Low Key Arts is a nonprofit arts organization in Hot Springs that hosts a variety of events surrounding music, film and visual arts. Part of their annual programming includes the Valley of the Vapors music festival, which has been taking place for more than 20 years. Ozarks at Large's Sophia Nourani spoke with Bobby Missile, artistic director for Low Key Arts. He says this year's international acts build upon a tradition of highlighting underground experimental sound.
Missile: It started back in 2005. The founder of Low Key Arts, Bill Solleder, and his partner Shea Childs, moved to town a couple of years before that. Bill was the vocalist in a popular punk ska band from Chicago from back in the '90s and 2000 called The Blue Meanies. They were an international traveling act. So they moved to Hot Springs because Shea's family were from here, and they were just looking for something to fill the void of underground music in town that Bill and Shea kind of grew up in. So they decided they were going to start a festival. And they did. I think they did two VOVs in 2005 — smaller weekend events at a number of different venues in town, like Maxine's.
I moved here January 1st of 2006. Basically the second year of VOV, I had moved to town with my band, that was called Attractive and Popular. We got an opportunity to move here, and we started our own DIY venue called The Exchange, which we lived in and operated in downtown Hot Springs for about seven years. I got involved with the booking of the festival in 2006 — we moved here in January and I was already booking acts for the VOV in March of 2006. Fast forward 20-some years and over two decades, and here we are still churning. This is our 22nd annual festival. It's quite a tradition here.
Nourani: Can you tell me about this year's lineup and what we can expect to see at the festival?
Missile: As always, it is a very diverse lineup. Whenever I'm working on a curation for the festival, I try to cater to my own interests, which is just a lot of random and different unique stuff — that's typically what I go towards whenever I'm listening to music. I love all sorts of stuff, and I feel like that reflects every year in the lineup. We're a nonprofit and we're in Hot Springs, Arkansas, so we don't have any major sponsors and we don't have a massive budget. We're not targeting very large acts. We're trying to support developing artists that are just making cutting-edge music, and we're trying to give them a platform here.
The lineup this year reflects our purpose, which is to bring that kind of stuff here to Hot Springs. We have all sorts of different kinds of stuff — a lot of cool bands from all over the world, really, this year. We have two bands from China, a band from Hong Kong, a band from Toronto, a great band from Mexico City called Diles Que No Me Maten. It's an experimental post-punk, krautrock band with a somber vibe and a little bit of a jazz influence.
Another band I'm really excited about is Scattrbrain from Atlanta. Historically, Valley of the Vapors has always been the same weekend as South by Southwest. Often what we're trying to do is just capture all the bands that are in the world going to and from Austin booking tours, because it's the largest music conference in the world. So it's just a great opportunity for us to pull from a very large talent pool. Every year I go to the South by Southwest website and as soon as they make announcements, I try to find things that I think are really fun and might make sense route-wise on a band's tour. I found Scattrbrain from Atlanta — I thought if they're coming from Atlanta to South by, it might make sense for them to stop off. When I listened to the music, I was just extremely excited about them. They're a melodic indie art-punk project that's hip-hop infused, because it's the side project of Atlanta rapper Grip.
Another one I'm really excited about: Brainwasher from Oklahoma City, which is a couple of guys from Flaming Lips — a side project. It's a very well produced, almost ethereal psychedelic rock band. Just loads of really cool stuff this year.
Nourani: I'm sure putting this together yourself must be so exciting, especially coming from a DIY background. There's also a community art element as well as a silent auction.
Missile: We call it the VOV Art Auction. Art and music go hand in hand, especially when you're in a small town. You want to uplift the entire artistic community. We do this art auction that gives an opportunity for artists to support their local festival — they donate works of art based on a theme. The theme this year is dreams, and they all do their own individual works based on that theme. We showcase it during the festival and then there's an auction where people can have an opportunity to purchase, and the proceeds go towards the festival and Low Key Arts and future programming. It's a fun and unique way to get local artists involved and creates more of a buzz and energy for the festival. Plus it just looks great to have loads of work.
Each year, the number of works grows with the festival. This is our 22nd year, so there will be 22 works of art this year. And every year it grows, we'll grow with a new artist as well.
Nourani: What are some of the basic logistics? Where can people find tickets and more information about the festival?
Missile: You can visit valleyofthevapors.com for tickets. The schedule is posted, the lineup, playlists — all the tools are there to find out which day might be best for you if you're coming for one day. I highly recommend coming for the whole thing, because you only live once and it's a really cool experience. And if you'd like to find out more about Low Key Arts, you can visit lowkeyarts.org. All the information about Low Key Arts is on the website as well, including how you can support Low Key Arts and our mission here in Hot Springs.
That was Sophia Nourani talking with Low Key Arts artistic director Bobby Missile about the upcoming Valley of the Vapors music festival, taking place in Hot Springs next week.
Ozarks at Large transcripts are created on a rush deadline and edited for length and clarity. Copy editors utilize AI tools to review work. KUAF does not publish content created by AI. Please reach out to kuafinfo@uark.edu to report an issue. The audio version is the authoritative record of KUAF programming.
