In a recent episode of the 100 Words or Less podcast, guest Tom Mullen (of Washed Up Emo) bring up a great point about “making it.”
11:54 “If you don’t know where the basement show is, you’re disconnected, because that’s what’s next or what’s really happening. So if you’re out there and you’re in a band, find a basement show… don’t aspire to get on the Ernie Ball Stage.”
Yes, your name at the bottom of the list of 100 other bands in next year’s Warped Tour announcement will look cool, but if that’s what you’re shooting for you’re toast.
Here are a few better places to focus your efforts.
1. Be the band that people want to help and hook up all around your local community. Show up for their shows, even when you’re not playing. Not everyone in every local band will be your best friend, but be a good member of the local music community. Buy other band’s records, travel to their shows, talk them up. Don’t do this so when of those bands “break” they’ll hook you up, but do it to be a good human being.
2.Get out there and book some shows in other states. Playing in front of new crowds won’t win you 100s of fans per show, but it might land you one or two, and you never know – they might become your new best friends.
3. Just as you shouldn’t yell “we got shirts for sale in the back” in between every song when you’re playing out, you shouldn’t make every message on social media about you. Before you post anything, reply to 10 fans. Don’t RT them: reply to them. After you’re done with that, talk about a new album you love, or a good band you saw at your last show. Do this for months, and on occasion, sure – announce a show, or a pre-order. At that point you won’t have numbed your online audience to a never ending barrage of “LOOK AT ME” messaging (like every other band out there).
4. Help other bands. Again, it’s better when we do it together. Element 101 took an unknown band out for their first out-of-state show many years ago. Who was the band? My Chemical Romance. When one band succeeds, we all benefit.
5. Make your own thing. Spotify sucks. No one buys albums. So and so band is dumb. That one promoter won’t book your band. Save your breath, time, and energy.
I got talking to Joe from Flintface recently, who is around my age and filled with much wisdom, and his words echoed in my soul: make your own thing. Make your own luck, your own tour, your own show. If you have a social media audience of 10,000 and an email list of 500 people from all the shows you’ve played in the past two years, you won’t need to rely on “getting signed" or being picked for a shitty side stage to “make it.”
6. Don’t talk shit with people you don’t know. If you’re trying to break into the industry, don’t speak negatively about any band, label, or outlet – you just never know who might work with who! I’ve seen this too many times. Someone says, “X band is the worst,” and then someone in the group says, “oh, really? My partner manages them.” GULP.
So don’t be disconnected. Be a part of something good, and if nothing is there, MAKE IT. Above all, work on being an awesome person that people want to work with and you won’t even need to grovel to play some sponsored side-stage.
LINE
Seth Werkheiser is the quiz master of metal trivia at Skulltoaster. He’s also the founder of some music sites you may have heard of, including Noise Creep (2009) + Buzzgrinder (2001). He’s anti-Facebook, anti-clickbait, and anti-growth hacking. You should most definitely follow him on Twitter. Yes, right now.
Hello and welcome to the eighth installment of Eric Morgan’s How To Kill Your Band. This column offers advice to up and coming artists from the perspective of a professional musician who has thrived with and without label support over the last decade. If you have any questions regarding the content of this blog, or if you would like to learn more information about the services offered by Haulix, please email james@haulix.com and share your thoughts. We can also be found on Twitter and Facebook.
An Introduction:
I’ve been in the music industry as an artist for nearly 10 years now. In that decade I’ve achieved nearly all of my childhood music dreams, but I’ve also made just as many mistakes that run over my mind before I fall asleep each night. A wonderment of how a few different decisions, rerunning in hindsight, would work out in some alternate universe. This ever creeping determinism is a fallacy I’m quite aware of but one that I will never completely shake, though it’s these experiences I’ve learned the most valuable lessons. These are the things I’d like to share in a series of mini-blogs I call How To Kill Your Band.
