How a DJ Built the #1 Underground Club in America (Austin's Secret)

What is up, spores? Welcome to another episode of the Two Fun Guys podcast. Yeah, the spores. That's our listeners sports. Yeah, they'd spread like mycelium. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, Network grows. Yeah, exactly. So we're super happy to have you guys, Kelly and Andrew, owners of the Concourse, which projects, along with David, who is here with us in spirit today. And the Concourse project, if you guys, I'm sure if you're in Austin, you know what it is, but for those who maybe don't, it is hands down. The best venue that I've been to, and Brett and I love it. We used to be there very, very often. We've been busy, have not been there as much as we'd like, but, um, it is still, it is still like, it's a treat anytime we get to go and we, we fucking love it and we're so excited to talk to you guys and your journey of how you started the Concourse Project and real music and like how you came up in the scene and, and all of this and, um. I mean, the concourse continually climbs the ropes in terms of venue status and has been on the DJ Mag top 100 for the last 3 years and keeps getting a better ranking, right? Ever, ever since our first year of opening, we hit the The the DJ Mag, but we just had our 4 year anniversary, so it was like in year one was the first time. So it's been, it has been like 3 of them, yeah. Number 4 in the US and then 27 in the US I think, right? 27 in the world, number 4 in the US.

Well, I guess the best place to start is, can you give us just a quick background on how you started. Getting into the scene, like, let's go all the way back to the beginning, like your first like rave or your first live electronic music event. How did you get into this and what was that like? So I guess that usually starts with me cause I started kind of first, I guess, like I started going to, um, I guess you would say raves and parties and stuff. First one I went to, I was Uh, 13 actually it was New Year's Eve in Houston. My brother, my brother took me, the older brother, to 1 Year's Eve. Yes, it was we both had holidays. It was Halloween. He was New Year's Eve. And what year is this? I didn't you start, um, so, so 2000, 2000. So that's when I kind of started going to things. I was, you know, very new to the, the whole scene, and then. By 14, so like a year later or less or whatever, I had already started DJing, kind of liking all that, and then started, I played my first gig actually out at 14, almost 1514, 15. So I was already actually the first festival I played, I was 15. So I was already playing like a bunch of big gigs and doing things then and then, you know, 16, even still in high school, you know, I was still doing stuff and throwing parties and all that kind of thing, and then.

Um, so yeah, I started pretty early. His brother was older than him when he went off to college. He started getting into that and as a drum and bass DJ. And so then Andrew's like, What's this? And so that's how he got into it. Yeah, and I grew up in the Waco area, big up Waco, I guess, even though not really, um, so I came from there-ish, um, and then, but it was, I was partying every weekend in like Houston, Dallas kind of area, Austin sometimes, but Austin was very few and far between. And then. Eventually, um, you know, I kind of decided once I got out of high school, like, where do I want to go? And Austin just made more sense to me. So I kind of moved to Austin pretty early and started doing my own events and going to clubs and doing all that stuff pretty early too. That's when our concurrent stories start because I start in '05 and we both moved to Austin independently in 005. Um, I came from San Antonio and I went to UT, so that's why I came to Austin and I consider it home now. Um, but my freshman year, first semester, Halloween night, that was my first experience with like the rave scene. It was like in a forest and it was like culture shock. Like what is this? But I really liked the music.

It was like a forest rave. Yes. And then I just downtown it was Enchanted Forest Enchanted Forest. It wasn't downtown, but it was by campus, so it was like they had a big tree and stuff inside the venue, so it was like a cool forest vibe, but it was like a venue. No, it wasn't a venue. It was like woods. But it was in a building though. No, it's on the building, and she had divorced. No, unless they changed it, but I remember being like it was, it's straight forest anyway, that was a. Are you gonna look it up right now. For real, events. Yeah, we have to fact check this. We have to later. bubble pop up, um, to see who was right. But anyway, so mine was in the forest, at Halloween, and then I just like dove in and at the time, the scene was so much smaller and growing. So like everyone that was in electronic music like you would go. to the same events that particular weekend. So there'd be like one on Friday and maybe one on Saturday. And it wasn't like how it is now where there's so many different options and styles and you kind of choose which like lane you're in. It was just like a small little core that was growing and people would go to those shows. And um so through mutual like associations, multiple in multiple ways, we came to be like friends and uh eventually, I mean, we both like promoted for like the the entity that would like throw shows at the time and he would DJ. I started my dance group, so we would perform for shows. And actually when I look back on it, he was, he was my friend. So he actually helped, like, connect me with some gigs in the beginning. So like we're part of each other's stories like all along. Um, and then I started throwing my own birthday parties. I was like Kelly's bitching birthday.

The bash and he also would help me like secure the warehouse and like on the lineup he would play like Alan who became our production manager and and that was actually a warehouse on Burleson that we used to throw parties at which now we're off Burleson now too for Congress projects. So there's a lot of way in a different area but on Burleson but so yeah, we both like kind of worked our asses off as individuals and friends. That was like our mutual, you know, connection and Uh, we were really good friends and would laugh a lot and all that stuff. And then eventually, you know, in 8 we got together officially and then by 9 we started doing our own shows. So it's, it was real music events like as the, you know, parent company of all our events until like even current, you know, um, so that was like the main thing is real music events and that pivoted from his record label, Real Music Recordings. So he used to focus on that. Yeah, so I did open a record label when I was in high school. Still, I was one of the first labels ever on. Be port too, so I had a bunch of big artists there. So that's actually how I started. Well, started DJing, then did the record label. I kind of went in a weird way, right? And then started doing parties later or whatever, but I started throwing shows when, when we had first were friends, you know, in 2007, whatever, as real music events through Real Music Recordings, which is the label, but I wasn't like officially like Road Music events was established. It was more like one of my friends was like, Oh, we're gonna, we're gonna, we're gonna make, we're gonna call it Ro Music Events. I'm like, OK, that's what it is then, sure.

But then when we got together, we're like, let's start doing this, and it was. Like we consider our start date 9, even though there's some like precursor events prior to that. But that's when we started doing like consistent events like started every month, then the frequency started picking up like every couple of weeks and then every weekend and then multiple shows a weekend and it just kept growing and the size was growing. Like we started with these like small intimate 100 person shows and like a little bars light bar was one of the venues and then just continued to grow, utilize different venues. Back, back then it was weird like to even do like, you know, more than one show a month was weird. And then there were, we, I always bring this up because I just was like he's always, I just always remember it felt like there was a time where we, we did a thing called Mayhem, M A Y, he mayhem, but it was during May and we did, we did 4 shows in one month and that was crazy. Everyone was like, oh my God, 4 shows, you guys are fucking crazy. Oh my God, it was one show a week. Like everyone's like, I mean, now we're, you know, it's just totally different, but I just always that stands out in my mind because like at the time it was like that was revolutionary and also it was like do that many shows in one month. Like you guys are levels to the game. Yeah, it's just like are you like 22 at the time or yeah, yeah, so I was 20, was that 2010, 2009, 2010.

