CHARLOTTE – TOUR TIPS

In this Tour Tips segment, the singer-songwriter, CHARLOTTE, recommends advice for being a musician on the road. You can check out the tips, after the break.

If there’s one thing I feel I’m well versed in after this year it’s touring. After 7 tours and a bunch of festivals amounting to a grand total of 110 shows, I can probably impart some nuggets of wisdom.

1. PEOPLE – most of the tours this year have been about a month-long each. I’ve spent more time with my tour crew than my own family. In fact, my tour crew has become my family. The people you surround yourself with on the road are the foundations that allow you to deliver the best of yourself on stage every night. They should help keep a positive and healthy atmosphere which is key to survival on long tours with tiring journeys. Choose them wisely.

2. SNACKS – keep stocked up on snacks. I guess this is another factor of keeping the atmosphere healthy on tour… everyone’s an arsehole when they’re hungry. I recommend carbs because they’re a god-given gift.

3. ADAPTORS – I’ll be honest, 7 tours in and this one still gets me. I never take enough adaptors and the ones I do take I always manage to leave them in dressing rooms and hotel rooms. Ideally buy different kettle leads for your instruments that have the right plug for where you’re touring… relying on adaptors isn’t ideal as they increase the risk of technical issues on stage.

4. SHUT UP AND STEAM – If you’re a vocalist, like me, talking is a killer. I actually spend a lot of time in silence. Maybe other singers can get away with chatting all day then singing every night but that just doesn’t work for my voice. I have a strict warm-up regimen that I follow, 30 mins before soundcheck and 30 mins before my set. Then my portable vocal steamer is my best mate. I steam as much as poss, to keep my vocal cords hydrated.

5. YOU BOOZE, YOU LOSE – this year I’ve gone from being out most weekends with my mates either at the pub on the beers or on life-wrecking nights out where I’d wake up and remember very little to being able to count on one hand the number of times I’ve been drunk. I don’t drink on tour. Not the rock and roll story of touring I thought I’d be telling lol. Drinking makes me shit at singing the next day, depressed and inevitably grinds my immune system down to the point where I catch every bug I’m exposed to. No thanks. I’ll take water instead plz, on the rocks.

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