Thousands of people from all over the country descend on Austin each year for the South by Southwest Music and Film Festival. This year, students from Southeast Texas will have a chance to be a part of it.
Three students from Lamar State College-Port Arthur’s commercial music program were given internships by the festival and will be working live sound at some of the festival’s venues.
“This is the first time SXSW has actually allowed a school outside of the Austin area to work with it,” said John-Michael Wallace, full-time instructor with the commercial music department at Lamar State College-Port Arthur.
The Commercial Music Program at LSCPA offers students a chance to focus on performance or sound engineering, which includes audio recording, editing and live sound production.
The interns will be assisting in the setup of the live sound equipment at venues and will assist the live sound engineers with the production of performances during the festival.
James Faust, 22, of beaumont
James Faust, 22, of Beaumont, said he is “stoked” about the internship.
“Me and the group of people that I hang out with, South by Southwest has always been our thing,” Faust said. “It is what we get excited about every year. As soon as they said ‘This is for South by Southwest,’ I was like, Sign me up.”
Faust is assigned to the venue Red 7, which features performances from bands like The Moondoggies, Heavy Cream, O’Death and the Luyas.
“My ultimate goal would be to really get into what the Austin music scene is like because that is a place I would potentially want to move to when I graduate,” Faust said.
He said he is also hoping to make connections with the sound engineering companies in at the festival.
Kennedy SHelton, 25, of Port Arthur
Classmate Kennedy Shelton, 25, of Port Arthur, was assigned to the venue Fuze, which features acts like Ganegrene, Gorilla Zoe, Trae tha Truth, Lil Keke and Freddie Gibbs.
Shelton said he is most excited about getting a chance to gain experience in sound production on this scale.
“I get to see some of the things they go through, some of the issues that may occur or how smooth or unsmooth a night goes,” he said. “If I’m working in a venue for three days, then there is bound to be something different. So I plan on learning something new each night.”
Benjamin "Chap" Herbert, 29, of Beaumont
Benjamin “Chap” Hebert, 29, of Beaumont, was assigned to a live sound team that will travel from venue to venue repairing or replacing broken equipment and delivering any special equipment that a venue might need.
Hebert said he was excited to get the opportunity to see how such a large-scale production is run.
“It seems like it is going to be a great experience,” he said.