I'm 40 now. I mean, so if we started in 9 and then like by 2010 is probably when mayhem, but um Yeah, so 15 years ago, so I'd be, yeah, 25. So I'm 38 now. He's 40 now, so we've been going at it for what we were in our early twenties. What was the drive to, you never thought of like another drop. You were just so into the scene. You're like, no, it was definitely like we wanted to build the scene. I mean, the thing for us is like because we were working for other promotion companies and stuff originally and it was like, hey. Like, especially for me, like I've always been kind of a DJ first, and I love music. And so for me, my passion was like, yo, bring other artists to town, people that I, that I've kind of brought up or people that I liked or people that we liked, whatever, and no one's going to do it but us, right? So it was like, OK, like I would even offer, particularly the emerging artists. No one was bringing like emerging artists and especially like in the, the different like nooks and crannies that we were listening to. It was more like kind of mainstream, some big names like Cascade, Benny Bonassi, and those are always coming back every year, right? Renz and Rapes like Cascade every year, you know. We were like, well, this is, do you love them though? Yeah, I do like them, but it was like, OK, let's do something different. Let's build this. You're welcome back every year. Yeah, but like, let's do something different, you know. So it was like for us it was like, OK, let's just some of these artists that aren't coming that are great, like why aren't they coming? Let's do it ourselves because no one else is going to do it but us, right? So that's kind of how it started.

Yeah, I mean it, it started as he was always as a DJ. He was always kind of like forward thinking in terms of like what music he was listening to and playing and then with his label as well. So like he had. Booked or I don't know if booked is the right word. He had signed some artists to his label or released some tracks with certain artists when they were like small and he just had a knack for finding and discovering artists and they end up like becoming like huge artists, um, like Matt Zos one. Yeah, Matso one. I mean, there's many and you'll be like, oh yeah, they used to be on my label, especially now I feel like more come out all the time too. It's like people, I mean, for artists, right, they, it takes a long time sometimes for people to do whatever and also they start in one area and they end somewhere else, but like even for myself at the time, like I was super into trance. And like, you know, I still love trance, but I like so many things now too. But it's like at the time I was very into that, so we were doing a lot of trance artists. Now the music style at the time. There's like more progressive trance and all that. So that's a lot of what we would bring and like I mean Chris Lake, even if you, you know, he did our one year anniversary and even he remembers us from back then and like he's a close homie of ours too, and he's like, and this is also like at that 100 cap venue, yeah, and even he's like, it's insane. It's like we're one of the only promo promoters he remembers from even back then, you know, it's still around, you know, we've been doing this for a long time.

But also we've been cultivating like, you know, a big scene forever too. Like one of the other weird ones that sticks out all the time is like we booked Davici when nobody knew who the hell he was and like the show got canceled because he ended up getting an offer to do um the the World Cup in like South America and they're like, we like, but we already like signed for this. But then they're like, oh, we'll get it, we'll get it back for $4000 yeah, for like nothing. They're like, we'll get it back to you. It's all good. But when they came back they were like, Oh, it's $80,000. He's like, I don't have $80,000 $8000 now. And then by the end for $8000 now it's insane, multiple six figures. But yeah, yeah, so yeah, just funny stuff like that too, you know. But yeah, it's just, I remember back then too, like when we paid like $100,000 for an artist, I'm like, oh my God, $100,000 is insane. Like people knew what people got now. Like they would, it would blow their minds, Austin. You used to get skipped a lot for shows, right? Like, like venue artists, good artists didn't really come through here very much. And I feel like Concourse Project had a lot to do with bringing the big names here. Was that because of like your connections to these people labels started prior to Concourse might be on more people's radar now that Concourse is opened, but like, we part of that story just to go back to it is, so we started doing our shows, doing them at different venues.

And then like in 2012 or 2013, we became partners of the original Kingdom and he handled like the bookings and the calendar and so the majority of the shows were real music events. Um, and that was our claim to fame. There was, it had very solid like lighting and sound and we, it was intimate. So that was like 300 cap, but he would book like really big artists like Eric Prids. They do these like novelties. Like gigs because he was, he's worked with so many agents for so long and they respect like his taste and like what he brings and all of that. So we would be able to get some of these really big artists for like an underplay and play in this intimate venue, which would be really special experience. Um, so that's, we have these like really rich, like small intimate events for so long, and then we would sometimes do shows at other venues when we needed a larger cap. Um, and then once we built We did the Concourse project and segue to that and Seismic, our festival. We just kept going, but now like it's 2000 people per show is the regular, and yeah, yeah, so we definitely built the scene up from like, you know, much smaller, but the other thing is like kind of like to your point is, I mean, definitely like tours, big tours, right? If you're doing like most of them are going to be like either solo big tours that are new, but maybe a Live Nation or AEG tour because those are the two biggest promoters in the world, right?

So they're gonna come through and do like Dallas, Houston, massive markets, and then maybe in Austin. It's still kind of like that, like maybe we'll hit Austin. I mean, I think with us for sure we kind of added a large enough venue to hit those things down. So I get your point. There definitely are more of those tours hitting Austin for sure because of what we're doing. But then also just to, you know, which normally I would never do, but also shout out to, you know, Live Nation and C3 for doing the, the big, um, Moody amphitheater or not amphitheater, but the big, uh, Moody, um. What's the other colosseum thing because that too, I mean, even that's pretty small when you're talking about like, you know, a Taylor Swift or something, right? Like which one are you talking about the, the Moody, the big theater, not the amphitheater, the other one, Moody Center. So Moody Center, you know, it's 15,000 cap, but even that, like, you know, those big, those big, big artists like, uh, Taylor Swift or something wouldn't come here because there's nothing big enough for them, right? So even this is kind of small when you're talking about like Houston, Dallas tours, right, and you're talking LA, you're talking New York, you're talking Miami, you're talking. Big markets. Austin's kind of like a tertiary market compared to like the big markets. It's like level. It's not quite yet. So we definitely do get more of those acts now because we have like concourse projects in some places to put them for sure, but like it's still different because Austin still is smaller than, you know, a New York, LA, whatever.

So. But I would also say like all the years of cultivating like those shows and bringing more like underground, like you can say underground and some people will be like that's not underground enough and then it's too underground for the mainstream anyway, it's a spectrum, but The more relatively underground compared to like commercial dance music, you know, like house and techno and like Carl Cox, we had booked. It was the last show we did before COVID hit. It was like the day before Austin's first cases. It was like March 13th or something like that. And that was before Concourse. So we had that at Fair Market, right? Fair Market. Yeah, Fair Market and um kind of like a warehouse feel and all that. And so big acts like that because Carl Cox is like a legend, right? But it's, um, Still like in the house and techno realm. And so because we kind of like earned our street cred to be able to book artists like that, we would get some of those shows and then sometimes those other markets like Dallas or Houston wouldn't, or sometimes we would see that they would get them and like ours would sell out first because we had like spent so much time and effort cultivating like special sounds and parts of our scene, whereas cities so much larger than ours would maybe focus more on just mainstream stuff that they wouldn't even do as well or bring numbers as good as we could for certain acts. So that's kind of like part of like the story and Yeah, Carl Cox is an interesting one too, because like he hadn't played here since 2000 or 1999 or something. He played at Austin Music Hall. I don't know if anybody knows Austin Music Hall, but back in the day, that used to be the big massive venue where some big shows would happen. So it was like 3500 cap or something. So he played there. Fatboy Slim played there, big stuff like back when the big rave days were 199, 2000. So he hadn't even played here until then. So, you know, it's something that we've been working on for years and years and years. And so the first time for him to come back right before the pandemic was with us.

