From The Road: Weird Sister Records Takes on SXSW

Apr 14

☆ BY JONAH NINK ☆

ONE CAN ONLY IMAGINE the whirlwind of a week that Austin’s South by Southwest festival is for an emerging artist. You’re asked to put your heart and soul out on display at one showcase, and then, without any kind of break, sprint across town to do it all again. For some this might seem like an exhausting couple of days, but for Weird Sister Records roster artists Adi GuerrerX and Brooklyn-based Sub*t, the festival’s breakneck pace is what makes it worthwhile. We teamed up with Lomography to send the label a film camera to document the fast paced festival.

The Brooklyn and Los Angeles-based independent record label and collective, Weird Sister, serves women, trans and non-binary artists in the ever changing music scene. With a desire to make the industry more inclusive, the label has taken this effort into their own hands by supporting and uplighting artists they truly believe in. Founded by Deanna DiLandro and Madison Hetterly in 2021, the label put together this show as their first ever unofficial SXSW showcase. We sent the label out a disposable camera to capture their debut SXSW event on film for us to get some insight to the day.

“I kicked off the party crooning my shamelessly sad & gay tunes at the peak hour of 12:30 PM to the early attendees and vendors,” said Adi GuerrerX, who played on multiple showcases through the week. “I stuck around to see a good friend of mine Abby Huston play almost as if they were cueing the wind to match they're delicate melodies. “But then I had to rush the fuck out with a homie from the 305, Miami, where I'm from, to make my next showcase for Citrus City x First Date Touring, which was another big moment since I have a lifelong love for my recent homebase, Richmond, VA.”

“JayWood, a project from Winnipeg, was ripping it up!” they said.

Adi fought through the urge to sleep that night to attend a particularly special show. “If you know me, I'm a little grandpa and love to be in bed by 10:30 p.m. watching my fav cartoons,” they said. “But if in Rome and your lord and savior Phoebe Bridgers organizes Saddest Factory Records’s first showcase, a national, historical event, you down coffee, make friends with the bouncer and get the fuck in.”

To both Adi GurrerX and Sub*T, moments like these go far beyond networking. “Festivals like this are so important because you get to live what feels like a year of touring into one week,” said Jade Alcantara of Sub*T. “The amount of people and bands you meet and play showcases with is so valuable. Not just for networking, but for growing as a new band and getting yourself out there. That’s what really makes SXSW so important and special.”

“We tried to take every opportunity to catch other bands at the festival,” said Alcantara. “Our favorite acts were Pom Poko, Sasami, Blackstarkids, They Hate Change, Wombo, Billy Star, and even a local band we discovered called Favor.”

“SXSW fosters community on another level,” Adi says. “You meet so many new artists as well as getting to catch up with day one people who may have moved away from musical hometowns.”

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