Unbreakable Bloodline lands slot at SXSW festival

ALBANY — Thanks to a little good fortune and always being ready to bring their musical A-game, Unbreakable Bloodline will get a chance to show fans at South By Southwest why they’ve quickly become one of Southwest Georgia’s most popular bands. The Albany-based group hits the stage at the prestigious Austin festival on Friday.

Founded in 1987 as a multi-day music festival that drew more than 700 attendees its first year, the festival — often abbreviated SXSW — has grown into a 10-day music, film and interactive media extravaganza that regularly draws upward of 30,000 registrants looking to find the next the next big thing.

Now with the chance to join 2,000-plus artists that will be showcasing their music next week, the members of UBL — vocalists Jerome “King OZ” Osborne, Vernon “Chief Havok” Cruz, Tiffany “O’She Tyght” Thomas, drummer Chad “Black Out” Basco, bassit Ryan “Mr. Meyers” Meyers and guitarist Jon “Rock On” Smith — are hoping this marks the start of the band gaining more exposure outside of its native Southwest Georgia, perhaps propelling it to the next level.

“Probably whoever your favorite artist is, whoever you like, you know, you’re thinking, ‘Wouldn’t it be cool if they were there and saw us and then were like, ‘Hey, man, we need to talk?’” Osborne said. “I think that’s everybody’s dream.”

“I was laying in my bed the other night thinking, ‘Damn, we could possibly meet up with like Outkast or Macklemore,’ you know what I’m saying?” Cruz said. “How cool would it be if someone saw us and was like, ‘Hey, man, we’ve got a spot on our tour. Why don’t you join us?’”

Although they admit such dream scenarios are longshots, the band members see that getting a chance to play at such an important showcase allows them to do two of the things they strive to do where ever they go — expand their fan base and build new relationships.

“Ultimately, for the past two years we’ve been planting seeds and building relationships and nourishing those relationships,” Smith said. “It’s more about relationships than anything else right now.

“Not to name-drop or anything, but the relationships that we’ve built have lead to other relationships, which have led to other relationships, and we’re finally in the loop with some prominent people in the business. We work hard and we’re a tight band whenever we play out live.”

Their ability to build relationships and present those tight live shows helped the group land the SXSW gig, even if there was a little luck thrown in for good measure.

Osborne said that just a few weeks ago, the group was playing a show at Big Rax Saloon in Albany alongside local rock band Days to Come and good friends Almost Kings. To UBL’s good fortune, Almost Kings just happened to be playing with a fill-in bass player named Paul “Devon” Lewow, who is also the singer in a band called Brother Grey.

“Devon knows some guy named Joe who has something to do with the talent for SXSW,” Osborne said. “Well, Devon saw us play and made a phone call, sent (Joe) a text actually, and was like, ‘Hey, man, you got any slots left? You need to get these guys on. I just watched them and they’re pretty tight.’”

Osborne said Lewow continually showed the band the texts he and Joe were exchanging throughout the night. Finally, news came down that something had been worked out.

“That was a Friday night and then Saturday he texted us to say, ‘Hey, I’m just waiting on him to reply to see if he has a slot for you guys.’ Then about 2 or 3 o’clock, he texted and said, ‘Hey man, it’s on.’”

When explaining the whole series of events, Cruz sums it up succinctly: “He obviously liked what he heard.”

Indeed, for Lewow to hear the band one time and go out on a limb like that speaks volumes about the quality of a UBL show, which is something the members take great pride in.

“With SXSW and all the opportunities we’ve gotten, it really comes down to our work ethic and being prepared, man,” Cruz said. “If we weren’t as tight as we were in front of these people when we had that first impression, they wouldn’t be dealing with us. It’s as simple as that.

“They saw what we can do and that kind of set the tone. That’s what’s helped us along.”

As many in the Albany area know, UBL has built a solid fan base thanks not only to their great music, such as the tracks on last year’s “Anti-Gravity,” but also by being able to bring the power and energy of their songs to the masses through an impressive live show.

Such was the case last weekend when the band graced the stage at the downtown Albany Mardi Gras Street Festival, where they were met with thunderous applause from the hometown faithful. In fact, the reception from people at the Mardi Gras show was one of the best the band has ever received.

“I was really, really happy seeing our city show up for Mardi Gras,” Cruz said. “When we looked out at that crowd and there were all those people, it was incredible. And they weren’t just standing there, they were engaged. Really, we just want to say a huge thank you to the Good Life City.

“We need our city’s support. Every time we are a part of something here it seems to get bigger and bigger and that makes us feel good. Honestly, I get goosebumps thinking about it because we’re connecting with people.”

Making such a strong connection with the local fan base also serves to fuel the band’s excitement and confidence about playing the SXSW gig, as it lets them know that they have the talent and ability to make a good impression on new fans.

“We’ve been running into people that are from different places that are out of the ordinary, like Detroit or Chicago, and when they get a chance to see us, they are blown away,” Thomas said. “They say things like, ‘I didn’t expect to come to Albany and see something like this. You guys are tight!’ And they’re really enjoying it. Being able to expose Albany’s talent (at SXSW) is great.”

The band’s quest to invade Austin and pull even more fans into the UBL family gets going Tuesday night when the crew will hit the road with the intent of driving straight through to Austin.

“We plan to have dinner together and, once we do that, we’ll say goodbye to our families and hit the road,” Cruz said. “It’s a 15-, 16-hour drive and we’re pretty much going to drive all night and take two-hour shifts.”

In another act of fate the band also has the good fortune of not having to shell out outrageous sums of money to stay in Austin for a few days (it’s SXSW policy that all acts have to pay their own way).

“My cousin just moved to Austin and she lives right in the downtown area, maybe a 10-minute walk from the whole event,” Cruz said. “Her main reason for buying that house there is because of this event. She and her husband go to it every year; they’re die-hard fans, so we lucked up. The closest hotel, which would have been a half-hour away easy, was like $300-500. We got hooked up with the family connection no doubt.”

The band’s SXSW performance is slated for Friday at noon at the Chuggin Monkey, where they’ll get to play a 40-minute set that they are rehearsing daily leading up to the show.

Once again fortune is at play as SXSW features performances at several venues scattered throughout Austin, but from what the band members understand, their venue is in the heart of the action.

“The Chuggin Monkey is on 6th street, right on the main strip,” says Cruz.

While the vast majority of the acts that play SXSW are up-and-coming artists, each year it seems several well-established artists will not only visit the festival as music fans, many end up playing unannounced gigs while they’re there.

The rumor is the Chuggin Monkey is one of the venues where those nationally recognized artists have been known to appear.

Regardless of whether the band is fortunate enough to get discovered or meet some of their heroes at the showcase, each band member is simply excited to have such a great opportunity and is relishing the chance to be a part of something so well known.

“Aw, man, it’s awesome,” Smith said rather frankly.

“It’s epic,” Osborne added.

“Yeah, epic’s the word,” Thomas agreed.

The band is set to return to Albany right after its SXSW performance. UBL will once again entertain its friends and neighbors at the annual Albany Wing Fest to support The Southwest Georgia Cancer Coalition. The Wing fest is 11 a.m.-7 p.m. March 19 at the Albany Fairgrounds.