Um, and then Fatboy Slim actually came back recently with us, hadn't played since then too. So, yeah, it's just kind of like an interesting thing where, you know, the, the scene definitely back in '99, 2000 was in a different place. Like there were a lot of bigger like raves and, you know, stuff like that, and then the whole crack house law and all that kind of stuff. Everything kind of went back to the clubs and then it got small again and then, you know, it's been building it back from that again, but, um, Yeah, it's been an interesting ride for sure. Yeah, and you see that trend actually throughout in like the whole industry, like, so it goes from like those massives to more like club shows, um, like legitimate, you know, productions of events, not just raves. So it was nice to actually start having the balance of like there there's the more like underground like raby kind of side of things and then there's the more like formalized club side of things that were like shows or concerts in a venue. Um, and then as that continued to grow and the popularity grew in the country and globally, um, then it shifts. Right now what's popular is the very large scale, like modern warehouse experience where when I feel like it's just all things come together very Um, magically, but that happens to be the next trajectory for us in finding concourse because we needed a new home for our shows year round, as well as a home for the festival. So that was part of like how we secured that particular spot is it looks conducive.

Having our indoor like warehouse for the volcano stage and it had outdoor field for like our tsunami stage. And we were actually actively looking for a different venue for our festival. We had used like the Austin American Statesman prior to that for for one audition. And um yeah, so like the need for like 360 home for regular shows for real music events as well as home for seismic. They both like became fulfilled with Finding Concourse, which was just like a blank warehouse shell at the time. And then we brought in our partner David from San Francisco and because he'd worked with venues and clubs and did audio in San Francisco, which was similar to the venue that we did here prior to Concourse, and we, we knew that team and there were synergies and also through multiple associations and um we looked at another venue that used to be like Lucky Lounge here in Austin and right before we signed the lease for it, like, David got apprehensive because he's like, it's just too small for it to like make sense and I was like, listen, like we're not going to find another venue like Austin downtown proper is like tapped out of like real estate and everything is small. Like if you think about all like the venues downtown like bars, everything is smaller. So I was like this was like 500 cap and like like this is good, like we don't really need any bigger than that and he wanted to hold off and I was like we're not going to find something. And sure enough, when I found or when we found the warehouse that I was like, I asked some questions about um The guy next door was Eli, who actually, there's like so many stories, so many stories the way it all came out. Well, so like once we lost Kingdom, I guess to go back slightly is once we lost Kingdom due to Nate Paul bullshit, whatever, I don't really want to go down that road. But then we were like she said, looking for a new venue just to find a something for seismic was kind of the, the main thing. But then also when we went to go maybe do a New Year's Eve party, which we're going to do down in Austin American Statesman.

They started being kind of weird about capacity and the fire marshals and blah blah, sound and whatever. So we're like, let's find another spot. And one of our friends who used to own the main venue that we used to go to and promote at back in the day in 2007, 2008, Sky Lounge was like, I got this new spot out here, blah blah, yeah, which is still there. So now currently it's, uh, Mala Santa. It's right by Concord. It used to be Plata. Yeah, so we went to go look at that. He said, come look at my new spot. And so we went to go look at that and maybe we do New Year's Eve there. And then we did, but I was also like, what's going on with that building over there? It's just like a big ass like warehouse thing. Wouldn't be interested. It's just like a shell, no plumbing, anything. And like Kelly's like, actually, especially with like our festival and our special events, that's what we did is like you do pop up, a pop-up like venue and you turn, we would have our uplights and all kinds of things and you'd create the ambiance and so having just like a blank slate was like a good thing, you know, and so. Got the like landlord's information and was able to pry and then it took like years of planning because then COVID hit. We thought we lost the project, but then we were able to use that time to like reset because other than that we didn't have a break from doing shows. It was just constant, like our whole life was just like work, do our shows over the weekend, work do our shows over the weekend and Um, COVID was like a forced reset, but then we were able to like kind of tinker with our plans and figure out a business model for the Concourse project where if we stayed in a COVID world, we'd do pods. If we got out of it, we'd have our normal show pro forma and yeah, we eventually opened in 2021. We just hit our actual four-year anniversary from when we did our first indoor show. Um, yeah, and it's just been, it's been like a constant evolution and that's always the thing and that's the.

core fundamental about both of us and our roots and everyone who works for us knows this, but we're like, it's a do it-yourself mentality. So that's why we started doing our own shows because we just wanted to bring something fresh and put our spin on it and like, Produce the show and have the, the whole experience be like with the details that we saw and it just grows and you just keep building on what you've done and we couldn't necessarily foresee what we are doing today then, but we knew we were going to be doing something. I think even with Concourse project, once we finally did find that and whatever, really like the driving force was like, a, obviously we lost Kingdom, but then B, it was like we were still doing shows here and there, especially in COVID, we're still doing some stuff there, you know, too, but it was like, It just kind of got frustrating to be like doing so much and working so hard and like, especially someone like her who's so meticulous and I will say she's the reason why we are where we are. She's like incredible at like doing the small little things that you never think about that I definitely don't think about. It's like, this plant is facing the wrong direction, this light looks like crash, like, oh yeah, you're right, it does. So like she's just really good at that stuff and so I think that's what sets it apart. But, um, like, you know, that it just became one of those things where it's like we got so tired of going into other spaces and making their space better, but also like, in Austin, just cause we're doing it for so long and like one of the frustrations is like no one here wanted to spend the money to do anything like.

Anywhere we go, like, hey, like, you should do this, this, this, like, that's a great idea, but no, you know, like, maybe add some lights, maybe do something. So I was like, OK, fuck, like, let's just open our own place where we can spend the money, do the thing, but because, I mean, the honest truth is like Congress Project, when we opened, like, no one thought that that thing could exist here. No one thought, especially being outside of downtown would exist. I mean, I know because I've worked here forever. Like, I know that even my own mentality was like, gotta be downtown, right? And then when we like did this, it was like, Actually, I don't think we do because we're doing shows. People are gonna want to go to these shows. We're doing the best shows, the biggest artists, like, people are going to travel to do that. And so when we started it, it was like, but I would say like most venue owners who have, you know, most venue owners that own places here own the property or they've been here for 30 fucking years or they're, you know what I mean? Like a lot of them own other spaces, whatever. I don't think any of them thought what we were doing made sense, you know, but now I think everyone's probably like, well, shit, like I really wish. I've been a part of this or maybe we can do this too, you know, so it's just one of those things is like, we know the market and we've just kind of been doing this for so long too, but I will say like, there's no one that I talked to that was like, yes, let me give you a million dollars to do it. That didn't happen. We bootstrapped all this shit, like we paid for everything ourselves and our partner, like, you know, like, we, we worked our asses off to get there and some investors, but I'm saying like it wasn't like one of those things where it's like anyone was just like, You know, it just, it wasn't easy, is all I'm saying like, but now I'm like, I think that it has definitely changed people's mentality in the market, you know, so.

