How a Halifax Business Helped an Artist Attend South By Southwest
HALIFAX — Once again, artists from across the world have gathered in Austin Texas this week for South By Southwest, one of the biggest annual music festivals in the United States. This year, an independent solo artist, Poolblood (aka Maryam Said), made the trip all the way from Toronto, doing a mini tour along the way.
Their trip was possible thanks to Side Door, a Halifax-based business that uses an online platform to match artists with venues. In Side Door’s world, any place anywhere can be a venue-a house, a barn, or even a backyard.
In fact, Poolblood, on their way to Austin, played in someone’s living room. The host even let them stay over, taking away the major expense of accommodation.
“My manager pitched Side Door to me and I thought it was such a great idea. I just thought it was so great, the way that it’s structured,” said Poolblood.
“It’s great that Side Door can find venues for artists to play at and make it quite intimate and cozy, which honestly reminds me of what it’s like when I’m writing in my room. To replicate that in someone else’s room; It feels just felt right.”
Poolblood was also scheduled to play in Davenport Iowa and Kansas City before hitting South By Southwest. Like many modern artists, Poolblood launched their career by sharing their work online until getting noticed.
“I was just writing music by myself all the time,” they recounted. “And then I was posting it online, specifically on Bandcamp, and I had connected with some friends on Twitter. From there, I connected with a friend who was starting their own label.”
Poolblood cites Fionna Apple as one of their biggest music inspirations.
“I love her songwriting specifically. I think she’s very complex and just a great storyteller. And I really love Joanna Newsom, as well. She’s also a great songwriter, too.”
Once Poolblood returns from Texas, they plan to keep using the Side Door platform. The artist is even hoping to book enough venues to make an East Coast tour someday.
This is the second straight year that Side Door has sent artists to South By Southwest. It goes hand-in-hand with the platform’s increased visibility in the United States. In 2019, only 15 percent of users on Side Door were south of the border-now that number is 40 percent.
Having a presence at big shows like South By Southwest will likely keep that number growing.
“I’m hoping that this South by Southwest will really be a bit of a different one,” said Laura Simpson, who co-founded Side Door with Dan Mangan. “Because last year we were introducing ourselves and I am hoping this year it’s more of a reunion of people who we’ve worked with, and we haven’t been able to meet in person.
“So that’s where we’re at with the US market; less of an introductory phase and now we’re getting to know them.”
The past year has also proven that Simpson and Mangan were right to change the direction of the platform in a big way. Side Door became popular during the pandemic as a way for people to host online concerts. This was a popular fad back in 2020 and 2021 when restrictions prevented people from going to live shows.
But a year ago, Side Door decided to focus entirely on helping artists book live shows. It’s a decision that is paying off.
“There was so much uncertainty,” recalled Simpsons about what was happening a year ago. “We were in the middle of deciding to go back to in person shows. We changed our whole platform and now we’re just seeing the uptick in person and sales and posts.”
“For February we had triple the number of posts online than we’ve had in the preceding month. So definitely the most that we’ve had online in a year. So there’s a ton of host activity which is really nice to see.”
Derek Montague is a Huddle reporter in Halifax. Send him your feedback and story ideas: [email protected].