April 17, 2024 • 20 mins
In the first episode of Season 5, hosts Miles Bloxson and Elizabeth McQueen look at how COVID has shifted some people's relationship with live music, plus they give you a season overview.
The post How are global and local changes impacting the Austin Music Scene? appeared first on KUT & KUTX Studios -- Podcasts.
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Episode Transcript
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(00:00):
I'm Elizabeth McQueen.
And I'm Miles Bloxson.
And this is season five of Pause
Play.
A podcast about live music, why
it matters, and what comes next.
This season is all about change.
As humans, change is sometimes
a force. We tend to fight and
(00:21):
sometimes we battle with it.
But some changes are
out of our control.
When we started reflecting on what
to cover this season, we put out a
call to all our listeners on
Instagram and we asked them
what changes they thought affected
the Austin music scene the most.
And boy, did you guys share it
all.
I mean, they shared all of it.
You guys suggested that we talk
(00:43):
about affordability in Austin
and also climate change.
Yeah, we had that super intense
summer miles.
Yeah. You brought up laws that
have been put in place, ticket
prices and all of
the service and processing
fees.
And not to mention changes in tech
and AI.
Plus, y'all brought up the fact that
some of us are still dealing with
(01:03):
issues we bypassed during the
pandemic.
You know, we started this whole
podcast about how Covid impacted
the Austin music scene.
And honestly, I feel like it's still
impacting us.
Yeah. Me too.
I mean, some of us are still scared
to go outside, let alone
to live music shows.
I've talked to a few people about
(01:24):
the social anxiety that came from
the whole process of Covid.
This is Laurence Boone, the booker
at the Far Out Lounge.
People that did not normally have
any social anxiety.
Now they have extreme social anxiety
to the point where they don't even
want to go to the grocery store.
They'd rather have it delivered.
To guide us through the season.
We decided to speak with my
(01:45):
therapist to help us understand
all the changes and how they
could be affecting us on a mental
and physical level.
I'm Bella Rockman and I
work as a neuro psychotherapist and
mental health media correspondent.
And when we spoke to Laurence, we
realized that we'd all just passed
the four year anniversary of the
Covid shutdown.
And to some, that four years
(02:05):
went by way too fast.
So it it seems like it
just happened or we're
repressing it to where it seems like
it could have been 10 or 20 years
ago. And for some people,
people are still getting Covid.
I know there was a big spike over
the past maybe 3 or 4 months.
So I still think we're living under
that umbrella of
(02:27):
do I need to wear a mask?
Do I want to get sick?
If I'm sick, I'm out of work, you
know, for a couple of weeks.
Am I going to get other people sick?
So that is still a very real fear
that that exists.
But I also think people are.
That that having to have that
mindset is exhausting.
So they're fighting really hard to
(02:49):
try not to go back to that.
You know, where where we had to be
indoors all day long or
you're you're just kind of have to
be flippant about it.
And being like, well, if I get
Covid, I get Covid, I can't not
go to work, I can't I don't want to
not go see my friends.
Like, I want to go see these shows.
So that's a weird dichotomy
of thought process.
I think that's going on right now
with people.
Yeah. I mean, and they told us
(03:10):
whether we want to believe it or
not, we've all been affected
by Covid.
Yeah, I think it has definitely
had a collective effect.
We have individual trauma and then
there's collective trauma.
And so not only have we experienced
a collective trauma, like in terms
of just local or regional
or bicoastal or national,
but it's been a global effect.
(03:32):
As a matter of fact, the World
Health Organization, had
a report this show that there has
been about at least a 25%
increase globally in anxiety
and depression as a result of
the pandemic.
And so, you know, whenever you have
like, especially like it wasn't like
a short term kind of event,
it was something that was ongoing
and there wasn't a very specific end
(03:52):
in sight. And over time, that takes
a toll on us.
And we kind of can get fatigue
and like waiting for things to
change. And so,
although, I mean, we're not
completely out of the woods, I think
post-pandemic life, people are kind
of trying to figure out what life
should be like now, and should we be
trying to make it like it was
before, or how do we adapt?
We take it a step further and ask
(04:14):
for her thoughts on how people are
handling a post-pandemic world now,
when everything is pretty much all
the way normal.
