Belle Mt – PRESHOW RITUALS

In this Preshow Rituals segment, the alternative pop band, Belle Mt, share what they do before every show. You can check out their rituals, after the break.

Hey DTB, thanks for having us on the site! Yes, we do have a few weird little OCD’isms that help set us up in the right mental place for our live performances and we’re happy to share them with you…

Matt
…It’s important to me to really feel out the room and to become comfortable with the stage perspective in each venue for a good while before I perform, this means that I can sometimes extend the soundcheck a bit even after we’re happy with the sound as I’m also trying to claim the space so that it feels totally familiar by the time we start. I always try to be present and clear my head of any distracting life shit that is going on so that I’m able to put myself back in a place where I can feel the lyrics as raw as the first day that they were written. I tend to do a short meditation, generally, just a few minutes concentrating on breathing in a quiet spot if I can find one, no sitting cross-legged and chanting or anything just a few moments of quiet to clear my head. About 15 minutes before we start we all do a few runs of this short vocal warmup which I found on Spotify, its called “Vocademy 5 minute male warmup” I think and it’s cheesy and sounds like a musical theatre class warming up…but it works!

Chris
…I’m a bit OCD about my setup and about getting it right in soundcheck, as long as I have the time to make sure every piece of equipment I’m using is working and sounding great and especially that my drums are positioned exactly how I need them I’ll be happy. I’ve marked out exact heights and angles on my stands and that helps speed things up during setup and I just try to make sure nobody messes with it once I’m done! To put myself in the right headspace weirdly I put on headphones and listen to totally different music and rhythms to the songs we play. It’s like a mind reset and helps me calm any nerves.

Ben
…In the hours before we play a show I just try to relax as much as possible. I smoke some cigarettes, eat some food and try not to think too much as by that point all of the preparation and rehearsal is done and so you may as well just get yourself in the right mood to enjoy the moment. I’m not saying I never worry or get anxious about things though, that all comes in the preparations which do have to be perfect; I get thrown if someone has moved my pedals a few inches or if they aren’t left on the correct settings for the first song as there are a lot of pedal changes and presets for Belle Mt. In the 30 minutes or so leading up to the show I can start to get some nerves which I try to channel towards energising my performance, they disappear the moment we start.

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