Since the late ’80s, the music world has seen acoustic music go from a few odd songs in a band’s set to acts basing their entire sound around the acoustic format. With Eric Clapton and other usually harder rockers slowing down and performing “unplugged” sets, a trend was started that has evolved into a style in itself. Now, no longer relegated to coffeehouse folk, the acoustic sound is the style of mainstream rockers such as Sarah MacLachlan and Dave Matthews. While light rock artists such as these have defined themselves by the style, heavy rock acts from Metallica to Stone Temple Pilots have also deviated from their normal standards and recorded songs and given performances acoustically. Readers of local music publications may likely be aware that there are various venues in the Twin Cities that feature occasional acoustic performances. The genre, however, remains peripheral and the local artists that perform acoustically are often overshadowed by the multitude of electric bands in the area.

Local musicians Shaan Sharma, Abraham Piper and Katie Marshall have a plan to help bring local acoustic music to the forefront and give it and its artists the attention that they deserve. The trio, headed by Sharma, are the spokespeople for a group of 25 local artists that perform within a sort of musical club called the Acoustic Showcase. With long-term goals and a highly organized strategy, they hope to establish a strong network of performers and venues locally, while also working to gradually establish a national networking acoustic scene. The three spoke with Pulse about how they intend to do this and other details pertaining to the Showcase.

Pulse: Tell me about the basic concept of the Acoustic Showcase.

Shaan Sharma: The basic concept is trying to draw acoustic artists together and to be able to provide them with services that they couldn’t get on their own. The way we do that is from artists performing together in a show. The money that’s generated from the cover charge and the merchandise sales goes into an account that we use to provide services to the artists. You do this first in a city and you get a lot of support from the artists and establish yourself to gain credibility. Minneapolis is such a great place for the arts to start off in and from there you can generate more revenue to expand into more cities. Pretty soon you have an entity that has a huge voice in the music community that is uniting independent artists and providing them with tools that they could never have gotten unless they were signed to a major label. You have potentially millions of dollars of revenue that’s all going toward services for the artists. Even just from performing once a month, instead of at a Dunn Brother’s, play a showcase and you have the support of an entire community nationwide.

Pulse: Is the aim of all this to get the artists to higher places and bigger labels?

S.S.: I think so. I think it’s to help them achieve their individual goals. Some artists like to stay independent and stay on their own successfully and other artists want the major label deal. This basically provides an environment where you can learn from other artists. You have new artists that are as young as high school and ten-year veterans. We have a really big range and we’re not a community for the elite. They’re all talented artists. We do some filtering to maintain the integrity of the show, we want to make sure people are having a good time. We provide a community where any artist can learn. If they need a website, we have information on how to help them set that up, we provide links to their bios on the showcase website and you can buy their CDs online. Once we go nationwide, it can provide an outlet to tour at virtually no cost. Basically you pay for gas and you have a place to stay with other showcase artists and everything is covered by the showcase.

Pulse: Are you working with people that already perform acoustically or can electric bands get involved and play acoustically?

S.S.: Yes, electric bands can get involved. The cool thing about acoustic guitar is any genre can be put to it. Whether it’s punk or hard rock, it usually starts out being written on acoustic guitar.
Abraham Piper: A good thing the showcase does for the artist is, if you have a day job that you want to keep, this is a place where you can play at least one successful show once a month. For people who want to make music their livelihood, it’s just as good for that. It covers a wide range of things that people want to do.

Katie Marshall: I think the networking is just unbelievable. I personally have met so many talented people that, when you see them, you just get inspired. It’s interesting to be able to see everyone’s different styles because there is so much variety. You get people from all different angles of music.

S.S.: When we book shows, we try to include a variety of styles, we don’t want five artists that all sound the same. The thing were trying to do is eliminate a useless sense of rivalry and competition. There is this sense of competition that bands get into when trying to get media or label attention. I think the smart thing to do is work with each other and our combined resources and you can do yourself what the labels could do, which is basically provide yourself with a loan.

Pulse: Who’s involved with your roster right now?

