It’s no secret that Baton Rouge music is expanding in size, talent and genre, but a local duo of creative curators known as Seaux La are shining a new light on the scene.
Co-founders Bruce Williams and Keith Fort met in the eighth grade in Gonzalez, Louisiana. The pair bonded over hours spent together listening to any and all types of music. They always talked about doing something music-related together one day, Fort said.
“And here we are, 10 years later trying to make something happen,” he said.
Seaux La is a music collective of free form artistry where artists can share their music with the community and meet fellow musicians.
Williams and Fort began attending shows together as teenagers, they said. They dreamed of putting on their own shows, blending hip hop with rock, and so on, Williams said.
“Other venues started doing open format type shows, where everyone was getting to meet each other,” Fort said. “It really is so cool to see everyone genuinely networking.”
With years of loosely throwing around ideas that officially became known as Seaux La, the guys initially went in a few different directions before the movement of self-compiled CDs and shows slowly evolved two and a half years ago.
“[It started] becoming its own thing. Now it’s about wherever [Seaux La] truly takes us, we’re following it now,” Fort said. “Let it be, let it grow, and just water the plant.”
Originally the duo made and distributed compilation mix CDs of local artists’ work. Now they’ve grown to host their own curated shows at various venues around the Capitol City, from Huey’s Bar downtown to the Parade Ground on campus and the Atomic Pop Shop on Government Street.
Even though these events have arose within the past year, they are well-attended, diverse in age and quickly gaining traction, Fort said.
for it; it was such good timing,” Williams said. “Everyone else happened to be right on board with us.”
On arranging the lineups for their shows, the duo considers how different sounds mesh together — usually they take a genre and pair it with something totally opposite, Fort said.
After attending one of Seaux La’s lively and artistic events, it’s clear that Williams and Fort have accomplished their goal of having different components of the Baton Rouge music scene together under one roof, enjoying the same performance.
Although constantly changing, one of their main goals is to inspire people to do what they want to do and to know it’s possible, Fort said.
Fueled by their mutual passion for music, Williams and Fort hope to eventually showcase Louisiana musicians on a national level. In the meantime, the duo plan on expanding their shows’ reach to other cities.
“Growing up, the scene wasn’t like this. There were only three or four genres that never mixed,” Fort said. “But now, we’re very focused on Baton Rouge. Baton Rouge is just a beautiful place for music right now. It’s a good time because everybody is coming in contact with each other, and they understand that we need to grow together.”
Bruce Williams (left) and Keith Fort (right) sit outside of Highland Coffees on Sept. 12, 2017.