Part 8 – Everyone Has To Start Somewhere
To kill a band, you have to start one first. This week I’m going to be diving into the musical influences that hooked me on playing music. I try to write music in some form almost every day and after a recent fit with writer’s block I went back to my early roots to get some inspiration. In past interviews I’ve almost always been asked about my band’s influences but not so much as my personal gateways that encouraged me to start writing my own songs. So here’s the chance to relive my own musical adolescents and discuss the artists that shaped the way I look at music.
Rufio – Perhaps, I Suppose (2001)
This was the first band that really motivated me to become a better guitar player at a technical level. There is simply no other pop punk band that shredded like these guys. Though I don’t remember what made me pick out their debut Perhaps, I Suppose in the first place, I vividly recall leaving the mall and popping the album in my discman as the crescendo into “Above Me” quickly filled my ears. Just fifteen seconds into that lead track was enough to leave me stunned and instantly inspired to figure out what on earth they were doing on their fretboards. I just never knew it was possible to do so much on guitar and still be maintain the ever catchy pop punk spirit that Rufio rooted themselves in. The moment I got back home I grabbed my guitar, booted up the Compaq Presario for a quick Dogpile (yes!) search, and stayed up all night learning that album.
Senses Fail – From the Depths of Dreams (2003)
Running through the gamut of Drive-Thru Records releases, I eventually landed upon Senses Fail’s From the Depths of Dreams EP in 2003. By now I had a large collection of the label’s records filling up my pseudo-leather bound CD booklet that included the likes of The Starting Line, New Found Glory, Allister, Midtown, Rx Bandits, and The Movielife. These were all great bands endemic to a profoundly influential period of pop punk at the turn of the millenium but there was something different about Senses Fail. This band was serious. While their peers were busy with self deprecating humor and the mistrials of high school romances, Buddy Nielsen was singing about death. The band gets right to the point as the lead track off that debut EP, “Steven”, is about a close friend of that name being killed in a car accident. That song gave me chills on the first listen. Buddy’s raw, unique but slightly out of tune vocal delivery coupled with the bands darker melodic arrangement was sort of a breath of fresh air to me. Senses Fail also clearly had hardcore influences and the metal tinged guitar riffs were a gateway into my discovery of early metalcore acts.
Further Seems Forever – The Moon is Down (2001)
Chris Carrabba was only barely in this band long enough to record their first album, The Moon is Down, but it is by far my favorite indie rock/emo release of all time. I’d assume this is a product of a perfect storm where I am going through newly turned teenage angst and Chris’s powerful emotionally soaked lyrics. His vocal delivery, while not tunefully perfect, is undeniably catchy. His choruses come to the verge of screaming several times on this album giving you the ability to tangibly feel the emotion he’s pouring out over every line. The instrumentation here is undeniably second fiddle to the vocally driven tracks but they are subtly complex and provide just the right atmosphere to push each theme to it’s climax. Listening back over the album now, I’m amazed at how much melody is hidden in the guitar tracks while still managing not to detract from Chris’s dense but soaring storytelling. Even when it wasn’t the focus, there seemed to always be something intricate going on guitar wise and that idea propelled much of my early songwriting. One secret gem of this album is Steve Kleisath’s insane drum work. While the guitar and vocal lines on the album conservatively tend to play around the same ideas, Steve makes each song stand apart with a complex yet song supporting drumming that fills the emptiness and creates variety in places where there otherwise are none. This is an album I go back to from time to time for inspiration and a refresher on how instrumentation properly supports vocally driven songs.