S.S.: Some of the more notable names are John Hermanson, Matt Marka, Kid Dakota, Tom Feldmann. Those are some of the more experienced performers. When we’re starting out in a city like Minneapolis like we are now, the responsibility falls a lot on the shoulders of the artists who have made a name for themselves to lend their reputation or celebrity to the showcase to help it get that start. Then once we have artists like that in every city, those artists can all help each other. It’s important for the younger artists to have people like those that have experience to bounce questions off of.

A.P.: It was really inspiring for me to be working with artists that I’ve looked up to and I think people take a lot from that.

S.S.: The cool thing about this is you do not have to do a lot to be a part of it. Just show up and perform and show your enthusiasm, promote it and let people know about it and take pride in it because it’s going to be a really great opportunity for a lot of musicians. But as far as overseeing the business end of it, there’s not a lot of responsibility. That’s our job.

Pulse: Do you foresee showcase tours coming up?

S.S.: Absolutely. What we’re hoping to do in Minneapolis is set an example for other cities and then negotiate with them to start adding showcases to their cities and start building this up all over the country that way. But touring has been definitely been talked about.

A.P.: We’ve been talking about the artists but this thing is really about the audience because most people are audience members and not musicians. We’re putting together a show that makes people realize that acoustic is not just sitting in front of a fire with a guitar drinking a cup of coffee. It can be. But it’s also stomp your feet and yell into the microphone.

S.S.: We’re at a time when acoustic music is taking a strong leap forward. There’s such a broad and universal appeal. It appeals to people of all ages and genres. The reason we choose the acoustic format is because it’s the most universal. Eventually, I could see the staff or others branching off and playing hard rock or whatever. It’s just all about setting up communities that support each other. But right now were focusing on the most universal. You want to do one genre well so you don’t spread yourself too thin. The acoustic showcase isn’t your career, it’s just another thing you can do to get yourself some support and power within a market that is hard to be successful in. The showcase is a positive tool to help you with whatever you want to do. It’s hard to get something like this off on a national or even citywide level because there is so much cynicism. We’re trying to show that by networking and working with other artists, you’re helping them and yourself. People shouldn’t be afraid of helping each other.

K.M.: Every artist has a unique product. There’s no reason that you can’t support every artist in the showcase. The competition is just needless.

S.S.: We’ve encountered a lot of cynicism from people about this because they don’t know how to take this and haven’t heard of it before. We’re just going to show by example. After a year of this in Minneapolis, getting recognition, building merchandising services, getting venue support, letters of recommendation from the owners and the artists, we’re going to have credibility and a proven track record to take anywhere else in the country. We’re going to show that this works and if it can work in Minneapolis, it can work in any city. Right now we’re working with nickels and dimes since we’re just getting started but we hope to achieve the revenue of bigger labels from the showcases.

Pulse: What venues are you working with now?

S.S.: Java Noir, The Library Bar and Cafe, The Borealis, and we’re just about to start up at the Bryant Lake Bowl. Right now we’re just calling out to artists that are excited to get involved. We’re helping people along the way while we grow responsibly and proportionately. Right now our main message is to educate people on what we’re doing. We want to change the way things are in music by supporting artists that don’t have access to larger audiences and resources that the major labels do. We’re not making any money doing this, we just want to give artists all we can to take the power away from solely the big budgeted corporations and record labels. To create a balance. If you want to go that way, go with the big labels. They’ve done some great music too, but it depends on what you want to do individually. You shouldn’t have to make concessions on your integrity to be successful. I don’t think that’s necessary. Overall, I think that the showcase is something that the Minneapolis music scene needs to embrace and we just want people to know we’re here. This is something everyone can be a part of. A music enthusiast can come and be a part of the staff as much as an artist. It’s just all about promoting this vision and getting people on board with the sense of community.

Acoustic Showcase is currently in its early stages. In order to speed up the process of being able to provide all the needed resources for the artists that want them, they will be sending out fundraising letters to various music oriented businesses and music enthusiasts to help raise start-up capital. They will be asking for contributions and giving out CDs, show tickets and other things to people who choose to contribute. This will be a one-time donation to cover legal and other start-up costs as Acoustic Showcase is not just a community, but also a company that wants to get the word out about its credibility. All contributions will go directly into the showcase fund. Anyone interested in performing or joining the staff can email them at acousticshowcase@aol.com or call the office at 612-990-0277 for information on sending demos and press kits. You can catch the next showcase at Java Noir on October 19th.