The Real Deal

[March 19th, 2008]

A year ago, Laura Gibson had a nightmarish experience at South by Southwest. “I played at this little place called the Co-Op, and it was open-air. There were two really, really loud metal bands playing on either side. We couldn’t hear each other at all,” she recalls. Gibson’s music—folky strumming paired with an airy jazz delivery and smart, descriptive songwriting—takes a quiet room to appreciate. Still, the softspoken 27-year-old turned lemons into lemonade. “It was like we were in a little bomb shelter with each other,” she said last Friday from a noisy Austin pool hall called Buffalo Billiards. “It wound up being really special in its own backwards kind of way.”

Despite the Co-Op disaster, last year’s SXSW (an annual, industry-centric music festival held in Austin, Texas) was an overall success for the Portland-based artist. Gibson, a freckled, strawberry-blond songsmith from the Oregon Coast, paired with a label—Chicago’s Graveface Records—that would later release her debut on vinyl, was featured on NPR, got booking help and, most importantly, had a good time. “It’s fun to see [familiar] people,” she says of the loud and overwhelming festival. “It’s a good little shock to the system.”

The shock comes from being one quiet voice in a sea of loud, business-minded musicians looking for a big break. “I don’t have a lot of huge expectations,” she says of this year’s fest. “It’s just nice to be here.” Still, Gibson has a sophomore album in the works that needs a label to call home, and next month she embarks on a 20-city tour opening for the Decemberists’ Colin Meloy (whose upcoming tour-only EP of Sam Cooke covers features Gibson on backing vocals). The future, it seems, is wide open, and SXSW is a way for Gibson to keep her name on the minds of the fest’s 100,000-plus attendees—many of them press and industry people.

To that end, Gibson played her fourth SXSW show (of five) last Saturday—a low-key backyard “day party.” There were a few dozen in attendance, a far cry from the throngs swarming Austin’s club-packed Sixth Street on the same afternoon. Gibson played a short set for the thin, attentive crowd, the sun beating down on her back and hip-hop blaring from a block away. Afterward, a middle-aged guy got an autograph and a fellow Portlander introduced himself. These small exchanges are what Gibson does best, because she has a genuine desire to interact with her audience. “I’m better at one-on-one than in big groups,” she says.

Later that night, Gibson played the cavernous Thirsty Nickel, a Sixth Street bar with a stage positioned near its front, double doors. Under normal circumstances, this arrangement wouldn’t be a problem, but at SXSW, music pours in and bleeds together from every direction. The drinkers in the back were shouting, and Gibson’s voice and guitar were drowned out from all sides. One song in, the crowd erupted—it was as if a fight had broken out. But it was a cluster of Gibson fans yelling at the sound guy to pump up the volume. He shrugged and said, “That’s as loud as it goes.”

Last year’s nightmare seemed for a moment like reality again. But bar staff closed one of the doors, and Gibson’s audience stayed put—about 40 strong. Scattered among them were fans Gibson met last year, and after her set she spent about a half hour chatting with them. Not hawking merch, arranging interviews or talking shop—just chatting.

The key word dropped by fledgling bands, label heads and press in Austin this past week was “networking.” Making the right connections can mean financial security and a wider audience for a young musician or group. But for Gibson, the new relationships themselves are the goal—rather than a means to reach the ladder’s next rung. “The people that have caught on are people that have taken the time to listen to the music,” says Gibson. “So they’re people that I connect with.”

Whatever her next move, Gibson says it has to be sustainable. “For me, playing shows and touring and meeting people is nice. [But] I have to do it at my own pace, or I just can’t do it.”