This Saturday marks the fourth annual Viva Ska Vegas festival, which takes place at Vinyl inside the Hard Rock this year. The festival is a passion project of local promoter Josh Coutts, a longtime ska musician and fan whose enthusiasm for the genre is infectious. Though busy with last minute preparations for the festival, Coutts still took the time to answer our five questions.
You’re probably the biggest supporter of ska music that I know so I have to ask, how did you first get into the genre? Who was the band that introduced you to the genre and what is it you love about ska?
The Specials was the band that got me into Ska thanks to my dad, who played them for me when I was 8. My dad was a big music fan. He liked all types of genres, and he just happened to have The Specials as well as Madness in his collection. The Specials was different than anything I’d heard up until that point. They have the raw sounds of soul and the feeling of punk but with a danceable beat. It just kicked ass all the way around!
We’re mostly all big ska fans at PIV, but I think it’s safe to safe the genre if oft maligned. Why do you think this is the case and what is it going to take to get another infusion of big name ska bands into the mainstream like we got in the late 90s?
Modern ska is a hard sell to punk fans, who say it’s not punk enough, and to traditional ska fans, who say the new stuff is too punk. Truthfully, it would take not just one band getting big but a collective of every small and midsized band to have a revolutionary moment for ska to make a comeback. Get it popular on mainstream radio and movies again as well as tour like crazy. I’m just trying to keep that little bit alive with Viva Ska Vegas.
You’ve been setting up gigs in Vegas for awhile now. How did you get involved in that side of things? What do you prefer, all ages or 21+? Why does Vegas have such a hard time keeping all ages venues open?
I’ve been booking shows in Vegas since I moved here in 2003, but I actually got my start in California back in 1995. I was in a band called Formula 51 – I was the singer – and after getting to tour with a bunch of cool ska bands such as Sublime I got a taste for how things were done. The Ska scene was different back then – the bands had more respect because we had to work harder to succeed. We didn’t have the internet, so we’d actually take hand bills to each town we played in and try to get as many people to go as possible.
I love both 21 and all ages… all ages now because I can bring my own kids to ska shows, 21 plus because I can enjoy without them sometime bahahahaha. To be fair, all ages venues don’t last because kids and others don’t support the shows. Instead of complaining that the shows are what you want or don’t want they don’t support what they have. If we all supported these shows we could bring the bigger ones out.
In recent years, people have come to know you best for your work with the annual Viva Ska Vegas festival, with the latest incarnation happening at Vinyl on Nov. 7. How did the festival come to be and what’s the biggest challenge – and reward – of putting on a festival?
As you know I’m a huge ska fan and and I had an idea to bring ska back to Vegas… the biggest challenge with this had been lack of all ages venue. We went 18+ last year and that had its downfalls and the biggest one is the kids couldn’t enjoy ska. The biggest reward I get is just to see everyone dance and have a great time and to see the smiles they get while dancing.
This year’s lineup is quite diverse within the genre of ska, with bands like Buck-O-Nine, VooDoo Glow Skulls and the Interrupters approaching the genre very differently. How hard is it to put together a lineup that appeals to ska fans but still gets more people to check it out?
Every year we have had trouble with people saying “oh that isn’t ska” especially since it isn’t traditional or what have you. But we have all aspects of ska – traditional, ska punk, oi and everything in between. I hope this year goes well and I have plans to do a 5th year if all goes well. I’ve done my best to get them to go. It’s just up to the fans to keep this festival alive. I can only do so much. I even try to get them to listen every week on my radio show Viva Ska Radio on www.doubledownradio.com every Tuesday to get them excited. Hopefully this year is a success.
Thank you for everything, Emily and always supporting us and Ska music alike.
Thank you, Josh! Viva Ska Vegas 2015, featuring Hub City Stompers, VooDoo Glow Skulls, Buck-O-Nine, The Interrupters and more takes places this Saturday, Nov. 7, at Vinyl inside the Hard Rock. Info on that show, as well as the kick-off party and after-party, can be found on the following flyers:
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