Beck Pete – PRESHOW RITUALS

In this Preshow Rituals segment, the indie pop artist, Beck Pete, reveals what she does before taking the stage. You can check out the story, after the break.

Before a show, I used to be overly specific about what foods I had, what I drank, etc. I was always afraid that I would do something to “mess” up my set before I even got on stage. Honestly, I think that stemmed from a lack of confidence, and ultimately, I think I almost conjured symptoms similar to those of getting sick because of stress. Now my focus is more on mental state and overall well-being… not avoiding my favorite foods and stripping away the things that make me happy to try to “prepare.”

My list now is simple. I make sure to give myself time. This is so hard with all of the things to do before a big show, but I need at least 2 hours on show day to do whatever feels right creatively for me — lay on the ground for 2 hours straight, write a song, sit in the sun, exercise, eat a whole damn pizza — anything that FEELS good. The rest of the day will be chaos probably, but if I’m going to really FEEL on stage (which is the most important thing to me) I need to start by tapping into that place of being in-tune with myself earlier in the day. Keeping with the time theme, I also need to give myself at least five minutes right before I go on stage to be alone. This energizes me, gives me a chance to check in with how I’m really feeling, and lets me connect authentically with the crowd.

In addition to that, the only specific ritualistic thing that I do the day of a show now is wake up and write anything that comes to my mind for three pages. It clears that debris of the previous day, and prepares me to be a blank canvas and really appreciate the moments to follow.

For a long time, I was living between the highs of shows. We all experience them, but I was chasing them like the purpose of the performances was to fuel me. Now I realize that the performances instead are about audience connection. Truly, they’re about the audience experiencing the music. That’s helped me to lean into the moments of creation in-between because those are FOR me, but now I just want to prepare myself to feel all moments equally. These two things help me to do that.

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