Following the closure of Wollongong stalwart Yours & Owls, Ben Tillman was still looking for ways to serve the local music scene and shine a spotlight on the bustling Australian live music scene.
Getting together with local industry mainstay Jeb Taylor, Farmer & the Owl debuted in 2013 to rave reviews, positive public feedback, and even an FBi SMAC Award nomination for ‘Best Event’.
This year, Jeb and Ben’s boutique festival is set to return and is poised to have another successful year, with heir pre-sale rapidly selling out after they announced pay-as-you-like ticketing. We caught up with Ben and Jeb to get all of the details on this unique Aussie festival.
Ben Tillman has been a Wollongong inhabitant for most of his life. “It’s close enough to Sydney without all the bullshit, it’s a good lifestyle,” he says. With the area so close to his heart, Tillman has been integral in changing the cultural fabric of Wollongong. Yours & Owls, Tillman’s venue, quickly became a breeding ground for local talent in the area, and Farmer & the Owl has become on of Australia’s most lauded boutique events, expanding into a label, F//O, and the compilation album Beached Friends.
Jeb Taylor is a former booking agent at the Oxford Tavern and a former label manager at High Beam Records. Currently, Jeb has been busying himself with Farmer & the Owl, which he co-founded with Ben, as well as other ventures, including Music Farmers, a retail shop specialising in vinyl records, books, and merchandise, and Impedance Records & Touring, which he established in 2006 to release and tour cutting edge music both in Australia and internationally.
The Beginning
Ben Tillman: “It began as a passing comment really. When we had the shop open (Yours + Owls) Jeb Taylor (Music Farmers Record Store) would come in and we would just talk shit about a million different things.
Having both been doing music stuff in Wollongong for ages we often held similar ideas and noticed similar needs and trends. One of them being that bands needed proper nurturing and guidance, and the other being that that there should be one premier showcase of talent, not only Wollongong, but also nationally & internationally touring stuff.
It was really nice because we also held similar ideas, really aiming to push for quality acts, rather than just the run of the mill (whatever happens to be getting played on the radio right now bands…)”
Jeb Taylor: “Ben and myself had both worked booking/running shows in Wollongong for many years but never really worked together on anything.
We’d always be in contact about shows we were each running and started discussing the idea, eventually it evolved into putting together a festival. There was also a lack of something similar in Wollongong (I should mention there is a strong folk festival but that is a lot different to what we were thinking) which was always something we found a little odd as there were places much smaller than Wollongong that held fairly significant music festival.”
What They’re Learnt From Their Debut
Ben: “A lot. We had no idea what we were doing. Having plenty of time up your sleeves and planning things properly is the probably the most important thing.
We have learnt to split up all the jobs and had different people all focus on their strengths rather that it just being an unorganised mish-mash of everyone getting the same shit done once its already too late and then realising all this other stuff never got done.
Overall feedback has always been really positive though. We have always had such strong support from a loyal audience. They have been here with us from the start and helped us grow organically which is think is a much stronger (sometimes slower) and more rewarding way to build things.
[include_post id=”431505″]
As we grow and there is a need for more people to be involved, we carefully choose them and bring them in more people into the family, but the idea is that we all grow and succeed together. Feed off each others success and positivity. Its really cool.”
Jeb: “We got a lot of great feedback about the line up, the location and the general atmosphere of the whole event and that is something we certainly wanted to carry forward into this event. There is a lot of boring logistical bits and pieces I feel we learnt from that we hopefully improve with the upcoming event.”
The Reason For ‘Pay What You Like’ Ticketing
Ben: “I guess we have always like to shake things up, stir the pot and maybe create a little controversy. It’s fun and i guess in our nature. We have always liked to push the boundaries of what people expect and so when the idea got thrown around we were all like. Yep – fuck it. Thats hilarious. Lets do it.”
Jeb: “I guess one of the toughest things with any sort of festival like this is getting the balance of ticket price right so the punters feel like they are getting value for money but that it is also commercially viable for ourselves. One of the guys floated the idea and we just felt it would be a really interesting way to find out, what the interest was like in the line up and what sort of amount people felt they should pay.”
The Response To ‘Pay What You Like’ Ticketing
Ben: “Reaction was crazy! Tickets went on sale and after like a couple of minutes our allocation had sold out. I think within the time it took to have a phonecall with Moshtix to tell them to move on to 2nd release tickets we had sold another 150 or something ridiculous.”
Jeb: “The reaction was way more crazy than we anticipated. What we allocated for the pay what you like tickets were sold out in three minutes.”