But in a weird way.
Like we said before, it's not.
You know, I think in some ways, I
think in the beginning, like, before
right before things started opening
up again, everyone was talking about
it, you know, on
television, radio, like around our
(04:35):
kitchen tables.
How are we going to jazz?
Are you going to mask?
Are you not going to mask?
Have you got in your shot?
Are you going to let are you going
to be around people that you know
that haven't had the vaccine?
Like there were so many different
conversations about it.
But I think in a very kind of
pull up, you're pull yourself up by
your bootstraps kind of American
way. Like in some ways we probably
swept some of it under the rug and
just kind of like when the going
(04:55):
gets tough, the tough get going.
Let's just get back to it.
But I do think that we're still
experiencing the effects of it, just
because maybe we aren't talking
about it as much, it doesn't mean
that we're not experiencing it.
And, you know, Elizabeth, all of
this has affected our music scene
here in Austin.
Oh, yeah. It's one of the many
things that has affected.
At our music scene, and throughout
this season, you're going to hear a
(05:16):
collection of voices that are going
to reappear in different episodes,
because the changes we're going to
be talking about this season impact
everyone in different ways,
although we're not going to be
talking about Covid anymore.
Miles, but the one of the first
things we'll be discussing is
climate change.
Yeah, we had a crazy
summer, like the heat was
(05:37):
so intense.
And it affected a lot of artists,
a lot of fans, in
a lot of venues.
The artists didn't perform as much
and the fans couldn't take the heat
in some cases.
And some venues just didn't
know what else they could do.
Well, what we tried to do indoor
shows, but it was still hot
inside.
You know, we tried to bring in fans,
(05:58):
but our space is so
big, there's just no way
to cool it down. There's just not
other than that, like, drink a bunch
of water.
Really? There's not much you can do.
There's just not if you have
answers. I would love to hear, but.
We didn't have answers.
And honestly, we didn't know a lot
about climate change and weather.
(06:19):
But we reached out to someone who
does.
I'm David Yeomans, I'm the chief
meteorologist at KXAN
on the first Warning Weather Team,
the NBC affiliate here in Austin.
We needed an expert.
And I'll be honest with y'all, once
we started talking, I was thinking,
this guy may be a little
overqualified to be talking to us.
I have a bachelor's and a master's
(06:39):
degree. There's bachelors of
science, master of science in
meteorology.
So I was in class with a lot of
engineers, a lot of physics majors,
because how the atmosphere works
and moves is all math, and
it's more math than I cared to do.
I'm glad it's behind me because
I don't do that math anymore every
day.
But yeah, I mean, this is all
scientific stuff.
He said it was all about the math.
(06:59):
And so we decided to ask him.
What do you feel like climate change
will mean for Central
Texas in the future?
And let me just tell you, before
we get into the answer, it's
not what we expected.
Maybe we were just being a tad bit
naive.
I'm glad you asked.
(07:20):
The fifth.
National Climate Assessment was just
released by the US government.
This is a compilation of NOAA
scientists, kind of our best,
brightest minds in climate science.
And they found specific
to Austin. Let's talk about where we
live.
Remember I said we've already
doubled our 100 degree days
in the last 30, 50 years,
even in an intermediate emissions
(07:42):
scenario, meaning we continue
to cut our greenhouse gas emissions
at the rate we're doing, maybe a
little faster than that.
Even in 20 years,
Austin is going to double our 100
degree day count again.
So instead of an average of 29,
it would be an average of over 5100
degree days. So if you extrapolate
that to our worst summers, 8090
days in our worst summers,
(08:04):
well, let's double that.
In a worst case scenario.
By the end of the century, we may
not be around, but our kids will.
Our grandkids,
they could triple.
In those situations.
It is possible, according to these
scientific projections, by people
much smarter than I, that
half of the days in
a given year in Austin
(08:25):
would be a hundred degrees.
Okay, David, we got to find
somewhere else to live.
So where do you live?
I used to be fun at parties, and now
I'm not.
We have a whole episode coming up
where we're going to be looking for
answers about how Austin music
can deal with this hotter future.
And it's not just climate change
that affects people, it's the
changes in the laws as well.
