Chris Ayer – TOUR TIPS

In this Tour Tips segment, the rock artist, Chris Ayer, gives you his tips for being on tour. You can check out the feature, after the break.

1. Pace yourself. What you do for the 22 hours of the day that you aren’t performing is the single most important factor in determining how satisfying the two hours that you are performing will feel. Sleep. Drink tons of water. Eat well. Take time alone, away from all of the craziness. Be realistic about your limits — for instance, maybe don’t stay up partying until 4am every night. Or do. Your choice. Personally, I just can’t stay up late every night and expect to sound good at my show, especially after three or more consecutive days of performing.

2. Make the effort to see the cities you are performing in. Traveling to new cities is such a cool aspect to touring, but I feel like so many bands and artists only see the insides of venues and hotel rooms. Make a concerted effort to get to the next city on your tour route early enough to take a walk around and see a few local hot spots. Even just walking around a city’s center helps me feel like I’ve actually been there. Green rooms are basically all the same, and 90% smell like crap, so I try to do myself the favor and take a walk around the venue before, or after soundcheck, if at all possible.

3. Be kind to yourself in the form of a healthy rider. Early on, I was kind of a kid in a candy store. I was putting junk food and all kinds of adult beverages on my rider. I was always shocked when I felt terrible after a week of heavy touring. My bad. I’d advise my fellow musicians to insist on healthy snacks and meals, instead of chips and chocolate. Also, don’t take the extra beers to the van after the show, there is always more beer in the next city. Pro tip: try to include socks, shampoo, or anything that you tend to run out of or that gets lost halfway through your tour.

4. Be in the moment, and make each show is special and full; every night is it’s own singular experience, especially for that fan who bought a ticket with their allowance and drove fifty miles with mom and dad just to see you perform. I like to walk around on stage before the doors open, and just breath in and out, and I try to focus on where I am right at the moment. Once the show starts, I try to focus on fostering a similar connection with the audience rather than try to be impressive —I think if you can keep it about the connection with the audience, and not on the ego, it helps to keep the experience fresh and optimistic.

5. Be grateful. Whatever that means to you: take pictures, write everything down, go see the town, meet people, and most of all remember to enjoy yourself. It’s all in the journey, not the destination. For me, an extension of touring is being able to share photos and videos from the random moments on the road. I can always go back to these digital memories and remind myself that this journey is not about promotion or branding — life is short and being a touring musician is a rare experience. It’s crazy that any of us get to do this even once in our lifetime, let alone night after night as a profession, so just try to be light-hearted about everything, work hard, and try not take yourself too seriously, and just remember how absurd and improbable the whole experience really is.

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