Austin-based musician Troy Campbell was inspired to found The House of Songs in 2009 based on his friendship with Danish musician Paul Krebs.
House of Songs brings musicians from various locations together to collaborate and learn from one another. This year, Campbell has been working with musicians in Austin and Wichita, and that will culminate in a special performance as part of Somewhere Fest this weekend.
Campbell recently shared more about House of Songs and its history.
The musicians Campbell has been working with from both Austin and Wichita will perform starting 8 p.m. Thursday at Oddfellow Hall, as part of the Road To Somewhere House of Songs Summit. A documentary about the process is in the works, with this week’s performances and collaborations being filmed by Austin-based filmmaker Jose McIntosh, as well as a Wichita-based crew.
On Saturday, the assembled musicians will also perform at the Somewhere Festival SomeOne Stage starting at 7:15 p.m. According to Campbell, the musicians wrote 14 songs across two days.
The following dialogue has been edited for length and clarity.
“In 2009, I was working with Nat Geo and I was shooting something that weekend for South By Southwest, and three guys come up to me in suits in Texas," Campbell said. "They come up and they [say], ‘We represent the Kingdom of Denmark’s creative sector, we’re investing deeper in the creative sector and we believe Austin’s going to blow up and become a very successful city,' even though it was during the bust, 2009.
"I said, ‘I’d get a house.’ I just freestyled and I said, ‘I’d get a house like I had in ’92, and everybody came over to my house, and we were all broke but when someone did good we cheered them.’ If any of us could get anywhere, it was in that kind of a scene, where we really loved and admired each other. It didn’t matter what genre, it was just your friends working and everybody aspired to play better.
"I said, 'I’d want them to come the rest of the year [to a house] that’s set up all year. I’d want them to write a letter about why they’d even want to come to Texas and then, me and a group of folks will just sit and listen to music, and if we think we can find two to three friends for them — not people who sound like them, but friends — based on what we’re feeling, we’ll invite them and they’ll live [there] for about 11 days.’
"I thought that that was about the right amount of time to acclimate, still get some stuff done, still be in love with the town and then leave, because that was my theory when I toured. ‘OK, just about this much time before I wear out my welcome or whatever.’
"And then I just kept going, and then they stopped me and said, ‘This is brilliant.’
"I said, ‘And the local artists will take the visiting artists to show them the town.’
"They said, ‘You pay them?’
"I go, ‘I hadn’t thought that out yet, but I think they’ll just do it. I pay them to write, but that’s what we do.’
"He said, ‘How sure are you of that?’
"I said, ‘Probably 99% because that’s the one asset we have. We love having a community, even if we can’t afford our rent and we love having the Barton Springs Pool and all the venues. When we can show that we show our inner wealth.’
"Within the first year, 33 artists came through. By the end of it, three more countries came on board because the artists went home raving about Austin, and I had to keep doing it. It’s 16 years and 30 countries.
"When [Chase Koch’s] foundation reached out to me about Wichita — this was over the course of a couple of years of just chatting — I said, ‘Let me do some experiments to see what the community does. It’s not going to be about me. Is there a space that the people can lift so that there’ll be more aspiration, but then people who are touring can come through, stay there, meet artists? There’s another place you can call your home, like studios do, or clubs. That’s that extra space.’
"Phase Two was: I want to bring 13-15 artists for visits, each separate, to co-write with two-three people from Austin that they’ve never met. Maybe do a small show if they have time and to dive into that community and feel what that feels like. But also to get Austin artists in Wichita because, ultimately, the bridge is what builds everything. By doing the importing, I think we create export.
"That’s why we’re working with Somewhere Fest. It creates a story of this partnership but it also makes even the local audience wonder if we’re going to pull off creating an entire set of music in three days as a band, with essentially strangers, and get on that stage and act not like a bunch of singer-songwriters but acting like a band that wants this to be the best show possible.
"That’s where we’re at, and that’s the Phase Three, and after that I don’t know what anybody wants to do. But I think that Wichita is great. It’s just now getting people in and out and now knowing that we have 13 incredible sherpas that can find 30 more artists for us and bring them into that, in and out of the house.”
