SCMF organizers Brian Crabtree and Thomas Dawson met through their work with the Santa Cruz hip-hop band Eliquate.
Brian Crabtree and Thomas Dawson get some crazy ideas. The kind that even DNA—the Santa Cruz underground comedy czar who is himself known for almost nothing but crazy ideas—thinks are too crazy. They don’t always know it, though, which is why they suggested to him the idea of adding a comedy showcase to their upcoming Santa Cruz Music Festival, which they’ve spent the last year building from the ground up.
“He was like ‘you’re insane. I don’t want to do anything with that!’” remembers Dawson. “That was months ago, and then we came back to it and said ‘We still want to do comedy.’”
Their persistence won over DNA—like it did so many others. He helped them add a breakfast comedy showcase at Rosie McCann’s to the Santa Cruz Music Festival’s debut on July 20, which will bring 100 music and spoken-words acts from across genres to 11 stages in seven different venues around downtown Santa Cruz.
“I have a feeling Brian and myself are going to be the butt of a few of these jokes,” says Dawson. “I have four friends performing. Rachele Friedland said most of her set is going to be putting down me.”
If the pair don’t mind a good comedy roasting right now, it may be because everywhere else, people are finally taking them seriously. Crabtree, who got his promotions start organizing Battle of the Bands showcases for Your Music Magazine, and Dawson, who manages the local hip-hop group Eliquate, knew it wasn’t going to be easy when they started planning the SCMF last year along with Bubb Rader (of the Santa Cruz-based Thieves clothing line), who handled sponsorships.
“When we’d go meet with people, at first they’d be taken aback by who we were,” remembers Dawson. “Brian used to have longer hair, and he wears a hat. I have this crazy blond hair and I’m tall and I’ve got crazy eyes and stuff. They were like ‘who are these young kids trying to pull off something that’s never happened?’”
Crabtree took it as a sign that they were doing exactly what they’d set out to do.
“We wanted to do something in Santa Cruz that I had never heard of being done,” he says. “Something brand new that this town had never seen before that could advance the local music community.”
Ironically, this all started as a joke: if Austin can have South By Southwest, why can’t we have West By West-West? They searched for the domain, which was taken. But santacruzmusicfestival.com was not. A few clicks on GoDaddy, and suddenly everything changed.
“That’s when we said, ‘this is no longer a joke,’” says Crabtree.
They spent a solid month of long days and nights trying to figure out if SCMF could be pulled off, and how. They would sometimes work their day jobs, and then go to Crabtree’s house for another eight hours of work on the festival. After that was four months of securing venues. Then in January, the real work began, confirming bands. At some point, it became clear this was going to happen, one way or another.
Through it all, they did it their way. They wanted all the bands to get paid, and all the bands are getting paid. They wanted a signed contract for every agreement, they got a signed contract for every agreement.
They drew from hip-hop, rock, electronic, folk, funk and a lot more—including the comedy event and a wild spoken word showcase. There are many local musicians, as well as bands from around the Bay Area and across the country.
“All of these acts are acts we believe in,” says Dawson. “This has been the coolest experience ever. And it’s really a lot of work.”
SANTA CRUZ MUSIC FESTIVAL
July 20, Downtown Santa Cruz, $30 santacruzmusicfestival.com
