Band Management: Blog 50: The Scene

Holy Crap Records is based in Asheville, NC – and this is where we see our music, local bands or bands coming through, this is where we hear our music, and this is where we get our recommendations of music to check out.
There’s been a bunch of online discussions about what makes you a professional musician – and I feel like there needs to be some acknowledgement of the absolute greatness of the Asheville scene – and the challenges.
This is a great scene. We play more Asheville bands than any other bands (except maybe the Melbourne scene). This scene is rich and wonderful and full of incredible bands, songwriters, photographers, videographers, artists, designers – this is the BEST art scene since Black Mountain College.
I can tell you two dozen bands you should all see right now. The venues are fun as hell too.
And… yet… this scene is still deep in the underground. No one is paying attention. (Yeah there’s been press about the tourist music scene – but not about the artists who are vomiting up their soul.) What does it mean to be a successful artist? I suppose the answer is to go on tour after tour and push out your next EP on bigger and bigger indie labels. Or the answer is to sit in that woodshed and write 50 songs or 500 songs and emerge as a beautiful transcendent butterfly.
My gut tells me that this scene will be recognized for it’s richness and beauty at some point. It needs a catalogue, a curator. Someone needs to be the collector. The Holy Crap Records Podcast is at number 81. Maybe when we get to 100 I will reconnect with all the local Asheville bands that we have played and create a spotify or bandcamp list. It’s a start. It’s important to document the mad genius of the Asheville underground. On this day – thank you, thank you, thank you for all the badass wild joy.