Ali Mojallal, in full

3:28Hi friends. This is Tash with Unwritten Rules of the Road and I am joined today by my wonderful friend Ali Mojaal of Mechanisma's. Ali, thank you so much for for joining me today.

3:41Of course. Yeah, glad to be here. for those of you who have not heard of Mechanisma's or Ali, Um, um, has Well, it's actually celebrating 20 years of doing Mechanismus this year or next year. Is it next year that's the 20th And um, Ali actually booked our very first Seattle shows. Um, and kind of set the bar, honestly, like showed us how it's done.

4:14Um, like right from the get-go was amazing, like the first time um, like we did a show with Ali. Um, just like how you treated us, um, how you put the show together. And it really I was like, oh, this is this is how a show should be run.

4:29I'm glad. I'm glad. That's always good to hear.

4:31Yeah. Yeah. And it's amazing cuz um, the festival, I believe you started in 2018. Is that correct?

4:38Yeah. Yeah, that was the first one.

4:41Yeah. Yeah.

4:42That's right. Yeah, that was um, at that year, at that time, I think Mechanismus had been doing it for about 10 years. And I just hit a wall. It was I it was back-to-back really bad shows. Not like the bands were bad or anything, it just like turnout. It was And having so many back-to-back shows with low turnouts, I was just getting ready to just call it, pack it up. Um, but it just so happened that two really big bands were coming to Seattle and they were playing two days apart from each other. It was Covenant and Grendel. They were playing two days apart from each other.

5:16Um, I I tried to see if they can both play on the same night, but it wasn't doable because of their routing. And so I was like, well, I already got two big headliners. I can just add another day and somehow turn this into a And so I did. And so it's kind of it went from there.

5:32I think that's amazing. I mean, like looking back on like putting together the first festival, um, versus coming coming up now, like would you say that you've learned a lot and that you run things differently?

5:47Oh, yeah. It's so much different now. And it has been, you know, from trial and error and also got a lot of really good people help with, you know, just suggestions and ways to improve it. Uh, yeah. So, definitely it's a night and day It's still [laughter] a pain in the ass to put it together, but it's it's a different pain in the ass. If that makes any sense.

6:09I imagine. I mean, cuz also you're you're bringing in artists internationally, right? So.

6:15That I want I kind of want that to be the thing for Mechanisms is to bring in like international artists. Like that's like the key thing to it. Um, just to help differentiate it from the other festivals. Like I want Mechanisms to be more focused on, you know, European or South American like that. Those regions. Bring bands from that those areas.

6:36Yeah, which is which is definitely its own challenge like navigating all of that. So.

6:41Challenge? Um, I mean, culturally things are different, you know, like you know, the bands from Europe that come here, things are they're really different for them. Um. They still can't believe you can't walk out with you know, booze in your hand.

6:57There's that and then you got to go through all the like immigration and visas and all that and that that's always a headache because that's the one part that I feel like I don't have any control over.

7:08You submit your paperwork and wait out and hope it goes through, you know? There's only so much you can do. Um, so that that that part is is a real But the the good thing is at least I bringing these international artists is like they'll come here, they'll play at Mechanisms or whatever and then they'll come back and play other shows in other cities. So, it kind of helps invigorate it. Right? Like I feel the bands that have come to Mechanisms are now fairly regularly coming to the US and playing So, it kind of helps break that barrier as well, too.

7:40That's awesome. I just love that it's kind of like a doorway that makes it

7:45Yeah. Yeah.

7:46Yeah. It's really really awesome. Like you know, one thing I noticed too is that I really love like you get really creative with how you mash up your lineups together. Like it's just interesting like how you how you piece it all together, you know.

8:02You mean like the the order of the bands

8:04Well, no. Just like sometimes the pairings. Like speaking for myself, like we you put us on a show with Psyclon Nine one year. And that was awesome. That was awesome. Like I remember we got hit up where people were like what what an interesting pairing like Alice and Psyclon Nine, you know. Um and it turned out so awesome. Like I remember and we're you know, obviously we're friends with John who plays drums for them um cuz he plays in MKIO, but um I just thought it was really creative um and like your festivals, too. It's like I love like how you'll if there's a diversity in it. Like how you put things

8:40Yeah. Yeah. I like to I like to mix it up, I think. I like that better as opposed to having one night where all the bands kind of sound the same. I I kind of mixing it up or

8:50Some people don't like that though. Some people actually do prefer to go and like have a very unified sound each night. But I I like to kind of mix it up.

8:58Yeah, absolutely. I think it's just one of those things where like like you said, sometimes people like to know like okay, this is the thing I'm going for. It's like you know, a unified thing, but um I don't know. Some of my favorite festivals that I've been been to, I actually discover new new artists as a result, you know. And I'm like, oh, this is so cool. I would never would have known about, you know. It's like especially the opening bands. I'm like, yes. Now I get to learn about something completely different. So,

9:26And sometimes that's a little annoying because I I kind of wish people would just come from the beginning. Like watch the opener bands cuz they're really missing out if they skip the opener bands, right?

9:38Sometimes some people I'm like, you you paid like what, 175 bucks for a ticket, but you're only going to come see two bands a night? Like, come on. Come all of them. There's They're all good.

9:47Absolutely. Honestly, it's because of you that we discovered Nuda. Cuz she was like the first act I remember at at Mechanism is and it was so awesome cuz I remember you're like, "Okay, you have to check out Nuda. She's so great." So

10:04Yeah. Yeah.

10:05Yeah. Yeah. So, I was curious like, you know, like going back to the very first show you put together. What what show was that? Do you remember the

10:17It wasn't There was no bands. It was just myself and another person just The guy that started Mechanism. That was it. Like, we were at just at a club that's no longer around called Capitol Hill Arts Center. And yeah, we just had a DJ show there. Good turnout. It was a good

10:34decent turnout. People came. Um, cool little venue. It's every It's gone under ever since, but yeah, so kind of started out as just DJs for a few months and then I started bringing in bands.

10:47So, like do you What was the first band show that you put together?

10:51It was a band named Action T4. They're They're a local band. They're not around anymore, but yeah. Okay. And it was pretty much a dead show. There wasn't that many people there at all. It was like five or six. But, you know, it was a start. Started somewhere. Um, and then the venue shut down and so we moved to a different one called the And I think we were there for like two It's kind of a goofy period for Mechanism is during those Re-bar days, uh it it was good. It was still good. And then the Re-bar um and then we moved from the Re-bar to the Highline, which I

11:25think is where you guys played. The Highline. Yeah.

11:29And unfortunately, Highline also closed. So, it's kind of a curse. Whatever mechanism is closed of any place.

11:35Oh, no.

11:38Um I miss That was my favorite venue of all the ones that we've we've done shows at. They were the best.

11:44Oh, yeah. Highline was awesome.

11:46Yeah. A really nice staff, accommodating, the owner was great. So, it was really sad to see them go. So, after Highline closed, then we went to El Corral, and then thank for it. Thankfully, um El Corral is still

12:00The curse hasn't hit them yet.

12:03I'm like, knock on wood.

12:08And El Corral is kind of like the main HQ for the festival. So, just because they have they have the sound equipment and the and the crew to really really handle it. So. Yeah, I mean, gosh, like speaking of crew, like it's like watching your team, like how everyone was just so like on it was so impressive. It was like, I don't know, you could you guys could It was obvious that you guys just work so well together.

12:37Yeah, I'm I'm lucky to have that crew, seriously. Like my dumb ass can't do So, it's really nice to have the crew there to do all that So, [laughter] yeah, very grateful for the crew. They they do an awesome job.

12:49I I feel like you contribute a lot to

12:54Sure, I contribute to the stress and anxiety, yeah.

13:00Oh my gosh. So, um I know that I I saw that you put together the Das Siek show in May.

13:07Um Mhm. So, you still been doing shows, but I

13:13But, it's very very like um sporadic. Not I'm not trying to do a show every month. If something comes along that makes sense, that's good, then I'll do it. But, since the festival really takes so much of time, I've decided to really put more of the effort and energy on that. And then again, you know, if a you know, big show like Das Ich or something comes along, yeah, I'll totally do it.

13:35Yeah. Yeah.