Thrice – Identity Crisis (2001)
I was introduced to the wonder of Thrice by Justin Brown, AHAF and Bornstellar vocalist, back in 2002 during our sophomore year of high school. He brought his super awesome mini-disc player to school one day and the first song on his latest mix was “Phoenix Ignition”. The track starts off innocently enough with frontman Dustin Kensrue singing softly over a single acoustic guitar before abruptly kicking in with the full band under the anthem of his now screaming voice. This was the first time I had been intimately exposed to screamed vocals and I was quite taken back by it. It took me a good half dozen listens to come around to the band but once I got past the nascent startle of this new sonic aggression, I realized how amazing and beautiful it all was. The viscerally raw rage that permeated Identity Crisis stoked an undeveloped side of my musical dexterity that changed my perspective of what songs could be. Up until that point, most of my library came out of the Drive-Thru roster who’s pop punk ethos contrasted greatly with this new post-hardcore purposefulness. Teppei Teranishi’s guitar playing was another major influence to my riff building framework. While bands like Senses Fail also had metal influences infusing their guitar sections, Teppei brought a technical level to the hardcore/punk band that was quite novel at the time. His instrumental prowess was a constant inspiration as I continued to develop my guitar playing early on and brings us to another band that Justin introduced me to:
Hopesfall – No Wings to Speak Of (2001)
Being a Charlotte native, I along with nearly all other aspiring local musicians were heavily influenced by the rise of Hopesfall in the early 2000’s. They were the first hardcore band to really put Charlotte on the map and their early success sparked a creative renaissance in our music scene. 2002’s The Satellite Years may have been the band’s most well known album but 2001’s No Wings to Speak Of is the quintessential masterpiece of the entire melodic metalcore genre. This record showed me what was possible if you broke all the rules. There were no defined choruses, verses, or even a semblance of song structure but a weaving path of evolving melodies carried each song like it’s own separate story. The band freely rotates between aggressive hardcore sections and spacious reverb drenched cleans that taught me how much you could change the mood within a single song. This EP is probably the biggest influence to my writing on A Hero A Fake’s first release, Volatile. My fascination with abrupt transitions between heavy and clean passages, soaring guitar driven atmosphere’s, and the orchestration of sporadically changing time signatures is traced back to this amazing record.
Honorable Mentions:
AFI – The Art of Drowning (2000)
Boyhitscar – S/T (2001)
The Starting Line – Say it Like You Mean It (2002)
Underoath – The Changing of Times (2002)
A Static Lullaby – …And Don’t Forget to Breathe (2003)
Thursday – War All the Time (2003)
Misery Signals – Of Malice and the Magnum Heart (2004)
Hello, everyone. Welcome to the first of what will be eventually two new Advice columns this week. We are always on the lookout for new ways artists have found to navigate the industry, and whenever possible we do our best to have them share their journey in their owns words. If you know of an artist or group currently doing something unique in music, please contact james@haulix.com and share their story. You can also find us on Twitter and Facebook.
If your band is a business and your music is the product your efforts produce, then all the artwork, photos, and merchandise you create to promote that product falls under the category of packaging. The problem many bands face today is that they become far too obsessed with the packaging aspect of things to focus on the quality of their product. The results of these misguided efforts, unfortunately, is that many of these artists must learn the hard that no one buys a well packaged product twice if its contents are underwhelming.
Your image is only as good as the music behind it, and that is exactly why you need to put your music before everything else in your career. You need to create the best product you possibly can, and only after you feel that is accomplished should you set your sights on finding the best way to share that product with the world. The instant gratification that comes with earning new followers from witty messaging and eye-catching imagery via social networking can only build and sustain your transparent ‘buzz’ for a small amount of time, but a well-written song can live on forever. Music hooks people in a way basic marketing tricks never will because it forges an emotional connection that goes deeper than surface level interest, and it’s in forging those connections with listeners that lasting, sustainable careers in music emerge.
Recently, our friends at The Catalyst Publicity Group turned us on to a rising alternative rock band known as REACTIONS. For more than a year after inception the members never showed their face, choosing instead to focus on building awareness online with the strength of their music. When the time did come to tour, they were met in cities across the country by lines of music fans ready to support people they had never met or even seen, and that trend continues today. People follow REACTIONS because they have a quality product, and that product is catchy rock music that keeps you coming back for more. They don’t need a trendy look or obnoxious artwork to sell people on their band because the music does the work for them, and in the paragraphs below you will learn from the members themselves how it all came together.
The title of “musician” has taken on more and more responsibility in recent years. Due to a rough economy and tanking industry, those who seek a career in being an artist have to face many challenges. From starting out being your own manager and booking agent,to being the face and voice of a brand. It seems like these days, musicians cling to what “works”
Unfortunately, with any sort of entertainment career, trends and gimmicks are inevitable. These can sidetrack and derail from the true nature of being an artist: create, perform and inspire.
