Amidst numerous panels, meetings and shows for South by Southwest, a music, film and interactive convention in Austin, Andres Alzate made sure to find time for this year’s keynote speaker, Dave Grohl.
“I came here to learn about music and the technology,” Alzate, a music composer who traveled from Colombia to attend the festival, said. “I am a big fan of his music. Even in Colombia I play his songs, some of his songs, ‘Everlong’ for example.”
The Foo Fighters frontman gave music devotees at South by Southwest (SXSW) a pep talk in the Austin Convention Center on Thursday morning. Taking the stage at around 11 a.m., Grohl, who had just recently released his documentary “Sound City Movie” in February, talked to the packed room about his start in the music industry.
Before joining a band, Grohl said he would spend hours in his bedroom playing guitar, practicing drums on pillows and listening to records.
Grohl said he eventually became a one-man-band, making his room into his personal studio. Pulling out a guitar and two tape players, Grohl demonstrated to the crowd how he would record songs by himself when he was 12 years old.
“I took my crappy old handheld tape recorder, hit record and laid down a guitar track,” he said. “I would then take that cassette, place it in the home stereo, take another cassette, place that into the handheld recorder, hit play on the stereo, record on the handheld and play drums along to the sound of my guitar.”
Even though the songs were about his dad, dog and bike, Grohl said that recording songs by himself made for a fulfilling reward. Later, Grohl discovered the world of punk rock, the society-rejecting genre that sparked a revolution inside teens when it surfaced during the 1970s and became potent during the Reagan years.
“It was the blissful removal of these bands from any source of conventional, popular corporate structure, and the underground network that supported the music’s independence that was totally inspiring to me,” he said.
That punk-rock mentality allowed Grohl to realize that he could make music on his own without having to worry about what others have to say. He then emphasized that music comes from individual creativity and shared his advice by telling others to focus on their art and not listen to what critics may have to say.
“Who’s to say what’s a good voice? ‘The Voice?'” Grohl said as the crowd broke into a rolling laughter. “It’s your voice. Cherish it.”
Music marketer Eileen Tilson from Nashville, Tenn. said that Grohl was able to crack jokes and keep his funny persona while sharing his story in a way that was insightful to others.
“I love the fact that he was the drummer for an icon band and then with the Foo Fighters and then with every single project that’s he’s ever done and yet he still could be your next door neighbor,” she said. “He just tells it to you straight. I love that about him.”
Alzate said the speech gave him enough inspiration to go back home to Colombia and start work on his commercial and film compositions.
“It was so inspiring to me, because when you are a musician and you have to work for relief, maybe you sometimes forget about music and the importance of yourself,” he said. “What he said, the musicians come first … I think that I’m going to go home with new ideas and my head clear.”
SXSW festivities, which began on March 8, ended on Sunday, but the festival will start back up again in March 2014. To watch Grohl’s complete speech, visit www.youtube.com/watch?v=Efv0Y5Fs7m4.