Home Live For Live Music Magic Beans’ Scott Hachey Reflects On Beanstalk’s Seven Years Of Growth, Change,...

Magic Beans’ Scott Hachey Reflects On Beanstalk’s Seven Years Of Growth, Change, Friends, & Family [Interview]

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Colorado’s own Magic Beans are gearing up for their seventh-annual Beanstalk Music & Mountains Festival at Bond, Colorado’s Rancho Del Rio, set to take place on June 27th–29th, 2019.

The three-day event has solidified itself as one of Colorado’s premier music and camping festivals, with tubing and other water-related activities on the beautiful Colorado River easily accessible throughout the weekend. In addition to a consistently stellar lineup and morning yoga offerings, Beanstalk’s prime location along the banks of the Colorado River allows attendees to enjoy the outdoors—including hiking, hot springs, cliff jumping, ATVing, and world-class mountain biking—before the music starts in the mid-afternoon.

With Beanstalk quickly approaching, Live For Live Music talked to festival founder/CEO and Magic Beans guitarist Scott Hachey about the original vision behind conceptualizing the festival, important skills he’s learned from observing Pigeons Playing Ping Pong’s Jeremy Schon and Greg Ormont throwing their Domefest event, this year’s newly adapted alcohol policies, and more.


Live For Live Music: What was your original vision for Beanstalk?

Scott Hachey: At first, Beanstalk was kind of just Magic Beans’ backyard party and family reunion of sorts for Team Bean. It all started back in college when I was a young gun and we found a nice place called State Bridge up in Bond, Colorado, in relatively close proximity to Vail. State Bridge is this beautiful outdoor amphitheater for those who have never been—just an absolutely beautiful location. There’s yurts and tee-pees for camping, cabins, and it’s right next to a river, creating a beautiful scene.

We initially got two nights booked there, and I thought to myself, “This is too good to come do by ourselves. We need to bring up as many people as possible and make this a party.” So, when we started, we took all of the money we were supposed to make and paid other bands to come up and play. That was the first year of Beanstalk and things have kind of grown organically and gotten crazy since then.

L4LM: Who originally showed you that area of Colorado? Other than attending a show at State Bridge, you wouldn’t necessarily know about the area of Colorado as a music spectator.

SH: We were young and gigging as the Beans at that point and we got booked to play Campout For The Cause two years in a row. Scotty Stoughton helped us get that gig, who puts on WinterWonderGrass and some other great events. We basically started having success there and some of the bands up there had some sets that “smashed,” you could say [laughs]. The guy who owns State Bridge told us that we should come up and host our own weekend and that was the spawn of it.

L4LM: Let’s talk a little bit about being able to run a festival, as well as perform in the band that headlines every night. There are very few people that are able to pull that off.

SH: It goes with that whole attitude, “if you want something done right, you gotta do it yourself.” We all like things done a certain, specific way, so sometimes I like taking care of things myself. I’ve been holding on to the reigns from the beginning, so it’s kind of hard to just let go. Luckily I have Ryan [Noel] to work with.

It’s a labor of love. Going from that empty palette to all of a sudden having a festival on your hands for everyone to enjoy, and you built that shit, and play it, there’s kind of an emotional attachment to the event that you can’t have with another club or even your hometown venue. You feel like you really built everything from scratch. Maybe my voice is a little bit raspier from running around and yelling, but for the most part, I think there’s a lot more passion and emotion from the band, having put in a lot of work to make the event happen.

The only other guys I know that can do it are Jeremy [Schon] and Greg [Ormont] from Pigeons Playing Ping Pong. They’ve been a perfect example for us and we’ve known them for a long time at this point. They’re a couple years ahead of us in terms of how long their festival has been around, as well as where they’re at as a band and their fanbase. I’m always taking notes at Domefest on how they operate so smoothly. It’s extremely impressive, especially with their band performing so many covers and putting time and attention to the production of their performance. I’m surprised they can honestly play the festival, too. Jeremy was up at the end of our 5 a.m. late-night set. He walked up to us after our show and said, “thanks for crushing it”, and his girlfriend was jokingly telling him to get to bed.

L4LM: Magic Beans are releasing a new album right before the festival. What’s significant about this year’s Beanstalk for you?

SH: Oh man. 2019 has been a really big year for the band so far in terms of momentum and big shows like our Red Rocks performance. We have a lot of momentum going into this year’s Beanstalk and I feel as though lots of times before we’ve been not the headliner and have been bringing in more high-profile bands. This year, I feel like we got the momentum of the headliner and the music’s at an overall impressive level. I feel good about going in and slamming it this year!

I’m also excited to see all of the people and friends. There’s a lot of fam coming up and heavy-hitter musicians, including the Ghost-Note guys, members from Lettuce and The Motet, along with Yak Attack and lespecial, and many more. There’s a lot of heavy cats this year that should make any music fan excited.

L4LM: In the past, there have been some special sets like Magic Brownies and various all-star jams. Is there anything special planned that fans can look forward to?

SH: Hmmm… All I can say is the Adam Deitch & The Midnight Marauders‘ set with members of Lettuce and The Motet has a special theme and they’re going to be playing a certain type of music. I really don’t wanna give anything away!

Last year, we had Yak Attack perform a late-night on the final night following the Beans set, which was unannounced. This year we have scheduled late-night sets from both Yak Attack and lespecial, and I think the Yak Attack set should be pretty heavy. Brothers Nate Werth (Ghost-Note) and Nick Werth (Yak Attack) will both be there, so there’s potential for that late-night to be every musician in attendance getting down to sexy backing tracks from Yak Attack. It could be heavy, I’m really looking forward to it.

L4LM: Beanstalk changed up its alcohol policies this year. Tell me about that.

SH: We’re trying to embrace the backyard vibes—the looser vibe with Beanstalk. We personally like to keep it chill. I think allowing people to bring their booze into the concert grounds will allow them to drink whatever their preference of alcohol is at their own rate, and we don’t have to worry about keeping a complex bar stocked or not having what people like inside the concert bowl.

I know [in the past] a lot of people would have to leave the concert bowl to go grab a drink and then not be allowed to bring it back in. I just want people to be able to stay, watch the music, and go to their cooler whenever they want. We’re trying to do something different.

L4LM: Who have you gained lifelong friendships with because of Beanstalk?

SH: Wow, let me think. A lot of these younger bands like lespecial, Yak Attack, Kitchen Dwellers, and obviously all of the local bands. We get to do the road thing with a lot of these bands and it’s nice to be able to invite them home, show them Team Bean, show them Colorado, and actually get time to hang out and socialize. That’s the reason why we bring all of the contemporaries. We like to get time to hang and not be constantly focused on work.

I also feel like Jeremy [Schon] probably feels the same way about Domefest, but down the line, we try to cherry pick these bands that will still be doing it and making it in the future. I hope that Magic Beans will be doing the same and we’ll still be hangin’ like old friends. Our hopes are to bring in the best bands that are still together now.

L4LM: Is there anybody playing Beanstalk this year that hasn’t played before and you’re extra excited about?

SH: Com Truise! His set should be timed around sunset into the night and it should just be perfect. We’re amped about it. Ryan [Noel] and I both booked the set as a collaborative effort. We’ve been trying to branch out to more producers and DJs, but we have a certain style of that type of music that we enjoy and it has to be fit for the natural environment up there. We don’t want it to be too intense or harsh. Com Truise is the perfect fit. He’ll get you in a daze and keep your legs moving.


Tickets are still available for Beanstalk’s 2019 event, so grab them here before it’s too late!

Head to the festival’s website for more information.

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Source: L4LM.com