(08:46):
Coming up after the break, you'll
hear from artists who have been
affected by the laws that have been
recently put in place.
Welcome back to Pause Play, a
podcast about live music, why
it matters, and what comes next.
We're talking about all the changes
that have impacted the live music
scene here in Austin.
And two of those changes are the
bans on gender affirming care and
(09:06):
drag shows that passed in the
last legislative session.
We spoke with Jammy Violet, an
Austin musician who leads a band
called Pelvis Wrestling.
(09:32):
They were celebrating a holiday with
their family when they got the news.
That is today.
I found out about the earliest
versions of the drag bound bill
on Thanksgiving of 2022.
So it's like looking forward,
anticipating the legislation
or the legislative season.
And, I was about
(09:53):
to go, have have
Thanksgiving lunch with my with my
family. A lot of my family is very
conservative. A lot of my family
isn't.
But it was,
just extremely disregulated to go
and sit down and try to have a nice
dinner and then, just like
anger.
I think it's what I. What I felt an
anger of, like, I
begged you guys, I begged you guys
(10:14):
to pay attention to this stuff, and
I know that you want me here.
But now I got to go like where
it did. Introduce the conversations
of, like what?
Where are you going to go?
What are you thinking about doing?
(10:50):
I told him.
Will you wait for me?
Will you wait for me?
What do you to me?
Folding.
And you. Sovereignty.
And we also spoke with Caleb de
Casper, who incorporates drag
into their shows.
I'm Caleb de Caspar.
(11:10):
I am a local
musician and I guess
political activist now.
So we asked him what made him
get involved.
I have to remember honestly, because
it was so like I just
got swept up in it.
And then what happens is you end up
spending every single day at the
Capitol no matter what.
And I rearranged my entire life for
(11:31):
it, like work life balance,
social stuff. And I just like, was
there all the time.
So.
The beginning,
I guess, when I started to see other
people in the community also
like speaking on it and posting
about it, I was like, maybe this is
a little bit more serious.
And what I thought,
(11:54):
specifically I saw like
Maggie from Cheer UPS was starting
to post about it.
And so that's a person who owns a
business. So it's like they're not
gonna.
Go on a ledge for something that's
not real, you know?
Then I saw, my friend
Bridget bandit, who
was.
(12:15):
Really well known in the drag
community and not really well known
globally because of, you know,
her part in all of this.
And so those are people that I
trusted their judgment.
And I started to look into it more.
And I was like,
yeah, this actually might might
happen
one of these days.
I'm.
(12:35):
Someone who
can be my own.
These days, I'll need someone
who can be my
own.
And it did happen, as did
something else people really didn't
think would happen at first.
An abortion ban.
Ever since the Supreme Court ruled
(12:57):
that states could outlaw abortion,
abortion has been illegal in Texas
after six weeks of pregnancy,
with very few exceptions.
Adrian Lake is a music publicist
here in Austin.
When it happened, there were a lot
of conversations in person
and online, people saying
they were packing up and leaving,
hearing men saying,
(13:18):
well, it's time for that vasectomy.
And actually hearing
women saying, you know,
I guess we're going to
have, you know, surgery to make
sure that we aren't forced
into a bad situation.
It's really hard to wrap
your head around
(13:39):
these people in charge of
controlling other people's lives
and bodies, and they know nothing
about it, and they don't
care. They don't even care
if it's a situation where,
you know, the child was wanted.
But there are medical issues.
They don't care if the mother's life
is at risk.
It's about control.
(14:01):
And again,
these these types of things,
affect the creative class
and people who struggle financially
more than anybody else.
You know, Elizabeth, some people
might think that these laws only
affect certain groups of people,
but honestly, they impact
all of us.
(14:21):
Yeah.
And you might be surprised how
these laws impact our music scene.
And people aren't just fighting
laws, but they're fighting
just to live here in Austin.
Yeah.
Like we've talked about in earlier
seasons, Austin has become
really expensive
and a lot of people can't even
afford to live here anymore.
Lawrence from the Far Out Lounge
(14:42):
told us this topic is on a lot
of people's minds.
People talk about it every day.
People talk about it every day, and
people that don't want to move.
People would much rather continue
doing what they're doing in the city
that they're living in.
