The idea of journaling on the road always sounds cool but never really comes to fruition. I've tried before to no avail--it's just too tedious and difficult to scrawl thoughts and observations in a notebook when you are driving for upwards of eight hours a day and sleeping on somebody's floor in a different city every night. Right, I know, you think "dude, you've got EIGHT HOURS to SIT, how difficult can it be?" For some reason, very. With all of this blogging business so popular now I thought it might be a good idea, and possibly the solution to the always annoyingly difficult writing-in-moving-automobiles issue, to type instead. I know, I'm deep. So--here we are.
I plan to update this thing fairly frequently with news on whatever I'm (we're) experiencing or thinking. This is primarily for my own sake, really. I think it will be pretty cool to look back on and have a slew of those "oooh yeah, that was the time when you..." moments. I don't suspect this will gain a lot of readers but, should anyone decide to follow the events of the summer for me and The Non, feel free.
A huge amount of work goes into booking a summer tour and getting all of one's "ducks in a row" for such an operation, especially as a DIY band without fancy things like record labels and managers. It's the nitty-gritty and a lot of local artists all around the country/world deserve more cred than they receive for the effort they put into this crazy business. It's not as easy as just driving to Dallas and eating Pop-Tarts. Before we actually hit the road for the six week's we'll be out, I'll go ahead and outline some of the preparation that goes into this kind of thing.
Plans for this summer stint have been in the works for about eight months--that's about where the "we're going to do this next summer" thoughts arise and everyone figures out whether or not they'll be able to hold on to their jobs or take summer classes. It takes some dedication, I have to say, on the part of the whole for four people to say "yes, I want to dedicate my summer to this and work my ass off beforehand and during and eat on a budget too low to reveal and forfeit any chance to hold down a real job and try to make money like normal kids." Planning is, as one would expect, a large part of all of this.
When projected dates are maybe three to four months away, the getting-intimate-with-the-computer-screen time sets in. Hours and hours and hours of email correspondence through both traditional email and MySpace (the sad social networking site now reserved for bands, strangely) take place, leading to an average of something like one confirmation on a date in 20 messages to different venues/bands (that you dig up using things like MySpace and Google). Getting those shows is a serious undertaking when you're nobody they've ever heard of and you're the 17th email in their inbox that day. TO GET THROUGH THIS DRAB PORTION AND MOVE ON--hard work and dedication lead to GOOD shows getting set up. It's not like every event booked in another town is the first one that said "yes." We have some seriously great shows lined up with some incredible bands at some awesome venues.
It should be noted that Wil has been the key figure in booking most of this stuff. His dedication is seriously to be commended.
That whole booking process is endless. It will continue out on the road, trying to confirm that one band for next Tuesday or whatever the case may be. There is no doubt in my mind we'll book off the cuff, too: walking into coffee shops in the afternoon and trying to set up a show on the spot. You have to just reach a point and say "well, there's the tour, boys." Hopefully everyone feels good about it (in The Non's case--we most definitely do).
I'll go ahead and cap this entry here, with a brief summation of what went on yesterday, what's happening today, and what needs to get accomplished in the near, near (too near) future: Yesterday was an eventful day in the world of merch. Wil, Zach and I got together and bought new road-ready merch gear to hold t-shirts and CDs. We inventoried and folded a bunch of shirts. Rock 'n roll! Previously that afternoon, Wil and I met up to discuss some registration and financial issues that we're working with but that's a bit too dry and personal to reveal. Today is a jam day; we'll be getting together this afternoon to have some fun jamming, seeing what new ideas get sucked through the cosmos and put out by our hands and minds. We're hoping to have at least three new songs to debut and finely hone on the road in the coming weeks. Tomorrow holds (as does today) more emails and media updates: FB, Twitter, MySpace, etc. An abbreviated version of the to-do list reveals the following:
A huge amount of work goes into booking a summer tour and getting all of one's "ducks in a row" for such an operation, especially as a DIY band without fancy things like record labels and managers. It's the nitty-gritty and a lot of local artists all around the country/world deserve more cred than they receive for the effort they put into this crazy business. It's not as easy as just driving to Dallas and eating Pop-Tarts. Before we actually hit the road for the six week's we'll be out, I'll go ahead and outline some of the preparation that goes into this kind of thing.
Plans for this summer stint have been in the works for about eight months--that's about where the "we're going to do this next summer" thoughts arise and everyone figures out whether or not they'll be able to hold on to their jobs or take summer classes. It takes some dedication, I have to say, on the part of the whole for four people to say "yes, I want to dedicate my summer to this and work my ass off beforehand and during and eat on a budget too low to reveal and forfeit any chance to hold down a real job and try to make money like normal kids." Planning is, as one would expect, a large part of all of this.
When projected dates are maybe three to four months away, the getting-intimate-with-the-computer-screen time sets in. Hours and hours and hours of email correspondence through both traditional email and MySpace (the sad social networking site now reserved for bands, strangely) take place, leading to an average of something like one confirmation on a date in 20 messages to different venues/bands (that you dig up using things like MySpace and Google). Getting those shows is a serious undertaking when you're nobody they've ever heard of and you're the 17th email in their inbox that day. TO GET THROUGH THIS DRAB PORTION AND MOVE ON--hard work and dedication lead to GOOD shows getting set up. It's not like every event booked in another town is the first one that said "yes." We have some seriously great shows lined up with some incredible bands at some awesome venues.
It should be noted that Wil has been the key figure in booking most of this stuff. His dedication is seriously to be commended.
That whole booking process is endless. It will continue out on the road, trying to confirm that one band for next Tuesday or whatever the case may be. There is no doubt in my mind we'll book off the cuff, too: walking into coffee shops in the afternoon and trying to set up a show on the spot. You have to just reach a point and say "well, there's the tour, boys." Hopefully everyone feels good about it (in The Non's case--we most definitely do).
I'll go ahead and cap this entry here, with a brief summation of what went on yesterday, what's happening today, and what needs to get accomplished in the near, near (too near) future: Yesterday was an eventful day in the world of merch. Wil, Zach and I got together and bought new road-ready merch gear to hold t-shirts and CDs. We inventoried and folded a bunch of shirts. Rock 'n roll! Previously that afternoon, Wil and I met up to discuss some registration and financial issues that we're working with but that's a bit too dry and personal to reveal. Today is a jam day; we'll be getting together this afternoon to have some fun jamming, seeing what new ideas get sucked through the cosmos and put out by our hands and minds. We're hoping to have at least three new songs to debut and finely hone on the road in the coming weeks. Tomorrow holds (as does today) more emails and media updates: FB, Twitter, MySpace, etc. An abbreviated version of the to-do list reveals the following:
- Hard copy tour notebook
- Summer budget
- Media to venues
- Bands for some existing gigs
- FB events
- Car/trailer repair
- Laser/smoke road cases
It's all great stuff!
Certainly, it is quite time consuming to do all of this, the whole band thing, as one would imagine. It is a decision we all made a few years ago. It's not just the garage rockin' you do when you're 14 (or 57 for that matter) but a part of your life. There's always something going on and it's basically as significant as school in terms of time, frequency of events and required attention. It is almost like what a signifant other might require and be happily, willingly given. ...this brings a whole new meaning to "music is my girlfriend." Seriously. Anway--it is all GREAT and a HUGE amount of fun and I feel incredibly lucky to be a part of something like this. Always have, always will. Alas, the to-do list grows...
Tour poster designed by Scott Hill
--life on the line continues!
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