Not only is what they’re doing inspiring for their growing city, but it also serves as a working template for how other less-than-metropolises and suburbs can help grow their local music scenes.
I met up with EMI co-founders Steven Graham and Ryan Crowther when they were in Seattle last week to unveil their lineup during packed show at the Barboza. We discussed the Initiative’s growth and future, putting together a festival for the first time, and more.
I find it inspiring that you’re able to have all of the success with the Everett Music Initiative. I had recently talked to a musician about how there isn’t the same demand for live music in Redmond that there was even a few years ago. How did you find that there was a market for it in Everett?
RC: I started working in Everett about six years ago and I think downtown Everett is one of those places you feel a type of buzz, like downtown Bellingham. You know there’s something going on and wish you knew what was going on. After talking to enough people, I realized there was some stuff going. I still felt that buzz. Right away, knowing what I knew about the Seattle music scene, I wanted to hear a bit more about what was going on with different bands. What we found is that the first show we threw, there were people in the room. That was when I knew.
I contacted Steven because I wanted to promote a show and I knew Steven was the local blogger. I said, “Hey man, what do you think of Everett? Why aren’t people playing here? Why do people go from Seattle to Bellingham and not stop in Everett?” The cool thing was that he agreed and wrote an article about that. We knew we were on the same page from that day forward.
Steven: Nothing I’ve written since then has gotten so much attention. I got so much feedback. I grew up in Everett since fifth grade and remember going to basement shows in people’s houses. Seeing bands play on a gazebo on the roof of the Y in the rain. When I got to be a bit older and got a car, I was coming down here (to Seattle) for everything. It was discouraging. You spend five minutes here and you know there’s so much talent in the scene. It was a crime that we weren’t getting exposed to it just a little bit up north. There are a lot of people with good taste that are hungry for it and making the 40 minute drive and paying for parking. It was one of those things we wanted to see why isn’t that happening in Everett and what could we do. When we were talking to bands, they said no one ever asked, and the people who did ask probably weren’t going about it right.
With a little bit of knowledge about how things worked down here, we were able to learn a lot and do a lot with that.
When I lived in Everett, particularly from about 2000-2004, the only place I really knew to see live music was Jimmy Z’s, which booked bands like Quiet Riot and however was performing under the Dead Kennedys name at the time. I don’t think it’s there any more. Did you have to do a lot of convincing venues to take a chance on letting you host shows in their spaces?
S: It wasn’t actually that hard. The venue we started in (the Anchor Tavern, RIP), she was already doing music when she could, but she was a one-man-show around there. I think she was excited about the opportunity to have some more stuff going on and let us do what we wanted. It didn’t take long for her to see the value in it because people were coming out. We started spreading the word and people wanted to see what was going on, without driving.
I remember interviewing a musician before who said that he encourages bands to find spaces to play just outside of Seattle rather than just playing in the same clubs every month.
S: It’s good for bands to spread out in their region. I think we’re offering them the opportunity to experience that without going to far. The markets are separate because a lot of people won’t come down to Seattle, and they find there are some great bands coming to town and they love it.
RC: I think Everett just seems like a funny place. The funny thing about Everett is that the culture is so different. Throwing shows is handholding and educating a new culture about how a show works. The first three shows we did, people were sitting at tables the whole time. For me, that was uncomfortable and awkward. Finally, we just took out all of the tables and chairs out of the rooms.
S: When we pulled the tables and chairs out, people in Everett danced more than I’ve ever seen them in Seattle.
RC: It didn’t take much, besides money, to come to Everett, but once they came here, they were so in. We’ve only had one exception, but everyone has been so stoked on it. It’s such a different vibe because it’s people who aren’t uncomfortable getting a little crazy and dancing. That’s hard to find in Seattle sometimes.
S: We had Deep Sea Diver come play in a mechanic’s garage. It was total punk rock, it was pretty cool. At the end of the show, Jessica (Dobson) said, “I’ve never played here before; you don’t know me, who would’ve thought you all knew our songs?” Rose Windows played the last show of their tour [in Everett] in September and they looked tired and were ready to go home. At the end of the show, they said, “We’ve played all over the country to a handful of people in each place. Here, it was packed. We can’t believe.” We packed the place out and it was the first time we ever did a show at that venue. The experience for them and other bands was so positive. We’re getting e-mails from other bands saying “so and so just played a show in Everett and told us that we should hit you up.” Two years ago, we had to beg people.
RC: We had to spend two paragraphs saying “we’re real.”
S: We now don’t have the capacity to get every band that we want because we’re not able to do a show every weekend. It’s really exciting.
Was the next progression doing the festival?
RC: From day one we knew that we wanted to do a festival but we knew that we had to build a reputation and have a track record. Two years ago, if we booked the same bill, heads would have turned and it wouldn’t have been the same way.
S: There’s a pretty strong community but if we tried to do this right out of the gate without building that community, not having that support, it would have been scary.