Yeah, I remember going to one of the seismics and it wasn't opened yet. It was the one that was like right outside. That was the, so, uh, May that was 3.3 because all of our editions were like 1.0, 2.0, 3.3 because we had to change the date multiple times because of COVID. Um, so that was in May, and yeah, the inside wasn't done yet, so everything was outside. It was the only time volcano stage was outside and it was like propped up against the building. Um, and then that later that fall or winter or whatever, what do you want to call it, um, was when we did 4.0 and that was once Concourse was actually opened inside. So, September 10th, 9th or 10th, pretty sure it's 10th, is when September 10th is when our Concourse anniversary is, and that was our first show with Boris Brecker, um, in 2021, so. I remember going in there the first time because I used to raving in like in Seattle, they don't let you rave anywhere. So it's always like little pop-ups under freeways and you'd have the venue for like a month. And then they would deem it a drug addict festival and then they would ban it, even though now most of Seattle's that anyways. And then or like underground freeways or whatever. And I remember walking into a clean warehouse with an amazing sound system and it's not dripping from the ceiling and the bathroom doesn't look insane and you're like, this is, it is air conditioned guy like this is crazy. My mind was blown because I'm 42 like coming from the.

Exactly. That I was like holy shit. Now these are so, they're, they're spoiled. They'll find shit to complain about. It's like you have no idea what we partied in like that old church, the hall. Did you ever go to the hall into the hall? Yeah, it's like, like Brian was saying, like under freeways where you go into this tiny, like, like, uh, we call them 5, yeah, $5 hollers where it's like this, you know, $5 to get in this tiny little rave venue and it's just dingy and broken down and then sometimes you'd have like. Actual off the grid raves where you have, you know, old school, you gotta call, get an address, show up, and that's what I loved about Concourse too when we went the first time we're like. It feels like an old, it has that old school rave energy to it, but it's clean and it's like a place where real adults will go party, but it gives you that kind of like nostalgic gravy energy. That was the goal. Yeah, I feel like I'm not in a club. Yeah, yeah, it was tying back to like the history of the roots of the scene and even our Austin scene because like we said, we used to, people would do shows at different Burleson warehouses and our and concourses on Burleson Road. That's just by chance. It was a nice little like uncanny thing.

Um, but yeah, Easter egg, it was exactly, it was tying in like history with a little Easter egg with modern like culture. So yeah, I mean, I definitely that's one of the things that has come up a bunch. I mean, I know several people that are, you know, a little bit older than the scene or whatever, and there's like, yeah, I mean. What I do love is like you pull up to the Congress Project and you're like, what the fuck? It's so unassuming, you know, especially if you haven't been there before. And then one of the things I used to love, especially when we first opened is like just being there at the front and then people like come in, you know, and like this is cool. And then they, they turn that corner and they just stop and they're like. You know, just like that's like such a cool feeling to also just to watch people experience that you're like, especially like earlier on the early days, uh, most people have experienced that many times at this point, but like, yeah, you hear, you hear that sound when people turn the corner, like just from the hall that's from the hallway, like the main hallway, and you turn to like the main room and you see all the production and like, oh yeah, and that's definitely one of the things I mean I love that people have that feeling because I definitely like. You know, think about when I first started to come up, but like you said, like, I wish I could have experienced some shit like this when I first got into the scene, you know, and now it's nice to provide that to people because, you know, it is, it is cool to have that little like middle ground, you know, it's, it's, I think it's badass.

I mean, I bet the artists that come. Through they, they probably give you crazy compliments, probably like, what is this? I mean, they love it. Yeah, I mean, that's, and that's also one of the things too is like we always want the artists to be like very happy and like that's, you know, definitely start there. Like, obviously you want the patrons to be very happy, but we want the artists to be like ecstatic too and so like. We definitely try to take all that into consideration. Like we want everything to be great for everyone, you know what I mean? Like that's the goal is for everyone to be like happy, you know, of course the goal is not to make people unhappy. I'm just saying though, it's not like, you know, like we actually from down to like the team, the like the culture that you set like internally as well as like with the community that come to the shows, like that's always been very important to us and So there's like a really down to earth, like, good human vibe with the team and like a lot of times if you go to like, if you think about like, no offense, but like Vegas clubs or like Miami or like other like, you know, big Metropolitan like cities, a lot of times when you go to like venues or shows, you know, it might have a stuffier feel. It's more pretentious. People are all in their own world. You might be encountering more rude people. Like sometimes staff, the security is mean mugging and people and like it just might be a different experience. Yeah, so like with us it's really important to like have that kind of Austin identity and it's just intrinsic to like what we do and the people here and And when artists like see and recognize that, like, that's also really that's really special because it's the full experience. It's like you can tell and feel that a lot of passion and like all that go into what we do from The production, like the sound, the lighting, like the lineups, like the, the quality of the DJ sets, even from like the openers, all of that to the team, the way people are interacting. And so when we get to hear that that affirmation from all different types of artists, it's very special because a lot of these people are playing like everywhere in the country or everywhere internationally. And so, A lot of them just feel that like wholesomeness and that's special to us, yeah, and I definitely think like we've, we've done, I'm not to go too far back or anything crazier in the middle, but we've done other shows in other places like San Antonio, some Dallas, whatever, but we never just felt like super like connected to a lot of those places. I mean, not a ton, but

we definitely try it, you know, because being tapped in like locally, like we, if we don't live there, we can't. Cultivate all like the little all all aspects of the venue because it wouldn't be our venue or like the staff or like the people, you know, doing the events in our like city, which is our home is important because like all of those things come together and if you just do an event elsewhere, you can't control enough of that dynamic, you know, like it can still be a good show, it can still be cool people and all of that, but Um, I think ultimately what we do is special because of all of those pieces that come from like being rooted in here. Yeah, and we definitely always like had a connection to Austin. I mean, not only have we've been there for a long time, but we just always felt like something was different about Austin, like the vibe and the culture and the people have always like meant a lot to us. So like that's why we've focused so hard on Austin, you know, like Austin's what we care about. And so that's why we've, you know, I just think that there is something special here. I know it's a little. You know, no offense to anyone, but I know it's been getting a little washed out a little bit, you know, lately from everyone moving in and whatever, but I do think there's something special here in this, this city, you know, and that's something that I think everyone's kind of connected to, and I think that has made everything so much better because, you know, I think because of that, it's created a really good scene and culture and vibe, you know, like I think it's very important. Yeah, there totally is, and you can feel it too in the concourse. Yeah, I mean, like Brent said, we're both from Seattle and I used to work in the music industry up there in festivals and clubs and shows and all that. I've been a DJ since 2000.

11, so what, 1314 years, not as long as you, um, but come play sometime. I'm, I'm down, um, you've always see some DJs slop out of my brain about it about it 10 o'clock right before this. But yeah, but like the scene in Seattle, I mean, so much love because it was beautiful for a long time, but the people just got, I, I ended up leaving because it was like so slime. Like there's a lot of sliminess in the music industry, especially in in some of the trying to avoid the slime, and then coming here and seeing like meeting all the people that are associated with the Concourse Project. It's just such good vibes and like one time I got a, I had a media pass to one of the seismics and I'm backstage and like. Everybody was so nice and it was so not what I'm used to. Like backstage, everybody's so pretentious in Seattle and they're like, Who are you? What are you doing here? Can you prove yourself? And everybody's like, Oh, come on. Oh yeah, come over here, have some snacks. I was like, Oh, this is awesome. This is, this is great. So yeah, you just really feel the Austin hospitality in every inch of the place. I, I gotta say it. I do always say it like the Southern hospitality thing. I really do feel like it's a thing. I mean, I know it's like.