Once you start counting the money
and the shorter it gets,
the more, you have to think
about moving somewhere else.
And musicians are moving outside
(15:04):
of Austin. So what does that
do to our scene.
And how does that transform the
places that they're moving to?
We're going to talk about that this
season as well.
And speaking of affordability,
what's up with the high ticket
prices?
We've all experienced an increase
in ticket prices.
And this season we're going to
explore why prices are going up.
So we spoke with the founder of
(15:25):
Front Gate Tickets.
My name is Melody price.
And my current profession
is that I'm a professor at the
McCombs School of Business.
I teach entrepreneurship.
My past professions are many
and include being in the music
industry, building a lot of website
software.
So there you go.
(15:46):
Meli actually developed one of the
first independent online
ticketing platforms right here
in Austin, which is a great story
and which you will hear this season.
We asked her, what's up with
pricing?
What are these crazy service fees
and processing fees?
I mean, how do we even get
here?
Yeah, we really wanted to know
(16:06):
what's different now versus when she
started in the game.
Oh, I definitely think there's
something different.
The reason is.
The lines have been blurred over
time.
You know, secondary market tickets
were the place where tickets
got marked up unreasonably.
So if it was a high demand show,
(16:28):
the, scalper
or the secondary market individual
got the bigger chunk of
the money. And now that people
recognize,
show is worth a certain price,
you know, the demand of the show
is limited and limited number
of tickets, and the demand is high.
Then you can raise the price.
(16:49):
And I think more and more artists
want participation in that.
And so they've allowed,
kind of the lines to be blurred.
And, you know, it used to be like
you were the promoter and you had
a network of people that told you
how shows were doing in your region.
And so you when you bid to have an
artist come to your venue, you
kind of priced it based on what
(17:09):
you thought, you could make
money off of.
These are just some of the things
that will cover this season.
We'll also talk about South by
Southwest AI and how it's
affected music, what's different
with venues and how the younger
generation is approaching live
music.
And we're sitting here talking about
all of these changes, some of which
(17:30):
can seem really scary.
And like we said in the beginning,
change is sometimes a force.
We tend to fight.
Sometimes we battle it, but
sometimes it's just out of our
control.
Change can be traumatic, but it can
also help us grow.
We think about post pandemic
(17:52):
stress and post-traumatic stress and
complex post-traumatic stress.
But also there is a thing as
far as posts, there's such a thing
as post-traumatic growth.
So we as individuals,
we as a collective, we can
grow as a result
of trauma. Does it mean that we need
pain or that we want pain in order
to grow and become better or become
(18:12):
different? No, but we can take it.
We can alkermes it.
And sometimes the goal is not always
to get back to just I have to get
back to who I was before this or I,
we have to get back to who we were.
But how do we become the better
versions of ourselves, of what we
have now?
So how do we pick up the rubble, see
what's left, and then integrate
that into becoming the better
version of what we can with what we
have? You know, and that's that is
post-traumatic growth and that is
(18:34):
resiliency and that is
neuroplasticity.
So that's still available.
And there's still hope in the world.
And so when we think about trauma, I
don't want it to all be, foreboding.
There are some wonderful things that
can come out of it as a result as
well.
(18:54):
We can grow from change.
We can be resilient.
And we can become stronger.
And I think that change
sometimes can be a good thing.
Yeah. I mean, it's not always
bad.
We're looking forward to exploring
all these changes with you this
season.
In the next episode, we're going to
(19:16):
be talking about climate change.
And we want to hear from you.
What changes do you think have
impacted the Austin music scene?
You can let us know by heading on
over to social media.
Our handle is Cosplay Pod on
Instagram and Facebook.
Or you can leave us a message
directly by heading to cut
KT dot studio slash
(19:37):
contact cosplay.
Cosplay is a production of CT
and Ktrk Studios.
It is reported produced and hosted
by me, Myles Blocks.
And me Elizabeth McQueen.
Our executive producer is Matt
Riley.
Zachary Crim helps write, record and
edit this episode.
Production assistants by his senior
shop.
Jake Pearlman and Matt Largey also
(19:57):
helped with editing and audio
production.
Stephanie Federico is our digital
editor. Michael Manasi is our
multimedia editor.
