When MidPoint kicks off this Thursday, Dan McCabe will be a ubiquitous presence. As producing director of the three night music festival, McCabe is responsible for seeing that over 230+ performances run smoothly while he troubleshoots sound issues, entertains music industry insiders, and ensures the festival, now in its ninth year, goes off without a hitch. Tall order for most but if anyone was built to fill these shoes it's McCabe, who took over mangement of the festival in 2008. McCabe booked former indie rock club Sudsy Malones from 1991 to 1996, bringing national notoriety to Cincinnati's music scene by convincing then-undiscovered bands like the Jesus Lizard and Babe the Blue Ox to play at the rock bar/Laundromat during Short Vine's heyday. McCabe's Thigmotrope booking and promotions company still books national headliners in local venues like the Southgate House.
A musician, McCabe played in a number of well regarded bands like Roundhead and Opi Yum Yum, before joining Cincinnati
CityBeat as its Marketing and Promotions Manager. He took over production duties for MidPoint in 2008 when CityBeat acquired the festival.
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Q: MidPoint is a lot different now than when it started [in 2002] largely as a showcase for unsigned, independent artists. Now the focus is on cutting edge national artists interspersed with a handful of recognizable, 'bigger' acts. For example, on the way over I heard WNKU playing one of MidPoint's featured artists this year,
Best Coast, who are picking up a lot of national buzz. So how do you find these bands?
A: "I got lucky with that one and their profile when it comes down to it... and that's the idea with MidPoint - these artists that we invested into bringing into MPMF who are backed up by very savvy management companies and PR companies that are positioning their artists. I also know how to put myself in the way of discovery. I can't track it down. My friends grab me by the collar and say 'have you heard this?' Other bands I'm working with are touring with a new band I've never heard of and introduce me. I don't know the path of people who discover new music, we're all in that same boat so MidPoint is made up of a hodge podge of stuff that I've come across through friends, other bands, agency relationships, industry folk - and that's how you get out in front of things."
Q: And then there are artists like
Tom Tom Club, with two Rock and Roll Hall of Famers, (Chris Frantz and Tina Weymouth from the Talking Heads). How did that come about?
A: "The people behind Tom Tom Club understood their need to pioneer, to invent. The agency that handles them also understood what MidPoint was trying to do, where we're headed and the type of artist we're going after, and saw the parallel. Here's a band that's known for its pioneering and it's a band that artists admire."
Q: Given the sheer number of bigger acts this year, it has to be getting more and more expensive to stage the festival?
A: "We're very lucky to have local businessmen like Andrew DeWitt of Dewey's Pizza who I sat down with three years ago when he committed to us. He was our first major contributor and continues to be. Cincinnati Bell understands the importance of keeping this going. We are stretched to the point - this is a doubling of last year's talent budget. What it comes down to is people showing up, the sponsors aren't doing the heavy lifting, it's the people - if they want it, they'll show up, if they don't it might not be around. It's as simple as that, to stand up and be counted and say we are a music town, we expect this type of event every year and we're going to participate...I'm really excited about the Fine Arts Fund participating this year. I love the idea of a turning point where Cincinnati starts to look at its art as more than just a symphony and the ballet- that's its local music scene could be considered precious and worth nurturing as are these other art forms."
Q: How is the FAF getting involved?
A: "They're bringing in bands to play on all the Metro buses. We'll have MPMF performers unplugged on the back of busses for an event they have planned. I love the fact that they see an avenue with MidPoint and want to get involved. I think that's a hopeful tipping point. We can beat the drum all day long, and I think it's being heard, that our musicians are Cincinnati's finest natural resource."
Q: So nationally, is MidPoint starting to make waves?
A: "The ripple effect is already being shown - we've already reaped it this year. I love seeing these professional PR agencies promoting their bands and they're announcing their artists excitedly attending MPMF in Cincinnati, Ohio. There's a great big whitespace opportunity in this region to come up with a festival that's presenting the forward front of things. The cool thing about MidPoint is the stuff that people haven't heard of: the new discovery, your new favorite band you've never heard of is in there...[t]hey aren't getting any kind of drum beat behind them yet but they will later - and they're precious finds. They're here at MidPoint playing for 45 minutes and it's going to blow some minds. And on the other side after they've left is when their swell is going to come and it's still going to carry the message of MidPoint into next year."
Q: What's the one thing that excites you the most about this year compared to the first year that you produced the festival?
A: "[I]t was a three year plan and that has been really fun. What we have this year is a culmination of what I thought we could do three years ago with what it was… and this is it, this is the year that we've been slowly steering the ship towards and I think that on the other side of this is when we're ready to really launch. This year I'm already littering the field with people I want to work with next year, people who will be in attendance that are coming into town to eyeball this thing. Management, booking agencies, industry folk, as well as potential national level sponsors. I'm very excited about what they'll see this year."
Q: It seems like social media is playing an even larger role in this year's festival.
A: "A lot of that is our work with Topic Design - a collective of undercurrent-minded, forward thinking creatives who happen to work here at an agency who have been advising me on all those social media fronts. I'm 45, they're holding my hand. They also developed our web site. That's a product of my friends being savvier than me, and me being savvy enough to listen to them."
Q: How has the organization of the festival grown since your initial pitch to produce it to CityBeat? I had a sense early on you and the volunteers were doing the yeoman's amount of work. How has the organization developed as the festival has grown?
A: "It's a slow process for me, I'm thick headed. I insisted on doing all of the lifting myself and it's a hard process for me to give up ownership or pieces of the festival, but after the third year it's a matter of survival, I've just got better at it. Again, I go to people, collectives like Topic Design, CityBeat - a collective of creative folks, individuals like Alex Breyer with a lot of experience working in PR, CityBeater Sara Beiting, and one of the mightiest MPMF'ers around, stage manager 'manager,' Jacob Heintz. And I've found people who know a hell of lot more than I do and who have been able to follow through. There's still a lot of work needed in the infrastructure. It's a volunteer based group, so it's a revolving door of individuals who are there each year for the first time to deliver the festival so that's a constant - people who are inexperienced but excited and are ready to take it on their shoulders."
Q: Prior to Midpoint you started Lite Brite, a film and music festival. Will MPMF every have a film component like
SXSW (South by Southwest)?
A: "I tried very hard to give someone ownership of a film component and I found the local film community very factioned and I could not hand it over and have someone run with it so we don't have a parallel component. It's something that interests me because I think there are a lot of parallels in people building their films and having them seen just like musicians want to be heard. But I want to focus on delivering the best collection of music in the best environment I can. I'm excited about the poster exposition though." Q: Even with the national headliners, there's a good amount of Cincinnati bands involved this year(editor's note:
over 70 bands from Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky are playing the Festival this year).
A: "Cincinnati represents, it's hard to deny it. Again the festival is here because the vision of people in this town, it's well represented. It means a lot if they participate and help carry the name. If they're not playing, I hope they're coming out buying a ticket." Photography by Emily Maxwell
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