Written by Claire Killian
Photos by Will Park
Dennis Franklin is a Senior at Columbia. You can find him on instagram at @dennisfreee. He currently serves as Bacchanal’s co-Concert Chair.
Starting at the very beginning, how did you join Bacchanal?
I joined Bacchanal in freshman year as a general body member. I was on the finance team, but I didn't have much responsibility because of Covid. Originally we were trying to find sponsorships, but nothing ended up happening. Then, I wasn’t active in the club again until junior year. I was super interested in how it was working, because I was doing my own events at the same time, so I thought doing the same work on a bigger scale would be pretty cool. When board elections came around, I had been working at A&R which is very similar was finding artists doing that sort of work, so I thought that doing Concert Chair would be super cool because it's a similar role in terms of looking for artists, reaching out to agencies, and whatnot. Since I had experience, I thought it would be a good opportunity to join Bacchanal. Then I got elected and went full force into it.
You've mentioned your role as Concert Chair. What specifically does that mean?
I am responsible for being the first point of contact for all of the agencies that we reach out to. In September we started reaching out to people, but in May, June, and July we started making our lists and thinking about what we want for the next year. We had our first meeting for this Bacchanal the week after elections happened in April last year, right after the last Bacchanal. That was good because we could really get in front of everything and have an idea of what we wanted. September is when we get our official budget, so we know how much money we're working with. From there, we start choosing all the artists.Typically we’re working September through December, talking with the agencies and making a list of who they actually have available during our days and what their quotes are. Then, we make a ton of different combinations of people we think could work well together and figure out our offers from there.
When you say “artists that work well together”, how do you decide on what sort of artists you're looking for, and what sort of overall vibe you want to curate?
At our first meeting we had the general body write a ton of names down on the board. Then it's kind of up to us at that point. We all really wanted to have a good variety of artists in terms of genre. We wanted a rapper, we wanted somebody who was more on the alternative side, somebody who was more dancey. I think the best way to describe it is if I listened to them in a playlist and they went one after the other, would it be cohesive enough to where I wouldn't be like, ‘what? Why do these two people perform next to each other?’ I think we accomplished that. We had a lot of other options, but they didn't necessarily mesh as well.
How do you, as the concert chair, handle all the pressure of what you do? Does it ever get to you?
Honestly, no, and I guess it's a selfish thing, but I feel like I have a good enough music taste to be able to pick good artists. I also listened to Pedro Damasceno (@pedrose on Instagram), who's the other concert chair. We both listen to a very wide variety of music, and I think that was really essential because there are a lot of people in the school, and maybe this is a general thing, but a lot of people have one specific music taste. They only listen to pop, they only listen to rap, they only listen to house. For example, if I only listened to rap, I would want all rappers, obviously, but you have to separate yourself from your own music taste and think about what everybody else wants. I listen to a lot of alternative and dance stuff, which, actually, everybody that we ended up getting, I had had on my mind from the beginning. Then, as a DJ as well, my core job is to try to introduce people to music across different genres.
Once you guys choose the artists and everything is locked in, would you say that it's hard to keep it all a secret? Or do you find it easy? Do your friends beg for clues?
A lot of friends were asking about it for sure. I didn't really tell anybody, because the thing is we also have to confirm the contracts, and they have to settle, so we didn't want to give people high hopes for something or another. Within the executive board, everybody is pretty solid on not telling anybody. The only issues we would have is we would have to go and talk to CCSC about different things and talk to different organizations on campus about particular things. In some cases we would have no choice but to tell them. Then they ended up telling some people, so, that was one of our fears, but other than that, it's not that big of a deal.
What is it like working with the other members of the Bacchanal community? Are people mostly from music-oriented backgrounds?
I'd say everybody has a type of musical background, or interest in the music industry and even music more generally. At general body meetings, it's mostly people who just really love music because as a general body member, you don't have that much responsibility. So, if you're at the meeting, it's because you want to see what's going on and have a part in the process. In this community, everybody loves music. We had a general body meeting last week and everyone was asking questions about the concert and this and that, which is really cool. On our E-Board, specifically, everyone really has a specialization on what they're good at. We have our finance people, our press people, and our concert chair. I think we all have our specialties. Music is a love for everyone, at least for me it really is.
Over the last four years, you’ve seen many different iterations of Bacchanal. What would you say your favorite Bacchanal memory is?
I don't have one, honestly. One of the unique things about this year is that nobody who's an undergrad currently on campus, unless you're a fifth year student, has experienced an actual Bacchanal on campus. Last year was really good, but I didn't even get a ticket. What I do remember is while I was on campus during the day, on the lawns, everybody was having an incredible time, hanging out on campus. I feel like now that that is going to happen, in addition to having the actual concert here, it’s gonna be incredible. One of the unique things about nobody having experienced an on-campus Bacchanal yet has been the ability to make it into whatever we want it to be. Everyone on the E-Board has worked incredibly hard to try to add, in different events that we've done throughout the year, different t-shirts, etc. All this random stuff that we can do to encourage people to get on-board so that we can continue this tradition of Bacchanal. We're actually going to have a party next week on Thursday. It’s going to be a DJ showcase at Nublu, so that should be also fun. We have six DJs that are going to be a part of that. It's going be a boiler room format, which will be super cool. We're making sure that Bacchanal is not just thought of as a day-of-show. I know that there's a lot of other schools, USC is a good example, where they do events all through the year. They have their main thing, like Bacchanal, but then they also have concerts in the Fall. We're trying to do the same thing, where we're not just thought of as one day it's Bacchanal, and the rest of the time nothing. We want to be present and relevant throughout the semester, and throughout the year, so we can have a good presence on campus.
