Business Time: Liverpool Sound City

“Every band in the city wants to play at Sound City,” says Tim Tierney of The Tea Street Band. For Tierney and his bandmates, Liverpool's 'showcase festival' – combining gigs, multimedia performances, conferences and workshops with industry professionals, and open to 'delegates' as well as gig-goers – is a unique opportunity, one they've grabbed with both hands for the past three years running. “I just want to set out our stall as one of the best bands in the city,” he explains. Recently, The Tea Street Band got the chance to prove their chops in an international setting, playing the first ever New York Sound City showcase – arranged by the same team behind the Liverpool event – alongside the likes of Wet Nuns and Reverend & The Makers.

One of the key Sound City organisers is Darren Roper, who's been on board with Sound City from its inception five years ago: “I started as a stage manager – I did Laura Marling, Noah and the Whale, Pete and the Pirates and Silver Jews in the first year,” he recalls. “I started working with the live programme director in the second year, shortlisting the bands, selecting them, promoting them. I didn't really know much about showcase festivals at the time – I just liked bands. That is still my main focus now, to tell the truth!” Now shortlisting and booking bands, he is still passionate about Sound City: “I love music, I love Liverpool bands; I love bands who inspire me from all walks of life,” he says.

One artist who would agree with Roper is Liverpool-based singer-songwriter Rebecca Hawley, one third of Stealing Sheep, another local band for whom Sound City has had a positive impact. “Every year this festival gets better," she says. "Better line-ups, unusual venue ideas and better platforms for local artists.” This year's festival isn't her first rodeo, either – previous years have seen Stealing Seep support the likes of Django Django, Clinic and Outfit. One gig led to an encounter with A&R Seymour Stein of Sire Records, who provided some valuable advice. Hawley offers one contrast between in-the-city, showcase format festivals like Sound City and Brighton's The Great Escape, and traditional outdoor music festivals: the camping ilk are enjoyed “usually under some kind of psychedelic influence,” she says, whereas Sound City is “more about the music.”

Tierney identifies another aspect of outdoor festivals he doesn't miss at Sound City: “I hate portaloos. They knock me physically sick. Especially when they've been cooked all day in the sun.” But the differences between the two types of festival are superficial, he continues: “People want to watch good bands in a good atmosphere. Last year's Sound City was brilliant. Everyone was smiling and enjoying themselves.”

These festivals with some sort of business or conference element are almost as numerous as your more 'traditional' shindigs now – taking their blueprint, perhaps, from that grand old dame of showcase festivals, South by Southwest (SXSW), this year criticised by bands like DIIV for being a media frenzy with too much focus on networking and “industry vampires.” Roper is upfront when addressing the potential downside of festivals like these: “A lot of bands go to play them, and probably don't get paid," he says. "A lot of artists who come to Sound City, we give them basic expenses, if that. They get wristbands for the festival. These are bands who are very much emerging – talented but unknown people. So we offer them the opportunity to come, play Sound City, attend the conference and explore different areas of the music business – meet the right people, the right journalists. So, in some respects, certain artists might not believe Sound City is a good thing, because we're not paying people. The more we grow, the more we'll be able to give expenses to artists, to give a little bit back. But with 300 bands coming here, 100% of our artist budget goes on making sure those bands can say, 'We came to Sound City and played with X,' because that's important for them – it's good marketing.”

Understandably, artists and bands who favour the DIY approach can be dismissive of Sound City and festivals like it – but for bands who are at the right stage of their career, and who want to break into the mainstream, the festival may offer a golden opportunity. So what is that right stage? “They need to be touring, and to be able to pick up on a showcase while doing a tour,” Roper suggests. “We need bands who are ready to play to a wider audience. We do get a lot of international bands coming to Sound City – they're coming to Liverpool ready, willing and able; completely enthusiastic. They've got very high standards. Anyone who is leaving their own international territory and coming here is just completely ready. Slick and professional.”

What kind of opportunities might bands encounter at Sound City when mingling with A&Rs, journalists and gig promoters? “There is the potential for arranging releases, or potentially going and doing tours,” says Roper. “There are a lot of nice Italian and French promoters who come to England with a band – it would be a good opportunity for UK artists to try and make inroads towards doing a tour in Europe. You never know quite who you're going to meet at Sound City. That's the nicest thing about it. The bigger a showcase festival like ours becomes, the more opportunity there is to do business here.”

Do all the bands who play take advantage of the networking opportunities? “Artists who are really driven to be successful in music as an industry, and who understand the nuances of how it works, they get really involved, and they're really eager to come,” says Roper. “Others don't really think that they need or want to speak to someone who distributes CDs, or someone who works in digital rights management, or in publishing. I'd say it's about 50-50.”

Sound City is as much about taking advantage of Liverpool's more interesting venues as it is about the music. Roper is looking forward to seeing Oneohtrix Point Never and Thee Oh Sees in the intimate confines of The Kazimier, as well as some of the heavier bands on the bill, like Future of the Left and Savages. He's also keen to catch rising urban stars Mikill Pane and Jacob Banks. He and his team have worked hard to programme a diverse line-up: “It's a mixture of my tastes and those of the other guys in the office. There is a team of dedicated people who craft and shape it. Not everyone can know everything about every band all the time. If I ever did meet someone like that, I'd be totally in awe! I'm discovering bands all the time.”

For Stealing Sheep, also playing Glastonbury, Latitude and Salford's DIY festival Sounds from the Other City this summer, their Sound City gig is “a good opportunity to do something exclusive for our local audience. We have all our mates here, and so many good musicians,” says Hawley. Tierney, meanwhile, describes The Tea Street Band's first year at Sound City as “probably one of the best gigs I've ever done,” and hopes to repeat the success this year. “The amount of press and coverage you get from just being on the bill is great and something you can't get anywhere else,” he says. “It feels like you're a part of something.”

DON'T MISS:

Oneohtrix Point Never, 2 May @ The Kazimier
Daniel Lopatin's sonic voyages are a masterclass in the efficacy of well-produced, intricately composed drone. Using samples, found sounds, vintage synth kit and bleeding-edge studio techniques, he creates rich and involving textures.

Darkstar, 4 May @ The Garage
Avant-garde synth-pop trio Darkstar are one of Warp's more interesting recent signings – their creative, twisted take on earworm pop melodies is couched in a lush bed of delicate electronics, complex rhythms and a futurist, restlessly inventive approach to lyrics.

Savages, 3 May @ Art Academy
Post-punk outfit Savages are the most exciting thing to come out of London in a long time – their artistic, intelligent, politicised take on the genre is by turns awkward, confessional, brutal and insanely addictive. Their eagerly anticipated debut album is out in May.

Dutch Uncles, 3 May @ The Garage
Indie rockers Dutch Uncles hail from the small town of Marple, outside Manchester. Their palette of influences ranges from post-rock to post-punk, from prog to neo-classical. Leftfield, arty and with a live reputation for kicking ass and taking no prisoners, they can be trusted to spin the guitars-drums-bass-vox formula into new and interesting shapes.

Future of the Left, 3 May @ Screenadelica
Welsh post-hardcore trio Future of the Left were formed by former members of mcclusky, and indeed have eclipsed that band, building a blistering live reputation with their politically savvy, mercilessly intense lyrics and driving walls of guitar noise.