13:36And we have lots of other

13:37We have other great promoters in Seattle who can do these shows, right? I There's I'm not making much of a difference by doing them. We already have other promotion groups that do a really good

13:47Yeah. Yeah, there's there's great ones for sure. Like I know we had Elizabeth on here from Yes. She's awesome. yeah, and I mean, it's just I love that it's such a it's it's such a supportive community of each other. I love that um cuz like we did our show with uh you with System Synn and um and then Elizabeth came to the show. So I just I really love seeing that in a community where it's not like competing, but actually supporting each

14:16Yeah. Seattle has its fair share of problems, but at least I can say that like the the promoting groups everybody gets along. So that's good. good because once once you get the promoters fighting each other, then it's like nobody wins. sitting there fighting each other over the same 20 people, you know? Like it's you're dividing the crowd and you're causing drama and issues, and then you know, people aren't going to want to go to your shows cuz they just keep seeing you complain and then attacking other people like with if I was an outsider and I was like trying to look for like a show to go to

14:48and I like, you know, went on Facebook and I saw all the promoters yelling and screaming at each other, I wouldn't want to go to any of those shows.

14:54Yeah. I feel you. Yeah.

14:57It doesn't It doesn't do anything. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, it's like you you want to go to shows where like obviously you're supporting the artists, but also like the community feels good. So, yeah.

15:09Yeah. Definitely.

15:11Yeah. It was so awesome. Like one of our early uh I think it was our second show with you. You actually housed us. It was like totally DIY punk style. Like you know, I'm like just you took such good care of us and I just I love that you have that ethos.

15:27I know, we are a bigger band and you're like All right, where am I going to put Yes.

15:35Yes, be warned that when you house Alice, we will take up all your nooks and crannies.

15:44Yeah, but I I I think that's really awesome because I feel like it really like you know, it helps with the touring musicians and it makes touring possible when you have like you know, like communities that are like okay, we'll take care of the artist or you know, we can help you put together a show.

16:02Yeah, yeah, that's important. Um for the festivals, I try to do the same thing, too. We try to get people who are willing to house bands. Um so, that's all nice when people, you know, step [snorts] up and are willing to house a few bands. That really helps um hotels are just so expensive. Absolutely so expensive. That's why they're only like headliners. Cuz like uh hotel that the bands stay in at at the Crocodile is about 270 a night.

16:32Oh, it's a lot. It's a lot.

16:33Wow. Yeah, that yeah. Gosh, and that really adds up like especially with a festival like

16:40It really does.

16:41Yeah. Yeah.

16:42One of the most expensive parts of the festival are the hotels and then the Those are the two big

16:47Oh, yeah.

16:49And I'm terrified of what the flights are going to be like next year. With everything that's going on, I'm like, oh my god, it's going to be so expensive flying some of these bands

16:59I'm scared.

17:00Yeah, I mean, I'm curious like when you're figuring it all out and putting it all together, like um I know for me personally like I I look at a road map when I'm trying to piece together a tour, but like when you're as a promoter putting together a festival, like is the financial part like part of the logistics that you're figuring out?

17:20Oh yeah.

17:20Like um in terms of what makes your

17:22Yeah. Yeah. because the festival doesn't pay itself back through just the ticket sales. That doesn't mean we you can sell the festival out and you and you're still be in a negative. So got to do like vendors, like vendor tables. You have to do that. You got to do like fundraisers. You got to chase sponsorships. And um what we've been doing this year a lot is applying to grants. Like art grants.

17:49Uh state grants. We've gotten some money already, but we still need more, a lot more.

17:54So we

17:55have a really good grant writer and she's been just sending out applications and we'll probably hear back in the next couple of months to see if we've gotten accepted into anything, but it really helps. Getting that grant money really helps. Cuz like I said, selling the tickets out, that doesn't pay for the whole

18:14It's such a labor of love. It really is.

18:18of labor of pain.

18:23I love that you have like such a good attitude about it though. Like what I Every time I see you, it's like I know you're working hard, but you always like crack a joke and I'm like, "Okay, it's it's pretty awesome to see that."

18:35He's still kind of there somehow. His sanity is there.

18:37Yes, the he's Okay, sanity check, we're still good.

18:41He's breathing, he's making jokes, he's fine. All right.

18:44Yes, yes. We haven't redlined yet. [laughter] No, but let us know like when you if you do have like any kind of fundraisers, um you know, it's absolutely for for everybody watching, please support Mechanismus. It is awesome. Um such an awesome way to like get to experience music and an awesome community. Um Um, I I The way I look at festivals, I think the mentality behind festivals should be not what not again I'm trying to say is not what the bands are going to do for your festival, what the people that are coming are going to how is going to make your festival look. The festival and the bands and the

19:27venues, they should be considered one entity. Like they're all working to put this on, right? So, it's not the bands are working for the festival, the festival's working for the venue, nothing like that. It should just be It should really be thought of as like a collaborative thing. Um, and I think once you kind of have that sort of mentality, um it makes to me I it makes it easier.

19:49Yeah. Yeah, I I could see that perspective actually. Like kind of looking at it as like a whole entity as opposed to just like you're an entity and you're an entity.

20:00Yeah. Yeah.

20:01It's like yeah.

20:02Um, like even like uh doing like discussions on like performance fees, guarantees, and stuff for bands, like it's sort of just trying to haggle. Like if you can't pay the band what they want, just tell them you can't pay them, you know? Just just straight up tell them. Or like just be more frank about it and just explain to them like why you can't pay them how much they want or why you can't, you know, pay for 12 flights or things like that, right?

20:25Mhm. Yeah.

20:27I I think that really helps. I kind of come down to like a person-to-person level and I think that makes it a lot easier that way.

20:35Absolutely. I feel like the honesty is so appreciated cuz you don't want to dance around the subject. It's just it's it's so much easier. I mean, it can be a kind discussion, you know, but just being honest about it. Absolutely saves a lot of time,

20:49for sure. Uh also, what I've been doing to kind of help a little bit with like the cost of the flights and and the cost of the immigration is um, for next year's festival, I'm asking a lot of bands to distribute the cost of the flights and the visas to other shows that they're going to play in the US. Right? So, instead of Mechanisms fronting the entire fee for them to come to the US, Mechanisms will pay a portion of it, and then the rest of it they'll play other shows in US cities and like collect that.

21:21It makes it so that way, again, we don't have to pay everything. And we can kind of spread the love. Have other people pay for it a little bit, too.

21:29No, that's great. That's great. And also encourages like other cities, you know, to take part.

21:35because they get more shows. So, they can potentially walk away with, you know, more merch sales and whatnot. So, it's a win-win.

21:42Absolutely. Absolutely. Yeah. And I mean, it's just like there's, you know, there's Seattle and then there's like so many places that are like around that you can make a like a little tour around as well. So.

21:57For sure.

21:58Totally possible. The Shadow Gallery says, "We love you, Yeah. Yes.

22:06I don't know who that is. No, but I think it's like one of those things where um like um I I I've seen this some in the Northeast, as well, where like um like people are like, "Okay, if you play this city, you can play this city and this city, too." Cuz like Portland and Seattle, to me, go hand in hand.

22:28You know.

22:31Yeah. Um I usually like to do like, you know, when I ask bands to do other shows in the US, I usually tell them to do like East Coast.

22:39Oh, nice. Yeah.

22:40That's why because um I do get a lot of people that come from Portland and like the Pacific Northwest to the festival. So, it's I think better for them to play more on the East Coast.

22:50Yeah, that makes sense. Mhm. Yeah. And then you get more more of the

22:56There you go. Yeah. So, I don't know. It's really Okay, so like when you put together your first festival, was it um a 3-day 3-day festival or was it a 2-day

23:11I think it was 3 days.

23:13I think or four. I don't remember. That was Yeah, how long was that? It was 9 years 8 years ago. It was the It was the smallest one, like the shortest one of all of them. So, and then it just kept ballooning after that and growing and growing.

23:32I I see that you like have like the ambitious where you're like, "Okay, this was great." And in 2022, we you did 5 days. I remember like 5 days. That was That was amazing.

23:45Yeah, I I'm surprised I didn't go into like cardiac arrest or anything. That

23:49It was 2022 was like right after the lockdown lifted, right?

23:54Yeah, that was

23:55Yeah, this was the first one after lockdown. Yeah. And I was mind-blown.

24:00Dial too, so

24:02First time working with them. Yeah. Yeah, that was then I think that was the year Health played.

24:07Mhm. Yeah. Yeah. That was amazing. I was just like thinking, I'm like, "Gosh, I mean, even one show, let alone like 5 days worth of shows back-to-back. That is a heck of a lot of logistics."

24:21It is. It is. That's why you need a really good crew. How did you meet your crew? Did they naturally gravitate towards you or did you go

24:31Yeah, they were kind of people that approached wanting to help and they kind of just stuck around.

24:38So, yeah. Pretty much I get a lot of people that usually want to help out, which is nice.

24:45But I'm also trying to figure out like if someone helps do they get into the festival for free, but you can't really do that because you need the ticket sales, right? If you have like 50 people helping you, then no one's buying tickets. So, I was trying to figure out a way of a good way of like compensating people for helping you and still having them, you know, get a ticket and come to the festival. So, that's always tough, but um yeah, like we're always looking for volunteers, like people to do like airport rides, that's huge. We're always

25:15to drive bands around, to do airport rides, to house bands. So, volunteers are always welcome. For sure.

