Music Connection sent a team to the 2013 South By Southwest festival to visit panels, interview bands and get a taste of some good southern BBQ. The crew was able to assemble about 20 interviews (including Andrew WK, Cold War Kids, the Dear Hunter, Dawes and Josh Baze), however our audio rig seemed to have over-heated when interviewing 2011 MC cover girl, Skylar Grey (see the original 2011 article here). She was kind enough to give us an extended interview for this segment.
We have decided to post the interview here, however, should you be distracted by Austin's "LOUD NOISES!" we had our team transcribe the interview for you below.
Skylar Grey: Hey I'm Skylar Grey and I'm at South By Southwest (SXSW) 2013.
Music Connection: What brings you out to SXSW this year?
Grey: I'm doing two shows this year at South By.
MC: Have you been a part of SXSW before? (omitted from video)
Grey: I've played here before and I've also come to hang out just to do some press. But I'm really excited about this year.
MC: What is an artist of your caliber looking to get out of SXSW?
Grey: [At] SXSW there are a lot of showcases of a lot of different artists just showing the world what they've got. A lot of industry people here mixed in with a bunch of fans too… so it's kind of important thing to do.
MC: You are a social media expert. How important is that for an artist in this day and age?
Grey: There's two things. One is, Twitter and social media can really be a great tool for you to connect with fans. I do believe that there is a balance between giving them too much, though. If you get too close to [your fans] sometimes there are some bad reactions. I have experienced that before, so you still have to keep your distance a little bit but it's awesome that you can have direct contact with your fans. The other thing is, I've honestly met some awesome artists and musicians on Twitter who I have actually collaborated with. I just met Mike Posner on Twitter the other day and we have a writing session set up already. Things like that are constantly happening. I met Russell Crowe on Twitter and we hung out after that! It's just continuous networking.
MC: Speaking of networking, SXSW is the music network capital. Do you have advice to fellow songwriters / musicians on how to get the network ball rolling?
Grey: Yeah, I don't really know how it happens. I think letting your music lead the way is always the best way to go because no matter what kind of hype and buzz you get around your project, it cannot last very long if your music doesn't support it. I think being really proud of the music and confident in that first will actually help you talk about yourself better and make the connections you need to make, and make them stick.
MC: Anything you would like to plug?
Grey: [Keep an eye out] for my upcoming album, it's called "Don't Look Down" and it's coming out in July.
