It's hard to live in the moment when you're waiting for the OutsideIn announcement. Now entering it's third year, the premier electronic boutique festival has earned a reputation for capturing the crucial acts, and representing the most relevant of dance music's fast moving sounds. Spare a thought for the organisers though, touring and management agency, Astral People and record label, Yes Please. It's hard for them to live in the moment too, because they're always slightly in the future listening to what's next, or revisiting key scenes of the past. But now, for a second, we can all pause in wonder at the first line-up announcement, featuring locals like Seekae, as well as legendary hip hop crew The Pharcyde.Now stop for a minute, and hear how Astral People and Yes Please travel time and space to bring everthing together.THUMP: Electronic music and the dance music scene is one of the fastest moving, always changing and evolving. What are your strategies for keeping pace?
We tend to keep track through a number of different strategies. As lovers of current electronic music we're quite switched on to outlets like Soundcloud, Bandcamp, Mixcloud etc for keeping up to date with new music. We tend to follow our favourite labels and artists on here so are constantly kept up to date with new releases from their end. Keeping track of tastemaker websites such as Resident Advisor, XLR8R, FACT Magazine, and Pitchfork is a good way of keeping on top of what's happening in the market and what's doing well currently. We always listen to alot of radio—whether it be locally like FBi Radio, Triple J, RRR or internationally like BBC, Rinse FM, NTS. Also being on promo lists from a lot of our favourite labels always helps. Keeping up to date with the amount of music coming through these days seems to be quite difficult but we do what we can with the time we have. It's easy to absorb it if you love it.What have been some of the most interesting developments in this realm over the last twelve months. How is this reflected in the line-up this year?
Electronic music and music as a whole just seems to be getting more and more exciting each year. Today's average listeners' taste seems to be more versatile than ever too. It truly is an exciting time for music in this present time and we think our line up represents just that. Rap music is as daring as it's ever been right now and we have an act on the line up like Rome Fortune who can effortlessly collaborate with electronic artists like Four Tet one day and on the next he'll be working with Young Thug—these type of artists really excite us. The more niche genres are definitely on the rise in 2014 which is represented on our line up through acts like DJ Spinn touching on Footwork/Juke and Guerre with his darker take on R&B.What are some of the guiding principles and philosophies of OutsideIn—where does it fit in the broader music landscape in 2014?
We're finding more and more that people want a unique festival experience. It's not about having the hottest acts in the world right now—it's about a well curated event with quality over quantity and that's something that we've tried to initiate with the festival. To put it simply: a well curated line up that's affordable for punters out there. We don't believe you need to spend $180 for a good day out, a diverse bill with something for everyone shouldn't break the pocket.On a related note, what's changed and what's stayed the same about OutsideIn this year?
Firstly we're in a new venue this year, we've moved to the Manning House in Sydney University. This means a bigger capacity and a more central location. Redbull Music Academy will also be presenting a new outdoor stage which will play host to a bunch of cutting edge local and international artists. We made a conscious decision this year to distance ourselves from other festivals in the market (especially in Sydney) with our curation. An ode to both the old, present and future stars that we admire. We'll let the line up do the talking but you'll notice that this years' line up is possibly more versatile than past OI line up's but we're still maintaing a a certain vibe that correlates well throughout the entire program which is very important to us. There's still a huge second announcement coming that will further develop on this thought process so keep a look out.We're very excited to have the announcement, but can you take us on a bit of a personal tour of the line-up. Are there favourites, first-time performers you're keen to share?
