet up with Music Connection and explain the process of handling a festival like South By Southwest.
MC: This isn’t your first year at SXSW. How is it different from previous years?
Royal Teeth: It’s a little less hectic, but it’s still chaos, which is ok. We decided to take it easy this year, one sow each day which is unheard of, so you know what to expect, chaos, SXSW is fun chaos though, we enjoy it.
MC: Any Advice for first timers to SXSW?
Royal Teeth: Don’t bring a trailer, book your hotel tomorrow for next year, don’t make any plans, it seems like it’s impossible to do everything. I think you’ll have more fun if you just explore and see what you find. Practice waiting in line.
MC: SXSW provides opportunities for exposure and new fans. What do you think is the best way to harness them?
Royal Teeth: With a festival, there’s tons of opportunities for every band, as long as you’re doing it the best way for you. For us we went into SXSW and shortly got a deal after that, so we knew what we were looking for. We put ourselves in the best position to be seen by everyone. You have to get yourselves out there. We looked at all the best opportunities and had some great shows. Even though it’s really hectic in thirty minutes you got to put on the best show possible. You never know who’s watching.
MC: Sometime you do artwork on your set lists, what started that?
Royal Teeth: We had a couple hours to kill and were just bored and people liked it so I kept doing it, I don’t do it every show but if I have time to sit down I like to. We get a ton of request for different stuff. We learned a ton about Photoshop and using it to make flyers just for fun. It kind of helps us, we don’t have to pay someone else to do it, it saves us money. It gives us a specific look.
We just released We Can Glow in August. Now you can go on Noise Trade and download three songs for free. We’re calling it our like We Can Glow sampler EP. We’ll be playing a lot of festivals this summer and that’s that.
Interview by Victoria Patneaude
Recorded by Siri Svay and Victoria Patneaude
Additional Photos by Jody Domingue