Special thanks to Todd Callahan and
Peter Babb for their technical
support and guidance.
Original music for this episode was
created by the talented Jaron
Marshall.
Other music provided by the talented
Jack Anderson and APM.
I'm Elizabeth McQueen.
And I'm Miles Bloxson.
And this is season five of Pause
Play.
A podcast about live music, why
it matters, and what comes next.
This season is all about change.
As humans, change is sometimes
a force. We tend to fight and
(00:21):
sometimes we battle with it.
But some changes are
out of our control.
When we started reflecting on what
to cover this season, we put out a
call to all our listeners on
Instagram and we asked them
what changes they thought affected
the Austin music scene the most.
And boy, did you guys share it
all.
I mean, they shared all of it.
You guys suggested that we talk
(00:43):
about affordability in Austin
and also climate change.
Yeah, we had that super intense
summer miles.
Yeah. You brought up laws that
have been put in place, ticket
prices and all of
the service and processing
fees.
And not to mention changes in tech
and AI.
Plus, y'all brought up the fact that
some of us are still dealing with
(01:03):
issues we bypassed during the
pandemic.
You know, we started this whole
podcast about how Covid impacted
the Austin music scene.
And honestly, I feel like it's still
impacting us.
Yeah. Me too.
I mean, some of us are still scared
to go outside, let alone
to live music shows.
I've talked to a few people about
(01:24):
the social anxiety that came from
the whole process of Covid.
This is Laurence Boone, the booker
at the Far Out Lounge.
People that did not normally have
any social anxiety.
Now they have extreme social anxiety
to the point where they don't even
want to go to the grocery store.
They'd rather have it delivered.
To guide us through the season.
We decided to speak with my
(01:45):
therapist to help us understand
all the changes and how they
could be affecting us on a mental
and physical level.
I'm Bella Rockman and I
work as a neuro psychotherapist and
mental health media correspondent.
And when we spoke to Laurence, we
realized that we'd all just passed
the four year anniversary of the
Covid shutdown.
And to some, that four years
(02:05):
went by way too fast.
So it it seems like it
just happened or we're
repressing it to where it seems like
it could have been 10 or 20 years
ago. And for some people,
people are still getting Covid.
I know there was a big spike over
the past maybe 3 or 4 months.
So I still think we're living under
that umbrella of
(02:27):
do I need to wear a mask?
Do I want to get sick?
If I'm sick, I'm out of work, you
know, for a couple of weeks.
Am I going to get other people sick?
So that is still a very real fear
that that exists.
But I also think people are.
That that having to have that
mindset is exhausting.
So they're fighting really hard to
(02:49):
try not to go back to that.
You know, where where we had to be
indoors all day long or
you're you're just kind of have to
be flippant about it.
And being like, well, if I get
Covid, I get Covid, I can't not
go to work, I can't I don't want to
not go see my friends.
Like, I want to go see these shows.
So that's a weird dichotomy
of thought process.
I think that's going on right now
with people.
Yeah. I mean, and they told us
(03:10):
whether we want to believe it or
not, we've all been affected
by Covid.
Yeah, I think it has definitely
had a collective effect.
We have individual trauma and then
there's collective trauma.
And so not only have we experienced
a collective trauma, like in terms
of just local or regional
or bicoastal or national,
but it's been a global effect.
(03:32):
As a matter of fact, the World
Health Organization, had
a report this show that there has
been about at least a 25%
increase globally in anxiety
and depression as a result of
the pandemic.
And so, you know, whenever you have
like, especially like it wasn't like
a short term kind of event,
it was something that was ongoing
and there wasn't a very specific end
(03:52):
in sight. And over time, that takes
a toll on us.
And we kind of can get fatigue
and like waiting for things to
change. And so,
although, I mean, we're not
completely out of the woods, I think
post-pandemic life, people are kind
of trying to figure out what life
should be like now, and should we be
trying to make it like it was
before, or how do we adapt?
We take it a step further and ask
(04:14):
for her thoughts on how people are
handling a post-pandemic world now,
when everything is pretty much all
the way normal.
But in a weird way.
Like we said before, it's not.
You know, I think in some ways, I
think in the beginning, like, before
right before things started opening
up again, everyone was talking about
it, you know, on
television, radio, like around our
(04:35):
kitchen tables.
