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Graham Williams, now of Transmission Entertainment which books for several local clubs and puts on Fun Fun Fun Fest, has been involved in the Austin music scene for longer than most hipsters have lived in this fair town. From the days of playing in straightedge/hardcore bands like Direction and New Year (not the Bedhead band) Graham has always shown a great passion for the Austin music scene and has made a concerted towards bettering it.

He became the head talent buyer for Emo's Austin and helped to put it on the map by making it one of the best venues in North America for indie/punk/hardcore and more. During his tenure at Emo's he saw the club develop into three separate venues and even added a fourth temporary venue during the past few years for the South By Southwest music conference. He has helped to further Austin's reputation as an oasis for music and culture in Texas if not the entire region. His plan was always to offer an alternative to Austin's 6th Street district's debaucherous and uniform bar scene. As the years progressed and Emo's became more and more of a force, Graham was being presented with opportunities to book shows that were out of Emo's scope or just inappropriate for the venue.

Having to turn down some of these opportunities lead to the formation of Transmission Entertainment, which he started with three other investors in the Austin music scene. The idea behind Transmission being to expand the Red River district, upon which Emo's partly resides, into one giant venue in the sense that he would now not be limited by Emo's three stages. The freedom from being attached to one club allows Graham to better suit the needs of each band, build better bills, and further put Austin on the map as the "Live Music Capital Of The World."

He has already expanded to venues outside of the Red River district and is about to put on the second year of Fun Fun Fun Fest, a multi stage festival that has in one year grown from a one day to two day event and draws some of the biggest names in indie, punk, and electronic music.

I had a chance to catch up with Graham and talk about Fun Fun Fun Fest, Transmission Entertainment, and the Austin music scene:

• Yeah, I (and everyone I know) hate the heat of the summer fests, so this does seem like the perfect time for Austin to have something outdoors. I honestly booked last year out of necessity more than season. Many bands were coming to town the same weekend and every club in town was booked...what started out as a diverse show, turned into a festival and I booked it out like a fest I'd actually like to go to...without all the bullshit filler bands. Anyway, last year happened to fall on DEC 1st, which was a little too late in the year. This year we had the luxury of time, so I chose to move it back a month earlier when planning it out.

Q: It seems as though Fun Fun Fun Fest has grown far more quickly than most festivals could hope for but what made you want to take on adding a whole extra day after only one year of the festival's existence?

• Yeah, it's really blown up. Quicker than most imagined, but I guess there is just a need for a fest like this. I'm happy, since a lot of the bigger fests lose money for the 1st few years (Coachella went bankrupt after its 2nd year and sold it off.... now look at it). That being said, 2 days just seemed the natural progression on this one. Setting up multiple stages, tents, bars, etc and then breaking it all down the next day seems like a waste, so at least a weekend worth of music makes the whole thing that much more exciting and worth it. Plus, there are so many great bands, that I don't want to have to turn away too many and this gives me the ability to say "yes" to many more acts.

Q: Do you attribute your fast growth to all the good will you have built up in the scene from years of hands on booking and developing relationships with bands and do you feel that your hands on booking has allowed you to secure bands, such as Neurosis etc, that other agencies might have trouble securing?

• That's definitely part of it. If I hadn't been booking bands for so long, I obviously wouldn't have the connections I do to put something like this together, but it's more than that. You're right, I've never screwed a band over and always treated big and small bands the same and that comes back to you. It did make it easier to get some bands...Murder City Devils are still friends, so that is a band that would have been almost impossible to make happen, if it weren't for that connection.... plus the always loved Austin like a 2nd home.

Q: You have an impressive line up this year especially on Stage 1 where you have bands that never come to Texas, hardly tour, or even were seemingly defunct. How did you manage to get them?

• Depends on which ones you're talking about...a lot of these bands are on tour and quite a few we're flying in. Neurosis had a new record out, so I just emailed them (through the label they own) and asked if they'd do it...Murder City Devils, as I mentioned before, I know, and have been bugging them about doing it since their reunion show in Seattle last year. A lot if it is just timing. Sometimes is works out with everyone's schedule to come down or a band just so happens to be touring through at that time. Since I had a long time to plan this one, I'd been talking to bands and agents in advance and some were able to route their tour around the fest too.

Q: Not surprisingly C3 is evidently now working on their own indie festival in Austin. Do you think that is in direct response to Fun Fun Fun Fest? Do you see them as healthy competition or big business trying to piggyback off of your hard work?

• It's the natural progression of things. People who are into music and care about the scene are the artists that create, while there is a larger, more corporate world that takes from that and makes it more commercially viable or profitable for what they do. Whether it's Hot Topic or Avril Lavinge, there is this giant that looks at what we all do and sees that it's "marketable" or whatever. Look at ACL's 1st line up in comparison to its most recent one and how much it's changed. As for C3 doing an "indie" fest, who knows. I don't hold a grudge or think it's a big deal, though. There are a lot of people in Austin into some cool shit and you could probably have a fest a month and people would still show up. I don't really think it's that C3 is being competitive or even that it's a response to FFF Fest (though maybe partly, sure)...I think it's more a response to the "market" and what will sell tickets, as bands in the indie scene are playing on Conan or Jay Leno every night. I don't presume to know what is going on in people's heads, so I'm not sure their reasoning. But do I think C3 are sitting around reminiscing about seeing Jawbreaker or Husker Du, or listening to old Necros or Big Black records? I highly doubt it, but that's probably not their goal in doing events and that's ok. The music industry, since the 70's and even more so the early 80's, has been divided into two parts: Business people that do their business in music (instead of accounting or medicine or Wall Street, what-have-you), and music people (music fans) that are making a living (in theory) doing what they love. Both are viable and sometimes even cross over, but ultimately are different approaches.