Passe or whatever you, I don't whatever you wanna call it, but I definitely do think it is a thing, and I think that that's something that like I've always just felt like. has been so helpful in us creating the scene here is like that little bit of Southern hospitality, I think does go a long way, you know, like I really do. I think it does. But then that would apply to like everywhere around us. It's not just like Southern hospitality, which definitely is part of that, but I mean people are just like in Texas, you drive down the street, you wave at your neighbor, or like you're walking by, like you, you might like smirk and say hi, but we lived for a little bit in San Francisco. Like we didn't completely leave Austin. We were like doing a back and forth thing because I worked with Google, but You would do that like no one would ever even look at you, no one returns it and you're like, oh, I didn't realize this is like specific to this area. So that's one part of like the identity. But then Austin itself, I feel like is a even different like little subset of that concentric. Hospitality thing and yeah, there's more like open-mindedness and and all of that which contribute to like what is very fundamental to our scene. So that's, you know, a perfect little the rape scene was built on community and I definitely think like to like go, yeah, exactly like to go back to even, you know, what Kelly said.

Earlier too is, you know, we've been cultivating like this underground kind of a scene or just like new artists that nobody knew about. We've been like working on this thing that wasn't like your mainstream artists for a very long time. And so I think that's definitely helped a lot because it's not only is it about just the artists and whatever we're doing, but also about the locals. Like we care about the people that are coming to the shows. We care about the locals, DJs, like we've always just like, I think everything, you know, all the art and all the stuff that there's so many little facets to the whole thing, we've always cared about all of those things. So I think it's about bringing up everyone like Bringing up the local DJs, bringing up the new DJs that are coming through, bringing up new artists, bringing up art. I mean, there's so many little pieces to all this stuff, and I think that that's something that we've always just really cared about because it all is connected, you know, it's not just like little one-offs and not everything is a part of the scene, you know, like. I mean, it really is though. It is. It really is though. It's that shit's real. It all pulses through everything. Yeah, uh, I remember, so I moved during the pandemic. Tony came like a little bit later and I didn't like when you live in Seattle, which is basically Canada, you don't think about anything past like Oregon or California. Like you don't go east at all in your mind. So like when I was doing research in Texas and whatever and came here and we visited, we're like, Whoa, what is this place? It's like we found Narnia and didn't know this even. We thought it was like what you see at the Dallas airport was Texas.

Yeah, we thought Texas was all tumbleweeds and racism. To this day, certain like major network TV shows will air. Like I remember when I was young, like 9:020, they walked in. It was like, it was like saloon, like, you know, tumbleweed going down like the little empty like town square and I was like, oh my God. And then even recently there was something and they're like playing like they're in Texas and it was like, and everyone talks like this and it's just like we're like so embarrassing. That's not what it's like here, but Um, Texas has its fair share of problems, as we know, but there's a lot of like really cool things that keep us and so many other people here and do you want to be part of like the change and yeah, I remember it so like, it was during the pandemic, me and my sister, we went to a couple of shows like we went to a parking lot, Dallas above and Beyond live stream or something. And then a couple of Dallas and then I remember her fiance moved down, our buddy Roy, and he's like deep into like he knows artists that were just like you guys nerd out together. It's just on another level, and he would just be, you're blowing his mind every single weekend. Like he'll just go, he should have a punch card. He should, he's like your number one like all the he's all the time and He's just like blown away and going to like the first seismic and just the different types of artists in the, you know, completely Just like something like you're over in Europe or like underground and not, not anywhere, even in other parts of the country that I would really see. So I want to talk about like this concept of seismic, like, what, what is your like vision of that? How is that born?

I mean, I guess there's two pieces to it, I guess, right? Like I, I definitely when I mostly segue to her because she definitely came up with a vision and all the things and I guess, but on the music side because we're talking about that. I mean, I definitely think that not only for what we've been booking forever too, sorry to smack this thing, um, for musically, like we definitely always do wanna do new artists and things like that, um, and I think seismic is a nice little piece where like I get to kind of like dig a little bit deeper, and the good thing is like we get to like grab those artists and kind of build them up and I think it's always like, cool, we're doing this seismic play or maybe we did a free show or maybe do seismic, then a free show, then we bring over for a headline like it's a good way to like build these guys up and like because I'm a DJ first like I definitely There's almost no one I booked that I just book for fun. It's mostly stuff that I like. I mean, there might be a couple of shows, you know, that I book now that we have Congress Project that I'm like. It'll do well, but man, not my thing. But for the most part we're like super. I just want to see what it sounds like in this room, yeah, but like definitely when we're talking about like our baby and like shit that I'm like, fuck yeah, like honed into, like seismic for sure is like, OK, everyone who's playing that festival, I fucking love their music. They wouldn't be on the lineup if I didn't dig them, you know. So like it's nice to have those little kind of like Easter eggy kind of things where people are like, who the fuck is this? Like I'm gonna check this out. I don't know if I can cuss, but, uh, where we can check all this stuff out and like, you know, people can find out who these new artists are and we can kind of build them in the market. I think that's a, a big deal, but Seismic as a brand and where that started, um.

She kind of, yes, so, um, so we've been doing our regular shows and You know, we would go out, we would travel and go to like a festival or whatever, and um I've like performed for Ultra and like done costume design for like the dancers for Ultra and other festivals. So with my dance group, like I'd be a part of other festivals produced by other companies like Insomniac and um all of those, um, but um we found ourselves like really appreciating the more boutique festivals, like at the time we went to like Dirty Bird camp out and like holy Ship and all of those types of things and When it was like a more like a more intimate sized festival experience, it just, it was richer. And when it was more niche like house and techno or something like that, you're like fine tuning like the the vibe and the community, whereas when you go to those very big festivals that have a million stages, a lot of times you're just like spending more time walking from one to the other spot, more time navigating, less time, like immersing yourself in music. So, We just were like one day we'll do our own festival because we've got that itch to like do things, you know, and but like it's, it's very hard to think of a DJ name that has not already been taken and it's very hard to think of a festival like name that hasn't already been all the DJ names you come up with are like dubsteps. So if I've ever become a dubstep DJ and then you will be a V. No, that's, that's done, bro. That's done.

So we always would keep a running list like if like an idea came or whatever in case he wanted to change his DJ anymore if I started to DJ and that that list still sits there and then like festival names like one day we'll have the right one and then we could start going and eventually like seismic came to mind and then it was like seismic dance event and all these things made sense. And then I was like thinking of the motifs like fire and volcano and water and tsunami and um, Yeah, it just it all came to light and then we're like, I think we're ready to do this. We've done our first like outdoor like one stage special event barbecue. We partnered with Dirty Bird to do the dirty Bird barbecue in Austin and we did several of those. We did like in Junah Deep open air. Um, those are like our first like forays into large scale. Yeah, so like, OK, we did this. We figured out like rules of responsibility for it. Like let's, let's do our own, like let's do seismic, so. Um, we actually debuted Seismic for the first edition, the same year that we actually started doing those. So like, or, I don't know, it was like summer, it was like June, it was May, May or June that we did like Dirty Bird barbecue, and then in June of Deep Open Air, then by September was seismic 21st, I think September 21, 2021, 2018.