How are we going to jazz?
Are you going to mask?
Are you not going to mask?
Have you got in your shot?
Are you going to let are you going
to be around people that you know
that haven't had the vaccine?
Like there were so many different
conversations about it.
But I think in a very kind of
pull up, you're pull yourself up by
your bootstraps kind of American
way. Like in some ways we probably
swept some of it under the rug and
just kind of like when the going
(04:55):
gets tough, the tough get going.
Let's just get back to it.
But I do think that we're still
experiencing the effects of it, just
because maybe we aren't talking
about it as much, it doesn't mean
that we're not experiencing it.
And, you know, Elizabeth, all of
this has affected our music scene
here in Austin.
Oh, yeah. It's one of the many
things that has affected.
At our music scene, and throughout
this season, you're going to hear a
(05:16):
collection of voices that are going
to reappear in different episodes,
because the changes we're going to
be talking about this season impact
everyone in different ways,
although we're not going to be
talking about Covid anymore.
Miles, but the one of the first
things we'll be discussing is
climate change.
Yeah, we had a crazy
summer, like the heat was
(05:37):
so intense.
And it affected a lot of artists,
a lot of fans, in
a lot of venues.
The artists didn't perform as much
and the fans couldn't take the heat
in some cases.
And some venues just didn't
know what else they could do.
Well, what we tried to do indoor
shows, but it was still hot
inside.
You know, we tried to bring in fans,
(05:58):
but our space is so
big, there's just no way
to cool it down. There's just not
other than that, like, drink a bunch
of water.
Really? There's not much you can do.
There's just not if you have
answers. I would love to hear, but.
We didn't have answers.
And honestly, we didn't know a lot
about climate change and weather.
(06:19):
But we reached out to someone who
does.
I'm David Yeomans, I'm the chief
meteorologist at KXAN
on the first Warning Weather Team,
the NBC affiliate here in Austin.
We needed an expert.
And I'll be honest with y'all, once
we started talking, I was thinking,
this guy may be a little
overqualified to be talking to us.
I have a bachelor's and a master's
(06:39):
degree. There's bachelors of
science, master of science in
meteorology.
So I was in class with a lot of
engineers, a lot of physics majors,
because how the atmosphere works
and moves is all math, and
it's more math than I cared to do.
I'm glad it's behind me because
I don't do that math anymore every
day.
But yeah, I mean, this is all
scientific stuff.
He said it was all about the math.
(06:59):
And so we decided to ask him.
What do you feel like climate change
will mean for Central
Texas in the future?
And let me just tell you, before
we get into the answer, it's
not what we expected.
Maybe we were just being a tad bit
naive.
I'm glad you asked.
(07:20):
The fifth.
National Climate Assessment was just
released by the US government.
This is a compilation of NOAA
scientists, kind of our best,
brightest minds in climate science.
And they found specific
to Austin. Let's talk about where we
live.
Remember I said we've already
doubled our 100 degree days
in the last 30, 50 years,
even in an intermediate emissions
(07:42):
scenario, meaning we continue
to cut our greenhouse gas emissions
at the rate we're doing, maybe a
little faster than that.
Even in 20 years,
Austin is going to double our 100
degree day count again.
So instead of an average of 29,
it would be an average of over 5100
degree days. So if you extrapolate
that to our worst summers, 8090
days in our worst summers,
(08:04):
well, let's double that.
In a worst case scenario.
By the end of the century, we may
not be around, but our kids will.
Our grandkids,
they could triple.
In those situations.
It is possible, according to these
scientific projections, by people
much smarter than I, that
half of the days in
a given year in Austin
(08:25):
would be a hundred degrees.
Okay, David, we got to find
somewhere else to live.
So where do you live?
I used to be fun at parties, and now
I'm not.
We have a whole episode coming up
where we're going to be looking for
answers about how Austin music
can deal with this hotter future.
And it's not just climate change
that affects people, it's the
changes in the laws as well.
(08:46):
Coming up after the break, you'll
hear from artists who have been
affected by the laws that have been
recently put in place.
Welcome back to Pause Play, a
podcast about live music, why
it matters, and what comes next.
