Atlantis Music Conference and Festival 2008, Part 2: Catching Up With... Rebecca Loebe

The stated purpose of 1998's first annual Atlantis Music Conference was to provide a platform for both music industry professionals and fans to discover new talent through three days of showcases, seminars and panels within Atlanta's city limits. But in the next few years, the Internet stole the spotlight-- and the platform-- as it became the main provider of musical discovery duties as it grew out of its series of tubes and into everyone’s collective consciousness. These days, more opportunities for exposure are available to today's young artists than ever before.

So, in the conference's tenth year of operations, where does that leave Atlantis? Now that anyone with a MySpace account and a pirated copy of ProTools can make a recording and instantly feed it to millions of eager ears, is it still a relevant endeavor? And can it prove that networking is still the most direct pathway to success?

Paste caught up with Atlanta’s own road-tested folk artist Rebecca Loebe after her headlining showcase at Smith’s Olde Bar to gain some perspective.

Paste: Why do you attend Atlantis?

Loebe: Since I moved back to Atlanta last year I've been working to connect myself to the music scene here. It was funny: Because I've been touring so much, even after I had considered myself a resident of Atlanta for a year, I was still being introduced at local shows as being from out of town! I came to Atlantis last year thinking it would be a great opportunity to meet a lot of folks from the Atlanta music scene all at once. When I got to the conference I realized that although many of the panelists and organizers are from the Southeast, the performers tend to be from all over the place. I've kept in touch with a lot of the bands I met last year and played shows with them in various cities across the country as I've been on the road in the past year.

Paste: Have you attended other conferences in the past and, if so, how does Atlantis stack up?
Loebe: I have, over the past couple of years, attended a fair number of music conferences. Some of them I've traveled to on purpose, others I've found out about the day of, and some I've performed at. Some have left me with creative energy to burn, others really inspire me from a music business perspective, and some have left me with a feeling in my stomach that I can only compare to the way your teeth feel after you've drunk too much Coke. Atlantis, specifically, seems to be very heavy on the networking and live performance aspect, which makes it a lot of fun. It's definitely Atlanta's version of a music conference-- it has a killer hip hop component, which makes me very happy, and an uphill battle in the geography department. Unlike Folk Alliance in Memphis, which contains all of its showcases in one hotel, or South by Southwest in Austin, which has an incredible concentration of music venues on one street, Atlanta's best music venues are spread out across the city and Atlantis makes a point to utilize all of them.

Paste: Do you attend any of the panels or other showcases at Atlantis?
Loebe: I definitely attend panels, and it's funny, I've found that I get the most and the least out of them. I say I take the least from the panels because I generally don't find their content to be terribly edifying or exciting. Don't get me wrong-- I am not a snob and I definitely have a lot to learn about the music industry! But there's something about the panel format…I don't know if it's the forced conversation behind a folding table or the dreadful questions asked by audience members-- which usually boil down to "Hi, my name is so and so, can you make me famous?"-- but I just don't think it's the best system for transplanting information from the brains of the panelists to those of the eager audience members.

On the other hand, there have been a few instances in which I've summoned up the nerve to actually approach panelists that I felt a connection with and strike up a conversation, and those moments have resulted in the most valuable relationships of my music career (so far), hands down.

I also definitely go to as many showcases as I can. I try to strike a balance between supporting my friends, going out to see people I meet, and checking out folks at random. Sometimes I just go for interesting names or, if it's bands, try to structure my night by seeing bands whose names can be strung together in a funny sentence-- I guess that's what I do to amuse myself during those panels.

Paste: What are your expectations from playing what is supposed to be an industry insider's conference?
Loebe: I've played two showcases at Atlantis now and both times I've had no idea what to expect going in, and for good reason-- you have no idea who is going to be in the room! And the lights are so bright when you're on stage, you really have no idea who's in the room while you're playing. It's my hope that I'll be able to meet cool and interesting people throughout the conference, lure them into my showcase and make them friends/allies for life. My only expectation is that there will be a lot of people with similar goals milling around a small area for the weekend, trying to assess how to make the most out of the time together. I try to relax, have fun and resist falling into the business/conference pattern of only talking to people long enough to assess what you can get out of each other.

Paste: What have you gained from having played Atlantis?
Loebe: I've definitely made friends with out of town bands which is always valuable to me since I've got the wander lust and I make my living on tour. It's nice to see friendly faces on the road and have a larger network of people to play shows with or ask for advice in a particular town. I've also met local Atlanta industry types (lawyers and radio folks, specifically) who I've been fortunate to keep in touch with throughout the year and have in my corner when I really need advice. That's always the thing about putting yourself and your music out there-- you never know who's receiving the signal. So I'm waiting to see what comes of this year's showcase.

Paste: What is your goal or main ambition when it comes to your music career?
Loebe: This is by far the most complex question, yet I'm going to give it the shortest answer. My main goal in life is to get a little bit better at expressing myself musically every day. My main career ambition is to be able to continue making a living as a touring/recording musician, gradually increase my standards of what constitutes "a living" and never to have to compromise the main life goal. And to light myself on fire on stage at least once.

Related links:
Atlantis Music Conference and Festival 2008, Part 1: Why is there glitter on this couch?