The Great Escape Festival

Bands know better than most those moments when you’ve got to put together what you have to keep the show on the road. It could be trying to turn a dime into a dollar to record a demo or trying to fix an equipment meltdown mid-show. At The Great Escape festival — Europe’s biggest music showcase festival, May 8-10, 2014, in Brighton — we’ve been asking bands: What was your biggest DIY or die moment? (Read parts 1, 2 and 3)

Anushka, Brighton

Victoria Port, singer/songwriter: Max built his studio halfway through making the album. He physically built a studio out of wood.

Max Wheeler, producer: It’s in my garden. I had a little boy last year and it kind of meant the usual, ‘right, what am I going to do? How is it all going to work?’ In the midst of all the madness going on, I had a proper cement mixer in the back of my Golf, laid some foundations, got all the lumber and everything delivered, built a log cabin, put the studio in it and got everything set up. Two or three days of intense insanity, and then bob’s your uncle, I’ve got the best little studio I’ve ever had. Then with one week to go to finish the album my computer died, and I’m sat in my log cabin with my laptop going absolutely insane. But the thing is, I look at the album now and I can hear all of that in it and that’s what I like about it.

Anushka‘s latest EP Distorted Air is out now.

Brawlers, Leeds

Matthew, guitar: Before we signed, everything was just DIY. Driving out to shitty little towns and cities everywhere, playing any show, saying yes to anything all the time. There was never a no. It didn’t matter when it was, or where it was. If there was a five hour drive on a Tuesday night we’d be like, ‘yeah, we’ll do it. We’ll play everything.’ We’re still playing everywhere to be fair. Cover our petrol and get us drunk and we’ll come and play.

Brawlers’ debut EP I Am a Worthless Piece of Shit is out now on Alcopop! Records.

Baby in Vain, Copenhagen

Lola, guitar/vocalist: I think one of the things that made us good at being a band was that we did all of it ourselves at the beginning. We had this fundraising show so we could go in the studio and record. We borrowed this really cool old theatre in Copenhagen where arranged everything ourselves. We booked somebody to play guitar down in the lobby and we played in the theatre. It was very nice to be in charge, it felt really good. We were our own management.

Baby in Vain‘s Seize the End/Alien Arms is out now.