We're talking about all the changes
that have impacted the live music
scene here in Austin.
And two of those changes are the
bans on gender affirming care and
(09:06):
drag shows that passed in the
last legislative session.
We spoke with Jammy Violet, an
Austin musician who leads a band
called Pelvis Wrestling.
(09:32):
They were celebrating a holiday with
their family when they got the news.
That is today.
I found out about the earliest
versions of the drag bound bill
on Thanksgiving of 2022.
So it's like looking forward,
anticipating the legislation
or the legislative season.
And, I was about
(09:53):
to go, have have
Thanksgiving lunch with my with my
family. A lot of my family is very
conservative. A lot of my family
isn't.
But it was,
just extremely disregulated to go
and sit down and try to have a nice
dinner and then, just like
anger.
I think it's what I. What I felt an
anger of, like, I
begged you guys, I begged you guys
(10:14):
to pay attention to this stuff, and
I know that you want me here.
But now I got to go like where
it did. Introduce the conversations
of, like what?
Where are you going to go?
What are you thinking about doing?
(10:50):
I told him.
Will you wait for me?
Will you wait for me?
What do you to me?
Folding.
And you. Sovereignty.
And we also spoke with Caleb de
Casper, who incorporates drag
into their shows.
I'm Caleb de Caspar.
(11:10):
I am a local
musician and I guess
political activist now.
So we asked him what made him
get involved.
I have to remember honestly, because
it was so like I just
got swept up in it.
And then what happens is you end up
spending every single day at the
Capitol no matter what.
And I rearranged my entire life for
(11:31):
it, like work life balance,
social stuff. And I just like, was
there all the time.
So.
The beginning,
I guess, when I started to see other
people in the community also
like speaking on it and posting
about it, I was like, maybe this is
a little bit more serious.
And what I thought,
(11:54):
specifically I saw like
Maggie from Cheer UPS was starting
to post about it.
And so that's a person who owns a
business. So it's like they're not
gonna.
Go on a ledge for something that's
not real, you know?
Then I saw, my friend
Bridget bandit, who
was.
(12:15):
Really well known in the drag
community and not really well known
globally because of, you know,
her part in all of this.
And so those are people that I
trusted their judgment.
And I started to look into it more.
And I was like,
yeah, this actually might might
happen
one of these days.
I'm.
(12:35):
Someone who
can be my own.
These days, I'll need someone
who can be my
own.
And it did happen, as did
something else people really didn't
think would happen at first.
An abortion ban.
Ever since the Supreme Court ruled
(12:57):
that states could outlaw abortion,
abortion has been illegal in Texas
after six weeks of pregnancy,
with very few exceptions.
Adrian Lake is a music publicist
here in Austin.
When it happened, there were a lot
of conversations in person
and online, people saying
they were packing up and leaving,
hearing men saying,
(13:18):
well, it's time for that vasectomy.
And actually hearing
women saying, you know,
I guess we're going to
have, you know, surgery to make
sure that we aren't forced
into a bad situation.
It's really hard to wrap
your head around
(13:39):
these people in charge of
controlling other people's lives
and bodies, and they know nothing
about it, and they don't
care. They don't even care
if it's a situation where,
you know, the child was wanted.
But there are medical issues.
They don't care if the mother's life
is at risk.
It's about control.
(14:01):
And again,
these these types of things,
affect the creative class
and people who struggle financially
more than anybody else.
You know, Elizabeth, some people
might think that these laws only
affect certain groups of people,
but honestly, they impact
all of us.
(14:21):
Yeah.
And you might be surprised how
these laws impact our music scene.
And people aren't just fighting
laws, but they're fighting
just to live here in Austin.
Yeah.
Like we've talked about in earlier
seasons, Austin has become
really expensive
and a lot of people can't even
afford to live here anymore.
Lawrence from the Far Out Lounge
(14:42):
told us this topic is on a lot
of people's minds.
People talk about it every day.
People talk about it every day, and
people that don't want to move.
People would much rather continue
doing what they're doing in the city
that they're living in.
Once you start counting the money
and the shorter it gets,
the more, you have to think
about moving somewhere else.
And musicians are moving outside
(15:04):
of Austin. So what does that
do to our scene.
And how does that transform the
places that they're moving to?