25:22As long as they're dependable.

25:25Do you have people that are like aspiring promoters? Like that um try to like work under you just to kind of learn how to do it?

25:34None. Not really.

25:35Yeah. Yeah.

25:36Not that I know of.

25:38Yeah. [laughter]

25:41Yeah, I I was curious cuz I'm like if anybody wanted to put together a festival or learn how to put together a show or whatever, I've heard that it's a good thing to do to like, you know, work with other people. Yeah, I just to kind of learn how how a person does that.

25:55Oh, like like like shadow them and

25:57Mhm. Yeah. I really like watching other festivals to see how they're doing stuff. Like not just the ones we have in the US, but also like a European festivals, like how they run things. I'm always trying to see and I was trying to see like what do they do that's not good? So, that you learn from that and not do it. Um always like not in a negative way of like wanting them to fail or whatever, but just like keeping your eye and seeing like, okay, well, they did that and that backfired, so I'll make sure not to do that. That kind of thing.

26:29Yeah. Yeah.

26:31And also

26:32Yeah, and also like European festivals, I I try to see like what bands they're booking, like who are their openers, and then see if I can bring them over to the US to kind of introduce them to the US

26:45There was one band that brought over a couple of festivals ago called Lumen. They're on a small label.

26:53band. And they sounded And I knew I knew that nobody was going to know who they were in the US. Like I knew they didn't have any fans or anything. But I was like, you know, I still really want to bring these guys cuz I know people are going to love them. And that's exactly what happened. As soon as they played out a bunch of people come up to me afterwards be like, "Oh my god, they're my new favorite band." And and then brought them back the next year and then people were like super excited to see them. So you you got to look at

27:19what other festivals are doing, find interesting bands and like even if they don't think they have a pull in the US like bringing them here they'll get a pull. Like they'll play, they'll do a good show and they'll get a bunch of fans. So it's good to take a risk on bands.

27:35I mean that's kind of the thing about festivals, too, right? It's it makes it so you can give a chance to some of the smaller artists to play and like really show themselves off.

27:43Absolutely. And I I I mean I really appreciate that you are a promoter that is willing cuz I do know that not all promoters look at it that way. Um yeah.

27:55of get it because it's also financial risk, too, right? Flying them over, to have them play, pay them, get them a hotel and then, you know, six drunk people show up to see them, you know.

28:05Yeah. Yeah.

28:07So yeah, it is a risk, but it when when it when it when it works out, it's really nice. Feels really good.

28:13Yeah. Well, what is it that you what like are there some examples of like what draws you to a band where you're like, "Oh, I really want to put this show on?"

28:23What draws me to a band?

28:25Mhm. Like if you were like, "Okay, I really want to like put together a show or have this band play for me." Like is there anything in particular?

28:33Um as long as they DON'T SOUND GOTH.

28:38I REALLY DON'T LIKE GOTH. THAT'S THE THAT'S the prerequisite.

28:47There you have it, folks.

28:48anybody that

28:49hates goth music or likes goth music, it's, you know, objectively not good. But, it's, you know, like [laughter] But, yeah, and like I like the harder sounding like industrial stuff, right? So, that's usually what I I go for. There have been, you know, really good artists that I've played that don't really fit that. They're more goth. But, in general, I try to focus on the harder sounding electro-industrial stuff.

29:14I think it's really good that you're honest and you

29:17like it's awesome. I appreciate your candor, honestly.

29:27Oh, man. No, but I

29:33Oh, no. I'm like, "Come back, friends, please."

29:39Uh but like I'm you know, I've never been to um any of the European festivals myself. I was curious like what kind of differences that you notice um between them?

29:50I I was lucky enough to be able to go to Treffen this year.

29:53Oh, wow.

29:54to see how they do it. And it's it's like worlds apart if from anything we have in the US, right? Because I mean, the whole town gets taken over by the festival. You have everybody walking around in black. Um your tickets themselves they get you public transportation, like your wristband. So, you can just take transportation. And there's like a gazillion venues that have bands playing throughout the day.

30:19Wow, okay.

30:20I think it was almost 200 bands this when we went.

30:25Good experience. Really really amazing venues, amazing sounds, really good. The only critique I would have is like you do have to pick which bands you see. Um and sometimes two bands you want to see are playing either at the same time or they're playing at two venues far away from each other. So, you have to take public transportation. Um that's only critique, but then again, if you have 200 bands, like you there is going to be overlap. So, it makes sense. So, definitely for anybody that wants to go to a festival, I think Traven's definitely at least one time you should go and check it out.

30:59Totally worth it.

31:00Yeah, I really I would love to go. I've I've from everybody I've heard, it sounds like a really incredible

31:05For sure. Um Mera Luna is another one on my list. I do want to check that out. Um and then Anz is another and Resistance festivals. So, those are all the European ones and I want to check those out one day.

31:20So, I think those festivals are a little bit more towards the traditional style of a festival, not as crazy as Traven.

31:28Okay. Traven, I've heard it's like the whole it's like the whole city kind of becomes Yeah. That's really cool. Our friends in Ukraine, um they said they I mean, like they got to play Traven, which was such an amazing thing. Um yeah, so and they were describing that that it was like um like a whole city affair. I was like, that's amazing. That Yeah. Yeah. It was nice to see uh this year Black Noise got booked to play there.

31:57Yeah, nice.

31:58Um so, and they're great. I'm That's awesome that I I apparently I think Traven just reached out to them, gave them an offer, and they played. It was that easy.

32:07That's so awesome. Yeah. That's cool. So, um like when you put together the festival yourself for the first time, um had you already been to other festivals and kind of got a feel for I see. Yeah.

32:23Yeah, um Kinetic Festival was I think my first industrial festival I went to. Yeah, over in Montreal.

32:31That was a really good festival. Unfortunately, there was a lot of weird stuff in the background that made it fall apart, but I what I really liked about Kinetic was they would kind of tease the bands. Like before revealing them, they would kind of do a tease to get people kind of guessing like, "Oh, who's which band is this? Who who have they booked?" And I totally stole that idea. Like that's all I do now. So, yeah, that's all there's always like a teaser like hints over which band's going to get announced next cuz I noticed that really drives up the engagement. Like people get really

33:01curious. I mean you get like internet sleuths who'll go do like reverse image search or whatever and try to find out what the band is. So, it's it's cool. It gets people talking. It gets people excited. And it kind of also secretly tells me which bands people really want to see because I'll see the guesses.

33:20Oh, yeah.

33:22And then if a lot of people guess a particular band, I'm like, "Oh, wow, maybe people really want to see these guys." So, it's nice. I like doing it that way. Um I usually like to keep like the list of the bands kind of under wraps until they're revealed. So, sometimes not even the crew knows who all the bands are yet until

33:41they get revealed. So, yeah, it's fun.

33:45I love that. It sounds like it it's like kind of a fun game. It's like um

33:49It is. Yeah.

33:49Uh yeah. Yeah.

33:51It's a game. Yeah. And then after Kinetic, um I went to Terminus. A few of the Terminuses, too. And that's Have you guys played Terminus?

33:58No, we haven't. We haven't.

34:00That's a good festival, too. Over in

34:04Yeah. I've heard such great things. Um yeah, several of our friends have played. Yeah. So, yeah, just kind of those are the two main ones I've been to. I've been to also Absolution Fest, which was really Um yeah, that's about it.

34:20Yeah. Absolution's great. We we played that one a couple years back. And um

34:25I'm not familiar Dark Forest.

34:27Forest. Yes, yes.

34:29I like what they're doing with the vendors. It's kind of like a convention festival music thing.

34:36Yeah, it is really cool. Like there's just so many different kinds, too. So, you know, you do feel like you're like in this sort of like um dark market, which I love.

34:46Yeah. Yeah.

34:47Dark market. Yeah, exactly. What kind of vendors um like do you guys look for at Mechanism?

34:56Local artists. If you can find any local artists, um like any cuz it's all over the places. Anywhere from like jewelry to paintings, whatever people want to sell. So, we don't really have like a particular type we go for. Like as long as they're willing to get a table, buy a table for the night and then then all good. Yeah, that's awesome.

35:18That helps the vendors are the ones that are feeding the bands cuz the money that we're getting from the tables goes to feed the bands every night. So, it's all connected.

35:27It is. It is. Definitely. I mean, I I see that, you know, and I feel like our experience in Seattle has just been very positive in terms of just like the arts scene in general. So.