Reactions has been a band for a few years and through our journey we have had our fair share of drawbacks. Just like many bands, we have been suckered into trying things and persuaded to change. Although we have gone through our fair share of setbacks since forming, recently we have taken a step back and reevaluated what we want. On our upcoming self titled EP, we have tried to focus more on the music and what we want, rather than fit a trend or a look inside the music scene.
In 2011, when first starting REACTIONS, we decided to have a band mission statement. This statement was simple, “REACTIONS is about the music, not the image”. We were determined to start a band strictly about the music. We launched a “faceless” campaign within REACTIONS, never showing our faces online and changing our online names. From 2011 to 2012, we did not play any shows and remained “faceless”, focusing on our online presence. After reaching thousands of people online and launching what we called “The Rebellion”, we decided to start touring. The response to our first tour was incredible.
As we played in cities we had never even been to before, kids were coming out to see us with lines down the street. As we continued, it became evident that we had a connection with our fans. We connected with our music, as well as on a personal level. We were reaching kids that were the “outcasts” and the kids who didn’t fit in. When we were driving home from our last date, we decided as a band, we needed to become role models for our fans. We wanted to show them that it was okay to be yourself and you don’t need to “fit in”. That is when we decided to release what we looked like and stand up with them, by their sides.
The “faceless” campaign helped us connect with a lot of fans, online and on tour. Although, ir also helped REACTIONS grow and become better musicians and people. We realized that we need to be true to ourselves. Play the music we want to play and never try to fit the trend or latest fashion. The REACTIONS EP is the most honest music we have put out as a band. We wrote and worked on songs for over a year, perfecting each song until we were completely happy with them. We believe that being true to yourself and not “looking like that band” or “playing shows like this band” will help you become more successful as a musician and person.
In the recent years, we have seen the music scene go from bad to worse. It seems that fans are so hung up on the looks of band members and artist crushes, they don’t even listen to the music. REACTIONS main goal is to bring the fans closer to the music. We want them to connect with the music. At the end of the day, the music is the only thing that matters. Everything else is extra.
Hello and welcome to the second ‘Advice’ column of the week. This one is a bit different than others that have come before, as it is a guest post covering a wide array of industry topics. We never know what our guest contributors will deliver, but we are always impressed by the results, and this entry is no exception. If you have an idea for this blog, or if you would like to learn more about the digital distribution services we offer, please do not hesitate to email james@haulix.com and share your thoughts. If you prefer social media, feel free to reach out to us on Facebook and Twitter.
A couple weeks back, I was watching our news ticker here at Haulix HQ when I say an exclusive on Billboard from an up and coming pop rock band I did not know existed. The photo accompanying the article showed three young and, admittedly, my mind instantly jumped to comparisons with the recent resurgence of boy bands. Then I heard their music and realized that was not the case in the slightest. No, these young men were (and are) onto something real. Something people can dance to, yes, but also connect with again and again.
The name of the group from that article is King The Kid, and they are currently watching their career ascend like a rocket through the various levels of underground stardom. They are indeed young, but that in no way means that have not learned the proper way to navigate the often tumultuous terrain of the music industry, and in the paragraphs below they share their recipe for success. From getting started, to touring, infrastructure, and goals, this may be the most wide-reaching guest article we have ever hosted and the information contained is absolutely indispensable.
If you would like to stay up to date with everything King The Kid have going on, make sure you follow the band on Twitter. Additional questions and comments can be left at the end of this post.
Introduction
On the surface, King The Kid, our band, is a group of three best friends that not only write and record music but also travel the country playing for our rapidly growing fanbase. But behind the scenes, King The Kid, LLC. is a well-oiled machine/ independent band that tries to effectively leverage our skills to maximize growth and potential opportunities. At all times, we are focused on both the Art and the Business of what we are trying to accomplish.
