Southbound Festival 2015
Get ready for the 4th annual Southbound Music Festival, happening this Saturday, July 25. Brothers Michael and David Seale partner with Birmingham Mountain Radio to bring us a day packed with incredible music, food, and community. The event will take place at Avondale Brewery, a space well known for its exceptional beer and equally outstanding music.
The Seale brothers have a true passion for bringing local music to the attention of anyone and everyone who will listen. Read on as the Steele brothers share their thoughts on music and give us an inside look into the journey that made Southbound the success it is today.
Kiani Yiu- What was your original purpose/inspiration in creating Southbound Music Fest?
Michael Seale- We wanted to give local bands a festival all their own. Not opening for a national or regional act, or playing a festival where they get lost in the shuffle. This was a chance to showcase just how many incredibly talented musicians are RIGHT HERE in this city.
KY- Tell us about your weekly radio show.
MS- We started this whole thing more than five years ago as a podcast- recorded it in David’s living room- and when Birmingham Mountain Radio was about to launch, Jeff Clanton, the station manager approached us and asked if we would be interested in doing a show on Tuesday nights for an hour. Well, soon, an hour wasn’t enough, so we moved to Sundays for two hours. The longer we have done this show, the more great music we are discovering and sharing with our listeners.
KY- What are your thoughts on the local Birmingham music scene?
MS- This is a scene that is growing more vibrant, more diverse, more relevant than ever before. We have musicians here who still call Birmingham home because there are more venues, more festivals, events and opportunities for local original music to thrive. As well, some incredibly talented producers have studios here, which means a band doesn’t have to go to Nashville or LA or the like to record. That was not always the case.
KY- There are a lot of music festivals happening around this time. What makes Southbound stand out?
MS- We had a blast at Sloss (no pun intended) and we plan to attend as much of Secret Stages as we possibly can. Both are great, successful festivals. I think what we offer is a strictly local lineup at a VERY low price – $10 – which translates to lots of bang for the buck.
KY- Does the music lean toward a specific style, or should listeners expect diversity of sound?
MS- We made sure to include a lot of diversity – genre, gender, generations- so that we could fully showcase the wide spectrum of great music being made here.
KY- How do you select artists to perform at the festival?
MS- We try not to get any artist who played the previous year’s festival. And again, we are very conscious about diversity. We start asking these artists in January and February, and try not to get bands that we have already had play for our other events. Doesn’t always work out that way, but that is how we like to choose. We are always on the lookout for bands to include in this thing.
KY- What do you hope listeners will get out of attending Southbound?
MS- We want fans of each of these acts to hear some of the other acts. In essence, we want to expose one fan base to another, and so on. Basically fans of good music will love what we have created here!
This year’s acts are:
Come to Avondale Brewery this Saturday and discover the magic of Birmingham music. The event begins at 2pm and will run until midnight. Tickets are $10.
Avondale Brewing Company is located at 201 41st Street S, Birmingham, AL 35222.
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