Indie Music Marketer .com

Itís every musicianís fantasy. The tour bus rolls up to the arena (full of groupies, beer and pizza). Fans are crowded out front hoping to catch a glimpse of Americaís hottest band. The group is escorted to their dressing room (full of more groupies, beer and pizza). They enjoy the various pleasures of stardom while roadies set up the stage. Itís show time. The artists take the stage. The crowd is screaming. The lights are glaring. The amps are humming. The drummer clicks off the first song andÖ 

You wake up in the back of your PT Cruiser. Your bass playerís elbow is in your ear and the drummerís asleep on your foot. Youíve eaten nothing for the last week but corn dogs and frozen burritos. This is not the tour you imagined. This is not your Lilith Faire. This is not your Lollapalooza. This is not your Warped Tour. This...sucks. 

Every musician dreams of touring. Getting out of their same boring town. Trying their tunes out on new crowds, in new areas, for fresh faces. Bonding on road, writing new tunes in the motel room, free food, free drinks, getting paid, getting laidÖliving the life. 

But the music biz is full of touring horror stories. Bands stuck on the road with no money to come home. Musicians not eating for days. Clubs canceling gigs the night of with no warning. Negative reactions from bar patrons and local bands. The list goes on.

So, how do you make sure that your touring experience is a positive one? What can you, as musicians do, to eliminate potentially negative experiences and create positive ones. 

The following are a few tips that add success to your touring experience: 

1.) Donít Plan A Tour Because Youíre Unhappy At Home---Just as an affair will not fix the problems in a marriage, a tour is not the cure for: problems within the band, problems in the band membersí lives, or a general malaise for your local scene. A tour is strain and stress and loads of work. You should be excited, and enthusiastic and positive when planning. 

2.) Over Prepare Before You Leave---You can never plan too much or take too many precautions. At home is the time to rethink ever scenario and arrange accordingly. Get the van tuned up. Pack extra emergency money. Bring a list of additional clubs in the area in case your gigs fall through. Pack extra strings and sticks. Bring a backup guitar. Pack extra merchandise. Bring emergency food/water. Pack extra batteries and power cords. Bring cell phones. 

3.) Be Humble And Thankful---Youíre in a strange town and a new club, act like a guest. Nothing ticks off a club owner/promoter whoís taken a chance on an unknown band more than out-of-towners swaggering into a club like Paris Hilton in an episode of ìThe Simple Life.î No matter how cool you are in your own town, this is unproven ground and your first impression is important. Ask, donít demand. Set up quickly. Play at an appropriate volume. Clean up after yourselves. Be friendly and courteous. Say ìpleaseî and ìthank youî. Unless youíre booking in Jerkville USA, this positive attitude could set you well on your way to a repeat booking with better perks and more local support. 

4.) Seize Every Opportunity---If youíre going to take the time away from work, family, and the buzz youíve built in your own music community to head out into the great beyond and conquer unknown landsÖyou might as well come back with something other than lovely memories and an out-of-state parking ticket. Youíre in a new place and the possibilities are endless. Sell CDs. Sell T-shirts. Get new names on your mailing list. Solicit local reviews, interviews, and radio. Introduce yourself to other club owners for future bookings. Find out who books local festivals. Play an impromptu house party after your gig. Make new friends that can street team for you next time. Think of something I havenít even written here and do it!

Donít Expect To Conquer The World In One Tour---Rome wasnít built in a day and neither will your touring empire be. Have fun. Enjoy each trip and using it as a building block to make each tour to that particular place better and more elaborate. Play your cards right, and after a few trips you may be making terrific money, have secured lodging (either new friends let you crash or a club pays for a motel), get food and drinks comped, and guaranteed press and radio coverage. 

In short, touring can be the best thing that ever happened to your band if you work hard, play it smart, and follow through correctly. But no matter how much you love to tour, always remember to keep your foot in the door locally. Itís the great work that you do at home that makes other clubs excited about you bringing your show to their town. 

I hate taking drugs. I know that's hard to hear coming from a full time working musician. But it is true. I hate taking anti-histamines or sprays. I prefer the holistic approach. 

The three ways to protect your voice: 

1. Water: Distilled water is the best. Chlorinated water, even when filtered is the worst. Why? Think about how your skin feels after you've been swimming. Chlorine does the same thing to vocal cords - dries them out. 

If you can not find steam distilled water, Wal-Marts have water filtered by reverse osmosis. It's a charcoal based filtering system that has no bacteria. Spring water is no good for that reason. You don't know what spring it came from, so you don't what organisms are still there. 

2. Sleep: Hard to get enough sleep. If you're like me, you go, go, go. So 8 hours is tough. What I do is I make sure I take a nap before every gig. Even if I lay down for an hour it helps. The voice is never more relaxed then when at sleep. 

3. ALOE DRINK by KHEE BROS. This stuff is the best! (No I don't get a commission form them.) I just tell you it works! 

Ingredients: Pure water, aloe gel, fructose, honey, citric acid, calcium lactate, vitamin C, aloe fruit. 

I usually find this drink at an Asian market. We have a great Chinatown in Chicago where I live. But check any of your local yellow pages or google them. It comes in a green plastic bottle. It actually real refreshing -- not like the aloe extract you get at the nature stores. It has helped immensely in healing my voice after a couple nights of gigging. 

