It Starts: Vera Blue, Woodes & More Share Stories From Their First Days At SXSW 2017

And so it begins: the wild, manic, overwhelmingly busy week that is SXSW's Music Festival component, housing dozens upon dozens of showcases from artists all around the world.

This year, Australia has a super strong contingent over in Austin, Texas strutting their stuff: we got a few of them to share what their first days in the state were like.

vera blue

It's official - we're here at SXSW for the next few days. Matching jewellery squad on point!

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Before my show tonight I checked out 6th street, and wow it is lively. A little overwhelming but the energy is incredible! So excited to finally be here!

Playing my official showcase at 12am tonight at Swan Dive, so excited for my first SXSW show!

pines

James and I rolled into Austin yesterday arvo bout 4pm. Quick check-in at hotel and we were off to artist registration at the Austin Convention Centre. After that we hit the incredible Iron Cactus for epic (and relatively healthy In the US) Mexican food.

Caught 3 gigs after that (2 at Empire Garage) and one at Swan Dive Patio. Christian Löffler at Patio was great.

Today, we were up at 7 to catch a cab to the suburbs to do some practice at Cascade Rehearsal Studios (Michael, the owner was a legend). Back to the hotel after lunch, quick chill out by hotel pool and back out to see Vince Staples at the exclusive Apple Music event. Show was next level in production. Insane visuals, sound and no expense spared. Now walking over to SoundCloud party to see Tkay!

woodes

We arrived in LA after an huge journey of delays — we headed straight to Venice Beach and I showed my band Hayden & Tim the skate park and Santa Monica Pier. There was low lying fog across the whole beach, you could barely see the water.

We woke up the next morning and headed to Austin. Alarms went off at 3:45. This photo was taken at 4:30am. We caught a plane with Buzz Aldrin to Austin. Got to say hello at the luggage carousel.

I went to Tumblr HQ and had an interview with them about my Tumblr and my music. It was a bit of a dream after using that platform for years. I use Tumblr daily to repost inspiration, lyrics and stories.