Interview: Midwasteland Takeover’s Josh Martinez
We sat down over the weekend with Josh Martinez, the main organizer of Kansas City’s newest SXSW showcase: Midwasteland Takeover.
The project is the brainchild of Martinez (who runs the Gusto Lounge), Czar Bar‘s Billy Smith and Steve Tulipana of the RecordBar, working with the Midwest Music Foundation and various other musicians and music heads. For its maiden voyage, Midwasteland Takeover hits Austin this week with 32 local acts. Over a cup of coffee, Martinez talked about his vision for Midwasteland Takeover as well as his encounters with Outkast’s Big Boi and how to scrape by SXSW on almost no cash.
The Pitch: What are your expectations for the Midwasteland Takeover?
Martinez: I hope that one of these bands will break out this year, and that good things will come for them. I don’t want to show favoritism to anyone, but two bands that I am in total love with — and would push so hard for them to do good things — are Capybara and Olympic Size. I will do everything in my power to put them in front of people. Capybara has four showcases that they’re playing down there, and they’re hoping for a fifth. They’ll play anywhere. They’ll play in somebody’s basement. They’ll play on the street. They’ll play on top of a car, whatever it takes to get somebody to notice them. They have a very can-do attitude. Olympic Size — it showcases everybody amazing in this town in a sort-of super group of sorts from Kansas City. It’s beautiful music. It’s music to make love to, to break up to. It’s good stuff. I’m trying my hardest to make sure that certain people will be there, at certain times, to make sure that people hear this stuff. Ultimately this is giving us a little bit of validity, and we hope that South By Southwest will invite us next year as an official showcase. It’s guerilla marketing. It’s getting out there and pushing yourself. You make people notice you, and they have no choice but to invite you in. If you can’t knock on the front door, go ahead and smash the front door in.