No, the September 21st, 2018, but it was 21st, I think. Anyway, so yeah, then we just continued to grow it. And so like our, we've always had to deal with adversity. So like the first edition four days before the event, we had to relocate. Because it was like super rainy and it was flooding Carson Creek Ranch. But we're like, we're not going to cancel. And so then we like, figured it out and Travis County Expo Center was available. So we like relocated the entire festival and that's a lot of details by the way, like you to do, especially for like our first short period of time. And so then the second edition was at Austin American Statesman, but then like after that was when we were like, OK, we need to find a new spot, which, you know, eventually led to finding concourse and then since then it's been there. And I will say just for anyone who's listening who is like, it's crazy what they're doing, like I hope I could do that. And if you do do it something similar and you run into problems, that shit does happen because Even the first one we did, honestly, I did not think we would survive, survive past the first one. I thought we were done. I thought that was like, yo, we put all of our eggs in this basket finally. We've been working so hard for this, hit this thing, like we, to be honest, lost our ass on it, um, and I thought that we were done there. I mean, things panned out where we're able to keep going somehow, some way. I mean, and we're still here. Yeah, you just keep going. You gotta keep moving, right? But I, I definitely will say like I, and you can ask her, like I cried. I thought we were done. I thought everything we put into this, this business for so long was gone.

Um, and now it's bigger than ever and so awesome, but I definitely like, I mean that was, it was a hard moment. There are those moments, and I'm just saying like if you hit those moments like you gotta just, you know, I'm not saying like do something crazy, but, uh, definitely like if you can keep pushing, keep pushing like I'm, I mean nothing comes easy, man. That's all if you just persevere, like honestly if you, it's just like stamina, if you can just keep going like that alone gets you somewhere, um, a lot of people like we've done this for so long. people will always pop up and like try to do events or try to do a dance group or try to do something, you know, and then they eventually like fizzle out and disappear. It's just, it takes a lot, you know, to like really dedicate your life to it, which we have. We also have each other because if if it was just one or the other doing it, it's, it could be very isolating because of just like, the amount of, Work takes a toll. The, um, the gamble of it can take a toll, and like you lose your like social life to an extent. We made our social life within it, you know, it becomes, exactly, um, but like if you just if you're very serious about it, like just stamina and like perseverance really does change things and You just have to really know like if, if you're really onto something and if you just keep going, it'll, it'll get there. If you're like, I don't know, this seems like, like maybe that's a little too like flippant to to go this route. But yeah, yeah, I felt like I had to mention that because it's not been easy. It's been a hard road.

So what advice do you guys have for couples that are in business together that are building something really big that almost seems bigger than you? Don't do it. Don't you. Well, I think it just, it depends on your dynamic, uh, but we, what we do, like we mostly met because of this world, you know, like we were both so dedicated to it. So that was already our commonality. And so we, we shared that we're very eye to eye musically, quality wise and everything that we were doing and Uh, we definitely butt heads, especially back in the day when I had to handle like all our taxes every time it was tax time like we can't fight because I'm like, why didn't you do this document? I told you to use a spreadsheet and that kind of person. It's just, you know, you get into your argument human, um. So it's not like a walk in the park, but in many ways it was, because like, like I said, it would, you couldn't explain all the things that we like go through to someone that's not in it, but So we we're definitely superpowered because we're both so involved in what we do. But there are definitely like the conflict side of things. And then as you grow your team and then like that whole aspect, you have, she also is better at doing than me. Yeah, there's a lot of learnings. Now we're in the era of therapy.

And talking about it with a professional too. So, I mean, there's a lot of like layers to this industry and like sobriety and all of that which we I love to see so many more people like going on their sobriety journey and learning to like it's music first, right? It's not just about party first, which some a lot of people think. And if you're truly dedicated to it, like music wise, it's changed your life. It's a release, then you need to find like ways to keep it in your life without making it always like at a like detriment to your health. And so we're growing up in this and you're seeing people like change their ways in terms of how they party, how they enjoy music and There's just a lot of parts of this business and a lot of learning and a lot of like trial and error and um yeah. I mean, yeah, it's so interesting because I mean the scene is still growing and which I think is so crazy like I mean when we started, you know, it was like House music and stuff, you know, oh, it's, I mean, it's been around forever, right? But like, uh, you know, but like, It's just it was smaller, right? And it's just grown so much and then there was the whole, the bubble burst, and then it was like building that back up and then, you know, the, there were just so many, there's been so many trials and tribulations for sure, right? But right now it's like, it's just growing, it's still growing. I mean, they're projecting it to continue to grow, which is crazy, which I think it's so awesome. I mean, I wish I grew up when I was young with house music. I mean, we got kids growing up when they're fucking 2 years old, DJing now and shit, like it's crazy. Like, I just think that's so badass and like I think it's so cool that the scene gets to start there with these younger generation and stuff and I think also sobriety and stuff and how, you know, it's just everything is always changing all the time and evolving and stuff, especially in the scene, which, I mean, I think for us, like we're always like, you know, we're ready to go and also where is it gonna go? I, I'm always like keeping my eye on like the scene and like where music is and also where the scene is and like, you know, so I just think that that's important too and things are gonna evolve and things are gonna change, but it's like, you know, I think passion and caring about music, obviously number one, right? And then Just like figuring that out, like, you just got to figure it out, and I think, I think everything's headed in a, in a good direction, and I think that's inspiring, um, because, I mean, shit, I never knew we'd be where we are right now, you know, talking about this. Like I never thought I'd be sitting in a chair even talking about what we're, I don't know, you know,

I'd say the key to everything, like whether it's working with your partner or just or not even that, but Um, finding stability and sustainability. I'm actually big on sustainability when it talks about like recycling all that, but when I say sustainability in this sense, I mean just like making this initiative feel sustainable to like you, like your internal well-being, your team's internal well-being and the communities and like always trying to think ahead of like, what would be conducive to this scene, to the community, to your team, to yourself, and um sometimes you have to like edit like, How you go about things, how your hours work, like, I don't know, there's a lot of learnings because you burn yourself out and we've experienced that. We're probably still experiencing it. Our team members have experienced it and community members do to their own extent and like people go through so many different things and um finding ways to like kind of adapt like. You know, these days we learn so much more about people with ADHD and all of that stuff, you know, a lot of like learnings are coming that you didn't have when you were younger and that also informs like how people are in the workplace. A lot of people that have ADHD are predispositions to like electronic dance music. So I feel like the majority of people we know have ADHD.

We do like the majority of like our team members do for like one and so it changes people's dynamic, but that that becomes the norm. And um yeah, for me, I'd say it's just constantly evaluating things like the state of things and what needs to change to make things more conducive to like long term stability. Yeah, and I mean, shit, we could talk forever, but I definitely think that like one of the things that I care about now on that whole note is like, Just having People care about their mental well-being and all that stuff, especially in the music scene. Like, I think artists and all of us have been putting this shit aside for so long, like, I gotta be an artist, I gotta travel, I gotta like knock this out, like, you know, there's just like people are doing everything to their own detriment, and I, I think that people are finally starting to realize like all this stuff really does matter and I think that mental health is like such a small world when it comes to artists and music that like finally you're starting to see that like come up and like it is a big deal, like it's a huge deal. People are finally getting the help they need, but also like, You know, most musicians and stuff, like they do struggle with, you know, uh, drugs and alcohol and that kind of stuff because it it just, it's what makes sense, especially for people that we have ADHD and whatever, which I haven't been diagnosed, but pretty sure I got. So, it's just that kind of stuff is hard and I think that it's, it's, it's very exciting to me at least to see like things starting to matter in that realm where people are starting to put the time and effort into mental health and stuff and like, I just, I think it's, I think it's good for one, but also for two, like it's just cool to see.