35:40Unfortunately, things can still get pretty toxic here, but I think in general from what I've seen, better than some other cities as far as like like we were saying earlier as far as like toxicity or people at each other's throats. Um it doesn't happen, but I think we're kind of lucky where it's not as bad as I've seen it

36:05Yeah. Yeah, it's it is interesting like have you always been in Seattle like in terms of your promotion?

36:12That's been your Yeah.

36:14It's been here. Yeah.

36:17It's It's Seattle's expensive, too. That's another

36:20It is.

36:20It is. It's very expensive. Booze is so expensive. And that's how you feed the bands. You feed them booze. And then so

36:27It's very expensive. I mean, it's especially the bands COVID like I think it became worse.

36:32Oh, really? Okay. Yeah.

36:35And like the bars themselves and the they really need to make money. I noticed after COVID like it the overhead has been so high. Um in 2022 when we did the festival at the Crocodile, it was in their big stage which is like their 700 capacity giant

36:56the year after that they moved us downstairs because we just didn't bring enough people to buy booze. They weren't selling enough booze and the the the owner told me he's like, "Yeah, we got to make $20,000 in booze to break even."

37:09Holy crap. The venues have very high overhead as well too. So it's like everyone

37:18high costs.

37:20Yeah, I mean it makes sense why it's hard it's hard to keep a venue open.

37:25Yeah. Yeah.

37:27that blew me away when he when he mentioned that number. gosh, I mean I can't even imagine for That is

37:40Can you imagine seeing them all lined up? I'm like, "What does that look

37:45Yeah, what would that look like?

37:51A lot of shots for sure. [laughter] It is crazy though cuz it's like um like certain cities, you know, Seattle, LA, um New York, I know are just there's so much more of a cost, you know.

38:07Especially New York, right? Isn't New York like

38:09insanely expensive? Yeah.

38:14Um and I know people are like, "Oh, why don't you not do it in Seattle? Do it in like a smaller city or something?" But then it kind of loses its charm, you know? Like

38:22There are a lot of people that come from outside the country, you know, they don't want to come and go to like some tiny little town in Washington state, right? They want to go to Seattle. They want to experience Seattle. They want to go to the Space Needle. So, it's kind of like that iconic city look with, right? So, I want to I want to keep that even though it's very expensive.

38:41This is actually a a cool question from Pete. For the idea of comp tickets, would it make sense to offer a comp ticket to someone whose volunteer time energy saves you an external cost equal or greater to the price of a ticket?

38:57That's it. I mean, we we have to Yeah, um that No, that's good. Um one method we had was the amount of volunteering they did, and it would be like sort of like, okay, well, if you do this many airport pickups, if you do just I'm throwing this out there, just if you do five or four pickups, you get the festival for Um right? You get a comp ticket. If you only do one airport pickup, like you're not getting the whole festival for free, right? Maybe you'll get a day for free that you can go to or something like that. So, kind of the the amount that

39:33someone puts in adds up. Makes sense.

39:38But it's because you you still want to show your appreciation for people helping, right? So, you try to find

39:45and figure it out. I know it's it's it's an interesting conundrum like music in general because it's like, you know, it's everything honestly costs so much. Like, you know, we're just talking about the venues. From the artist vantage point, like pressing a vinyl or, you know, pressing an album, pressing merch, you know, like that all costs so much money.

40:09Um so, yeah, it is it is absolutely a labor of love, for sure.

40:15It really is. It really is. Um the nice thing about festivals is people will buy merch.

40:20They will buy merch. They don't care. You put something out on a table, they'll buy it. It's great. And especially towards the end of the festival or towards the end of the night when they've been drinking, like yeah, you'll see the merch go. And that's really nice. Um a lot of the bands that we booked have said like they've done really well on the merch. That's really nice. So, I mean even ourselves, too, like we'll make shirts and something to try to make some of the money back. And most of the time the shirts do sell out. Not always, but most of the time they sell

40:51I think it's great cuz I mean I feel like the people that are coming to the festivals are music lovers and so they want to like support however they can.

41:00I know we we get get some people that are really into the music. Like I'll have some people approach me and they'll ask about certain bands that I have no idea anybody would know about, you know? So, you do. You get like those the rivet nerds that'll show up.

41:13They'll know all the bands. It is great.

41:19Yeah, it's It is awesome because I feel like um gosh, it's like it really was It is what keeps like everything alive, you Cuz I mean in the scene, too, like you will see the shows where there's like like you said, six people in the And you know? But you don't do it for the numbers. You don't do it you know, it's like and you keep going, right? So.

41:41Yep. Exactly. That's it right there. You just keep going. Yeah. It's It is hard though to work hard to bring a band over and then only have like five or six people show up. But yeah, like you said, you keep going. Try and try Try again next time or Yeah, and I mean I feel like okay, like you've been at this now for 20 years, you know, like promoting and and DJing. You know? Um

42:11I'm not not too I'm not that good of a DJ at all. I just I don't do it enough. But yeah, on the side here and there.

42:18Yeah. Do you ever have you been DJing much lately or has that been kind of

42:24I mean I've done a few there, but no, not that much.

42:29Again, I just I don't I don't think I'm as good as DJing, so I don't really try to push it that much. And also again, I spend so much of my time and energy for this stuff goes towards the festival

42:40Mhm. Makes sense.

42:41Maybe once we start doing some fundraiser shows, yeah.

42:46That's a great idea.

42:49I always thought it'd be cool to do like a fundraiser show where we can actually get some of the bands live like on Zoom or something at the venue. Like kind of thanking the crowd or something. Like get like Claus from Leather Strip or somebody like, you know, come on and say some things and think that'd be kind of fun.

43:09That's a great idea. I love that. Yeah. And Claus is is lovely. Claus is really lovely. We we got to play with Leather Strip at System Syn. I think it was last year. Time is so fluid. But yeah.

43:26Just I'm saying you guys and Claus you all played together?

43:29Yeah, it was in Orange County. We played a show. Yeah, it was January of 2024, I think. So a couple years ago. But yeah, we played System Syn and Leather Strip played together in Orange County. So, which is a really fun show.

43:42Oh, that's a good that's a great lineup.

43:45Very cool. Yeah, Leather he's I think he's played every festival except for So, it's been decided the next time he comes back to play we're actually going to put him to work. Like he'll be part of crew, he'll be helping us sell merch, he'll be driving bands around.

44:02Okay, that's how you do it. That's how you do it.

44:07Oh my gosh. Oh. I I do remember like in one of the So um my first Mechanismus festival is actually with System Syn. And this was before COVID. Um and yes.

44:23So I got to experience one of the famous bus buses Mechanismus buses. And it was awesome because I felt like there was a bunch of bands that flew in at the same

44:32Oh yeah.

44:32So it felt like kind of reunion. It was really fun.

44:35Yep. Yep. It is It's what they call it a summer camp. Industrial.

44:42I don't know who came up with that. It's somebody somebody did. Or who?

44:47That sounds about right though. Yes.

44:50So long. Uh yeah so I mean next year next year's um going to be the big one. That's the 20-year anniversary. So

45:01That's amazing.

45:02Yeah. Uh but it's there's been a lot of delays to it. It's been tough because of not just everything that's going on in this country but also globally. You know every time you turn around somebody's bombing somebody. So it does it hard to Some reason you wouldn't think but that does that stuff does if uh essentially trickle down and and impact things like festival. Because then costs go up. Um sometimes you'll have some bands that don't want to come because of all the things that are going on. So it's it's been tough. It's been again one of those things where it's kind of out of my hands and I just got

45:36roll with it and figure out what to do.

45:40It's been tough. I I hope it happens next year. It will happen next year. I I just hope we get the money and we're These are these next few months are going to be really impactful. See like what what I can do next year. yeah. Cuz I I really like because I'm crazy I really want to make it big next year. Again just to celebrate its 20 years, so

46:04I got a lot of really big plans, but I got to see how much of these plans I can actually do, and that depends on the funding, how much money we can get.

46:14So, um is there like a place that people can tune in and find out updates and ways that they can support? Like, do you have a preferred platform?

46:24I think probably Facebook so far right now is the best.

46:28Um I do really really badly need a social media person. Like, if anybody knows anybody who wants to be a social media person, they this will be obviously volunteer work since nobody makes any money around here. but I do need somebody who's actually savvy because I don't know what the I'm doing on Facebook. Like, I'm sometimes I don't even know how to I I can't get myself to log on to Instagram. I don't know. I don't I feel like an 80-year-old man when I'm trying to do that stuff.

46:53Uh but if I can find a social media person that can actually like knows the algorithms, knows when to post, how to post, where to post, um can manage Instagram, Facebook, that would be awesome because that

47:07um yeah. I'm I'm I'm not good at social mediaing at all.

