How The Foundry Became A Crucial Part Of Brisbane's Live Scene In Only Two Years

Ask any Brisbane punter to list off the key live music venues in Fortitude Valley, and the odds are, far more often than not, they'll include The Foundry in that line-up.

So ingrained has the venue become to the city's creative community — not only for its own events but as a core space involved in BIGSOUND, the Mountain Goat Valley Crawl and the Blurst Of Times Festival — that it's actually a little unbelievable that it's only been around for two years.

Ahead of The Foundry's second birthday party on 10 August (featuring GL, Party Dozen, Hatchie and Holiday Party), booker Patrick Balfe spoke to The Music about the venue's meteoric journey from new kid on the block to a crucial part of the city's creative tapestry, both as a live space and as a hub for several local industry businesses.

It just offered something very specific to a very specific group of people.

"I guess one of the surprising things for me was we had so many really positive reactions to the whole concept, like, right from the start," Balfe admits. "Everyone had just a lot of confidence and excitement and enthusiasm in it. I guess having the offices upstairs and everything, and having the current community of people that we have there, everyone was like, 'Yeah, this is awesome, this is something that Brisbane has needed for a while.'

"With the size of the venue and the production quality and everything, everyone was like, 'This is great,' because prior to that there was really only kind of two small-to-medium-size venues in Brisbane. So, I guess it just offered something very specific to a very specific group of people, who had already sold out smaller venues but weren't quite big enough for some of the larger venues. So I think it really filled a niche there for a lot of people.

"Everyone's just been really responsive, and I was really thankful and surprised that people — bookers and managers — had so much confidence in it, to really put some high-quality bands through there in the early stages. We were getting relatively big up-and-coming bands like The Belligerents and Harts and Moses Gunn Collective and stuff — they were all doing relatively well for themselves — so I was glad that people had the confidence to put those kind of bands through and help us increase our scope and reach our goals early on, which I was really thankful for."

The venue's first year was not without its setbacks — infamously, it was forced to take a hiatus from live performances after only two shows to undergo refurbishments to repair its floor — but Balfe says that, through that tough time and beyond, he's been consistently buoyed by the support The Foundry has received from nearby venues and other music industry folks.

"Obviously, when we had to do those refurbs early on ... the support that we had from a lot of the industry and other local bookers and people during that was really heartwarming," he says. "And then, for everyone to continue working with us and being so understanding of everything that had happened in the first few months, I was really happy with that too."

Just to be accepted by the other venues that we're working with so closely in the Valley ... has been really great.

It was more than just 'understanding' — that kind of implies tolerance more than enthusiastic camaraderie, which is more what the venue has seen swell around it these past 24 months. Indeed, since the venue relaunched in August 2015, just in time for BIGSOUND, it's only grown in community stature during its second year, Balfe explains.

"I think the size and scope of the artists, and also the festivals that we're working with, [are] just getting bigger and bigger," he reflects. "This year, we had one month where we had Ali Barter, Polish Club, Dappled Cities, Running Touch… like, all these amazing, amazing bands all in one month, and obviously since then we've also worked with Blurst Of Times and worked with Mountain Goat Valley Crawl.

"So, just to be accepted by the other venues that we're working with so closely in the Valley — to be accepted and embraced by those venues and kind of be seen as equals — has been really great, and to continue getting bigger and bigger artists to what's a relatively small-capacity venue, I think, just goes to show that the industry has a lot of faith in us, which is super-reassuring and nice.

"I think as far as the refurbs went, there were maybe a couple seeds of doubt that were sown early on," he concedes, "but I think they were pretty quickly dashed and, since then, we've just been working with nothing but amazing artists and amazing promoters."

The venue's upcoming birthday party is no exception to that tradition, either — although, Balfe is all too happy to admit that this year's line-up is more than just a little bit steeped in his personal favourites.

"To be honest, it's a little bit, I think, purely out of selfishness," he laughs. "These are all bands that I personally really, really dig and really wanted to see on the same stage together ... I was so stoked when I got to have GL last year, and they were one of my favourite acts from BIGSOUND last year as well. So I was like, screw it, I really want to get them a Brisbane show on this tour, so booked them just because, like I said — pure selfishness.

"Hatchie: it's her first show, so a little bit again selfishness, wanting her first show to be at the venue that I work with, and also being able to see her live, because that single [Try] is amazing, and I've heard nothing but good things about the next single that she's got coming out ... I really wanted to give her an opportunity to get a show in before she plays Volumes Festival and BIGSOUND and that kind of thing.

"Party Dozen: just, I haven't seen them live yet, but the whole concept of that semi-improvisational drummer and saxophone just sounds amazing, so I'm really keen to see them live. And then Holiday Party, that single [I'm Still Here] just came out of nowhere, and I love it. It's one of the best Australian tracks I've heard all year, so — once again — it was pure selfishness wanting to get those guys in so I could see them live."

We've still got that back room which we've used a couple of times for stuff ... I'd really like to start using that more.

As the venue moves into its third year, it's still looking to tap into some of its as-yet-unrealised potential; namely, there's a small second room that doesn't as much love or use as it should, though Balfe is keen to fix that in the near future, as well as cast a broader eye to staging more festival-type events — both single- and multi-venue, from the sounds of it.

"We've still got that back room which we've used a couple of times for stuff," he says when talk turns to where the venue will go from here. "We've had the occasional show in there but I'd really like to start using that more and working with bigger promoters and having mini-festivals more regularly in there, with six, seven, eight bands playing across the two stages and just utilising that more.

"Aside from that, just bigger bands, bigger festivals — more festival kind of stuff, I'm really hoping to be able to work on and help with in Brisbane, similar to stuff like Blurst and Mountain Goat ... And we've got a couple of small renovations in mind, like getting new seating in around the back and working on opening up the kitchen a little bit more and doing some stuff with that. So just, yeah, heaps of little things to continue tightening things up and being able to keep the venue fresh and new and exciting for everybody."

Those plans don't only entail live music shows, either. In keeping with its ever-increasing profile, Balfe says The Foundry is also organically growing in terms of the types of events that it caters for. But don't fret — live music will always be where its heart lies, and the most significant part of its operations.

"I've been getting heaps of function enquiries and stuff like that lately — it helps with extra revenue for the venue," Balfe explains. "We generally put that money into a pool and put that money aside to be able to do stuff like buying booth seating and buying a proper booth for the DJ decks, and improve the PA and the lighting, and fix up the backline when it gets broken — repair the amps, reskin the drums and all that kind of stuff.

"So, [the venue will do] those kind of corporate events, or even birthday parties and social events, and I've had dudes come in to do pitching workshops and that kind of thing — we're always looking for more stuff like that purely just to help us do some of the cool outside-the-box stuff that we want to be able to do."

The Foundry's second birthday party will be held this Thursday, 10 August. See theGuide for more information.