Things changing for the better for everyone because, I mean, who knows where all this is gonna be in years. I mean, we don't know, right? But it's just nice to see that because these certain programs and all that kind of stuff did not exist even like two years ago, you know, like, pre-pandemic, a lot of shit didn't exist. And like now I feel like even that helped be like, OK, well, that shit was pretty crazy and I think we all need to be looking at like, this shit's pretty wild, you know. So, it's just nice to see things still evolving and like moving forward, which is, you know, Nice. It's already said, but. I know longevity. I always told my buddy I want him to write a book on like, because he has infinite amount of energy and just like smokes a little weed and then gets up and has a crazy high-powered job and you're like, you need to write a book on longevity for old people and raving. I'm like, like, because he gets he's figured out. He like dances like 6 hours straight and then he goes, he's an energizer bunny. We'll see him at the concourse just literally from open to close does not stop crazy, just like just a group the whole time, yeah, very sustainable, sustainable. That's what I do. I'm like, yeah.

Yeah, and then it wakes up and like goes to work. Yeah, but like runs a massive like team of people, super high stakes job and I'm like, dude, I'd be, I'd be sweating. The next evolution is being able to figure out like how do I continue to enjoy the music and the scene that I grew up in because it gives you so much life, but to not do it in a way. That takes you down, right? You're sleep deprived or you're overdoing it or like, how do I integrate this into my lifestyle to to get the benefits out of it still? Honestly, I mean, I'm not like fully sober, but like I don't go hard like I used to and um a lot of our shows like I won't even like drink or anything these days and sometimes I do like a few, but like, um, just learning to like kind of change the dynamic. It is good. Like sometimes you don't have as much fun. You're not like, huh, but sometimes you actually do have like, this was one of the best sets and I was completely sober, and those are so rewarding because you're like, wow, like big up self and realizing I can still have a great time and not do things, but um.

Yeah, like you're totally able to like reset and realize that you can experience these things without doing the things that maybe you did when you were younger or without drinking as much or whatever. And then the next day you feel like great and you get it. Like Sundays are so important for us because it's the only day we usually, except for yesterday there was a show, but like usually Sunday is like quiet, no one's really bothering you. There isn't an event and it's a really important recharge day and really you need like a couple of those and Um, getting to enjoy that and not be like, oh, I stayed up until like noon and then you're sleeping and then you have to start work all over again like getting A healthier following day is so nice when you start doing that for yourself and then you, you start to change like your own patterns and behavior. I definitely think, you know, dance music and just in general, the scene has always been like, you know, as they might say, a young kids' game or something, right? But like, you know, I'm 40 now, I'm probably going to be a damn rave grandpa doing this forever, but it's like, you know, I read articles about stuff recently too. It's like it is people that have started when we started, you know.

That are keeping this stuff alive and also keeping young kids going through it and stuff, you know, so it's just, it's good because it does matter and stuff that I mean we care about it, it's It's a cool thing and so I think it's just nice to like stay a part of it, but also find the ways to continue to be a part of it. So it's not like, cause I mean we get stories all the time about people like, hey, I haven't been to a show in 10 years or whatever, just started going back out again, love the Congress project, stuff like that, and it's just, it's so nice to see people that have had kids or have started, you know, a crazy job or have moved on essentially from the scene, but have come back and be like, I just, I miss it so much. I'm so glad I found it again it's like, honestly, I just got chills even just like thinking about the stories people have told us about that because it does mean a lot to me, and I think it's, it's something that people shouldn't have to get rid of in their lives if it meant that much. There's no age limit. I mean, look at Moby, look at Desert Arts. Like you can be 70 years old, still rocking rocking a DJ set. Yeah, I mean, he crushes it. You know, Fatboy Slim, all those guys, like they're all, I mean, they're crushing it right now, you know, it's crazy. Yeah, and I think with the way things are going with AI and kids are getting more disconnected in, in their homes and on their laptops and getting potentially more socially awkward, not because of them, but just because, because of just how technology is. So it's just like a natural development, right, to have places with deep connection.

Right? And you don't get that. Like, I never got that when I was young. Go to a bar and you're like, if you get shitfaced, it's like, whatever, it's superficial and fun. But it was, that was the thing about the rave scene that drew you to it was like, you just feel comfortable there. You could go by yourself and you're like, you feel at home and then you might just start running like you guys met each other at a show. My sister met Roy, her fiance, at a show. Like, a lot of people hear that all the time, like at Concourse or getting married. Or from real music events shows the past and it breaks I met him because all our friend groups are from, from this, yeah, nice. You probably one of your friends gave you a snack when you were in at this what he said he got snacks at Seismic so so yeah, let's get to. But you know, no, real, I mean that stuff, yeah, exactly, like best friend now, but no, I mean that stuff is, that's definitely, I mean, shit, when I literally started going to raves and stuff when I was 13, I mean I was in high school, you know, like everyone at my high school didn't have any idea what that was, but like I built a friendship. I mean, shit, people like Todddy B and stuff was one of my first.

Hang out sessions when I was like 13 and stuff. We were playing clubs together when he was older, but, you know, we're still friends now. He's our realtor and shit, you know, so like people that I met through the scene, I met when I was very young though too, and we stayed friends for a very long time. I mean, I'm, I don't know. I don't talk to any of my people from high school. Come on, you know, so. Yeah. What, what do you like? I'm curious, where do you Where are your interests going, or like you're, cause you've been in this so long, I feel like you might have like a strong intuitive spidey sense of, you know, the, the future of like Austin in the scene and Yeah, maybe you don't even want to talk about it because you're like that's a secret. I definitely have our plans and I definitely will say I sometimes we joke about my spidey sense on certain things like. I usually am pretty good about knowing like how well the show will do or how many people are gonna be there, that kind of stuff, and I do have definitely like where I think we're kind of headed with Concourse Project, also like what we need to do to move forward, also keep growing else where the scene's headed and stuff, you know. So I definitely have ideas there. I mean, it's hard to talk about per se because I think Anytime I do talk about it, there's so many like little pieces to it that we're working on right now. It's hard like I hate to be like, well, we're gonna do this, is this, and not pan out, you know what I mean? Um, but I definitely know that we are.

We are definitely always front of mind for me. Yeah, definitely thinking ahead, but also front of mind is like superpower right there because you're way out in the future scanning everything. I always say I'm futuring all the time like it is for sure, but I also think for us because even making concourse projects and stuff like I, I almost feel like. Because we've been doing shows for so long, I almost feel like a responsibility, like, I want to continue to grow the scene because I know it deserves it, especially in Austin, you know, so it's like, it's I was like, OK, what do we gotta do to keep it going because I think we've done a lot to our own detriment in the past as well. Like, I mean, we, we've always put the scene and, and, and things ahead of even ourselves a lot. I think we're trying to obviously like not always be doing that all the time because I think it's, you know, not, not the best thing to be doing, but I do think that for me, I'm always like, OK, what can we do to like keep this moving because I know it, it can and it should, and we're headed there, right? You know, and what we need to do. So, I definitely think about it. Do you guys ever, do you, do you guys ever do like a, Like once a year, you guys just take a week off and go somewhere like in super beautiful nature and just completely shut down to just let that, cause I feel like that's such an important to like, be able to reflect.

