Moogfest President Adam Katz talks inclusivity and preserving Bob Moog’s legacy
The president of the influential electronic music festival chats about keeping Moogfest profitable, expanding conference-style content, and responding to the exclusionary House Bill 2.
Over the last 12 years Moogfest has moved across three cities, expanded from one day to four, and redefined its programming, but its singular goal remains constant: Sustain the legacy of Bob Moog. The pioneer behind the ubiquitous Moog synthesizer passed away shortly after Moogfest’s second edition in 2005, but the festival fought financial hardships and managerial upheaval to create an experience fitting of the electronic music figurehead.
Moogfest’s future was uncertain after posting a loss of $1.5 million following its 2014 iteration. That same year entrepreneur Adam Katz took the reins as Moogfest’s president, facing the task of preserving the festival’s emphasis on free programming while making it profitable. He helped turn this year’s Moogfest into another progressive chapter in its history. Taking inspiration from conference style festivals like SXSW, Katz massively expanded Moogfest’s conferences, workshops, and talks to make up an entire half of the festival.
He was also involved in making the controversial decision to move the festival three hours east from Moog’s home in Asheville to Durham, North Carolina. Like virtually everything else happening in North Carolina, the new iteration of the festival has been overshadowed by House Bill 2, the intensely polarizing piece of legislation barring transgender individuals from using the bathroom of their choice. Katz has taken a lead in condemning the exclusionary bill by reaffirming the role inclusion played in Bob Moog’s work and his collaborations with Wendy Carlos, an electronic musician who publicly announced her gender reassignment in the late `70s. Katz took time to discuss the role of conversation in electronic music, preserving inclusion, and the future of Moogfest, which takes place this weekend from May 19 though May 22.
Why is Moogfest greatly expanding its conference content this year?
Well, this is the first year where we’ve made conferences and workshops fully half of the program, but that energy and that thinking has always been there. To give you a little bit of perspective, the idea of electronic music and electronic music culture has always been about having a conversation that goes beyond the entertainment. There’s politics to it, there’s philosophy, there’s obviously the technology part of it. With the rise of the popularity of electronic music, Moogfest as a platform for that conversation felt it wasn’t fulfilling that vision and wasn’t responding to the legacy of Bob because it was only performances. What we have tried to do is reinforce that element of our culture and our community.
Afrofuturism and Transhumanism are featured prominently at this year’s festival. Why did you decide to highlight those two schools of thought?
Well, I can tell you a little about the programming processes. We start with programmatic scenes or ideas that we think are pointing to the future of creativity. The legacy of Bob Moog is one who was a technologist who was creating new tools for creative expression. We think those two schools of thought are ripe for that kind of conversation that happens between artists and technologists or anyone who’s working in a technical capacity and also has a desire to have a creative output. All the program themes are couched in that idea of the future of creativity.
Do you think music festivals have a responsibility to provide education in addition to entertainment?
No, I don’t think they have that responsibility if they are a music festival. Even when Moogfest was primarily programmed with music and performance, the objective and gathering of the community was deeper than that. I think we at Moogfest have a responsibility to create a conversation that is both enriching and entertaining. We as Moogfest represent people dealing with technology who have a responsibility to host workshops and classes to create a more dynamic future for entertainment, otherwise you keep rehashing the same thing.
This year’s lineup features a diversity of electronic artists from big names like Grimes to more obscure artists. How did you curate the roster?
With the 2016 Moogfest, it’s the best kind of combination of creative talent at the forefront alongside emerging talent. Every artist is united by that idea that they’re informed by the legacy of the analog synthesizer as well as being interested in a bigger conversation regarding technology and the future. So that was really important to us. It wasn’t just based on good musical talent. We start all conversations with musical talent, but we also like to have conversations that have people involved in other ways. If you look at the program there are lots of headliners that are involved in other parts of the program. So we tried to create that experience where you might listen to someone in a workshop, hear them on a panel and then see them on a stage. That was important to the way we programmed a lot of music.
How have you responded to those who criticize the festival for moving away from Asheville, the home of Bob Moog?
There actually hasn’t been that much of a backlash, at least not as much as we first anticipated. Asheville is still the home of Moog Music and it was the home of Moogfest for a long time. It’s always been something that we took very seriously. The truth is that what we’re trying to do is build a platform not for this year necessarily or for the next couple years but for the long term future. We have support throughout the research triangle and Durham is a destination for people to come from elsewhere. It just makes so much sense. The bigger issue is not the move away from Asheville but how to be a responsible and conscious community-oriented program in Durham. That’s what we’re committed to.
What difficulties have you faced making Moogfest profitable while remaining a community oriented festival?
It’s no secret that it’s very hard to do these events, especially because we offer free programming accessible for a diverse community. Almost every hour of every day features programming where there’s something free you can do throughout the festival. In fact on Saturday there’s a whole program you can do outside. Even in Asheville that’s always been very important to us. We’ve committed to working with local schools and non-profit organizations. We try to build up a business around that, a business that’s sustainable and can be here now and in the future. And we have great partners. We have partners that are invested in the success of the festival because it bounces back onto the success of the region. Smaller tech companies working with us are really great partners because they’re thinking about the long term goals and not just the year-over-year financial success.
How has Moogfest tried to become an model for inclusivity among the exclusive politics of North Carolina legislation such as House Bill 2?
We always try and think about the opportunity vs the responsibility of the festival. We’re not a political or an activist organization but imbedded into our project is an idea of responsibility to our community. And we mean not just our community here in North Carolina but our global community. It was never a question of whether or not House Bill 2 would be something we would participate in or have a voice in. For us, it’s been important to get involved and what we’ve done is tried to align with local organizations that specialize in advocacy so we can support their long term efforts. Innovation requires a diversity of outlooks and experiences and Bob was committed to that kind of collaboration.
What are your long-term goals for the festival?
We have important projects in the trajectory of what we’re trying to do in this festival. We have this program that happens four days a year and this is always going to be a high point, but even over the last year we’re going to be hosting programming throughout the year. So that same idea of future thought and future sound combining for an experience is something we’re doing for the Dial-Tones series. It’s a series of workshops and performances we’re hosting in San Francisco, New York, Durham, and we have one coming up in Raleigh. In the future we hope this becomes a platform that happens throughout the year.
What artists and workshop are you most excited for?
I’m really excited for Robert Rich’s sleep performance that starts at 8 pm and goes until 8 in the morning. I’m excited for Sunn O))) and on the conference side of things I’m excited for Dr. Martine Rothblatt because she is such a compelling, amazing individual that really speaks a lot of what Moogfest stands for. Also on Saturday there’s a program curated by DJ Lance Rock of Yo Gabba Gabba and Bootsy Collins. It will be a great family-oriented program that’s thoughtful for kids while being a smart, accessible event.