Bronze Whale – TOUR TIPS

In this Tour Tips segment, the indie-electronic duo, Bronze Whale, give you some advice for being on the road. You can check out the feature, after the break.

Bronze Whale – TOUR TIPS

In this Tour Tips segment, the indie-electronic duo, Bronze Whale, give you some advice for being on the road. You can check out the feature, after the break.

1.) Know who runs the show:
It’s great meeting other bands/artists at festivals and on tour, but equally if not more important is the people putting on the show. From the promoter to the sound guy, your lighting dude to the guy running the door, these people are busting their ass (and they know their stuff so listen) for you and tend to be badass people. They run their venue/festival and know the equipment, and how things should be. Be open, don’t be an ass and let them help you make the show good. We’ve always enjoyed hitting a venue early and getting to know who makes it run. These are the people who will remember you, vouch for you, and if you’re good to them turn your shit up to 11 and give your set a light show that rivals one of those insane Christmas house compilations.

2.) Treat yourself don’t cheat yourself:
Probably obvious but take care of your body. Being on the road is draining. Late nights are draining. Draining beers is draining. So make it a point of not eat bullshit and drink your weight in water during the day. Your nights will be easy, your head will be on straight, and you will have a lot more energy to deal with stress. Ask locals where to get down on food or use Yelp to get a general opinion. Fast food is not your friend.

3.) Research your towns:
You can have shit shows in big towns and insane shows in small towns. You never know what you’ll get until you get there, but you can use those metrics that have been building up without you paying attention on your social platforms to know who wants to see you and where your market is. Make the most of the upcoming shows by spending a little time learning what blogs/stations are in your market and line some promotion/interviews up. It will add a ton of visibility to your tour/group and is relatively simple to do.

4.) Effective hospitality:
This is easy for us because we like cheap beer and simple snacks, but if you are getting hospitality covered, skip the fancy stuff and put things that actually matter. Do you need socks? A shirt? Make the people you are traveling with a little happier and ask for things that make the van smell a little less like a dead horse. Also, asking for cheap beer can mean more for everyone and longer night of getting after it.

5.) Hang out with your fans:
Like REALLY hang out with your fans. There’s that one saying that’s like.. a true artist only needs like 1,000 true fans to be sustainable. I dunno probably got that wrong but you know how to start making those fans? You don’t just high five a bunch of people and go to a hotel, you have a beer with them. Go hit the town with your fans. You will find that some of them become close friends. We have amazing people we’ve kicked it within each town we’ve visited. They help us keep a pulse on those towns, learn who good connections are, and some even put us up.

Also, this one may be really specific but.. if you ever meet a door guy in Oklahoma covered in skull tattoos and a skull belt buckle and a skull exhaust on his truck covered in skull decals, you buy that guy a beer because he’s a goddamn American Treasure.

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