47:13I like that you're putting it out there though because it's like so far you put together an amazing crew. So,

47:20And the crew does help me with the posts, but I kind of need someone that's going to be fairly dedicated to do very regular posting.

47:29Um you know, the crew they'll have like their own lives and stuff. Like, they don't have the time to be always posting, so it would really help. Maybe if someone wants to like use it as a sort of um what do you call it? when you work but you you don't you don't get paid. What is that called?

47:46Oh, like an internship.

47:47Internship, yes.

47:48Yes, yes.

47:50Anything or maybe just get like some experience under their belt or It is a It's like, you know, like you were talking about the shadowing. It is really cool to like get the experience of like, you know, this is this is like how you run things. This is like, you know,

48:08Yeah. I mean, someone who likes the music, this is a great chance for them to meet all the bands, you know?

48:14That's another nice perk.

48:16Yeah, for sure. Yeah, I mean, I think like, you know, you were saying like being able to like kind of roll with whatever has been going on, you know? Cuz like 2020, gosh, I mean, I feel like 2020 and 2021 like kind of sideswiped all of us.

48:33You know? Yeah, I I actually had to cancel it. I had to cancel it.

48:39Yeah. Yeah.

48:41Yeah, those those were hard years. Those were terrible. For sure. Yeah, and it's it's interesting because like almost everybody I talk to like there's like the before times and then the now times and then the ways that things have been affected, you know, as a result. Yeah, but I mean, you know, I do it's like I feel like because of the nature of what we do, which is all creative based, you know? It's like I think all of us are sort of creative problem solvers. We're like, okay, how do we given this paradigm, like, you know, these resources, what can I actually put together, you know?

49:25No, yeah, you you know that. You said problem solvers. Like it it is. You're constantly faced with problems. I think we're just trying to figure out how to solve them. Yeah.

49:32Yeah. [clears throat] Yeah. I feel like it's like a 40 chess game kind of. That's a good one, too. Yeah.

49:44Yeah. It's like given this thing and if I want to get this artist and this artist together, you know, like how do I make that happen? So.

49:53Yeah. Yeah.

49:56I also one of the things I also really like doing is doing the polls. Like every year after the festival is done, we'll set up some polls of like, "Hey, who do you want to see play next? What you know, what are what bands do you want to see play?" And that that really helps determine the roster for the next year. Cuz I'll I'll actually go and read those and like tally up how many bands are getting votes and whatnot. So, that that helps me kind of understand you know, what people want to see. So, that's been really good. And yeah, even on those sometimes you'll see people

50:25mention some bands that like I have not heard of at all and I'll go check them out and they're really good. So, it's also good for me to learn about new

50:33Yeah, I was going to ask actually like how how do you discover new bands?

50:38Um labels. I still like looking at labels, seeing who they're booking, you know, like looking at Out of Line, Alfa Matrix, all them and seeing Metropolis and seeing like what what bands are booking. That's one. Also, Bandcamp is I'm I'm always on Bandcamp, just listening to new bands or new new stuff from old bands. And like I said earlier, too, festivals, European festivals. I'll like look at the look at the like the head the headliners and also the openers and see who these bands are and I'll look them up and yeah. I mean, that's kind of how I found Lumen cuz

51:14through the Alfa Matrix side and also um I think I saw them at a playing a festival, too, but There's a lot of good music out there. You just got to go and find it. You know, ways to find these bands, Definitely. Definitely a lot of platforms and, you know, obviously like what your friends share with you where you're like, "Oh, that's cool, you know, here's a here's a band that I've been listening to." But

51:41bands. I always like bands tell me about other bands they like. That's always It is, for sure. It's a pretty It's funny cuz you think it's a really huge world, but actually it's it's a very small world.

51:54Very small world, yeah. That's why it's like if you're a dick, everyone will

51:59You know,

52:00that's true.

52:02You know, if you if you're like just a complete turd bag, everyone across the world has heard about you, they know about you, nobody wants to work with you. So, it's like reputation is very important. Like how you treat people is very important. Um

52:15Shitty promoter, no bands are going to work with you because everyone will hear about it. If you're a horrible band, you're not going to get booked. Simple, like it.

52:23You really have to be really careful with your reputation. And what you say and what you do. That's a big deal.

52:31Yeah, it's true, absolutely. Cuz I mean, I think it's one thing if you have like a single encounter, like you have like one show, but then it's like it's about the relationship, I think, where you're like, but will we work together again? Um cuz I'm sure you have like your list of like, that will be a never again, that's a one-and-done, you I have two never again's.

52:54Oh, that's only That's it. Okay, that's not bad.

52:56Two or three total in like 20 years. So.

53:01Yeah, that's that's pretty good numbers. That's like what? One One shitty band every eight years or something?

53:06That's impressive, actually. That's really good.

53:12That's That's a really good batting average, I'm going to say.

53:16I've been lucky. I've I've heard horror stories from other promoters, but I think I've just gotten really lucky.

53:22Or either that or maybe they just know they need to be on their best behavior with you.

53:33But yeah, that's actually really good. Um yeah.

53:38Also, if I'm going to be working with a new band like that I haven't worked with before, I'll check with bands that I know well, right? Um Tom Shear is great. I always always bug him about, "Hey, I'm going to be, you know, talking to so-and-so. Are they cool?" And he's he's straight up. He'll tell me if they are or not. Right? And and he's like factual and I get I get exactly what I need. So, I he's he's and Klaus are kind of my go-tos for like

54:05temperature checking bands I haven't worked with before to make sure they're not or want too much money or anything like that. So.

54:15Yeah, that is nice. That is nice. It's nice to have your background checkers, for sure.

54:22Yeah, yeah, definitely. Yes.

54:24Yes. Yes.

54:26Tom Shear is my background checker.

54:28I love it. I love that you're putting like Klaus and Tom like, in you know, into the like, "Okay, here are your roles."

54:39Well, Klaus is going to be driving bands around. He doesn't know it yet, but that's that's what he's going to do.

54:43Yes. I love it.

54:48Yeah, we we we had a chance to play with Tom, actually. We did the Fixation Fest Cat's Fixation Fest in Detroit. Um and so, yeah, Tom played that. Mary did, too. It was really cool. So, yeah.

55:03Awesome. I haven't heard of that festival before. Is it newer?

55:06I think it's newer. Um so, Cat was the promoter at Small's Bar, and then she passed away. So, but she had started putting together something called Fixation Fest in Detroit. And it's awesome. Small's Bar is awesome. Fixation is awesome. And yeah, they've been it's been I don't know how many years they've been doing it, but yeah, it's really great. I love that it's like in Detroit. So, yeah, we've we've had a really good time playing at Small's Bar before.

55:37When does that happen? When does that

55:39Um when we played it was in May. So, it was like kind of like I want to say mid-May, maybe.

55:48Was it multiple days?

55:50Yes. Yes. I think it's like Thursday, Friday, Saturday. So, mhm. Yeah, I would definitely recommend

55:58these festivals go up. I've been seeing more of these go up. Like it's good. I think it it spells out that there's a healthy scene happening when you see more festivals going up. Um and like even in Seattle, like I said, we have a couple other really like Yes is um and then like yeah, we have a couple of really good promoters that and I'm seeing more and more promoters pop up in Seattle that are doing shows as well, too. and that's great because it kind of tells you that people are coming to shows. That's why you have more people putting shows on. So, it's it's good. It's healthy, I

56:32Yeah, absolutely. And it's cool because I feel like you know, with there's when there's festivals in different regions, you know, it's like it really helps to um you know, for for touring bands, like you like for us, like we put together tours to get us there and back. Um and um and plus I think it's really cool to see it in certain regions, like you know, Absolution in Florida, Dark Forest in the Northeast, like it's it's awesome that they have like these little, you know, staples in those regions. So.

57:04And Cold Waves and

57:06And Cold Waves, right, right, right.

57:10Have you guys played Cold Waves?

57:12We haven't played Cold Waves. Yeah. Yeah, it's funny. There's certain ones where people have asked us like um Terminus is one, Cold Waves is one that we haven't had a chance to yet, but would love to. Yes.

57:23I've never been to Cold Waves. I'd I'd like to go sometime. But yeah, if you guys can get on Terminus, that would be really cool. I think that'd be really good festival for you guys, for sure.

57:31Yeah, yeah.

57:33Cuz like he likes to he likes to book Yeah, like the first time I heard about it was actually from Eric Gottesman and he's like yes.

57:53I know. I don't think there's a single festival that I've ever like played at that Eric hasn't been at. No, I think he's he's

58:07By location, instant transport. I think he he must have clones. It's true. It's true.

58:25Oh, the Shadow Gallery says you need a Mechanismus ice cream truck with Claus driving. Yes.

