Franz Ferdinand find favour deep in the heart of Texas

Last year, Scotland was represented at the event by precisely one band, Idlewild. Twelve months later, the picture is 17 times sharper and brighter, That’s the number of Scottish acts who have played in this giant cauldron of cutting-edge talent in the past four days, thanks in no small measure to the Scottish Arts Council providing a grant of 2,000 apiece.

Asking around Austin may have suggested a certain lack of familiarity with Scotland’s favourite new indie-rock breakthrough band. But the queues forming outside the Buffalo Billiards club long before Franz Ferdinand took the stage at midnight on Thursday told a more revealing tale of a group developing a bold and confident strategy to conquer the States. Also in their favour, it should be added, is a shiny new record deal reported to be worth $1.5m per album for the Domino Records group via Epic in the US, starting with its current self-titled set.

But grants for rock ’n’ roll? They are commonplace in other countries, and Arts Council spokesman Ronnie Gurr believes that such funding in Scotland is overdue. "Frank McAveety made it known that he thought there should be a Scottish presence at South By Southwest," he says.

Gurr sits on the council’s performing arts committee, and was commissioned to write a 40-page treatment on the cultural significance of SXSW, and its potential commercial benefits for small businesses. This year, with 6,000 worldwide artists vying for SXSW’s 1,009 shows, he produced a budget based on five or six of the 39 Scottish applicants winning prestigious gig spots at the 2004 event but, instead, no fewer than 17 acts were accepted.

These include not just the current heavyweights such as Franz Ferdinand and Snow Patrol, but up-and-comers like The Grim Northern Social and Sons and Daughters, popular staples like the Delgados and the Trash Can Sinatras and lesser-travelled names such as singer-songwriter Tippi, Roddy Hart and "witch-rockers" Half Cousin (NME’s description).

"It should be stressed that at the moment this is a one-off," cautions Gurr. "They found some funding to make it happen this year. From a personal point of view, it’d be a shame if it didn’t continue.

"The ability of Scottish bands to engage shoulder-to-shoulder with other government-funded initiatives around the world is important. What’s good is that it shows a recognition from the Scottish Executive that music is important."

It also follows the grant of 500 already available to any registrant at South By Southwest from UKTI (UK Trade & Investment), the government body that provides support services for British companies trading overseas.

But as gigantic as SXSW has become on the global promotion calendar, it still has room for the individual indie to take part and benefit. Alister Fair, the part-time MD of Aberdeen-based Lonely Hunter Records, has been in Austin these past few days to take some 35 meetings with marketing, promotion, distribution and A&R execs from far and wide, and to present anyone who’d stand still long enough with a copy of Escape Attempts, the five-track EP by his sole signings to date, Stuka.

"The ideal would be that you meet somebody at SXSW from one of the majors who hears the Stuka EP and gives you global marketing," says Fair. "That’d be a real dream."

He’s already developing one potential licensing deal from a similar trip to the MIDEM trade fair in Cannes in January. "I was surprised by the number of people who wanted to speak to me there, who were seeking me out," he says.

Meanwhile, influential Californian modern rock radio station 89.9 KCRW Santa Monica has lately been full of talk of the "Scottish invasion" of America.

"The American industry is looking for something a bit different," says Gurr.

"Why would you sign another rock band from the midwest in the current climate if something like Grim Northern Social or Franz Ferdinand catches the ear? That’s maybe what they’re looking for. SXSW is the best climate for these bands to sell themselves in."