How a St. Edward’s Alum is Redefining Austin’s Indie Music Scene
After completing two years at ACC, San Antonio native Chandler Christopher ‘22 transferred to Ƶ as a Global Studies major at the beginning of COVID-19. Prior to ACC, Christopher took a gap year backpacking and working across the South Pacific region and Uganda; he even briefly considered joining the Peace Corps.
Starting a Music Label from Scratch
As he started his junior year online, he juggled his job as a server and began exploring his entrepreneurial interests by interviewing artists.
These allowed Christopher to tap into his creative side and experiment with journalism – something he had always been interested in.
“(I spent) a couple of years doing interviews and really focusing on that gave me a good base of education just on what artists were going through, just hearing their perspectives and learning about the music industry,” Christopher said. “I really considered that to be super valuable.”
Christopher credits these interviews as the roots of his independent record label, booking agency and art culture brand,
After his first year in Austin in 2018, Christopher dove into music discovery, searching for underground artists. He then created a Spotify playlist featuring thousands of songs. The first song on the playlist, and the playlist title, was “Happen Twice” by Mark Whalen. His friend group repeatedly and lovingly requested “Happen Twice” at their hangouts. He knew that whatever entrepreneurial direction his life took, the name “Happen Twice” would follow.
Fast-forward to 2021, Christopher lost three days of sleep creating a colorful and engaging website for Happen Twice, drawing inspiration from , a Philly publication highlighting upcoming artists.
A Record Label that Puts Artists First
Since the beginning of Happen Twice, Christopher has released music from about 20 bands. While the company doesn’t sign bands, they license projects like albums, singles and EPs. Through the Twice as Nice Fest, Christopher has taken full advantage of the hundreds of artists who travel to Austin for SXSW, with the hopes of getting signed or making connections. Twice as Nice Fest is hosted during SXSW and aims to “foster a community-driven music experience that embodies the energy and spirit of Austin.” By raising money, most of the shows are free, allowing him to pay each band. According to Christopher, following last year’s Twice as Nice Fest, Happen Twice experienced a growth in social engagement, receiving over a thousand band applications.
“We do really artist-friendly deals,” Christopher said. “We license it for only a two-year period—which is really, really short—and we'll split the rights to it 50/50. Then, after the two years, they regain full control, full rights back to their music.”
Happen Twice isn’t a traditional record label that finances recording music. Instead, the company works more as an exchange of services. In exchange for recording their music, Christopher books them tours, functioning as their manager. For the artists, he promotes their releases on socials and Meta Ads, hosts in-house press campaigns and college radio campaigns. Most of the releases make it to editorial lists on New and Alternative or New and Rock playlists on Apple Music.
“We've only been working with bigger and bigger artists, and I've been learning. I haven't been seeing this as a big-money business. I'm getting to the point now where I'm trying to figure out ways that I can scale monetarily just to help support myself, our bands, and the company overall,” Christopher said. “It’s all the money I have. We haven't gotten any outside investment. It’s just been doing as much as we can with the resources we have.”
As of May 30, 2025, Happen Twice announced a five-year sub-distribution agreement with , a Los Angeles-based indie label and partner with IDOL, a digital distributor powerhouse in independent music. The label has artists across the states in cities like San Diego, Chicago, Boston, New York, Philadelphia and Austin. According to Christopher, one of their most successful releases was with musical artist Johmen, or Joshua Mendiola ‘25, a recent St. Edward’s graduate. Together, they did photoshoots around campus and created a music video on the hilltop.
Entrepreneurial Mentorship and Fostering Community Through Music
Since his hilltop experience was both online and in-person with masks, Christopher felt he missed out on the engagement and connections that come from attending St. Edward’s. Over the past six months, he has re-engaged with the hilltop community and created the connections he couldn’t make during the pandemic. After reaching out to the Vice President for Student Affairs and Administration Lisa Kirkpatrick, Christopher was connected with the Career and Professional Development Senior Director Brittany Stansel and Associate Director Jessica Waites. Stansel and Waites worked with Christopher to get him reengaged in the community by inviting him to last August’s Employer Summit and sharing his available internships on Handshake.
Austin Music Awards
Happen Twice was nominated for The 2024 Austin Music Award. In 2025, they were nominated for Best Live Music Booker and Best Record Label. And while he continues to work tirelessly to find new artists, promote their work, and book their shows, he now works an additional full-time job in the local Austin music scene.
Red River Cultural District Opportunity
After becoming a familiar face to some of the city's most well-known live music venues by booking artists, Christopher was brought on by the in the Spring of 2025. He initially worked with them for three months to share his connections with the nonprofit. After extending his role for another seven months, the Red River Cultural District eventually brought him on full-time to help with fund development, event programming and management.
“The district is home to about 20 independent music venues and 10 additional businesses, running from 15th Street to 4th Street on Red River. It's one of two state-designated cultural districts in Austin,” Chandler said. “The nonprofit was formed to advocate and help these venues create some organization. The board of the district is made up of 13 members, all venue owners in the district.”
Each year, the district hosts “Free Week” and “Hot Summer Nights,” two free music festivals slated for the deadest times of the year. By raising money through sponsors, individual donors, and grants, these two festivals become the district’s highest economic-generating times of the year.
St. Edward’s Entrepreneurship Panel
Christopher returns to the hilltop on Nov. 6 as a speaker at this year’s Bill Monday School of Business Entrepreneurship Panel. Listen to this featuring each of Happen Twice’s bands.
“I feel like this is the one thing that I've been able to consistently work hard on for years and years, and has just taught me a lot about the value of hard work,” Christopher said. “And it really means a lot to me that this is something I haven't given up on. I've kept doing it. And I love doing it. And so I feel really grateful for that because even though it's a lot of work, it only feels like that sometimes.
