The Millenium Files

The Millenium Files: Miniviews

By Benjy Eisen

From the trade show floor of the Harrisburg Hilton to the 63 showcases in 24 venues sprawled across the midstate, over 300 bands walked through the turnstiles of this year’s Millenium Music Conference. Some sought advice, some sought record deals, MODE Weekly caught up with a few of the artists — and a panelist — to get their take on the weekend. Here’s what we came up with:

Paul Sacksman, MUSICIAN’S ATLAS, Panelist
MODE Weekly: You’re a repeat panelist at Millenium. Why do you keep coming back?
Paul: I think conferences like the Millenium are great because they are small enough for the people to actually connect and interact with the participants, even musician to musician, not just musician to business. And unfortunately the larger the conference the tougher that gets. South By Southwest has 10,000 people coming to town — it’s tough to find who you are looking for in that crowd. So I think this is great. I’m a supporter of this. Obviously my organization and myself, we’ve always supported local shows, local artists, in any way we can. So it’s easy to come back.
MODE: A lot of these bands come here to benefit on the national level, but the immediate benefits seem to be on a local level…
Paul: I think, to me, what would actually be the reality of it all would be hearing the war stories from the panelists and from the other artists. Probably that slap of reality might be the most valuable lesson, rather than ‘We are the best band, there ain’t no question about it.’ I appreciate the cockiness, I dig the whole confidence factor but for the most part they’ve got to realize it is a dime a dozen. You and everybody else are doing it, what are you going to do about it and how are you going to go about doing it? I think that these conferences lay out that challenge pretty openly and honestly.

Mary Prankster of Mary Prankster
MODE: What kind of music do you play?
Mary: Rock and Roll!
MODE: Is this your first year at the conference?
Mary: Oh no! I get up here every year. We always come up every year.
MODE: What do you get out of it?
Mary: Free porn in Room 1307.
MODE: Any expectations in particular?
Mary: We expect not to remember most of what happened last night.
MODE: How’d it go…
Mary: Excellent.
MODE: You played at the Vault?
Mary: Oh, the Vault was good too! [laughs] John Harris throws the best party in the Mid-Atlantic every year.
MODE: A lot of people come here looking to make contacts or to learn something or get a foot in the door. Are you guys looking for anything like that?
Mary: No, we just expect to shave a couple years off our lives.

The Obnoxious Ip From Eden Park
MODE: What are your thoughts on the conference?
The Obnoxious Ip: Disappointed. There’s a lot of young bands who want to try to get somewhere and a bunch of people representing organizations that can’t do anything for them. There’s no middlemen around here. I was expecting more A&R representation, more label representation, but you can’t flood five record companies with 300 bands. It’s hard to stand out.
MODE: What were you hoping to get out of it?
The Obnoxious Ip: More contacts. More networking outside of bands. I mean, bands are easy to get networking with, easy to do. People who know more than what I know, who are willing to work with smaller bands from around here, who can say ‘Hey, yeah I’m into smaller bands, I’m from around here, I’m not from, like Virginia.’ You know, it makes it tough. I mean, I learned a lot of things, I met a lot of people, I made a lot of cool contacts. But it’s not nearly what it’s hyped up to be.

Darcie Miner
MODE: Is this your first year at the conference?
Darcie: No, this is my third year.
MODE: What’s your take on it?
Darcie: I love it! I think it’s great. I think it’s wonderful. All these artists in one big place, it’s like we’re one big happy community. It’s great!
MODE: What’s the best thing to come out of the conference for you, personally?
Darcie: I think it’s more what you get out of the conference. I’ve learned a lot just being here.