58:33I like that. That's our money back.

58:38That's such a great idea. I'm like all about this. I'm like yes, ice cream Oh man, when we played Absolution, there was a hearse that had popsicles cuz you know it gets super hot in Florida and there was this guy in a hearse that would like drive around like selling popsicles and so he gave the bands like free popsicles which is really nice. So.

59:01Not a far off idea. Oh, yes. That sounds proper.

59:15So, have you ever I know you you do DJ, but have you ever created music yourself? Oh, no. No, I don't have that.

59:25No, definitely not.

59:28Don't have any musical talents. I'll I'll let that I'll let other people take care of that.

59:34Got you.

59:35Got you. Yeah.

59:36When I first started DJing, I was using Ableton Live. where I learned um I I know that's a very popular software for making music.

59:48That's the closest I've ever come. Is I've had the software on my computer. That's it.

59:53See, that counts. That does count.

59:58Yeah. No, it's it's I don't know. It's it's really cool because I feel like um like there's people that are equally passionate just you know, in different forms in the music community. Like we were talking before the stream like I've had friends that were roadies and they loved being a roadie. Like they just loved it, you know, but they didn't want to be on stage. Like they're they're happy being in where they are, you know.

1:00:23Yeah, they want to be involved, right?

1:00:25Yeah, they want to be involved.

1:00:26I'm one of everybody. Yeah, I get that. It's cool. I think there's something for everyone for sure.

1:00:33Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah.

1:00:36Yeah. Well, so for if like a person wants to start promoting just and they're brand brand new at it, like what would what advice would you have for somebody starting out?

1:00:48Talk to the other promoters in the city. Like find the biggest ones and talk to them and then work with them. Shadow them or something. I think that's the best way to do it. If you just try to do it cold turkey, I mean, you might do okay, but it's better um work with other people.

1:01:06Learn from them and also if you approach a promoter and want to work with them, um they're probably going to be more likely to I'm trying to say this not be I don't want to say intimidated, but like think you're trying to encroach on on their whatever on their

1:01:24Um when you if you approach them you're like, "Hey, I need your help. I'd like to start doing some shows. Can you help me? Can you Can I shadow you?" I think that's a good way of approaching it. Um cuz I know sometimes some promoters can get kind of territorial.

1:01:36So if your friend comes to the city and starts doing shows and stuff, so you do that I would say definitely go talk to the promoters and just kind of meet and greet with them.

1:01:46That's a way of doing it. Just

1:01:49Makes sense. And same thing with I'm sure with like festivals as well, like probably wanting to work with other people before going in cold turkey.

1:01:58I imagine. Yeah.

1:01:59Yeah. Yeah, I mean the Yeah, the festival thing is a whole 'nother beast. In my opinion, I think before you do a big festival you should have like an X amount of years of just doing regular

1:02:10Because a festival is it's a whole 'nother beast. And if you try to go right to a festival without having done regular shows, I think that's a recipe for disaster. Um because when you do regular shows you'll learn a lot. Um and then you'll also make a lot of good contacts, which in turn you can use to put together your festival. So yeah, don't don't cold turkey it.

1:02:33It makes sense cuz it's sort of like I guess it's sort of the idea of like the dream where you're like, "Oh my gosh, it'd be so cool to put together this festival with this lineup." But then there's the actual reality of like what actually goes into putting it

1:02:47Yeah. Yeah. When you start seeing those flight costs, that's when the reality kicks in.

1:02:54I see. Let's say either like, "Okay, like am I willing to take this huge financial hit? Or how can I actually be strategic about like putting it together?" You know.

1:03:06Yeah. You'll definitely need to take loans out, for sure.

1:03:11So be ready.

1:03:13Um Isidro uh Lopez is asking um if you have any advice to aspiring DJs. I mean, I I think what I would really like the kind of DJs I like are ones that don't just play like top 40.

1:03:34Uh, they challenge the crowd a little bit, right? I mean, they'll play some of the popular older stuff, but then they'll also challenge the crowd and play new stuff, right?

1:03:41I think the DJ's job should be to bring new music to the community, play the same songs the community already has heard a million times and they have their CDs of them already and they can just listen to at home, right? I think it's

1:03:57It's when you go to a club and yeah, you hear some of your old favorites, but you also see there's this new stuff getting mixed in because there's so many good new bands they need that exposure and I think it's the DJ's job to really bring bring that sound forward for people to hear. I mean, unless you really want to be an old school DJ, I think if you just want to be a DJ for the scene, I think you should definitely pay attention not just to your local bands, but also to new bands like international new bands and play them. Challenge your crowd.

1:04:28It's scary when you play a song and it clears the floor, but I mean, that's part of it. It's going to happen. I feel like that's more like then sort of like trial and error where you start learning like, okay, there's certain things where I can see like it gets people moving and then certain things like you said where it clears the floor, so yeah.

1:04:48You kind of getting the gauge of like the type of sound like audience likes to hear, right? Yeah. Which definitely can change. I mean, if you have like certain nights that you play or if you are a traveling DJ, you know, like it can change from place to place, so yeah.

1:05:05Yeah, then that's another thing is having different sets for different nights, right?

1:05:10Like you said, like different crowds and and all that. Yeah, it's so um for your festivals, um do you have like um certain dedicated DJs that you like to work with, or do you like to change that up every year?

1:05:24Well, actually for next year, I I don't think I'm going to I'm only going to do DJs for the pre-party.

1:05:31And it'll most likely probably just be our us, the crew.

1:05:35because the cost is going to be so expensive, I can't afford to pay any Um and also having DJs play during the band nights is just not very optimal for the DJ, because all they'll do is they'll play for 10 minutes, and then the next band will start, right? So, it's not really worth their time, in my

1:05:53Mhm. Yeah.

1:05:55nine songs total for the whole for the whole night. It's just

1:05:58doesn't make sense. So.

1:06:05It's definitely food for thought. Like it's a definitely different than a show, cuz I know that, you know, there's fewer people that you're working with, so you have like a little more leeway to be able to like do things differently. So.

1:06:18Yep. Yep.

1:06:19Yeah. Yeah. I can see why you want to want to work your way up to putting together a festival, cuz yeah, that is a lot to think about.

1:06:29It is. It is a lot to think about. There's a lot of logistics. It's like a gigantic regular show, in a way, I guess, if you think about it. Like, if you think it's hard working just three bands to book for one night, like imagine working with like 40 bands. You're trying to coordinate all of that, right? So, it's just a huge bigger

1:06:45That's a lot.

1:06:48Yeah, for sure. That's a lot. But gosh.

1:06:51If If we get the right amount of funding from grants and whatnot, we could end up with 48 bands next year.

1:06:58That's amazing.

1:06:59That works out. Yeah. That'll be That'll be awesome. Of those 48 bands, half of them are going to be brand new to the festival. Like they've never played it And then the other half will be like the favorites that everyone has come to know that play the festival all the time. So, they'll be back, too.

1:07:17Yeah. That's awesome. I love the mix and I love that um you know, it's one of those things like you were saying like as a DJ, I mean in a way it's sort of like DJing where you're like I'm introducing some new music, right? Um some new artists and just kind of like putting it in there. But then also including stuff that people really love and know. So, yeah.

1:07:39The trick is like mixing the new stuff with the old stuff. So, while you got the people on the floor, then you play the new stuff and kind of catch them.

1:07:50Is this going to be at one venue or you staggering it at different venues?

1:07:54I think it'll be two. Um the venue is there's there's a lot going on on that front, too, because uh I was going to do it at Madame Lou's, which is Crocodile's stage in the it's their second smaller stage. Um unfortunately, that sold and it's become a different venue. I think it's called BottleRocket now.

1:08:14Um okay.

1:08:15There was a theater there and I've heard rumors that they're going to take out the theater or they're going to do some renovations. So, I have no idea if if we'll be able to do it up there next year, which is too bad uh because that that venue is really good, really convenient. The hotel's right at the top, so if possible, I'd like to still do it there, but um I'm guessing they'll probably jack up the rent.

1:08:40You know that area is very expensive.

1:08:43And doing all these renovations, too, like I'm guaranteed they're going to probably raise raise the rental fee on that venue. So,

1:08:50depends on how much they raise it, but it's it's already pretty expensive, so I don't know I mean how much more they're going to raise it. Um but I am like I'm looking at like backup venues and whatnot, too.

1:09:01Yeah. If the bottle rocket doesn't work

1:09:05All the fingers and toesies crossed that it that it all comes together very

1:09:11Yeah, these next few months are going to be completely terrifying.

1:09:18Yeah. Yeah, I could see especially just not really knowing like what the logistics are going to be at. Yeah.

