During Weekend One of Austin City Limits Music Festival, I had the opportunity to chat with Hippie Sabotage, one of my favorite indie electronic artists. They are a duo consisting of brothers Kevin and Jeff Sauer who are from Sacramento, California. After being a huge fan of Hippie Sabotage for so long and going to multiple shows (their ACL performance was my third time to see them), it was such an incredible opportunity to be able to interview them!

During their set, as usual, they really got the crowd going – everyone seemed to be moving and flowing at the same time; some people were moshing and some were crowd surfing. It was also nearly 100 degrees outside, so you can only imagine how warm it was inside that crowd. The duo played some solid mixes of electronic music from their computer, but also included a few epic guitar solos in their performance. This is something I’ve always loved about Hippie Sabotage – they do play electronic music and remixes of songs, such as their “Habits (Stay High)” remix, but still include live instruments in other portions of their show.

Another aspect of their performance that I enjoyed was when they threw t-shirts out to the crowd. They’ve done this before at one of the previous shows I attended, but at ACL, their parents threw the shirts! When they began the set, the duo mentioned that it was their parents’ first time at a music festival and that they were so happy that they could make it. I actually had met their dad earlier in the day while I was in the press lounge when I saw him wearing a Hippie Sabotage shirt and mentioned that I was excited about their set, but didn’t know it was their dad until he walked out on stage to give shirts to the crowd!

Overall, their performance definitely lived up to my expectations, as usual. It was a bit different than the previous shows of theirs that I have been to because at ACL they played in the middle of the afternoon in bright daylight, whereas I usually see them at a regular show inside a venue at night. The atmosphere and hype of the crowd were the same, but their background graphics and lights weren’t as strong as they are when they perform inside a dark venue. However, the entire performance was still incredible and I would recommend everyone go seem them when they come back threw Texas! In the interview, I asked what the future looks like for them and the answer was simple – as long as people keep coming to shows, they’ll keep playing the shows.

Listen to the full interview here:

The Instagram video of the brothers collecting sounds in Hawaii that I mentioned in the interview can be viewed here: https://www.instagram.com/tv/B2wzjGDnElj/

Check out their website (www.hippiesabotage.com) and their Spotify (https://open.spotify.com/artist/4dM6NDYSfLcspt8GLoT5aE?si=QW65eaBwS2mlAPNuUrKI7w)

Written by: Megan PavelInterviewer: Megan PavelFeatured Image courtesy of Austin City Limits Radio (acl-radio.com)