The Band Infrastructure
Our team is small. The three of us do everything. We delegate when we need to or where we don’t have the expertise. When we met in Los Angeles, the musical chemistry was remarkable, and we quickly learned that our success depended on the passion behind our music. We decided to leave our friends and connections in LA and move to Oregon, where we could develop our synergy and our music without distraction. We set up the band as a Limited Liability Corporation, entered into a partnership agreement with each other, and hired a lawyer and an accountant. With that out of the way, once in Oregon, we deliberately and strategically prepared the band for its introduction to the world. We wrote and recorded our first album, Start Something, as well as produced numerous covers and videos that helped us develop our production skills even further (and made us a few new fans along the way). We learned basic photography and design and we set up our merchandise infrastructure that allowed us to manage our costs to sell and distribute our merch completely by ourselves. By keeping the production and development “in-house”, we were able to manage the costs that would have been a part of setting up the band, and in a matter of months, we created a vast foundation of content that would both satisfy “old” fans and convert “new” fans into die-hard advocates.
Content is King
-Music
It is the life-blood of the band. And guess what… as an artist in any genre, it is an equal playing field. You are competing against everyone from Katy Perry, Daft Punk, Imagine Dragons to The Beatles. With the entire musical discography available for FREE to anyone, your music needs to compete or you will not break through the clutter. Everyone is in the “big leagues.” Push yourself to find your own sound. Think outside the box. Imitation will get you nowhere, however through the right combination of inspiration you can find your unique voice. People respond to what is DIFFERENT. Think Lorde, Macklemore, Adele, Gotye.
-Social Media
You need to connect with your fans with the resources available to you. We live in such a fast-paced world, that if you are “out of sight, you are out of mind.” From Twitter to Instagram to YouTube, you need to be constantly updating your fans. They want to connect with you. They want to participate in your journey. They want to feel like they have access to you! Be yourself. Much like the music, they will fall in love with you in your most honest, authentic and genuine moments.
-Talent
“Your ability to play exceeds social networking” – Bob Lefsetz
There is currently a shift in music back to true musicianship. The Top 40 charts are changing. As an artist, you need to be a triple threat. You need to be able to sing, to write, and to perform. And for us, it has been beneficial to also record, mix and produce. Not only do you need to be the best you can be, you need to be better than everyone else. An honest song that is true to YOUR heart is the way into the audience’s heart and that will only come through years of honing your songwriting chops. Anyone’s recordings can sound good, but when it comes to a live performance, you need to WOW the audience.
Traditional Media vs. Social Media
Nothing is more powerful than a person-to-person connection. Giving someone a hug after a show is more valuable than responding to someone’s tweet. Fans want to look you in the eyes. It is very important that you never neglect that. This is the reason Amanda Palmer raised over 1 Million Dollars on Kickstarter. She was the master of the fan-artist communication. This was built through years of touring & personally meeting people, AS WELL as utilizing social media. It is important that you balance both of these tools.
Drive
This is our job. We are on call 24 hours a day. When the band gets an email, it is our personal responsibility to read it and stay informed. We hold each other accountable. We are homeless for this band. We have sacrificed relationships, jobs, sleep and countless other opportunities in pursuit of our dream. Sacrifice and persistence are the key elements. Wanting to make it is not enough. We NEED to make it.
Decisions
We don’t make any decisions without truly thinking them through. Every business-move the band makes is strategic and calculated. We aren’t afraid to take risks. And we always have at least a 3-month plan.
The Team
Build your team based around trust and productivity. Anyone can talk the talk, but it’s the people that actually get shit done that you should keep around. And always compensate everyone for their work! Treat your employees well and they will exceed your expectations.
Goal
Our goal is to be true to our fans, our music and us. We strive to do as much as we can ourselves, to get expertise where we need it and to make some great music along the way and release it in the smartest way possible.
Extra Pointers:
Practice your ass off. There is always room to improve and progress will only come through being self-critical.
Look for every opportunity you can find.
If you make a promise to your fans, follow through.
Stay Hungry.
Be smart about fundraising. Kickstarter, Pledgemusic, merch bundles, sales, preorders are key.
Subscribe to Bob Lefsetz. Read Donald Passman’s “All You Need to Know About The Music Business”.
Carefully balance your use of social media tools (like YouTube) and traditional media/promotion tools. In person interaction is more valuable than online.