We're going to talk about that this
season as well.
And speaking of affordability,
what's up with the high ticket
prices?
We've all experienced an increase
in ticket prices.
And this season we're going to
explore why prices are going up.
So we spoke with the founder of
(15:25):
Front Gate Tickets.
My name is Melody price.
And my current profession
is that I'm a professor at the
McCombs School of Business.
I teach entrepreneurship.
My past professions are many
and include being in the music
industry, building a lot of website
software.
So there you go.
(15:46):
Meli actually developed one of the
first independent online
ticketing platforms right here
in Austin, which is a great story
and which you will hear this season.
We asked her, what's up with
pricing?
What are these crazy service fees
and processing fees?
I mean, how do we even get
here?
Yeah, we really wanted to know
(16:06):
what's different now versus when she
started in the game.
Oh, I definitely think there's
something different.
The reason is.
The lines have been blurred over
time.
You know, secondary market tickets
were the place where tickets
got marked up unreasonably.
So if it was a high demand show,
(16:28):
the, scalper
or the secondary market individual
got the bigger chunk of
the money. And now that people
recognize,
show is worth a certain price,
you know, the demand of the show
is limited and limited number
of tickets, and the demand is high.
Then you can raise the price.
(16:49):
And I think more and more artists
want participation in that.
And so they've allowed,
kind of the lines to be blurred.
And, you know, it used to be like
you were the promoter and you had
a network of people that told you
how shows were doing in your region.
And so you when you bid to have an
artist come to your venue, you
kind of priced it based on what
(17:09):
you thought, you could make
money off of.
These are just some of the things
that will cover this season.
We'll also talk about South by
Southwest AI and how it's
affected music, what's different
with venues and how the younger
generation is approaching live
music.
And we're sitting here talking about
all of these changes, some of which
(17:30):
can seem really scary.
And like we said in the beginning,
change is sometimes a force.
We tend to fight.
Sometimes we battle it, but
sometimes it's just out of our
control.
Change can be traumatic, but it can
also help us grow.
We think about post pandemic
(17:52):
stress and post-traumatic stress and
complex post-traumatic stress.
But also there is a thing as
far as posts, there's such a thing
as post-traumatic growth.
So we as individuals,
we as a collective, we can
grow as a result
of trauma. Does it mean that we need
pain or that we want pain in order
to grow and become better or become
(18:12):
different? No, but we can take it.
We can alkermes it.
And sometimes the goal is not always
to get back to just I have to get
back to who I was before this or I,
we have to get back to who we were.
But how do we become the better
versions of ourselves, of what we
have now?
So how do we pick up the rubble, see
what's left, and then integrate
that into becoming the better
version of what we can with what we
have? You know, and that's that is
post-traumatic growth and that is
(18:34):
resiliency and that is
neuroplasticity.
So that's still available.
And there's still hope in the world.
And so when we think about trauma, I
don't want it to all be, foreboding.
There are some wonderful things that
can come out of it as a result as
well.
(18:54):
We can grow from change.
We can be resilient.
And we can become stronger.
And I think that change
sometimes can be a good thing.
Yeah. I mean, it's not always
bad.
We're looking forward to exploring
all these changes with you this
season.
In the next episode, we're going to
(19:16):
be talking about climate change.
And we want to hear from you.
What changes do you think have
impacted the Austin music scene?
You can let us know by heading on
over to social media.
Our handle is Cosplay Pod on
Instagram and Facebook.
Or you can leave us a message
directly by heading to cut
KT dot studio slash
(19:37):
contact cosplay.
Cosplay is a production of CT
and Ktrk Studios.
It is reported produced and hosted
by me, Myles Blocks.
And me Elizabeth McQueen.
Our executive producer is Matt
Riley.
Zachary Crim helps write, record and
edit this episode.
Production assistants by his senior
shop.
Jake Pearlman and Matt Largey also
(19:57):
helped with editing and audio
production.
Stephanie Federico is our digital
editor. Michael Manasi is our
multimedia editor.
Special thanks to Todd Callahan and
Peter Babb for their technical
support and guidance.
Original music for this episode was
created by the talented Jaron
Marshall.
Other music provided by the talented
Jack Anderson and APM.
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