EXCLUSIVE: Brisbane To Gain New Creative Hub & Live Music Space

It's no secret that Brisbane has nurtured a consistently vibrant and vital live music scene over the decades, and it's precisely that vibrancy and vitality that has brought about the imminent opening of new live music space and collaborative creative hub The Foundry.

Although a few touches remain on the inside to bring it all up to working order, theMusic.com.au can reveal that the venue, which is located at 228 Wickham Street, Fortitude Valley, will stretch across two floors, with downstairs providing a dedicated 300-capacity performance (and drinking) space and the upper floor housing offices, temporary band accommodation, rehearsal rooms and, potentially, a recording studio, among other features.

For building manager Brett Gibson's money, though, the true piece de resistance is the world-class green room, "which is going to be the best bloody fucking green room in the country for this-size venue", he told theMusic.com.au. "Just [in terms of] size, and they've got their own balcony. It's, like, three metres from the stage — it's just perfect.

"We're just about making sure the band is super-comfortable, and obviously the green room is the first step towards that. From a band experience, it's gonna be so great, you know? We'll have this facility where the bands can have a combination with upstairs, so it'll be really easy for them. Play great shows, have some drinks and pass out upstairs. It'll be cool."

As Gibson explains, The Foundry's genesis lay in the increase in interest from southern bands in visiting Brisbane, as well as the undeniable activity and energy that permeates the city's live scene. With experience in Sydney venues such as the Standard Bowl and Vic On The Park Hotel already under their belts, Gibson and his co-collaborators set about transforming an old Wickham Street backpackers' hostel into what would become The Foundry.

"We obviously had the space, right — it's an old backpackers'. It was a two-level backpackers'. We gutted the first floor, and then we obviously had this space, and we weren't exactly sure what we wanted to do, and then we still had the top-level space, which we didn't gut at all, so it's essentially still old backpackers' rooms.

"I'm sure if those walls could talk they'd tell plenty of stories but, previously, as a company, we've done a reasonable amount of live music in Sydney … so we've got a little bit of history with live music, and we saw a bit of an opportunity, I suppose. We thought, you know, there's other live music venues in Brisbane, sure, but … the Brisbane live music scene is just pumping at the moment, and we're finding that more and more bands down south want to come to Brisbane more than ever, so we thought we could certainly co-exist with other venues and hence The Foundry was born."

Ultimately, Gibson says, the brain trust "didn't just want to open a live music venue", knowing instead that they wanted to leave a cultural imprint on the Brisbane music community as well.

"We sort of wanted a bit of a story and a bit of a cultural hub, I suppose, and that's why upstairs is going to be really cool," Gibson explained. "We'll have rehearsal rooms, hopefully a studio up there, [community station] 4ZZZ are getting involved — they're going to have a training facility in one of the rooms — we'll have the capacity upstairs to record and broadcast live shows… it's just going to be so cool, man. So the idea of The Foundry was not just a live music venue; it was more about the whole story and being a cultural hub, I suppose.

"We just want people to hang out there as well. Rather than just, you know, there's a show on Thursday, there's a show on Friday, well, if there's no show, just come and chill and have a beer; if you're a manager, you can use one of the spaces to hot desk upstairs… we just want the right people in those four walls and just create a real collaborative hub."

Indeed, if there's any philosophy to which The Foundry will subscribe, it's one of collaboration and co-existence. To that end, local industry mainstay Mucho Bravado has been heavily involved in the gestational stages of the venue, contributing their time and effort to assist with booking, public relations and consulting as it all takes shape. In addition to their behind-the-scenes work, Mucho Bravado will be among the list of inaugural tenants moving into the space, alongside media and industry peers such as 4ZZZ, Jungle Love Festival, Control zine, Smack Face Music, Mitzi and Lost Movements.

This sense of camaraderie is a point that Gibson is all too happy to reaffirm in reflecting on the ideal scope of the venue's 300-strong capacity.

"That's why we thought The Foundry was a good idea as well, you know? We didn't want it to be too small, and we didn't want it to be too big — we want to co-exist with the other venues in Brisbane. We're friends with them, and we want to make sure that everyone can have a piece of that pie. We're not trying to come in and take business off anyone; we just want to co-exist with them."

The projected co-existence shouldn't prove too much a challenge for the masterminds at the new collaborative space, however, with Gibson pointing to at least two familiar local identities from around the live music traps who will be lending their talents and services to the smooth sailing of the good ship Foundry.

"The people who are involved are pretty cool … the guy who's going to be the venue manager is Corey Herekihua, of Velociraptor, and Patrick Balfe is sort of the guy who's going to be booking, who's ... behind the Trainspotters concept and manages Babaganouj, so the people involved are important as well," Gibson explained. "There's a real wave of ambitious youth in Brisbane, and we're just trying to channel that."

The Foundry's live room will launch on Friday, 6 March. Keep your eyes peeled for all the details and further updates in the near future.