Camera2 – CRAZY TOUR STORIES

In this Crazy Tour Stories segment, Andy Chase of the indie pop band, Camera2, talks about some of their crazy moments from touring. You can check out the feature, after the break.

In 2015 Camera2 was offered the support slot opening up for Walk Off The Earth. It was their 20 city sold out European tour. None of us had toured Europe as extensively as this before and we were beside ourselves with excitement. None of us were prepared for the onslaught of relentless nights traveling from one country to the next — packing up the bus after the show and leaving that country at 1am…driving nonstop for 12 hours until arriving at the next country…playing a show that night…packing up the bus yet again and doing it all over again…and again….and again! There was only a limited time in which to sleep, and sleep was hard to come by when you had 4 band mates and 4 crew members all sleeping in close quarters to each other. No matter how big and luxurious your bus is…bunks right on top of each other in a tight, smelly, narrow submarine-like space, is a challenge and produces mostly claustrophobia and insomnia. As if that wasn’t enough, many of these European countries we visited are frustratingly separated by bodies of water that can only be traversed by ferry. Somehow our bus always seemed to arrive at those ferries around 4am, which was the magic hour in which all of us were finally falling asleep. Ferries have a rule which requires all passengers to exit their bus after it has driven and parked on the ferry for the voyage. No one is allowed to remain inside the bus. This charade of driving onto a ferry around 4am, having to wake up, de-board the bus, walk like zombies out of the bus and up into the main passenger waiting area until it arrived at the next country 3 hours later… it all became very not-so-funny to everyone except for me, as I was up anyway due to my persistent inability to sleep. So I became the conductor for the various highly enjoyable (albeit sadistic) ways in which my band had to be woken up and ushered out of the bus. Enjoy!

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