How The Lineup Formed
Ben: “We really just wanted bands we liked and felt had something a little more than the ‘one hit wonder’ quick rise to fame bands. It did often make things hard but I think having stuck with that ethic and not compromised on quality (from both our first and now the 2nd festival) we are really cementing a strong vibe and culture of GOOD music. Every band on the bill is quality, and we are really proud to have them. Whether they are bands currently recieving lots of success, bands who had it in the past, bands who are rising into the spotlight and the bands who are still floating just under the consciousness of a more mainstream audience.
I think most important for us was just to have a lineup we were proud of, and we got that, the fact it is primarily Australian is also pretty cool. Wollongong bands are also pretty heavily represented which is also pretty cool. Every one of those bands will stand up and perform just as well as any of the others on the bill, it’s pretty cool.”
“There will always be the big boys, but I guess times just change who those big boys are”Jeb: “We started with a massive hit list of artists that we wanted to play it and started checking availabilities. We quickly realised the timing of it meant a lot of bands were out of the country for South By but we had a few key ones come through so we felt we’d push ahead with the original date. As for the Australian content, it is important for us to have strong Australian representation but we did target a bunch of internationals for the festival.
The really important thing for us is including a good crop of artists from our local area on the line up, with that we really focus on trying to get Wollongong artists that have gone out and done great things beyond our region so this year’s event we have the likes of Hockey Dad who are touring all over the place at the moment, Step Panther who are about to head to the USA, and The Walking Who who just toured Europe at the end of last year as well as Shining Bird, The Pinheads, Los Tones and some local icons Hytest and Totally Unicorn.”
The Future Of Aussie Festivals: Boutique Or Blockbuster?
Ben: “I think there will always be the big boys, but I guess times just change who those big boys are, like BDO is gone now, but there are still successful big scale events i.e. Splendour, Fall, and Soundwave all probably being the biggest live music festivals.
Laneway which has always been more boutique also feels like its growing up and becoming a much larger event every year.
So yeh I think there will always be the bigger festivals, but they will just be for those guys who are at the top of their game. The ones who aren’t and still try to compete at that level will fail or go bankrupt .
Its just a game. there will always be smaller festivals with big ambitions to grow, and some will, but some will fail. they may in 10 years be the big boys…. but for now, it feels like the ‘market’ for bigger festivals is definitely saturated, but the boutique thing is in its infancy, so there is room for these type of events to be supported.
The idea of boutique festivals is great, and in terms of a new generation it is definitely where you have to start.
The thing that people like is the smaller crowds, a more personal connection with the festival, intimacy with the bands and feeling like you’re part of something special, something niche, and like it’s your community, something you like, and somewhere you belong.”
[include_post id=”370103″]
Jeb: “I grew up with big festivals like the Big Day Out, Homebake, ect. and I think so much of my musical education were those sort of big festivals. From time I’ve spent in Europe the two seem to co-exist really well so I’d hope they continue to do so here. I’m sure lots of young music fans would have had the chance to see many bands they may not have known a lot about or even heard of at festivals like Soundwave, Future just recently and I think that is important.
As far as what draws people to boutique festivals, I guess a lot of them are either more specific to an area or more genre focused (even if it is fairly loosely). Something like ours we hope it’s a combination of the line up drawing local people out but also somewhere different that people from out of the area to come to for the day. Some people also hit a point when they’d prefer something aa bit more relaxed to the crowds and chaos of the major events.
The Future Of Farmer & Owl
Ben: “Just gonna take it one day at a time. We want to keep bringing in amazing talent, bringing in amazing artists to make the place look amazing and building the profile of both Wollongong and our festival / label brand. Hopefully we grow and if thats the case its just going to allow us to do bigger and cooler things in the future – bigger bands, more elaborate art installations and a more professional operation overall.”
Jeb: “I definitely think the boutique festivals will increase and punters will really become more selective about what events they want to attend. For us it is a case of really just continue to establish the event in our area, build a stronger line up each year and then see what happens from there. I really like the fact festivals like Meredith/Golden Plains, Festival Of The Sun, ect. have really just worked on establishing themselves in their own area and built on that year after year.”
Farmer & The Owl 2015
Bad//Dreems
Bass Drum Of Death (US)
Birds With Thumbs
Cabins
Carb On Carb (NZ)
The Cherry Dolls
The DHDFD’s (NZ)
Drunk Mums
DZ Deathrays
Hockey Dad
Hy-Test
Jebediah
Lunatics On Pogosticks
The Mess Hall
The Peep Tempel
PH Fat (South Africa)
Pinheads
Richard In Your Mind
Shining Bird
Spookyland
Step-Panther
Sunbeam Sound Machine
TEES
Totally Unicorn
The Walking Who
You Beauty
Saturday, 14th March 2015
University of Wollongong, Wollongong NSW
Tickets: Moshtix
