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Meet this year’s Sound and the Jury finalists: OK Sweetheart
Nathan Presley/SPECIAL TO THE AMERICAN-STATESMAN
Now in its third year, Dell’s the Sound and the Jury contest, an online battle of the bands, offers independent, unsigned bands a shot at performing before thousands during the Austin City Limits Music Festival. An online vote produces 100 finalists, then a panel of judges narrows the field to 20, before online voting reopens and produces the final five, who will perform in front of judges and fans live. To have a chance at winning, bands must be marketing experts, employing tools like Facebook, Twitter, and MySpace — as well as good old-fashioned phone calls and word-of-mouth.
The American-Statesman talked to each of the five finalists for this year’s battle of the bands to hear their stories of struggle for a shot at one of Austin music’s sweetest prizes. We will be running these interviews in advance of the final round, which will take place at Antone’s Nightclub, 213 W. Fifth St., Wednesday Sept. 30 at 7 p.m.
The band: The new moniker for the band of singer-songwriter Erin Austin, a woman about country — raised in upstate New York, college-educated in Tulsa, Oklahoma, moved to San Francisco and currently living and recording in Denton — with a charming, smooth voice.
Point of origin: Denton, by way of San Francisco
American-Statesman: You’re currently recording an album in Denton with Midlake drummer McKenzie Smith. What’s your experience living and recording in Denton been like?
Erin Austin: There’s such an amazing community of musicians in Denton that are so open and so generous. There’s something about Denton that’s just crazy magical. There’s this overwhelming musical generosity. It’s like, I just called the cellist from the Polyphonic Spree and she came over after dinner and spent seven hours putting down a cello part. That’s how my whole record’s been. It’s all these people I know and respect musically coming together and helping me.
AS: Your education is is in classical music — what led to you pursue pop singing and songwriting?
EA: I never really enjoyed singing classical, which is maybe a bad thing to say because I majored in it in college! But it was ingrained in me, since I started doing it when I was 12, so that’s why I went into a classical program. My parents were really conservative so I listened to a lot of Christian pop when I was real little. When I first started public school in fifth grade, because we rode a bus that played secular music on the radio, we had these Walkmens and could listen to our Amy Grant or whatever 80s Christian artist. But as soon as I realized the bus was playing pop music I’d take off my headphones. Pop music was such a secret music to me when I was little and it was really fun uncovering it. Eventually I decided classical wasn’t really who I was. I listened to Wilco, Andrew Bird, Death Cab for Cutie … it got to where I said “Why don’t I do music like that, like the people I love?”
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