‘We have all this real estate’: An oral history of Austin-based agency GSD&M’s SXSW parties

The shop will kick off its 13th annual party at its headquarters in downtown Austin tonight, with Band of Horses headlining. Ahead of this year’s event, here’s the story of how the parties came to be, how they’ve grown, handled the pandemic and continue to this day, straight from the people who’ve built them.

Early days and the first big party

GSD&M vp of community David Rockwood: We used to throw smaller concerts every year during SXSW in our courtyard but it wasn’t until 2012 that we closed down our parking lots, put a stage in our parking lot and actually made a big splash at our first event. It was Motopony, Heartless Bastards and The Apache Relay. The Heartless Bastards are a local Austin band. The lead singer [Erika Wennerstrom], someone at the agency knew her so it was a quick get. The other two were bands we had ties to or we knew were coming in through SXSW.

The reason we started to do it in a bigger way is that we have all this real estate near downtown where SXSW takes place. We carved out a budget with Duff’s blessing, built a bigger stage than we had in the past, brought in food trucks, bar service and all that. After the first year, we realized we had a big hit on our hands.

We also did it on a Monday. So we took advantage of the crowds that were still here for Interactive but before the Music portion of SXSW started. We had a captive audience of the primary focus of throwing the event — which was to attract business, talent and then let off steam for our employees and their friends to come out to enjoy food, beverage and great live music.

GSD&M CEO Duff Stewart: Way back when, when they started the Interactive portion of SXSW [in 1999], we hosted [concerts] right off the bat the first couple years — it could fit in our lobby and conference room. That evolved. Then, with clients coming down for Music and Film, they had a couple of early keynotes. It attracted clients and talent.

I remember getting a phone call after the [2012] party — I don’t remember who called — but somebody was talking about how much buzz there was from The Heartless Bastards. It was like, we need to make this an annual event. Then it started to grow and build using our relationships in the community to bring talent in to play and up the game.

How it works

Stewart: Our building sits on four and a half acres in downtown Austin. So we have a little under an acre [for the party] and we put up a stage, which is like an outdoor festival stage. We have a variety of bars, bathrooms, trailers for food, and it’s got a real small intimate festival feel. It makes it kind of special.

It’s come one, come all, but we try to get people to register and send out invitations so we get email addresses. We get to meet people when they come to visit whether that’s potentially a new client, existing client or a relationship of someone in the business we might be pursuing. And then it’s just darn right fun to have you and 5,000 of your closest friends in a backyard for music, food and drink.

We’re GSD&M. We’ve been in Austin for 53 years. We need to step into the moment of SXSW, participate and represent the city of Austin well. It’s a pretty well-known event now. It’s kind of beyond the bounds of SXSW.

The music business and commercial business have changed. Years ago, artists never wanted to have you use their music in a commercial because agencies would rewrite the lyrics. Then agencies would just use the real song, license the real song. Then, for a long time, David was able to arrange with labels where artists would be in town — not SXSW necessarily but on a tour — and come over to the agency and play an acoustic in the backyard.

So our creatives would get to know people. [The bands in 2012 and 2013], a couple of those bands we ended up using in commercials for clients. So it’s a positive experience both for the music industry, up-and-coming artists, our employees, the industry likes it. It’s something we’re really proud of that we’ve been able to sustain over the years. 

2013: Wild Cub, Delta Spirit, Reggie Watts

Rockwood: We had three bands. Another powerhouse Austin band, Delta Spirit. Their frontman Matthew Logan Vasquez was a friend of several creatives and it was an easy get for us to go out and get Delta Spirit. Wild Cub opened the show and then we closed with Reggie Watts.

Reggie was across town. He couldn’t get to the venue so we sent down an employee in their little bitty Nissan Sentra to drive across to the east side of Austin to pick him up. They drove down our side street, right up to the stage, he got out of this girl’s car right on the side of the stage, went on stage and started his performance. We knew we were doing something right when Reggie Watts wanted to come, hang out and play our stage.

It was a great mix. From then on, it was like, we can help break emerging acts with the help of our friends from [concert promotion company] C3 and then, of course, all the major labels. And the big management firms now send us a list every year for us to pick and choose from. It’s really an easy get to get who we want, provided they’re at least coming through town or they’re near Austin.

2014: The Hold Steady, Aloe Blacc, Aaron Behrens, The Wild Feathers

Rockwood: [In 2014], Aloe Blacc had just done a Lincoln commercial or something like that and he was everywhere. But he couldn’t play late. So we had him play early and we closed with The Hold Steady. By the time they came on stage, it started pouring rain. But the band and the entire crowd did not move. It was our first show with rain. But it didn’t damper the crowd or the band. They played through it. By the time they were finished, the rain had stopped. That was a really cool show.

Upping the production in 2016: Ghostland Observatory, The Mavericks, Beach Slang, Wild Belle

Rockwood: When we approached [Ghostland Observatory] to play, they said they would love to play. They called back a couple hours later and said, ‘Hey, can you add $1000 so we can fly in our laser light guy from Chicago?’

We were like, ‘Uh, I don’t know if the city will allow us to have a laser show bouncing all over the city.’ They go, ‘Oh, no, we’ll come in the night before.’ They measured the rooftops and all of our different pipes, parking garage and building so the laser would just stop right at the height of our buildings. Then, of course, smoke machines and all of that. That was one of our more fun events because those hypnotic lasers just blew away the crowd.

On pause during the pandemic: 2020-2021

Stewart: We had to cancel in 2020. We didn’t have it in 2021. We came back in 2022.

Rockwood: We literally canceled it, I think, the Friday before the Monday. We’d already [been set] with all the bands. What we ended up doing after Duff said we’ve got to follow suit with what SXSW does is we canceled, of course, but we ended up paying all of our artists. They thought that was the coolest gesture. It probably sent some minor waves across the music industry like, ‘You should play these guys’ parties, they take care of their artists really well.’ I remember us doing that and Duff saying, ‘Pay them.’ That was a good feeling. While we’d canceled, which was a big bummer because we’d already spent all the money, everything was rented and paid in advance. But we ended up paying all of the artists and that was a good-will [gesture] that has come back to us many, many times over.

Return to form: 2022 to today

Rockwood: [When bringing it back], planning with logistics from the city, they really had tightened up safety protocols. We weren’t expecting people to show up with masks but we had a lot of signage about health and safety protocols, social distancing and all those things. Once everybody got inside, those protocols go to the wayside. You have a drink in your hand, live music and a food truck nearby that you kind of want to get back to that sense of normalcy. It was a great relief for a lot of people to see the event come back and also know that our footprint is really massive so you could still enjoy yourself and not feel threatened by that cloud of Covid hanging over your head.

Stewart: That’s the year we had Charlie Crockett and the local band Me and Adam. What was really fun that year, we had a 10th party. The poster is 2010-2022 — it was our 10th party in 12 years because we had to take those two years off — but we had a big X [on the poster] to signify the 10th. I remember greeting everyone, welcome back and it’s been two years since we’ve been together.

Rockwood: That was the first year we partnered with a local nonprofit, the Austin Parks Foundation. We ended up giving them a big check on stage and honoring everything they do. They had a footprint on site to get people to join in on keeping our parks clean and all that. That was a unique way for us to give back to the community and at the same time let’s raise a little hell because we’re back.

Stewart: We’re a part of Austin. One of things things our founders taught us was paying it back and paying it forward. We want to be a good supporter of the city of Austin, of SXSW, and a way we can do that is to highlight and give voice to local artists as well as national acts and have a little fun while you do it.