1:09:27But you know, again as far as like the bands that are going to play and all that that's all figured out. Now it's just figuring out what's going to happen to the venue and how much money there's going to be there.

1:09:37Yeah. This is that's another call out I'd like to do. If anybody knows of good sponsorships, please let us know like places we can work with. We've we've tried with some like um vodka companies, but haven't had much luck. So

1:09:54If we can get like a good sponsorship, that'll be really nice.

1:09:57Yeah. I could see that for sure.

1:10:00Yeah, I would think that like a an alcohol company would be a good thing, but I guess you just never really never know. So yeah. And if you know, this is like a niche festival too. So

1:10:12I think a place like Tito's probably doesn't want to sponsor a tiny little industrial festival. They're probably more interested in something that has you know, hundreds of thousands of people at it. So they'd probably rather put their money towards that. But

1:10:25Maybe an energy drink.

1:10:26Yeah, that would be nice. Energy drink would be really good. Yes. And I'm I'd be curious like, you know, I know there's a lot of really interesting like local businesses in Seattle, you know, that might be

1:10:41Yeah. Um we've had some local businesses support a little bit, but it's also hard for them too because they they just don't have that much additional income to be able to you know, give to

1:10:53But yeah. Hopefully something will come up.

1:10:57It's like a homeless person asking everyone for money.

1:11:03But, I think it's great that, you know, it's like it's again it's like a crowd sourced, you know, community.

1:11:10Um you know, and I feel like like you were saying it's like it's it's a whole region. It's not just Seattle. It's like the Pacific Northwest. So, um yeah. And it brings in like, you know, like the fact that people will get the opportunity to see these bands that maybe they wouldn't have otherwise, you know, like for those of us who haven't been able to go to the festivals in Europe, it's awesome that we'd be able to see these artists here. So,

1:11:37Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, that's that's part of the goal is bringing bucket list bands, bringing artists that never come to US. Like try to say earlier, try to break that barrier. Right? I know it's hard because it's expensive, but yeah. It's worth it.

1:11:54Yeah. Yeah. I I mean, see, that's that's I think that's really what matters at the end of the day is just being able to say like yes, this was worth it.

1:12:02You know.

1:12:03Uh when I first started promoting the first couple years, I remember um somebody told me it was like, "Yeah, you know, you did good as a promoter if you look around and you see that one guy in the corner just kind of giving you with a head bob." Like you know you have you know you have a successful night when you got that guy giving you the head bob. Oh my gosh, that's true.

1:12:25When in the corner drinking a hand just you know.

1:12:29You're like, "Yeah, that was awesome. That was a successful night."

1:12:32Yes, I love that.

1:12:36Gosh, I love that. Like totally. I feel like there's certain little measurements, you know, when you're like, "Okay, this was good."

1:12:42And there is always that guy, right? If you go to a show, there's always that guy with a drink in his hand in the corner by himself just moving his head. He's everywhere.

1:12:50I Yes, you are correct.

1:12:55100% every show. There's always that that guy. So, yes.

1:12:59Especially if they make eye contact with you, then you know they're serious, you know? Just like watching you and just

1:13:08I think it's awesome. Like when um when you first started going to shows yourself that that weren't what shows that you produced, like were you that guy?

1:13:21Oh, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I would go to shows by myself a lot. Yeah. I was that Yeah. [laughter]

1:13:31Good match.

1:13:32I love that. Yes. [laughter] Yeah, that's that's actually usually me, too, cuz I love going to live shows and yeah, like I'll go to shows by myself, too, where I'm just and just cuz I love

1:13:47Yeah. It is. It is. And I've always loved live music, so it's just one of those things where it's like it just it feeds a part of your soul that just is like nothing else.

1:13:59Yeah. Yeah. That's that's something that AI is not going to replace.

1:14:05Anything like that.

1:14:05Yeah. It's true. It's true. You cannot cannot replace the actual human.

1:14:11Yeah. Exactly.

1:14:12Yeah. Yeah. Flaws and all. Like, here we are.

1:14:19I actually really like when I see mistakes on stage, cuz I feel like I love seeing that human quality where I'm like, yes. You know?

1:14:26Especially especially if they're, you know, they have a good humor about it or something, you know?

1:14:33Um but it's yeah, it's nice going to shows that you did not produce, because then you have to worry about anything. It doesn't matter if there's sound issues, if there's somebody on fire, it doesn't matter. It's like you you're you're just in your corner with your

1:14:45Yes. [laughter]

1:14:46Very relaxing.

1:14:49This is true. And you're like, "Oh, this there's a sound issue, but I don't have to fix that."

1:14:55Was it the last festival or the festival before? I think it was the last festival. Yeah, we we did have a fire on

1:15:03Combichrist was playing and then they blew something out and they they had to come in with like a fire hydrant and put it out.

1:15:10Oh my god.

1:15:11I don't remember exactly what it was that caught on fire, but yeah.

1:15:15But it was taken care of quickly and I don't think that many people even noticed, so

1:15:21Yeah, but I think I think it was Andy that was telling me like he looked and he looked again so there was like a fire and a fire hydrants and like people trying to put it not fire hydrants, fire extinguishers.

1:15:31Yeah, yep, yep. Oh my god.

1:15:34Like a little secret fire on stage. Nothing to see here, folks.

1:15:40Oh man. Oh, we've blown our our share of circuits. So and I've like you see the smoke coming and you're just like, "Oh,

1:15:49Oh yeah, yeah. Oh man. But that's that's the thing when you go to shows that you didn't produce, it doesn't matter. Doesn't matter who's on fire, you know.

1:15:58That's it.

1:16:02Oh man, yeah. Okay, I can see from your So you went to um the the Wave-Gotik Um are there any shows that you're excited about that are coming up this

1:16:20In Seattle? none that I can think of right now. No.

1:16:27Yeah. [snorts] I'm I'm I got Arya coming uh November. Yeah, it's going to get announced this week, so

1:16:37Speaking of Eric Gottesman.

1:16:40Oh yeah.

1:16:45But yeah, as far as like other shows, I don't I don't know. I'm sure there's a lot of really good stuff.

1:16:51I haven't been paying too much attention the last few weeks, so.

1:16:56I understand. I mean, you have your your mountain to climb at the moment, so yes. I completely understand. Yes. I feel like when you have like these really huge undertakings, it's like you really do have to go in the cave to be able to get it all done, so.

1:17:12Yeah, you got to go heads down.

1:17:18I imagine recovery after this is is like its own thing, where you have to like kind of set aside some time where you're like, I'm going to be away from everybody for like a second after putting something like that together. the cry breaks, or whatever.

1:17:32Just [laughter]

1:17:33Lock yourself up somewhere for a couple weeks and cry. Yeah.

1:17:38Oh my gosh, I really hope this is not an actual thing. I'm like, no.

1:17:43My god, does he actually do that? What?

1:17:45I'm like, Ollie, do we need to send a lifeline here? Oh man.

1:17:54Oh, well, we'll we'll send you a Klaus ice cream truck maybe to [laughter] like cart you around.

1:17:59that'll cheer me up. an ice cream truck.

1:18:05Oh, an ice cream truck that plays industrial music. There you go.

1:18:10You know.

1:18:13I mean, that could actually be kind of cool advertisement for Mechanismas, you know? You have like the music going with with the ice cream. one of the guys on the crew, Nick, he his car, he's he's a big Wastelander. He goes to Wasteland a lot.

1:18:29And he's kind of decked out his car. He has a Honda Element, but he's decked it out, so it looks all Wastelandy and everything. And the hood of his car, he's had all the bands signed with a knife. Like, they carved their name into the hood. So, he's got like everyone, like Suicide Commando, Covenant, all their names like on on the uh in the front of his car. It's really

1:18:50Wow, that's awesome. That's so cool. Um we played Wasteland Weekend actually a few years ago, and blew my mind how decked out these car like vehicles were. I was just like, wow.

1:19:05time and work they put on those?

1:19:07Oh, man. They're That's quite a feat.

1:19:13That's That's passion right there.

1:19:15Oh, yeah, it is. It is. And just some of the skills that they have to be able to like make the things, it just blows my mind. So, yeah. That's so cool. Well, um oh, uh yes, Raiden Man was asking about um industrial shows um that um that you've you you are doing. yeah, the biggest one that's coming up is the festival for next year, but um gosh, you've booked so many bands. I'm like, it's I'm like, it would take a really long time to list how many bands that you've

1:19:53Yeah, I think it's close to 300 now.

1:19:59That's amazing.

1:20:01There's a lot of them, yeah.

1:20:02Wow. Gosh. So cool that you've like experienced being able to cuz I feel like when you put a show together, whether it's a show or a festival, like you have this moment of time of convergence where you're like, okay, we're all like in the boat like making this happen in this moment happen together. So.