Hello and welcome to the final ‘Advice’ column of the week. We have been extremely fortunate to have received several article contributions from bands over the last month, and today we are continuing to share the advice sent our way with all of you thanks to a guest blog from Daniel Lancaster of rising pop rock outfit Stages & Stereos. If you have any questions regarding the content of this blog, or if you would like to learn more information about the services offered by Haulix, please email james@haulix.com and share your thoughts. We can also be found on Twitter and Facebook.
Up to this point, the majority of talent we have asked about contributing ‘Advice’ pieces have given us lists and focused editorials about specific aspects of quote/unquote ‘making it.’ These pieces have been great, and a lot of the content included in them has offered insight we could never have written ourselves, but that does not mean that the only way to be informative is through educational writing. Sometimes, all you need to do in order help someone else is share something about yourself.
When we asked Daniel Lancaster of Stages & Stereos for his advice for other artists on the rise, he decided to switch things up a bit and share with readers a story much more personal than anything we have posted through this column in the past. He’s chosen to look at his own career for this article, and in doing has shed light on what it really takes to build a brand in the current music industry. You can read about how he and his fellow bandmates learned to persevere the highs and lows of life in this music industry below.
If you would like to learn more about Daniel Lancaster and everything going on in the Stages & Stereos camp, we highly recommend taking a few moments to follow the group on Twitter. Additional questions and comments can be left at the end of this post.
I’m writing you today to share the struggles I’ve faced as a career musician. The high’s and extreme low’s. Victory and defeat. 500 words couldn’t possibly be enough, but I will do my best to summarize.
I remember the first time I ever picked up a microphone with the true intention to sing. Honestly I didn’t want to be a singer in the first place. I would have rather been on a skateboard. I was 15 years old making music with a group of guys who didn’t care about the future or even who played what instrument. No thoughts of finding management, a label, or booking agent. It truly was a beautiful thing even if the music was awful. We were completely ignorant to the idea of “the industry.” What I’ve learned in the past 10 years of making music is that the more success you find as an artist the more complicated things become. It never gets easier. Everything is trial and error. Every decision that you make is important if you want to make a career out of being a musician. I can’t say that I have always made the best decisions, but what I can say is that I wouldn’t change anything. Every bad decision is a learning experience. I am lucky enough to share the same goals and passion with every member of Stages and Stereos. The biggest struggle many bands face is getting along when you’re in a van for months at a time surviving on PB&J’s and the dollar menu. Things can get pretty intense in those situations haha. On top of that you have the political side which can get very intense as well. I find comfort in knowing that when times are tough and all of the doors seem to be closed our team will do whatever we can and have to do to open one.
The industry is a beast of a mountain that sometimes seems impossible to climb. I’ve come to grips with the fact that every star has to align in order to beat the odds. I do believe if you create a brand that you believe in. Make music you love (that translates well to people that buy records and come to shows). Find a way to make that music marketable, and have tons of luck. You can make a dream reality. I’m not even close to the top, but it’s not a struggle if you truly are in love with what you are doing. Overnight success its 10 years of hard work. In my case I’m looking at 15……possibly more.
Daniel Lancaster is a member of Stages & Stereos. When not working on new material in the studio he can be found touring the country.
Hello again. We may only be five days into March, but we have a good feeling this month is going to be something special. Our features thus far have been fairly exciting, and this afternoon we are rolling out the third – and perhaps best- installment of Eric Morgan’s How To Kill Your Band series. We run this column every other week and encourage anyone who enjoys the material found below to visit previous editions of HTKYB they may have missed. If you have any questions regarding the content of this blog, or if you would like to learn more information about the services offered by Haulix, please email james@haulix.com and share your thoughts. We can also be found on Twitter and Facebook.
An Introduction:
I’ve been in the music industry as an artist for nearly 10 years now. In that decade I’ve achieved nearly all of my childhood music dreams, but I’ve also made just as many mistakes that run over my mind before I fall asleep each night. A wonderment of how a few different decisions, rerunning in hindsight, would work out in some alternate universe. This ever creeping determinism is a fallacy I’m quite aware of but one that I will never completely shake, though it’s these experiences I’ve learned the most valuable lessons. These are the things I’d like to share in a series of mini-blogs I call How to kill your band.
