A popular, annual free music festival is returning soon to Columbia, which is once again expected to generate significant economic activity in the Midlands. Mike Switzer interviews Jay Matheson, owner of the Jam Room music studio in Columbia, host of the Jam Room Music Festival coming to Columbia’s Finlay Park on November 14th.
TRANSCRIPT:
Switzer: Hello and welcome to another edition of the South Carolina Business Review. This is Mike. Switzer. A popular annual free music festival is returning soon to Colombia, which is of course once again expected to generate significant economic activity in the Midlands. Jay Matheson is owner of the Jam Room Music Studio in Columbia, host of the Jam Room Music Festival, coming to Columbia's Finley park on November 14th. Jay, welcome back to the program.
Matheson: Hi, Mike. Thanks for having me.
Switzer: All right, so now tell us who the lineup is this year. And I noticed that there are several bands from our state this year. And in fact, I saw that there's one that has won two Grammy Awards.
Matheson: Yeah. So that's Ranky Tanky. And I was not even familiar with them. but our booking team really does an incredible job. And the fact that it's kind of Gullah culture related, I think for us is great because we like to have a broad footprint. Ranky Tanki definitely fits within that, you know.
Switzer: All right, well, share with us some more names.
Matheson: The big name is called Swerve Driver, and Swerve Driver is kind of a '90s alt/indie rock band that's kind of guitar heavy. And they've been very popular for a long time. And like a lot of jammering music festival bands, they're not in the sense that, everybody knows who they are, but, you know, people will be excited about this and drive from many towns. Another kind of band that kind of goes back to an earlier kind of indie/alt rock thing is Pylon Reenactment Society, which is basically the Pylon band with some different, band members is what. That is the fourth one I have on my list as far as closest to being the headliner. Elf Power. And that's an Athens band that is the household name in the indie and underground rock world for many, many years. So the first band of the is for a kids stage. Divvy rocks kids, I guess is how you pronounce it. One of Beyonce's bassists as, band, and she does children's music. So there's a full band. We typically have a kids stage for kickoff these years.
Switzer: And I see that band has been nominated for a Grammy.
Matheson: Yes, yes, they were Grammy nominated. That is right. There's a couple of local-ish bands, Interceptor and Mids, and those are grittier guitar, heavy rock, one's more metal and one's more experimental that, you know, is heavy and then does jazz stuff and even funk stuff. Incredible band.
Switzer: Walk us through the, logistics of how the festival will be Happening. there are multiple stages.
Matheson: Yeah, there's two stages and typically our first stage will kick off at 12 o' clock. And that would be the children's stage. So people that are older might not show up until more like one o' clock when the regular, adult entertainment bands would start. And they basically toggle between stages so you can see every band. All you got to do is when one band or artist finished, walk, you know, 75 yards over to the other stage and the other band will start up right then. So it's not the type of thing where you have to pick which band that you want to see. You just basically have to decide how long you want to be at the festival because it lasts from 12:00 clock until we, have to shut off at 10:00 o'clock. Definitely have a lot more vendors for food and beer than last year because last year was a huge success. A monstrous crowd at Finley Park. So we're going to have to at least double the food vendors that we have. But food vendors will be there all day even before we get started. So they'll just definitely be food and beer vending all day long. And like I said, it was so huge last year or turnout. I think it took everybody by surprise. It was it was the first event, ever to be in Finley park last year. And now I guess we're coming around for our second year at Finley Park.
Switzer: Any, updates on the economic impact numbers?
Matheson: No, you know, I am. We have a board of directors, and don't even have the numbers with me. I have a printed out a quick sheet here. But we have basically part of our team that handles all of that. And of course the numbers look very good. At the meeting that I was at, we always have follow up meetings and. But we have a board of directors and I do a relatively small amount of the actual work on the festival these days. We have, you know, we have a secretary, we have a booking team, we have, you know, head of the board assistant. So the Jam Room Music Festival is now not even part of the Jam Room itself. It's its own separate nonprofit.
Switzer: Well, Jay, thank you so much for the update. We're looking forward to this year's event.
Matheson: Well, thanks a lot for the support.
Switzer: Jay Matheson is owner of the Jam Room Music Studio in Columbia, telling us about the upcoming Jam Room Music Festival coming to Columbia's Findlay park on November 14th. We will have a link to the event posted at our webpage so you can learn more. SouthCarolinaPublicRadio.org where you can hear this show again. And, you can find us wherever you find podcasts. With the South Carolina Business Review, this is Mike Switzer.
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