1:20:21You mean like when it actually comes together, like

1:20:23Yeah, when it all comes together.

1:20:24Very different feeling, for sure. Yeah. And then when it ends, and everything went well, then that's a really good feeling, too. Like, you have that sigh of relief after it's done.

1:20:36Oh, totally. And the adrenaline that it takes to be able to make it all happen.

1:20:46Yeah. You can go home hungover. Yeah.

1:20:49This is how I was like energy drinks. I could see energy drinks or coffee.

1:20:54I don't know. Really cool. Did you say coffee, too?

1:20:58I mean.

1:20:59I think that would be really cool, Mechanismus coffee.

1:21:08Yeah. There you go.

1:21:11Black coffee. Oh, and friends, if there are any questions in the chat, Radon Man is asking if my friend's band, Monoji, is playing. Um well, I I don't think Ali is announcing yet. It's it's behind the curtains right now. But, I'm sure you'll be announcing next year or

1:21:42announce it. Band band announcements will start either end of November or beginning of December this year.

1:21:50Yeah. So, stay tuned.

1:21:51Yeah. And then, we'll put the dates out I want to wait for a couple more bands just to make sure that they're good with the dates, and then we'll we'll we'll we'll announce the dates as well to you. It'll be later. It'll be It'll be later in August timeline next year. So, it won't be in June like it usually is. Um we've got There's been There's been setbacks, so we've had to push it back.

1:22:14Understandable. Understandable. Yeah.

1:22:17Um but yeah, no. The band announcements will start in November beginning of December. We'll just kind of

1:22:23get all those out.

1:22:25Yeah. It's exciting. And oh, I is asking, "What is everyone's favorite um hot tea?" What is your fav- Do you have a favorite hot tea? Not really. I like tea. Like I I don't have a tea that I don't like.

1:22:48I mean, green tea is great. I love that.

1:22:50is great. Mhm.

1:22:51That's awesome. Uh but I'm I'm I'm a more of a more hipster, so I'm I like uh kombucha a lot.

1:22:58Kind of what I drink.

1:23:02I I like all teas myself. I really like black teas. So.

1:23:07Yep. Yep. That's a fun question for the chat if if everyone wants to chime in on their favorite tea. Aw. And Red Dawn Man says, "I will find Mechanisis Mechanismus on socials and follow." Awesome. Awesome. Awesome.

1:23:25I think whiskey is his favorite tea.

1:23:28Whiskey is a

1:23:30I guess that counts. It's like a It's a liquid, right? A brewed thing. Yeah, sure.

1:23:37It's like kind of like saying like you're getting water when you drink coffee, right?

1:23:41Yeah. [laughter] Yeah. Yeah.

1:23:42Yes. Yes.

1:23:45Say you're drinking water when it's actually vodka. Yeah.

1:23:47Yes. It's exactly. It's some kind of a liquid, so it counts, right? Oh. Aw. Phoenix is saying Alice tea. We do have our teas. I'll have to bring you some tea next time I see you, Billy.

1:24:08Yeah. Yeah. It's pretty cool. One of our

1:24:11A company sort of or

1:24:13Yeah, so one of our friends actually So, we have two friends. One that We have more than two friends, I think. Um

1:24:22Um one of our friends made a hot sauce for us and then one of our friends made some teas for us. Um, and it's really cool. So, he's um, here in Southern California and him and his wife actually grow the herbs um, themselves. So, um, we have three different teas. We have a red chai. Um, we have like a black tea and then we have like this um, um, it's an it's like a different blend with different kinds of flowers and chocolate and stuff like that. So,

1:24:48that's good. Yeah. So, but yeah, it's great he's amazing like his his teas he originally approached us and he was like, you know, I really want to make tea that feels like your music and I love how creative that you know, I was like, okay. I'm like, I don't I don't I cannot imagine what the taste of Alice would be like, but I love that that creativity went behind it. So,

1:25:13Yeah, that's super cool. Do you Do you do your own art?

1:25:17Um, we work with different artists. So, Yeah, there's

1:25:21your guys' style of art and

1:25:23Yeah, yeah. So, like um, so it just like different artists like design different things for us like different shirts and different, you know, um, labels and stuff. So,

1:25:33And yeah, we we there's certain artists that we tend to work with more, um, you know, but we like to like work with different artists that are our friends.

1:25:43That's cool. Yeah, it's always fun to like um, find people to collaborate with. Speaking of, you know, it's just it's really cool when you find like your kindred spirits and you're like, let's make a thing together. So, yeah.

1:25:56Yeah, and you're you're both like on the same page and

1:26:00Both get it. Yeah, those those are the best. Of course. Yeah, and then it's really exciting cuz you're just like, oh, we could try this thing and this thing and and then it all comes together. So,

1:26:12Yeah, very good feeling.

1:26:13Very good feeling for sure. Yeah. Important to find your crew. Yes.

1:26:19Oh, Red on Man said, "I almost typed whisk tea."

1:26:25Yes, whisk tea. Uh, I guess I I've learned something today that whiskey can also be tea.

1:26:35Now you know.

1:26:37There's your next brand. By the way, I love your shirt that says, "I survived Mechanismus."

1:26:45Oh, yeah.

1:26:47Yeah. That was one Somebody from the crew came up with that idea. So, because the joke is that it's so long, like, you know, you don't survive it.

1:26:58Okay, I'm curious, like, on your marathons, so like, we're talking like you're day three of the festival, do you are you a caffeine drinker? Is like that's kind of Okay. Definitely, caffeine helps. Water helps. And, you know, booze helps, too. You all three of [laughter] those The trifecta of the three of those together work really well.

1:27:21So, if someone were to see you at this festival, it would be a nice gesture to be like, "Here is a beverage," whether water or caffeine or booze of some sort.

1:27:31Probably not booze. Maybe not booze.

1:27:32Okay. So, caffeine or water.

1:27:38I mean, because I'm if it's towards the end of night, I'll do booze. Yeah. But Yes, these are the things that fuel us, for sure. I'm a caffeine drinker myself, so yes.

1:27:51It's good fuel. You need it.

1:27:53It is good fuel. It is true. It is true. I don't know about the immortals that managed to do it without. Maybe one day I will be such an immortal, but I I have not lived my life without caffeine so far, so

1:28:09It is necessary. Um well, my friends, if there are any last-minute questions for Ali, again, really excited about the upcoming 20-year anniversary of the Mechanismus community, um the festival that's coming up. Um if you want to follow um the updates, great to follow him on socials. Ali mentioned Facebook is a great place um to find out about like the announcements and stuff. Um yeah, drop them in the chat if you have any other questions for Ali.

1:28:45And reach out if if you want to be a social media person or know someone who Yes. The The team is awesome. Like uh you know, all of our encounters with um the Mechanismus crew has always been amazing. It's always been awesome. It's like it feels like a reunion, like a wonderful group of friends. Uh that's that's good. I Nobody wants to go to a festival and then get treated like dirt, you know, it's like

1:29:11It's true. And it happens. It does happen. So, yeah.

1:29:15There's you know, some venue staff can be dicks. Like the people can be to you. Yeah, and it can kind of ruin your experience,

1:29:23Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. Like it makes a world of difference when, you know, like, you know, you're treated with kindness. It makes such a difference. So,

1:29:34And like people who like kind of know you or personable with you, that's always good. You know?

1:29:38It is. It is. There's nothing like being greeted by a friendly face that's like, "Okay, you know, we're we're here to do this together." So, yeah.

1:29:47Or that or to do in the corner nodding his head, right? Aw, we live for those. Okay. Um I see there it says, "Random question." We're ready for it. Um Oh, uh shadow uh the Shadow Gallery says that the Mectady is going to be spinning at the 16-volt show in Seattle next month.

1:30:13I won't be at that one, but yeah, but um Jason's show, ColdWaves. It's like a

1:30:19Yeah. So, he he booked it there, but then yeah, we're going to support them helping them by DJing there.

1:30:26That's awesome.

1:30:27That should be good.

1:30:28Um the the venue that is really nice, the Chop Suey.

1:30:33a good venue.

1:30:35Yeah, I don't think I've experienced Chop Suey, but that's really cool.

1:30:43Well, this was fun.

1:30:44yes. Ollie, thank you so much for taking the time. Like really grateful.

1:30:49All the people on the chat.

1:30:51Appreciate it. Yes, thank you so much, friends. It's always wonderful to get to hang out and um chat with y'all and encounter fellow kindred spirits who love and nerd out just as much as we do about like music. So, yes, sending many, many loves. And please, please support and follow Mechanismas. We love We absolutely love Ollie and the crew.

1:31:18Well, awesome to hear. Thank you.