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Robert Locke is a music fixture in Arkansas.
A longtime artist and music writer, Locke now takes on the daunting task of coordinating everyone involved in the Arkansas music community. Locke has recently started the Arkansas Music Experience, which means getting artists, managers, promoters, venue owners, photographers, local media, real estate developers, and small businesses in the same room to talk about moving Arkansas music forward.
The AME has been hosting regular music industry meetups in Arkansas for the past year, and that continues Sept. 16 at George’s Majestic Lounge as part of Arkansas Music Week. This is a free event, and everyone involved in Arkansas music is welcome to attend.
Arkansas Music Week starts this Sunday, Sept. 14, with events planned until Sept. 21. There’s a lot planned, so you can choose your own adventure. This coincides with the Music Cities Convention, so you have the unique opportunity to connect with artists in your field from all over the world.
For more on Arkansas Music Week, check in here. For more on the Music Cities Convention, check in here.
I talked to Robert about the upcoming events, and here it goes…
Before we talk about Arkansas Music Week, let us know about your group Arkansas Music Experience – when did you start and what are your goals?
Kim Smootz, Travis Smith and I worked together for a few years under Shindig Music. This past Fall, Shindig was inducted into the NWA Music Hall of Fame and that sort of lit a spark for us to work together again. Around that same time period I started talking with the people behind Sound Diplomacy and the Music Cities Convention. There was a lot of encouragement from them and others in the scene to get something going. So we did.
We launched the Arkansas Music Experience on Jan 1 of this year and started taking meetings. The only real goal we’ve had is putting together great events and projects that can boost our state’s Music Scene. We relaunched the Music Industry Meetup Series to great success and we’ve been pretty busy ever since.
You’re a featured speaker at the Music Cities Convention happening in Fayetteville on September 16 – 18. When will you be speaking and what can attendees expect?
I’m doing the Fireside chat on September 18, which is about the state of the Arkansas Music Industry. I don’t really know what to expect since this is my first Music Cities Convention, but I’m sure it’ll be an interesting experience.
You’ve put together the first ever Arkansas Music Week on September 14 – 21, before we get into specifics, why did you want to present this around and during the Music Cities Convention?
Doing an event like this during Music Cities wasn’t the original plan. Originally, we were asked to host one of our Meetups during the week of Music Cities. We had met with Susie Cowan from Arkansas Tourism earlier this year about it and that meeting led to a meeting with Experience Fayetteville and Downtown Fayetteville Coalition about doing some extra Music programming. Those conversations evolved into what is now called Arkansas Music Week.
From there we reached out to multiple venues and event producers about the concept. We talked with Brian Crowne, Mitchel Twombly, Jonathan at Prairie Street Live, and it just started coming together.
Within a week we had Walton Arts Center, West End, West & Watson, Nomads Trailside, The Library and Jammin Java involved. I must say, it was the venues, the event promoters, and artists that put this week together.
As far as the Convention, they seem just as excited for Arkansas Music Week as we are.
Give us a rundown of what’s happening around town during Arkansas Music Week – and how can people find a list of all the events?
We are currently at over two dozen events and that number is growing by the day. We have a little bit of everything from the Music Cities Convention to live music showcases, workshops and even a Film Screening. Both Experience Fayetteville and Downtown Fayetteville have the events listed on their websites.
Obviously, you hope that people come out all week – but if someone can only make it to a few events, which do you feel best encapsulates the scope of the Arkansas Music Experience?
If you work in our local music scene in any way, then the Music Industry Meetup is definitely the don’t miss event of the week.
Our Featured Attendee lineup is stacked! KUAF, Cache, East Hall, FPTV, Lineup Booking and Holy Anvil are going to be there. The Arkansas Music Office, BEAR Creative, Valhalla and Dead Party are coming up from Little Rock. We just added ShowLive SFX.
We don’t call it the Premier Music Networking event in Arkansas for nothing!
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