And integrate and then tap into that creativity because I imagine you're, you have so much coming at you all the time. And you're like, what is, what is my thought? What's somebody else's thought? What's it like, it's just so much. And then you're trying to maintain and grow and manage and like you can have like, like all kinds of shit. You can have all these things that you think that you want to do and everyone's like, have you considered this? You're like, yes, we have. People don't understand because you're not doing something doesn't mean you're not going. To it's just like you can only knock out so many things at a time and then like just to keep the machine going takes so much time and like people, I feel so bad if you've ever sent an inquiry, it's probably not you that we haven't gotten back about, but it's just like so much of our time and dedication go to like, like constant uh discourse with our team. Like, it's just every moment you're like in a meeting or you're doing something and like I'm just completely focused on like our work chats and Then like all the other emails and texts and all those things accumulate and you can only like get to so many things because you've got your mission critical work to do. So there's, it's it's always hard to get to everything, but in terms of what lays ahead, um, there's like our own business next steps, which, you know, are what they are. But then I would say at a like More high level industrywide and all of that. I think it goes back to like what I was talking about is like everyone shifting towards things that favor like well-being more and um back in the day, like when we were doing our shows and the scene was smaller, you expect and want everyone to go to every single show. Like we would be at every single show, like we would never miss our own events for so many years, um, and you wanted it to be like, You want to portray it because you feel it and believe it that this event is not something that you want to miss. Like, trust me, like the sound, the sounds are going to be amazing, like everything, like you don't want to miss it. And that was the case. And we're partly guilty of like pushing that narrative. It's not a narrative. It was truth, um, that we wanted you to go to all of them. And if you missed it, we're like, what's wrong with you? Like,

you know, but I mean, we didn't miss any of our own shows forever because there's so much choice and there's so much quantity. And volume of things. You just can't do it all. And we can't even go to all of our own shows. And so we've been missing more shows, even if it's like an artist and style of music that we like, I couldn't have even fathomed that I would not go to this because it's this one of my favorite artists. But like, you start to listen to yourself and knowing like how intense things are, how busy things are, and like how little downtime you've gotten. Sometimes you're like, we need the calmness, we need the mental stillness. Of just staying at home and being disconnected so that we can recharge. And so a lot of people are doing that, like our friends, people we know, like coworkers, like it's people are so much more aware of like where they're at internally and what they need to do. And we just went on a trip. So like, yeah, that is very necessary for us. I'll usually have to like not look at WhatsApp. I'll have to completely disconnect because like otherwise it's just constant like I'm not letting my brain take a moment, you know.

So I disconnect and we were in Italy visiting his mom and um it was super nice and you do end up like showing that like your ambition always comes back to the same thing. Like you think, maybe I don't do this anymore. I need to be calm and free, but like all our ideas and all our aspirations and all our vision comes back to that, that stuff like the events, the fashion associated with it, all of it, the whole thing, the experience, the festival, and It gets us going, um, but you have to listen to yourself and take those breaks, and I think that's an industry-wide thing like artists when they're touring have to listen to like you can't just go just because you physically have the opening on your schedule. Like you need downtime and like look at the Avicii documentaries. If you haven't seen them, like watch them. There's multiple, but um, yeah, it's really important for everyone to kind of like reset what Their relationship to all of this is, and I think that's fine too, especially for us. Like, I mean, we're doing, you know, so many shows and, you know, more than we've ever done for sure, but I think, um, it is one of those things too. It's like, you know, yeah, you might miss this artist, but you know, they're probably gonna come back more than likely. But also, you know, I think we've got so many other great shows and like maybe you did miss, I don't know, somebody like a John Summit or something, right? Like, cool, but there's all these other artists that are very similar, like, fine, I missed that one, but I'm gonna go catch this other artist who I haven't seen.

And go catch that one and like you're probably gonna love it, you know we don't tell people this. No, I know I normally would not say that. No, but they actually might not come back just saying they might not, but no, but I'm just saying like the good thing is at least like people are finding new music and I think that that that kind of leads or goes back to. You know, not doing just the same old artists and all this stuff all the time, right? It's all about new artists and new things. And the reason why we do free shows is, you know, especially right now when people, you know, are, are kind of broke right now and people are wondering where the next paycheck's gonna come from or whatever they're dealing with, like being able to just get out to the Concourse Project of all places and go for free and like have a great time. Like that's a big deal to us. And also, we You get to use that as like a way for people to find out about new artists who are going to be big in the next year or two, I think. I mean, I would have put them there otherwise, right? So I think that that's a nice little give back to people. The free show thing is nice. And then, yeah, sometimes you can't make it. Sometimes you're broke. Sometimes you got family shit going on. Sometimes you got whatever, like take that time, you know, take the time for yourself, and then, you know, come back when you can, and, you know, hopefully we're still there. We shouldn't be too much, yeah, but we should be there, right? And I think we got plenty of great shows, and I think that, you know, none of the shows are, are.

Not great. They're always great. Yeah, they're either good or even better. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. Well, on behalf of all of Austin, thank you guys for putting so much love and care and attention and your passion into the concourse project because it seeps through and you can feel it. Now, that's like a big deal to us for sure. I mean, just hearing that is, you know, that's, that means everything to us for sure, you know. It, it keeps the like essence of the, the creative soul of what Austin is moving forward. It's like people like you, like you're, you're bringing what you fell in love with forward, right? Yeah, I definitely remember like, I mean, not to continue on, but I definitely like. You know, I just always hoped that people would uh someday say something like that or see what we're doing, you know, it's like one of those things it's like, it's such a You know, to us not minute, but I think, you know, when you think about The scene or just people like you just hope that they see the small little details that she puts into things like, you know, people will be like, oh, I just when they say things like I just, I realize these small little things are like I appreciate this is this like fuck, I just never thought anybody would notice it, but thank God you did. Like, you know, it means a lot to just being able to see eye to eye with people who like get it and feel it, not not a lot of people just go through life, um, but the ones that speak to that sentiment.

It really it's cheesy, but it really does make it all worth it because like you like those connections and just that level of being seen for what you're trying to do is is very important. And it's what we've always like knew was at the root of things like this was important for us to keep doing. So we appreciate it keeps going like that's like the, OK, let's go. Well guys, buy your Seismic tickets coming up, right? Oh yeah, November 14, 2015, 2016, phase two about to drop. I don't know when this is dropping, but maybe phase two will have already dropped. I don't know somewhere maybe mid just get your tickets anyways, no matter what phase it is, even if it doesn't matter, buy some tickets, and if it's sold out, scalp them, get them. It's our eighthth edition, so it's 8.0, and the Infinity is the kind of. Symbol and vibe of this one and it's my favorite number. So it's gonna be a good one. It's a lucky one. We like to inject a lot of meaning into things. So this will be a good one. Beautiful. Well thank you guys for coming. It was amazing to talk to you. Thanks for having us. We could talk forever we could, we can do episode two.

You might have to do like the slow down feature instead of speeding up our voice like slow it down because we talk really fast. And keep your eyes peeled spores for a potential guest mix. Oh yeah, Drew pretty soon and potential, uh DJ set at Congress project, huh? That too. We'll do, we'll do a little B2B. Let's go. I don't, OK, maybe. Sweet. Thanks.