Andrew Harris is at Bumbershoot. He’s taking pictures and tweeting @monarchreview. Along the way he’ll be stopping to talk with various performers at the festival. Below are the transcribed mini conversations – from the comfort of your home!

San Francisco’s Watsky has a good head on his shoulders. He stopped to chat with Andrew after his Friday set.

AH: Did you get propositioned about ten minutes ago?

W: I got a phone number. She was just like, “Your work means a lot to me, would you give me a call or a text” which could be the opening stages of a proposition or it could just be someone who cares about my work and wants me to hit ‘em up!

AH: You going to use it?

W: I’m probably not going to text her. I have a bad history – one time I hit someone up, it was a frat dude and he was supposed to show me a party and I gave him my phone number and he became my prank calling nemesis for the next two years. Every time he got drunk he would harass me. Indiana University. He would call me and talk shit!

AH: If this was as big as you got, would that be enough?

W: If you’re an artist who’s driven, it’s very tough to tell yourself that you’ve done enough, but years ago I set the goal of playing this dream venue of mine in San Francisco where I grew up called the Fillmore – and we played it on our last tour, we sold it out, my folks were there and that was a real pinnacle moment for me. I don’t think my goal is to play arenas – a lot of artists get to that arena level and then they’re making so much money that everybody wants a piece of them, it’s hard to have it not be corrupt. And right now we’re at this great place, I have no boss, I have no record label, I’m with my friends touring and playing music, and having people hyped for us. I’m not done, I’m not going to rest where we’re at, but if I died in a plane crash tomorrow, I’d like to think that I did what I set out to do.

AH: What artists are you listening to right now?

W: Like everyone else, I’m listening to Chance The Rapper’s new record a lot. Also Kendrick who played Bumbershoot. I like this guy Vic Mensa, who’s on Chance The Rapper’s stuff. All my Bay people, too!

Some might say Nacho Picasso is a quote machine. Even in a short conversation, he proves it to be true:

AH: How are you feeling after that performance?

NP: I didn’t really sleep at all last night. I got like twenty minutes. But as soon as I stepped on that stage–

AH: Nervous?

NP: No, no. Well, I was a little nervous – I never get nervous – but I’ve never performed at daytime. I’m normally full in my element by the time I go on. It was a little early for me. But once I stepped out there, man – my fans, I just feed off them. They know the lyrics better than I do.

(A fan walks up, thanks Nacho for the show, sounds very dorky)

NP: That’s love. See, I got a new fan!

AH: So, other than yourself, who’s your favorite Seattle hip-hop artist right now?

NP: Well everybody in my clique. I’m so lucky, we all grew up together, we’re all friends or family in one way. I’m just so privileged that the people I came up with actually are talented, so we can rock. We’re a cohesive unit, but I’ll fuck with anyone in Seattle – shout out to Macklemore! Say what you want but his grind is impeccable. Shout out to everybody! Even if you ain’t on that level – shout out to anyone who puts themselves out there.

Kris Orlowski plays tonight at 8pm… he also has big plans for November. Andrew caught up with the songwriter at the festival before his set and found out why:

AH: Chris, you just came off tour, you’re playing Bumbershoot, you’re about to start another tour and then you take a break and start another tour and you have a record coming out in February…

KO: Yes.

AH: How the hell do you pull that off?

KO: I try to sleep as much as possible. And I use OneNote with Microsoft to stay organized. But there’s always compromises. I ended up not getting to see my friends as much, and my family, which sucks. Eventully that’s going to change. But I’m doing what I love right now, so it’s a compromise. And I work for a really flexible company, so I’m always connected to my computer and I’m working if I’m not playing music.

AH: And keeping yourself busy with yes/no mustache contests?

KO: I want to bring the mustache back! But the fans had spoken. And I had to shave it. It was a 34 to 18 vote to shave it. I was really hoping to have it for Bumbershoot.

AH: That’s a tough loss.

KO: But I’m going to bring it back for Movemeber! Or maybe earlier!

Right after the rapper Dave B’s set at Bumbershoot, Andrew caught up with him to ask a couple questions about the grind of trying to make a name for yourself:

AH: I saw you at Block Party and I thought you needed a bigger stage. And I just saw you here, on a bigger stage, and I still think you need a bigger stage—

DB: I’m all for bigger stages! My whole set is designed in my head. What I’m inspired by as far as performance, it’s built for bigger crowds and bigger audiences. But, I mean, I like to be intimate too.

AH: What does success look like then?

DB: As far as what I’m trying to do now, in the short term, it’s constantly building, constantly having cats come out to the shows and knowing the songs. But, really, it doesn’t ever stop.

AH: I think the crowd really buys into your performance, they’re right with you from the get, and I don’t think that’s common.

DB: Thank you. I’m just trying to grind, I’m still trying to figure it out. In the beginning of the summer when we first won Sound Off, I was hella on my “Okay we’re about to have hella people at the shows!” But that’s not how it works. But that was just seven months ago, and now we’re out here at Bumbershoot, man.

AH: But there have been winners in the past that haven’t played Bumbershoot. So you should be proud of that. You seem to have a great work ethic, too – I have to ask, how often do you all rehearse for something like this?

DB: We get together at least three times a week and two out of the three are just jam sessions, playing some jazz, making up stuff. And we rehearse the other out of the three times to get it down. It just helps – we know what we’re thinking. If we want to stop a song, if we want to take it up, we can change according to the feeling!