Aloe Vera is a miracle plant. If you don't know about it, you need to read up on it. It hydrates and it also helps allergies!! fat grms, 0 trans fat grms, 0 sugar ( it does have honey in it ), 11mg sodium, 0 Cholesterol, 15gms of Carbohydrates. 

Musicians work hard. They write for days. They rehearse like fiends. Drag heavy gear here and there. Sweat like pigs on stage. Put marathon hours in at the recording studio. Work their fingers to the boneÖwell, at least into some pretty gnarly calluses. But, musicians also like to play hard: booze, drugs, groupies, and trashed hotel rooms are actually more occupational hazards that rock ëní roll myths. 

No matter how disciplined an artist needs to be for his or her music, they will always need to blow off steam in some way or another. Some hit the gym, run, partake in extreme sports, do yoga, pursue their spirituality, web surf, build custom guitars, restore classic carsÖyou name it. All of these outlets help musicians to handle the enormous flow of energy so necessary to channel the creative process. Still, other musicians prefer a more debaucherous form of escapism. They drink until they puke, get stoned and eat a case of Cheetos, or sleep with all of their friendsí sisters. 

This wild lifestyle, albeit a music clichÈ, may feel terrific at the moment, but many musicians clearly forget that the days of offstage antics circling around the buzz of the band, like whispers in the wind, are long gone. These days, fans carry camera phones to gigs, friends videotape your bandís every move, and everybodyís a blogger. The afterparty, once simply a chance to blow off steam with loved ones and lovers of your music alike, has now gone from the innocent scandal of, ìOh my God, did you hear what happened after the gig Saturday?î to a website monitoring every second of debased insanity with pictures, video, and descriptive essays. 

This new unexpected publicity may increase the number of crazed partiers at your next gig, but what happens when the entertainment attorney youíve been courting, the A&R guy youíve been hoping to hear back from, or the manager youíve been telling how serious you are about your music, pops on the internet and finds your drummer passed out in the pool, your bassist vomiting in someoneís bushes and your guitarist naked in a strangerís bed with cheerleaders of questionable age? 

The following are a few tips that may help you to throw a terrific afterparty without the ramifications hurting your career in the long run: 

1.) Pick A Designated Partygoer---As much as this thought may send shivers through the spine of any wild-at-heart musician, itís a good idea to have someone at your afterparty keeping an eye on those whoíve sold their souls for rock ëní rollÖor at least Jack Daniels. Whether you rotate it from gig to gig, or find a friend of the band (girlfriend, manager, a bandmateís brother, etc.) whoíll stay sober enough to make sure that no one does anything stupidÖand if they do, that it wonít be ìcaught on tape.î Playing Band Hall Monitor is truly a thankless job for anyone who parties hardy, so maybe free admission to the gig and some cool band swag as compensation would be a nice way to say ìThank You for being our assigned killjoy tonight!î 

2.) Set Some Guidelines For Your Band And Fans---I know it sounds like Big Brother is busting up your raging good time but when youíre talking about your career, itís better to be safe than sorry. Have a chat with your band explaining that extreme behavior needs to be controlled at parties where fans are recording events. Post on your web site, and your fan club or have a Pow Wow at the gig and explain to your people that, while you love all of the cool photos and videos they take of the band at the gig, there has to be a few rules for what can be shot offstage. Be honest. Let your friends/fans know that you love partying with them but that the bandís reputation is an important ingredient for its success and that itís vital that certain memories be enjoyed by partygoers only and not preserved in cyberspace for the world to see. 

3.) Monitor Your Websites And Web Communities---Again, better safe than sorry. Itís always a good idea to visit your forums, message boards, photo galleries, fan clubs, blogs and online communities to see what the latest scoop on your band is. Itís also wise to retain approval privilege on anything posted on each of your band sites. Let people post all of the drunken, naked pictures they want, and then pick and choose which images you want to represent your band. The same applies to comments and posts. Remember fans are important and priceless but itís ultimately your image to preserve to the industry and the world and your web presence is how you represent yourself to everyone interested in you from fans to labels and everything in between. 

4.) Dial Your Scandalous Behavior Back A Bit---Itís all well and good for your drummer to sleep with your girlfriendís mom on his own time, but at band functions make sure that the behavior is kept professional. In our modern society, the lines between reality and publicity have become so blurred that a simple kegger in your singerís garage can get more coverage than a Grammy Pre-Show Special. Sadly, that may simply mean changing the standards of band partying to those that you exhibit at gigs. Throw private parties and have orgies in your grandmaís bathtub, but when itís music related youíre, in a sense, at work and should act accordingly. 

I realize that telling musicians not to party, is like telling a dog not to lick its private parts and if, after reading this, you feel that the thrill of the over-the-edge rock ëní roll afterparty is completely ruined, donít change your major to math just yet. Remember, doors lock, parties can be invitation only, cameras turn off, and bloggers can be taught to use discretion. You can still live like Jim Morrison at Scott Weilandís toga party; just do your best to keep it off the internet. While a little scandal is titillating, a lot of scandal just says to a label, ìSure. Weíll take your money and then weíll blow it all on Tequila and show up to the studio three hours late every day.î Show the industry youíre serious, put on a professional face, and give your website the appearance of a band thatís fun and responsible. Then, have a private party, invite the Dallas Cowboy Cheerleaders, a donkey, the drug dealer next door, and your guitaristís horny aunt and throw a party that would make the cast of Half Baked blush. After all, youíve got to fight for your right to partyÖin secretÖwith the digital cameras unplugged.