We think that this is definitely our strongest line up to date. The top three billing artists on the first announcement are definitely long time live favourites of ours. We've been watching Seekae live ever since we were fresh out of high school and we're super excited for their new album to drop next month. The Pharcyde are hip-hop royalty and a childhood favourite of ours and we never thought we'd ever have the pleasure or chance of booking them on a line up. This will be Pantha du Prince's first live Australian tour in solo mode in three years, so we're very intrigued to hear some new material live. Sweden's mysterious HNNY, UK Garage-man Wookie, Atlanta Rapper Rome Fortune and Chicago Footwork prince DJ Spinn will all be making their debut Australian appearances at OutsideIn which we're absolutely honoured about. Giraffage will be making his triumphant return to Australia after a huge debut tour last year and recently signing to Fools Gold Records. Plus we have a diverse collection of Australia's finest including talent like Client Liaison, Tornado Wallace and Fishing to name a few. We also have some huge surprises in store for the second line up announcement too, so hold tight for that!Get your tickets for OutsideIn at Sydney's Manning House complex on 29 November here
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We tend to keep track through a number of different strategies. As lovers of current electronic music we're quite switched on to outlets like Soundcloud, Bandcamp, Mixcloud etc for keeping up to date with new music. We tend to follow our favourite labels and artists on here so are constantly kept up to date with new releases from their end. Keeping track of tastemaker websites such as Resident Advisor, XLR8R, FACT Magazine, and Pitchfork is a good way of keeping on top of what's happening in the market and what's doing well currently. We always listen to alot of radio—whether it be locally like FBi Radio, Triple J, RRR or internationally like BBC, Rinse FM, NTS. Also being on promo lists from a lot of our favourite labels always helps. Keeping up to date with the amount of music coming through these days seems to be quite difficult but we do what we can with the time we have. It's easy to absorb it if you love it.What have been some of the most interesting developments in this realm over the last twelve months. How is this reflected in the line-up this year?
Electronic music and music as a whole just seems to be getting more and more exciting each year. Today's average listeners' taste seems to be more versatile than ever too. It truly is an exciting time for music in this present time and we think our line up represents just that. Rap music is as daring as it's ever been right now and we have an act on the line up like Rome Fortune who can effortlessly collaborate with electronic artists like Four Tet one day and on the next he'll be working with Young Thug—these type of artists really excite us. The more niche genres are definitely on the rise in 2014 which is represented on our line up through acts like DJ Spinn touching on Footwork/Juke and Guerre with his darker take on R&B.What are some of the guiding principles and philosophies of OutsideIn—where does it fit in the broader music landscape in 2014?
We're finding more and more that people want a unique festival experience. It's not about having the hottest acts in the world right now—it's about a well curated event with quality over quantity and that's something that we've tried to initiate with the festival. To put it simply: a well curated line up that's affordable for punters out there. We don't believe you need to spend $180 for a good day out, a diverse bill with something for everyone shouldn't break the pocket.On a related note, what's changed and what's stayed the same about OutsideIn this year?
Firstly we're in a new venue this year, we've moved to the Manning House in Sydney University. This means a bigger capacity and a more central location. Redbull Music Academy will also be presenting a new outdoor stage which will play host to a bunch of cutting edge local and international artists. We made a conscious decision this year to distance ourselves from other festivals in the market (especially in Sydney) with our curation. An ode to both the old, present and future stars that we admire. We'll let the line up do the talking but you'll notice that this years' line up is possibly more versatile than past OI line up's but we're still maintaing a a certain vibe that correlates well throughout the entire program which is very important to us. There's still a huge second announcement coming that will further develop on this thought process so keep a look out.We're very excited to have the announcement, but can you take us on a bit of a personal tour of the line-up. Are there favourites, first-time performers you're keen to share?
We think that this is definitely our strongest line up to date. The top three billing artists on the first announcement are definitely long time live favourites of ours. We've been watching Seekae live ever since we were fresh out of high school and we're super excited for their new album to drop next month. The Pharcyde are hip-hop royalty and a childhood favourite of ours and we never thought we'd ever have the pleasure or chance of booking them on a line up. This will be Pantha du Prince's first live Australian tour in solo mode in three years, so we're very intrigued to hear some new material live. Sweden's mysterious HNNY, UK Garage-man Wookie, Atlanta Rapper Rome Fortune and Chicago Footwork prince DJ Spinn will all be making their debut Australian appearances at OutsideIn which we're absolutely honoured about. Giraffage will be making his triumphant return to Australia after a huge debut tour last year and recently signing to Fools Gold Records. Plus we have a diverse collection of Australia's finest including talent like Client Liaison, Tornado Wallace and Fishing to name a few. We also have some huge surprises in store for the second line up announcement too, so hold tight for that!Get your tickets for OutsideIn at Sydney's Manning House complex on 29 November here