#3 – Road Burn
In my last post, I discussed my ‘$200 Hump Theory’ and how breaking through that barrier signals the difference in a band’s financial outlook. However it can take a few, if not many, $100/night tours to get to that point. In that post I mentioned how important it is to tour smart, and now I’m going to give the five most important money saving tips I’ve learned during my time on the road.
1. Stick to water.
Probably the most overlooked facet of tour is it’s effect on your health – fast food, limited sleep, and catering exclusively from Little Caesar’s every damn night wrecks your entire body. Not to mention living and sleeping in a cesspool of germs that take advantage of your weakened immune system. All these things work together to do one thing – make you feel like shit. And when you’re under the weather, it’s a lot easier to justify superfluous purchases on comfort items like junk food and soda which only perpetuate the problem.
This simple rule is by far the hardest for me personally, but it really does make a difference. Not only does sticking to water make you feel better in general, it saves an easy $5 per day. A little trick I learned from Patrick Jeffers during AHAF’s touring days was to fill your water bottles up whenever you stop at gas stations. All the soda fountains carbon filter their water and we’ve never been given trouble from owners, though I reckon spending hundreds of dollars of gas at the same time helps.
2. Free Breakfast
Skipping a meal is an easy way to save money but it’ll just make you hungrier later and that only ends up countering your first move. Plenty of bands do their best to sleep through breakfast but we learned early on that there was a much (well, not that much) tastier trick – continental breakfast. Rather than sleeping in a Walmart parking lot, we always preferred the more serene quarters behind a Hotel Inn Express. In addition to not being tempted all night by Walmart’s endless spoils, there’s the benefit of being just a 30 yard walk from hot free breakfast. Even though the front desk clerk that watched you plow through their parking lot isn’t usually the same one working in the morning, you should still be smart about how you walk in – mainly don’t all half dozen homely looking dudes walk in at the same time. Stagger it.
This might sound sort of like stealing…and well I can’t really argue that. However in four years of touring, I’ve only ever been kicked out of one hotel breakfast. While I’m sure more managers figured out what we were doing, being a courteous and clean definitely keeps you from getting the boot. In fact we’ve befriended some pretty cool people working at these hotels, several of which even ended up coming out to shows.
3. Grill the fuck out.
We first learned the art of tour bbq from Dr. Acula on the RAGE Tour but it took a while for us to start grilling ourselves. A couple years ago my girlfriend gave the band her old portable charcoal grill and that was the spark we needed to finally start cooking on the road. From grilled wieners n’ beans to marinated chicken with roasted vegetables, we never ate better fourth meals than tours with the grill Not only was it delicious, but it ended up being significantly cheaper for all of us to pool our money on bulk items.
For touring bands, that fourth meal is more important than dinner in most cases. On your typical day the band loads in by 3pm, gets “catering” (Little Caesar’s) at 7pm, but doesn’t finish packing and settling with the promoter until after midnight. By the time you’re on the road scoping out the next sleeping lot, it’s been 12 hours since your last bite. Grilling out to finish off the night is not only an effective way to curb the hunger pangs, but it gives you something to do with your bandmates. The boost in morale and camaraderie are pleasant side effects of saving money grilling out and something that helped us all unwind at the end of the night.
Looking back at my tips, I think there’s an obvious theme here: food is expensive. Other than gas, it’s the most costly aspect of life on the road. This also means it’s the area where your personal choices can have the greatest impact on your bottom line. Being smart with your food choices can mean a difference of hundreds to thousands of dollars over the duration of a tour. This is by no means a comprehensive list, but if you’re just starting out touring I hope it helps keep some cash in your wallet.
If you have any tips of your own, please let us know below.
This column was contributed by Eric Morgan. Eric spent a number of years touring the world as part of the Victory Records band A Hero A Fake. He’s currently developing a new project,Bornstellar, which plans to release its first EP later this year. Click here to learn more about Eric’s time in music.