In terms of reviving Bacchanal, and it being most people's first traditional, on-campus Bacc, what sorts of experiences are you hoping that folks have? What sort of energy are you looking to create?
I presume that a lot of people don't know all three artists really well. My hope is that everybody just comes out of it knowing one artist a lot better than they did going in. One of the hard things for us is we don't get a very big budget for picking artists.It's funny because on all our Instagram posts, people will comment, ‘we want this person, we want this person,’ but the reality of it is we don't even have enough money to get the majority of artists that people request. For background, we basically get somewhere around $250,000 to pick artists, then of that $250,000, Columbia charges us around $150,000 to host it on campus. We’re left with a little bit above $100,000, which, for any artist who's in the top forty, is not feasible. We're left with a niche budget, but what that does allow us to do is bring in emerging artists who we think are going to be really big down the line. Everybody we've gotten now is in the early stages of their career, starting to get it going. Now people get to become a big fan of artists they may not have known before, and they're going to be able to see their growth.
If you could have your Dream Bacchanal line-up - no logistics, no financial constraints , you can bring people back from the dead - who would you have?
There's a festival vibe that you want to go for, but this is so hard. You’re basically asking who my favorite artist is. As much as I would want very popular artists, I also really love the way that Bacchanal’s set up where we don't have very popular people. One of my favorite things is going to big festivals and focusing less on the headliners, but making a point of seeing the people in the middle of the lineup who are still growing. You get to attach to this fanbase that has already known about them forever. One group I saw early on was the Marias, at the time I had never heard of them before, but they're one of my favorite bands now.
Being so involved in music, do you have any major music red flags? For example, if somebody said to you, ‘I like this artist’, would that feel weird to you? Alternatively, any music, green flags?
The only red flag I really have is if someone can only listen to one type of music. When I'm DJing and when people walk into the club, and they don't immediately identify with the music that's playing, and they’re like, ‘oh, it sucks, and nobody can listen to it.’ That definitely bothers me. To only listen to one kind of music just closes you off to so many genres that you could have potentially liked, but you didn't even buy into the idea of appreciating it. That's probably my only red flag. Outside of that, my green flags are the very opposite of that. If someone's open to going into any setting and experiencing something that's really cool, that seems good. Dancing is also a big component, some music people will listen to music and just stand around and not do anything. If people dance, that's definitely a green flag for me. It shows they're engaged in what's going on, as opposed to just listening passively.
As someone who makes music, and is really involved in the arts community on campus, who are some of the artists that are on your playlists? Who should people be on the lookout for?
My favorite artist right now is Nia Archives. A lot of people got big into Pink Pantheress and I think that she’s in a similar genre and of a similar style. It’s the genre of jungle, which is a little bit different from what Pink Pantheress started with. Nia Archive’s sound is just incredible, very fast paced, but melodic at the same time. Khruangbin should be on everybody's playlist. Khruangbin is my favorite band that has ever, and I think will ever, exist in life. Also, Anderson Paak. Always been a huge fan. Black Party, too, recently, and Bakar, honestly. Faye Webster as well.
How does your experience DJing and making music influence the work that you do at Bacchanal?
I think critically about who we want more than anybody does, just because I love that I’m in the position to do that. I’ve been DJing my whole life, and I love the idea of DJing to put people onto new music, in the same way I'm able to do that here. Not just by DJing, but actually bringing in people, which I think is so cool. That's influenced me a lot. On the business side, being in A&R every single day, probably three to four hours a day, just looking for new artists, I basically got to do what I do here. I think that it's cooler to do it at Bacchanal because it’s name-brand people we’re working with, as opposed to people who haven't been discovered yet.
Does that kind of work change the way that you listen to music?
Absolutely. I listen to music in a weird way, because I will usually go on radios and try to find the most random songs. I'm not looking for obscure songs, I'm just looking for songs in general, but a lot of times it's songs that don't have a lot of plays that tend to interest me. Then, on the A&R side of things, I listen to music for my actual job, so I have to listen from a money perspective, if that makes sense? Everything is about ‘can this person be marketed? Does this person have enough streams? Do they have the appeal for whatever audiences are going for?’ That sort of thinking influences a lot of what we do with the artists we look at for Bacchanal. They may be huge artists, but for the Columbia community, are they good? Are they the best artists to bring? Here, there's a big indie wave where a lot of people are trying to be more in line with that aesthetic, everything thrifted and this and that - and I'm the same way. Is X artist suitable for this crowd? Would they prefer somebody who's smaller, or a different genre? Trying to match the Columbia aesthetic to the artist aesthetic is super important as well.
How will you be spending Bacchanal?
I'll be working all day. 7:00 a.m. the Bacchanal team's going to get together, and then at 10:00 a.m. is when we start giving out wristbands for the concert.We'll be manning tables all around campus. At around 11:00 a.m. I have to go to the stage and meet all the artists for soundcheck. That will be for the next two or three hours, and then the concert starts. I'll be backstage helping the artists out with whatever they need. I think Kofi (@fatherkofi on instagram) and I are going to be out in between the sets and playing music for everyone. There's a point at which everything we do is left up to whatever the artist wants to do. We just need to hangout and be around in case they need anything. It’s probably the most terrifying and exciting part of the day. I think concerts, and events more generally, are so interesting because the people backstage have the exact opposite feeling as everybody else at the concert, because everyone else is so loose and they don't care about anything in the world going on, whereas we're like, ‘every detail needs to be perfect.’ I'm stressed out the whole time. If anything goes wrong, it's on us.
Is there anything that I haven't asked you or that we haven't talked about that you wanted to say?
I'm super proud of our team, and especially since nobody's getting paid for this, it's so cool to see how coordinated we still are. Everybody's so excited about it. It should be a good day. Like I said, we have the follow up party next Thursday, which will be cool, and everyone should check it out.