We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Skyler Locatelli a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Skyler thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Can you tell us about an important lesson you learned while working at a prior job?

I wrapped up college with a BBA in Biz Management and fresh off a term abroad in Italy, I moved to Seattle and my first job was at an Italian Dessert Company. I didn’t want to work a desk job and coming off the Italy trip I said sure I’ll take a cafe Manager job. About 4 years into it I became part owner in the company and over the course of several years after I helped bring a 700K annual revenue business to over 1.3 million mostly by growing the company’s wholesale business, getting products in stores and restaurants across the region. My partner at the time was a super passionate and as Italian as it gets. The biggest lesson she taught me, and said it over and over again, is that you always need too: “Under-promise and Over-Deliver.” Those four words have guided my decision making in pretty much every facet of life, certainly in business and personal growth. That said, I’ve still had scenarios where I want to make things happen and promise someone something and came up short, but it’s few a far between and by always under-promising you maintain credibility and that’s worth its weight in gold!

Skyler, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

I got my start in the music industry in College Radio, as a DJ and Music Director. I then moved to Seattle and engaged a lot in the Electronic Dance community for many years. I then produced my first music festival in 2013 and in 2016 my partner and I started Freakout Records and Freakout Festival from then on is produced under the Freakout Records umbrella.

Fast forward to 2023, Freakout is now a 501(c)(3) Non Profit Organization who’s focus is to drive our mission as a community-oriented music collective, producer of concerts + music festivals, and a record label. We provide music discovery opportunities for all while supporting artists locally and internationally by focusing on artist needs over profit.

We produce two festivals a year in Seattle and present shows throughout the year and showcase at various festivals and venues across the country. Our primary focus genre is the many forms of rock. Guitar driven bands with a healthy dose of Latine Rock, Garage, Punk, Psychedelic; meanwhile highlighting Electronic, Hip-Hop, experimental, Americana, folk and more!

I’m most proud of the community of people we get to work with and support emerging artists. We’ve helped introduce artists, fans and people from all over the world that end up having life long professional and personal relationships with one another.

Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?

In 2022 we celebrated our 10th annual festival and expanded to our biggest festival yet with over 8 x stages of music featuring over 125 bands. It was a huge undertaking. We learned a lot from last year’s festival and in order to continue doing what we do, we decided it best to change our business model/structure to a non profit org and continue to focus on the community we already support. This hasn’t been easy over the years, slap in a 3 year pandemic and a decimated music industry, many businesses and orgs have had no choice but to fold. The core Freakout crew and now our board of directors are passionate, and most importantly resilient all on board to help keep doing what we love to do, long into the future!

How’d you meet your business partner?

Guy Keltner is my Co-Founder of Freakout. He started the Festival and then we co-founded the label and grew the festival to what it is today (with support of many wonderful people along the way!)

It’s a funny story about 10 years ago, we were both producing Psychedelic Rock inspired festivals and didn’t know each other. Then two different people in the community, both public figures in the Seattle Music scene. The first was Brent Amaker, the hippest cowboy in Seattle and leader of Brent Amaker and the Rodeo, and then Steven Severin, co-owner of Neumos and now on the new Bumbershoot team. They both told both of us, you need to know Guy and you need to know Skyler. I still remember seeing a FB instant message from Steven telling me about Guy because at the time Guy was working on the marketing team at Neumos. Guy and I finnaly met up for a beer at Moe Bar on Capitol Hill in Seattle and we started talking about doing our own festival together at Neumos. Sort of a blend of what I was doing and what he was doing. Instead of doing that Guy said, well I’m doing the next Freakout here at Neumos, why don’t you come work it, hang out and add some Skyler flare. I said okay! Then early 2016 we launched Freakout Records and are still talking to each other every day planning festivals and sharing this crazy life together.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.freakoutrec.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/freakout/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/freakoutorg/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/skyler-locatelli-3b3120b8/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCVzhC8lhpZ6snHCBzQ3DTBw?app=desktop

Image Credits
Travis Trautt, Jake Hanson and Eric Tra