RC: We’re also not naïve enough to think that we’re going to sell 1500 tickets to a festival in Everett to just people in Everett. It’s going to take a huge marketing effort that will spend from Vancouver to Portland. We have some great Vancouver bands and some great Portland bands playing.
How were able to get a band like Gardens & Villa, who are from Sacramento, to come to Everett when they may not have even heard of the city?
RC: This festival was curated and we never really opened it up.
S: We never told anyone really that we were doing it. Jus the bands we asked.
RC: I was a big fan of Gardens and Villa since day one. I was at their first show in Seattle and love the band. I’ve worked with their booker before and have been in touch with them. We know that we absolutely have to make it worth their while. Financially, we have to make it worth it. We typically pay more for guarantees for a small show. We’re comfortable with that because people come out and we’re able to make it.
How do you see the Everett Music Initiative growing after your festival?
RC: The first thing we had to do was build credibility but also build consistency. We had to throw at least one to two shows a month for the last two years and people now know that we’re not leaving and that means a lot to people that it’s not going to go away. For us going forward, we have a festival; we signed a lease on a venue that will be open for special events (probably 3-4 a month). Going forward, we intend to keep the festival growing every year and building out brand with good bands and filling the venues every time we do it. I think that consistency is necessary to grow.
S: The Historic Everett Theater is absolutely beautiful and it’s the oldest active theater on the west coast. It has an amazing history. We have this opportunity to use this thing. We used it once last year and it was a great success and we want to use that a little bit more.
RC: Everett is a city of 105,000 people and those people aren’t used to a good time on the weekends, except for an occasional hockey game or Comcast Arena show. That’s what we want to do and make sure we market to those people.
S: One thing that we’ve found is that there is a lot of talent in town. There are a lot of good musicians in Everett. We’ve been able to work with some great bands in Everett that have had the opportunity to play with some huge bands in Seattle that they would’ve had to beg to be on a bill with. They’re turning some heads and getting shows down here now. It’s been really fun to see these local kids get this chance that they probably wouldn’t have had just playing in their garage or looking for places to play in Everett.
Right now, we’ve got Fauna Shade, I Will Keep Your Ghost, Preacher’s Wife just headlined the Tractor…
RC: Each & All…
I think these places that are up and coming attract artists because they’re inexpensive and they attract creative people that want to live with people like themselves who don’t want to live in a crazy, busy city.
You said earlier that you’re definitely going to continue with the festival. Do you have any expectations for what you want to accomplish this year or in the future?
RC: We’d love to double it, not in terms of bands. We’re using all indoor venues and that provides a cap. That’s comfortable for the first year but I think for the second year, we’re going to have to do something outside, maybe under a tent, to have the capacity to grow it.
S: It’s going to be an intimate festival for having sixty bands.
RC: I think the value that we have is creating that intimate feeling for shows, as well as making sure that it is emerging bands.
S: I have never seen Gardens and Villa and I love those guys. I can’t believe I’ll get to see them and it’s just a five minute drive from my front door.
Are there any bands that you want to talk about that are playing that you’re excited about that might not be known to too many people just yet?
S: I’m really excited Wampire will be here.
RC: I’ve been following Chad Valley since day one. I love his R&B meets electronic. I love his style, it’s so unique. Knowing that he’s from Oxford, UK is a big deal.
Trails and Ways is a great one. Bear Mountain from Vancouver.
S: I’m excited for This is the Shoes, this band from Vancouver.
RC: A two-piece, guy and a girl, bluesy rock.
S: She can sing. Check them out for sure.
RC: Amerigo Gazaway, he’s a DJ who mashes up, kind of Girl Talk-y, but he does something very specific. He mashes up stuff like newer Mos Def with seventies soul stuff. His new album is like Yasiin Bey mashed up with Marvin Gaye.
S: It’s crazy that he’s coming out from Nashville to play a show in Everett!
We’re really excited about the full lineup announcement. We’re excited that we’re getting a lot of people that aren’t on a lot of people’s radars right now, and it’s going to blow their minds.
RC: We want to make it worth the time and money for people paying wristband prices and we feel like we’re bringing in some people to the Northwest and get them some exposure and some new fans.
I’ll just ask one last thing: is there anything I didn’t ask about that people should know about Everett or its music scene?
RC: I think Everett in general, if we elaborated on why we’re doing this in Everett, we’d talk about how Everett is on the cusp of a real turning point. There’s hundreds of millions of dollars in development downtown. It’s this close to turning around and becoming something that will attract a lot of people, from Canada to Portland. There’s lots of jobs there.
S: WSU is doing a branch campus there.
RC: There are a lot of great things that are really shifting. If you look at Ballard 10-15 years ago, or Columbia City five years ago, you walked into a place where you wondered what’s going here. When people come into a restaurant or venue this weekend, they’re going to see that shift in Everett. That’s what we’re excited about and want to get a couple thousand people to come into the city and feel that.
{Tickets are on sale now to the Fisherman’s Village Music Festival and can be found here; for more info on the Everett Music Initiative, please click here.}