Small Fish, Big Tank: Competing in the Live Music Capital of the World

Service industry workers by day, psychedelic pop band by night. This is the necessary duality of survival for local Austin bands like Bliss Motel.

“The biggest struggle as an Austin musician has been trying to make it work out financially,” said Jeremy Brandelik, singer of Bliss Motel. “I don’t mind working, I like serving coffee, but ideally I would like music to come first and then worry about money afterward. But that is if music was to pay.”

Austin is known as the live music capital of the world, drawing in musicians from all over to come share their craft. Despite the numerous live music venues, stiff competition with fellow locals and outside booking artists makes Austin both a home for novice musicians and a battleground for success.

Between three of the city’s top venues - Mohawk, Stubb’s BBQ and Stubb’s Jr. -nearly 500 differents bands played in 2017. But less than half of those musicians were local. Odds like these create the need to fit the bill while standing out in the music scene.

Brandelik and his band mate Ryan Faris started Bliss Motel during their college years in Chicago. Their passion for music collided when they started to harmonize with each other to “White Winter Hymnal” by the Fleet Foxes. At that moment, they paused and knew they found their sound. Eventually, they grew weary of the music atmosphere of Chicago and made the spontaneous decision to move to Austin.

Being green to Austin’s music scene, Bliss Motel had some issues getting on their feet.

“We had to take pretty much any gig that got handed out to us to meet other musicians and hopefully draw some of their fan base over to us,” said Brandelik. That meant playing about a year of small shows in tiny venues to people who weren’t familiar with their sound.

One such venue is Hole in the Wall, located in the heart of the drag. Belicia Luevano, the booking manager, said the number of bands that contact her to play is overwhelming.

“I go to so many shows, so I already have a roster of people I’d love to see on stage,” Luevano said. “If I go a weekend without reading my emails, it’s two pages of unread emails.”

To sort through those emails and pick which bands will play in the venue, Luevano said she listens to a couple of songs from all the bands, browsing their most popular tracks and monitoring their social media following.

“It’s a lot to listen to, but I will listen to at least the top song on Spotify or the latest single. If I like it, I`ll make a note of it,” Luevano said.

Social media were one of her three main points for band success, along with passion and drive. “If the band’s good and they love their music and they’ll do a good job promoting their show I want to have them.”

Brandelik and Faris realized that their first stumble starting out in Austin was their lack of social media presence. Through experience, they realized social media was what they needed to target their audience. As they both explained, if they knew how to target their specific audience, they would be able to get a bigger fan base. It would also help them increase profits.

The band also wanted to stand out from other Austin musicians by incorporating sounds influenced by the Beatles. Farris said he thinks “Bliss Motel does try to be down to earth and more relaxed than a lot of other bands.”

Bliss Motel realized that succeeding in the live music capital of the world is actually very challenging. They learned that the few bands that do make it have experience and individuality.