 | ||
| |
 The Bravura Newsletter provides valuable information that you can use to reach your music career goals and to help you gain a balanced and enjoyable life whilst working within the fast-paced Music Industry.
Touring - Adventure or Chore? Hi there, Are you an artist or a member of a band currently on tour? Or maybe scheduling a tour for the near future? Are you a tour manager of an act? Whatever your role, what issues do you have to contend with whilst on tour? Do you get tired out by being constantly on the go? Do you get sick of the sight of hotel rooms (or people's floors) and living out of a suitcase (or a car)? Do you miss your family and friends? Do you get sick of all the media attention that you get in each major city you visit? Can you relate to any of these issues? So why do you tour in the first place and just how much do you enjoy touring and how much of it becomes a chore? Well it has to be a given that you tour to promote your music right? Whether you're just starting out or are a signed act, this will be the fundamental reason. And obviously touring gives you the chance to reach as many people as possible within a specific timeframe - giving you the opportunity to also get those people to go out and buy your music. Here is what a tour manager of a highly successful signed artist told me about the downside of touring. "It's a constant routine of getting up really early - like 5am every day - and spending all day on the tour bus travelling to the next city. After doing the sound checks at the venue, you usually get to your hotel about 7pm and have literally 15 minutes to get to your room, shower and get back down into the foyer to greet the press and for your artist to then answer the same old questions with each journalist. You then have to get to the venue, do your gig, have a few drinks and then get to bed rather late and be up again at 5am the following morning! This routine is the same for months at a time - I recently did it for 7 months and I was shattered - never mind the poor artist and the band". "Of course you very rarely get to see your family and there's just no time to catch up with friends at all. Occasionally we were able to get family to join us, but maybe for only a few days. It's a really gruelling schedule and touring quickly loses any attraction that it might have had in the anticipation of it. For the artist it can be even harder, for whilst as a manager I will be working from the tour bus making sure that all the arrangements are in place for the next few gigs, the artist however has to then go on and perform well to an audience with high expectations - you can't afford to have an 'off' night or to be off sick!" What about the upsides? "Well of course there are the upsides - mostly in that the artist gets to play for their audience and gain great feedback on their music - this, in some respects makes all the stresses worthwhile, but at the end of the day this is a business and for both myself and my artist it is our career. The artist's job is to write music, sell it and perform - at this level, it is no longer a hobby and whilst it may appear glamorous, it really isn't!" Here are the views of 2 artists who have a very different approach to touring. Jack Summer, a young singer songwriter from Newcastle, has been seriously concentrating on his music career for a year now and he is touring very much in the DIY style. Jack drives himself to all his gigs on his tour and often ends up sleeping in his car too and making use of the showers at the service stations on the motorways! He says "I tour for the adventure. You never know who you're going to meet at your gigs and I find its great meeting up with new people and other musicians and having great conversations. Yes, sometimes touring is stressful and things go wrong - for instance recently one of my gigs was cancelled at the very last moment, but I managed to team up with some other musicians and we gigged at another venue they knew about and then I stayed over at their place. Another time I locked my car keys in the car and had to call out an emergency locksmith to let me back in - could have been a difficult night! Often stressful situations just add to the adventure!" Jack also says that he enjoys the intimate gigs where you can see the audience and gain their reactions to his music, "It worries me sometimes when I think about achieving my dream of signing that major record deal - how can you keep that intimacy with your audience - because I know it gets lost when bands make it big?" Obviously at this grass routes level there is little money to be made by touring and often it costs more than is gained - so Jack sells copies of his CDs as well as T-shirts and badges to supplement his income, as well as working when he isn't touring. Another artist, who is also rather creative in another arena, sells comic books as a very successful side income. His name is Jeffrey Lewis, an American singer songwriter that "if he played by the rules he'd be a star" states Tim Jonze in his article for NME (9 February 2008). Said of Jeffrey's touring style, "He [Jeffrey] has spent the last decade on a determinedly DIY trip: no managers, no gig promoters, no long-term record deal, no tour manager, no recording studios…and definitely no sense of regimented professionalism." Despite Jeffrey and his band being told by one record company that they couldn't book gigs for them because they wouldn't be able to guarantee their attendance without an official driver and that they wouldn't be well rested if they didn't know where they