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Sound Check: Takac decides to move on/article
« on: May 4th, 2007, 5:05pm » |
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Sound Check: Takac decides to move on
Puts positive spin on taking music festival to Hamburg Fairgrounds
By Jeff Miers
Updated: 05/04/07 12:58 PM
The question had to come, and it did, toward the end of Robby Takac’s news conference on Wednesday. He’d almost made it out of Trackmaster Studios — the legendary (and long abandoned) North Street recording space the Goo Goo Dolls recently purchased and will soon begin renovating for their own full-time use — without having to tackle a thorny issue.
That issue was raised, innocently enough, by someone from a local television station, and it gave Takac cause for pause.
“Are you disappointed that you’ll have to leave your neighborhood in order to put on your festival?” the reporter queried. Takac let out a sigh.
“I’m not disappointed, because these new synergies we’re creating for the festival are nothing but positive,” he answered. “But look at me — I’m in my slippers while I do this press conference. I live here, and work here, and I thought the festival had a good home here. That said, it’s time to move on, and I’m thrilled with the direction we’re moving in now.”
The new direction Takac alluded to involves his organization’s partnering with America’s Fair, in order to transport his yearly Music Is Art bachannal from its point of origin on Franklin Street in Allentown to the Fairgrounds in Hamburg.
On the surface, this might seem like no big deal. There are implications, however, and while most of them are positive, there is something that sticks in the craw about the manner in which Takac and Co. were left with no choice but to form these new relationships.
The problem has been there from Music Is Art’s maiden voyage. Takac envisioned the festival as a multi-idiomatic art experience to take place concurrently with the Allentown Art Festival, to act as an adjunct and a deepening of the Art Festival experience. He pulled it off quite well, employing the parking lot of his Chameleon West studios on Franklin Street to put on a cultural soiree celebrating visual, performance and fine art in conjunction with live music.
Whatever the financial realities of the festival were for Takac, from the outside fan’s point of view, Music Is Art was a complete success, and a serious boon to the local arts community — especially the original music scene, which greatly benefited from the shot in the arm MIA clearly was.
There were problems from the beginning, however. The folks behind the Allentown Art Festival were not thrilled to be sharing the spotlight with a rock star, it seems. For four years, the twain never met. And though Takac was never “kicked out” of Allentown, it had become increasingly difficult and cost-prohibitive for him to stay.
Sour grapes are not Takac’s drink of choice today, however, and he views all of this controversy as water under the bridge.
“I just don’t wanna go there,” the Goo Goo Dolls bassist laughed, following Wednesday’s news conference. “There is no sense in being negative about this, because from where I stand, it’s nothing but a good thing. It sorta feels like it was meant to happen.”
Music Is Art has always been a twoday affair — a party, to be sure, but also, much more than that. This year, at the Fairgrounds, it will take place “from 9 in the morning until they close the place down,” on Aug. 11. The festival’s ethic remains the same: “To sort of commingle music, dance and art, and create specific, cool interactive things for younger kids to take part in.” But some things will change. Takac’s studio team is not likely to record the performances for future CD release on Takac’s Good Charamel label, something it has done for three of the past four years. And Takac himself will be otherwise engaged on the day of the festival, a Goo Goo Dolls gig in Tokyo precluding his direct involvement for the first time. (He does have a live satellite feed presentation planned, he says, though he’s sitting on the details for the time being.)
These details aside, Music Is Art will continue, in essence, as it has in the past. For Takac, having the chance to “step outside of the arts community we’ve always worked within and counted on for support, and reach an additional group of people maybe unfamiliar with all of the things we’re doing, and with the wealth of talent in the Buffalo area — well, that’s pretty exciting!”
The festival itself is only one aspect of what Music Is Art does all year long. There’s the instrument drive, which refurbishes instruments for area high schools; Music Is Art Live At the Center, which combines the work of UB film students and area musicians for an award-winning television series filmed at the University’s Center for the Arts, the result of a partnership between Takac and Center for the Arts head Tom Burrows; and various interconnected ventures, including the High School Awareness Tour, the Music in Action 15- week music business education course, the MIA/97 Rock Buffalo Rocks benefit disc, and a high school battle of the bands.
This is an exciting and potentially expansive development for Music Is Art. Still, summer in Allentown will be far less thrilling with Takac and his team gone.•
Check out the Miers on Music blog at www.buffalonews.com
http://www.buffalonews.com/197/story/68416.html
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