Pitchfork: Can you talk about your experience at SXSW this year? The general backlash to your statements seemed to find hypocrisy in criticizing something you willfully participated in.
ZCS: People were like, "This artist is anti-corporate, he looks like Kurt Cobain, he has long hair. OK, I get it: This is the zeitgeist anti-corporate punk rock." Fucking whatever. That wasn't my intention at all. Our fucking government is owned by corporations, and other companies get money from the government. If you live in Germany, you get money from the government if you're an artist. So since our government is corporations, it makes sense that we should be taking money from corporations to pay for our art.
If I play Coachella, it's sponsored by a company-- that's corporate, too. But we're playing it because we're getting paid and we want to be a part of the festival. At SXSW, there's all this corporate money changing hands, but none of it goes to the artists. It's fucking bullshit. But I didn't want it to be like, "DIIV-- the band that hates SXSW," because that's not my main tenet as an artist. Some people were like, "DIIV is not having fun at SXSW." I was having a blast. All my friends were there. But I lost $8,000. We were participants in it, but kind of blindly. Our booking agent was just like, "These are the shows you're playing in Austin. Here. You're going." So then we bought the flights and went.
At the time, I thought of it as part of a game. I'd been twice before, and it was never that bad. I've always been going as a band that was trying to break; I went with Beach Fossils and we played 40 shows because we wanted people to see us. And then it got to this year, and, in some ways, we were one of the larger bands playing. We weren't desperate for attention. We were a commodity used by corporations to make their brand look fashionable, but then they used us to keep kids out of venues. We'd play in a 150 capacity room for 20 minutes with no sound check, and all the kids are outside, because they're like, "Sorry, you're not cool enough to go in the fucking Red Bull Vans Fort over here." I participated in it partially because I didn't really think it through before I went, and also because, you know, everybody goes. But when we got there, I realized what a fucked up thing it is. It seems to get worse every year.
Pitchfork: What's your advice for a band who's just getting started and wants to use SXSW as a way of getting their name out there?
ZCS: If I had my way, SXSW wouldn't happen in 2014. I don't think it deserves to exist.You know he's not the only one complaining. I mean, it's pretty clear that SXSW Music is more about the industry than the art form. I'm sure Prince got paid plenty for his little gig at La Zona Rosa last year, but do you think Star & Micey or Pokey LaFarge and the South City Three or Allah-Las made big bucks? No. They probably came down to Austin on a tiny budget, stayed in some crappy overpriced pad, had to schlep around to too many shows, most of which were too short, at bad times and/or before audiences that are more interested in simply "getting in" that in your music. If you're a badge-wearer, you end up paying a month's salary but still end up shut out of the most enticing event. And forget about it if you're just there for the free stuff -- good luck meeting your expectations as you compete against tens of thousands of your closest friends for a chance to cram into the shitty back corner of a dingy club to see a bunch of bands that you've never heard of for good reason.
Of course I'm being a big cynical. After all, it's not like I haven't written about fun times I've enjoyed at SouthBy for nary a dollar. I've gotten to see the Zombies, M. Ward, Spoon, Seun Kuti and many more for free. But Mr. Smith does have a point. So what do you think, should SXSW just go away altogether?
