Talkin’ Tweed with Jeremy Moses Curtis
If you have been following along, Red Line has taken a liking to the Tweed River Music Festival and the great artists playing it this year. You might say I’ve got a bit of a festival crush. It’s an exciting line up of friends and folks I hope to be friends with. Really incredible. What’s even more incredible is all the hard work behind the scenes that goes into making an event like this happen. One of those folks that is busting his hump and making plays is Jeremy Moses Curtis (also of the incredible band The Curtis Mayflower). I was lucky enough to catch up with Jeremy to talk about the fest, the booking process, and what you all can expect this year. Check it…
RLR: So Tweed took a breather in 2014 and is coming back strong in 2015. Was the break strategic in any way? Do you think folks are hungry for more Tweed after being on the hiatus last year?
JMC: The break was much needed. An event of this scale takes a tremendous amount of work from all involved. We were pulling the events off and creating the magic and developing a “brand” so to speak but we knew we could be doing better when it came to the bottom line. None of us are in it to get rich. The motivation lies with the resources we have available to us. This is musician driven. The opportunities that talented artists get are so few and far between sometimes that its frustrating to stand by watch that frustration fester. If we can throw an event that draws attention to these people who we we are close with and hopefully helps promote something that is collectively larger than us, then we feel like we are contributing a positive and healthy dynamic to a changing landscape within the “music industry”. Our LLC members all have families and jobs and it takes a months of our personal time to do this. So the break was a welcome respite to rethink and re-strategize the best way to move forward and really do all we can do for the event but also for the artists involved.
RLR: Amen
RLR: So how about the booking/band selection process. Festivals seem to be such an enigma when it comes to how bands get chosen and such. There seems to be a “family” around tweed, but how does one get in the door? (I know its a tough situation…)
JMC: Booking. Yes. Booking. As many musicians will tell you, they 
would rather eat glass than have to book shows but it is a necessary part of the whole deal. When we first started in 2009, we drew from people we had played with, close friends, been in the studio with and basically people who said they would do it pro bono. We are forever grateful to those people and a handful of them are usually involved every year because of their belief in us and well they are still making high caliber music. Tim Gearan, Andrea Gillis, White Dynomite fellas, and obviously Bow Thayer and myself, together or with our own projects…the formula has changed a little bit every year. When I look back at the budget I always cringe for a couple of reasons: 1) all of the people playing deserve far more than what we can offer. 2) How do we pull off that kind of talent for that amount of money and 3) I hope these people remember Im a musician first and not the promoter guy! So we try to keep “family” involved to some degree, we try to include people we have started relationships with outside of Tweed as in regular gigs, sessions, tours and such, we try to include a handful of bands from Vermont that are doing great things and then we throw a couple on that we selfishly want to see involved because are still music fans at the end of the day. The common denominator in all of this is the value that comes with securing these artists. Can we continue to develop a relationship and help each other out moving forward? Tweed is an incredible vehicle for bands to start relationships that can reciprocate each others needs. The people that play Tweed are devoted to their craft. They are resourceful people. You have to be in order to make your way to a different audience, a better club, a better tour. Maybe this is the best platform for me to publicly say that I do apologize for not getting to everyone who wants in. Its mathematically impossible. We do our best for the festival and as much as I would love to have some sort of Utopian Pasture where the rock never stopped, people got paid really well and no one got fat from surviving on Fried Dough, I would do my best to book it. But its not realistic. Like anything in life that you work hard at, we are trying to do the best job we can.
RLR: Also, you talk about building a brand, and recently hosted another show under the Tweed name. Newport hosts their “Newport Folk Presents” shows and I have been trying to build excitement around the two year shows, Locals Covering Locals releases, and a summer showcase so I know how it goes. Any plan to get into that more after this summer and get the Tweed name out there throughout the year?
JMC: It feels weird to say “brand” but honestly I don’t know how else to refer to what we are trying to cultivate. When someone comes up to anyone of us in Tweed and says: “these guys would be great for Tweed”, it makes me realize that we are etching something out that has some sort of obligation to our initial commitment. But that said we never want to pigeon hole ourselves into a sound or genre. Hopefully we can establish a thread of cohesiveness from year to year but I know myself, Bow and the others are all firm believers in music that is just plain good, no matter its ease of classification. The Pre-Tweed events that you will see popping up on the calendar before the actual festival happens, is an effort to introduce our lineup and basically get our foot wet with the whole productions outside the festival idea. It hopefully creates momentum, gets people excited about the bands/festival and when you step back and see a couple you can think to yourself, “holy crap they will all be there that weekend…I gotta get a ticket to that thing!” We have tremendous respect for Newport Folk Festival and would love to be recognized as a festival who has the means and integrity to bring the absolute best. We do not have the resources that they do but I do believe we have the shared vision of talent recognition and who knows maybe some of our artists will be part of their roster some day. To be mentioned alongside is an honor. Building any sort of following or product in the musical climate today takes time. It is a slow process. Knowing how to balance the excitement and anxiety that comes with having something great is recognizing that it is a difficult thing to do and takes patience. You always have to evaluate and constructively criticize yourself before taking another step. Its easy to be sidetracked and sometimes you just can’t see things coming but if you still believe in the original vision or goal then you will find a way to problem solve and come out the other side stronger. As for the future…well we like to take things one year at a time. We were very fortunate to have the time we did and getting a much bigger jump on things this year has made a tremendous difference so far.
RLR: Is there anything you really want people to know about the festival, the folks behind the scenes planning it or just say about the weekend in general? Also, plans for the future? Growing it. Collaborating with other organizations for instance (hint, hint Red Line would love to be involved!)?
JMC: The loyalty demonstrated when we released the dates in January was incredible. We are so very grateful to the people who have been there every year and continue to spread the word and bring a few more every time. It really drives us and we feel obligated to that responsibility. There will be some changes this year and I know that our supporters who have trusted us this far and believe that “every year it just gets a little better and better” will still be there to encourage us. We just hope to step it up a notch so that the musical community at large recognizes what we do and when peeled away, are blown away by the talent pool we bring together. In the end its about being in a beautiful place, with great sound, great music and a community of people that want to be together sharing something intimate like the love of music. As my good friend Billy Conway would say: “Beat that.”
This looks to be a great year. Don’t miss out. Check the website for information, line up, and tickets folks.