were staying each night, he has spent at least 6 years arranging his own tours and "asking the crowd each night if anyone had any room on their floor to sleep a dozen people - and it's not just cheaper, it's more fun too" Jeffrey states "You get much more of a sense of being on the road". He also states that he's based his touring style on the one that is shown in his musicians bible - a book called 'Our Band Could Be Your Life' by Michael Azerrad - a book based on the American music scene that tells you how to survive as DIY musicians. Although Jeffrey Lewis has spent the last decade playing to small crowds of people at intimate gigs, that's how he likes it. He has however become a bit of a cult figure and one that many of our own British bands, such as The Cribs, The Futureheads and British Sea Power have all been championing and as a result his following in the UK has become far larger than in the States! So the above gives you a taste of the realities of touring from the perspectives of artists at different stages of their careers. Below are some Tips that you may find useful whatever stage your own music career is at. Tip 1 - Get fit before you tour. You need to make sure that you are physically fit before starting a tour. If you are physically unwell or not at your peak, the gruelling schedule will certainly take its toll and in some extremes will stop you from performing at all. So you need to build your stamina before the tour starts, it will be maintained to a large degree by the amount of gigs you perform. If you are a singer, you must look after your voice too - so remember to use breathing exercises and warm your voice up before each performance. During the tour it is also important that you maintain your health - so this means plenty of sleep and good fresh food - try not to be tempted into the junk food routine - but go down the healthy pasta, salads and smoothies route instead! Tip 2 - Get your head in gear. It's important to accept the realities of touring as described above and to positively embrace all situations as they occur. If you can, try to take control of the way in which you wish to tour and have the strength of character to tour on your own terms. In some cases this may be easier said than done, but to give you some help in this, think about what is important to you - for example you may feel that it is extremely important for you to keep in touch with your family and friends on a regular basis - if you don't have that sustained contact it may make you unhappy - if you are unhappy you won't perform well! If you are a signed act then it may be about compromise. So compromise where necessary to keep your manager and record company happy, but do be careful about going against those things that you need to keep you sane whilst out on the road. Tip 3 - Gadgets. Try to make sure that you have all the gadgets that you need to hand so that you can tour as you want to. So using the scenario of staying in touch with your mates and family once more - you can make sure that you either use Internet cafes or alternatively have a laptop or a mobile that lets you use platforms such as Skype or MSN for instant messaging and free calls to everyone and of course if you are able to use a webcam - then all the better and more fun too! If you can also break the monotony of your tour by getting your family and friends to meet you at certain places then that's great as well. Also if you're touring on your own and driving to your own gigs, it makes sense to get a satellite navigation system to get you there - it's one less hassle to think about and there's no messing with maps or directions from the Internet etc! There are heaps of ways to make your touring less of a chore and to help make it that adventure that Jack Summers likes to tour for - so when getting ready to tour, just think about all of your options for getting to the gigs, for gaining accommodation, for eating, for staying in touch and having fun - make sure you do it the way you want to - compromise where you have to, but most of all enjoy the experiences! Just for your information - Jack Summer is currently on tour - check out his MySpace profile to see him at a place near you - he's worth seeing! www.myspace.com/jacksummer I hope that this month's newsletter has been interesting to you and that it helps you to make the most of your own tours. As ever, you can contact me for personal support and guidance on any aspect of your music career - just send me an email to set up a free consultation call and I will be able to let you know how I can help you. And finally, I am giving myself a 3-month holiday from writing this monthly newsletter - I will be resuming it in the summer - so please continue to watch this space! And if in the meantime you have any burning issues within your music career that you think I may be able to help you with - then don't hesitate to email me at the usual email address. So, is touring an adventure or a chore? With very best wishes,  Bravura Group helping you brave the music industry http://www.bravura-group.com t: 01246 231 249 / 0845 456 460 e: lindsey@bravura-group.com I work with signed and unsigned artists and personnel working in the Music Industry who want to become more productive, creative and ultimately more successful in their music careers, whilst enjoying a more enriched, fulfilling and balanced personal life. If you have received this copy of the Bravura newsletter from a friend or colleague and would like to receive future copies, please visit www.bravura-group.com to subscribe. Thank you. |
|