Q: Fun Fun Fun Fest vs ACL. How do you think you compare? How do you feel those differences set Fun Fun Fun apart? Are there things you think you do better? Right off the bat I would suggest ACL could take a cue from you on scheduling. Instead of setting up stages for genres like Fun Fun Fun Fest, they had many artists of the same ilk competing against each other like LCD Soundsystem and MIA or Wilco and My Morning Jacket, etc., going on at the same time on different stages.

• 1st off, I'll give credit where it's due. ACL is probably the best representation of Austin music...if you took a pie chart and said; Austin music fans like: 40% roots rock, 20% blues, 15% singer songwriter, 5% ‘urban' (I imagine that is how the 1 hip hop act a year gets defined) and 20% "indie/college rock" then ACL is like a mirror of that. I think it's well rounded and very well run. It's such a huge fest to handle; it's impressive how well they keep it flowing throughout a weekend. ACL is really great for what it is; it's just not my cup of tea. For example, my parents love ACL and bring their backpack chairs out to Zilker Park every year, no matter who is playing. I think that is the problem. Most people (especially into progressive music) don't want to go to fests that are too big a mix of genres. They want to go to something with a lot of what they're into. So that is where festivals like FFF Fest come into play. By booking the overlooked and sometimes under appreciated music scene, the music that continues to grow and progress. I kinda think FFF is to ACL in Austin, what Pitchfork is to Lollapalooza in Chicago. They are so different, but have some similarities too. Some of the indie rock bands on Fun Fun Fun and Pitchfork have played ACL/Lolla in the past and will likely play those fests in the future. But for the most part it's 2 separate, but equally necessary fests in the same town.

Q: You mentioned to me that you traveled around this year going to every festival that you could to determine what works and what doesn't. What festivals did you hit up and what insights did you gain? Conversely, what pitfalls did you learn to avoid.

• Yeah, I tried to go to as many as I could (hopefully I can now write that off as a business expense when doing my taxes). I did Coachella, Sasquatch, Pitchfork, Lollapalooza and of course Austin stuff like ACL and SXSW. Most are run well.... don't want to talk shit or nitpick on others, as I'm sure there are flaws with mine, but mostly I see things that the audience will want. Food, cool vendors (Pitchfork had record distros, silk screens, etc), the kinda of alcohol and selections you'd have, the backstage/VIP area having enough food/booze for bands, etc....But mainly bands and line ups. Having the right kinds of music at the right times of the day and not putting bands that compete with each other. Yeah, it seemed that happened too much.... there are like 50 times slots a day between so many stages, it's hard to believe bands that have the same following couldn't move over one hour. I also know how hard it is to keep everyone happy, so that will be a challenge, no matter what.

Q: Fun Fun Fun Fest is being booked by Transmission Entertainment, which is your new booking company. Besides Fun Fun Fun Fest how do you feel Transmission is going? It has already made a noticeable impact on the scene here in Austin. Mohawk has been put on the map very quickly and has secured many a show that most people would have expected to see at Emo's or the Parish a few months ago.

• It's going amazingly well. Bigger and better than I expected in such a short time. It's been tough too. Austin is a competitive town and there is always going to be a strange and sometimes nasty element to the more "biz" side of things in any growing city, but for the most part things couldn't be better. The clubs we're booking are doing amazingly well, the venues we work with as outside promoters couldn't be happier and we're working with more and more clubs, agents and bands every day to bring more and more great music to Austin. Ultimately I think it's just something Austin needs. A company who defines itself on cool music and books shows that we think people will want to see and maybe even don't get a chance to see normally. There are a lot of acts who I think need to come to Austin and might not normally have the opportunity to, but we can try and make that happen as much as possible.

Q: How do feel about the live music scene in Austin right especially from the standpoint of the impending condominium openings. Many of the venues you book for are outside to some degree. Do you expect to run into trouble or have you figured a way to combat those who will inevitably complain about noise after moving into a preexisting live music district?

• There is some concern, yes, but we're pretty confident, based on the discussions and talks going on with the city and the developers right now. But on a long term, it's hard to say. The city has been pretty supportive of music in Austin and it's going to be a combination of a united voice from the music district as well as the city's voice to make sure that people moving INTO an already established music area can't then start complaining about music. I think it's something to watch closely, but something manageable as well.

Q: What you see in the future for Fun Fun Fun Fest? Perhaps, a third day? Bigger Venue?

• I like the idea of 2 days, personally, but you never know. I would like to go bigger though. Not too much bigger, but there is definitely room to grow. This year is going to sell out and I wish I had a bigger place already. I mentioned Pitchfork before and they're like 18,000, which is a nice size. I personally don't like fests that are too big, where the bands are dots on the stage. I just can't see it ever getting as big as ACL or something. There aren't enough cool people out there to warrant a 70,000 person, truly "indie" fest in my opinion. And at that point how "indie" is it?

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