Brisbane ready to host Bigsound music festival and conference

As bandmates, Patience Hodgson and John Patterson were adept at working through the challenges of a shared life.

John Patterson and Patience Hodgson of The Grates in Fortitude Valley, Brisbane, ahead of Bigsound. Picture: Glenn Hunt.

As bandmates in Brisbane indie-rock act The Grates, Patience Hodgson and John Patterson were adept at working through the challenges involved in a shared life in the performing arts.

When their first daughter was born three years ago, however, they were thrown into the juggling act that confronts all new parents. “Once we had Soda, our whole world turned upside down,” said Hodgson. “It’s so much harder, more intense and time-consuming than we could have ever possibly imagined.”

Patterson added: “Your heart doesn’t make more space for a baby — you just have less space for everything else.”

It is this conundrum of balancing creativity and family — as well as running a popular cafe on Brisbane’s south side — that the ­singer and guitarist of The Grates will address during an annual conference and festival named Bigsound.

Each day this week, Brisbane will become a bustling hub for local artists and managers to connect with influential overseas visitors seeking to sign Australian musical talent and ­export it to the world.

In recent years, the event, featuring a festival and conference, has earned a reputation as a domestic answer to South by Southwest, the annual music industry event held in Texas. Last year’s event delivered an economic impact of $2.79 million, attracting more than 13,000 to the festival and 1400 to the conference.

This year, among the hundreds of performances set to take place at 18 venues throughout Fortitude Valley, attendees will hope to discover the next Flume, Courtney Barnett or Gang of Youths — all of whom played the event early in their careers, before going on to achieve international success. Artists set to perform include Melbourne singer Alice Skye, Perth rock act Psychedelic Porn Crumpets and Brisbane indie pop artist Sahara Beck.

The event has grown significantly since Maggie Collins first attended more than a decade ago as a wide-eyed artist manager with a desire to learn.

“At my first Bigsound in 2006, I remember it being very intimidating — like I was never going to be part of the cool club,” said Collins, who is now its executive programmer. “But because of how I was raised, I never strayed from my principles: be good and ­respectful to people, and expect the same respect in return. It turns out that, over time, that’s what everyone else wanted as well.”

From today, the four-day conference line-up includes keynote speakers such as Australian songwriter Paul Kelly, Erin Kelly-Burkett, co-founder of American punk label Fat Wreck Chords, and Virginia Grohl Hanlon, who is better known as the mother of Dave Grohl, frontman of the rock band Foo Fighters.

“Not a lot of parents get along well with the idea of their kids getting into music, but I want people to walk away from her keynote with a different perspective on how they do their music; what it was like for Virginia, and what it could be like for them,” Collins said.

For Collins, who is manager of Brisbane rock band DZ Deathrays, the event will offer a chance to reinforce the camaraderie of a business she has come to love. “There’s still a lot of character, sass and spiciness in the music industry but it’s a lot more professional and sustainable now, and that’s due to people being more respectful.”