BIGSOUND 2026 Mini Episode with Gabe Andrews

It's a lot to take in, even when it's coming to the showcases and things.

I actually learnt from a random meeting that I had with somebody who actually was basically part of the very start of Big Sound.

apparently they worked in unison with the Brisbane Council to actually build the venues up around here all that time ago.

So I think he said something like Big Sound 1 and 2 That wasn't the case.

And now it's actually, they have like a, what's called like, I think he was saying like a grid or like a geolocation for it where like anybody who's building anything new, they have to be aware that they have to have a certain amount of soundproofing and everything because of the venues that's in there.

And it's like, it's a protected venue space.

And I think that's, and like he mentioned, like that's one of the reasons why all these venues are like thriving and they're like also able to sort of be in the one space because we

need more protected venue

exactly

clauses or something

across every major city yeah

because I mean yeah it's kind of staggering again like coming from New Zealand where like in Auckland we had a venue called Neck of the Woods on K Road which is kind of like the cultural hub of the city I think um announced that it was shutting down like a week after a record shop had shut down and like they had to raise money like you know just from the general you know general population to kind of keep it going so it's very front of mind for people there it's you know they're all the same issues about younger people aren't drinking as much which I think is great

yeah

but it means that venues aren't making money yeah Everything's expensive.

Auckland's infrastructure, you know, like when you compare Auckland's infrastructure

compared

to like any Australian city, it's kind of staggering.

So, yeah, like to have those same things happening, but feeling like everything here is much more set up for the success that I think maybe it feels like for small venues in New Zealand, like it's a bit of an uphill battle.

Yes.

but yeah like to have that forward planning it's so rare yeah like public policy government policy organizational policy you know private public to look like 10 years down the track absolutely and build something like invest something quite heavily and build something out um and then you know be confident that it's going to pay off in that way yes um it'd be really really refreshing to see more of that

yeah

but you know that comes down to politics it comes down to chasing money um which we have to do like it has to be commercially viable like we want artists that we work with to make money but yeah the long-term view is uh highly sought after in my mind

yes absolutely and i think what i've really found in regards to like that in particular it's some of these long-term view conversations are happening but we don't necessarily always get privy to it and it's sort of at what point do we start consulting with the industry and like getting them aware of like okay in the next five years you will actually have five more venues so let's actually you know build our record label or build these opportunities for these emerging artists to or get funding for them in these spaces so that you can actually they'll be prepared to actually take on those 500 cat venues or whatever it is because um yeah doing them in silos is it works in some ways but also silos are obviously cool silos for a reason nobody's really talking to each other um which i'm sure which we talk about a lot yes we do yeah yeah yeah we we love to talk about workflows all the time but um yeah productivity how can we make things better you know the the flow-on effect of me having really certain just being really really curious about it but um From the publishing side though, if we're going back into what's Big Sound been like for you and everything, how have you found coming into Big Sound the last two years as a publisher? Is it feeling really valuable and you've basically really got to show up?