Good Morning Bedlam – TOUR TIPS

In this Tour Tips segment, the indie folk band, Good Morning Bedlam, recommends advice for being a musician on the road. You can check out the tips, after the break.

1. Don’t get hotel rooms. There are so many better options nowadays and with social media, it’s easy to find family, friends of friends, or friends of friends of friends who are willing to host you. If that’s not an option, Couchsurfer is an incredibly helpful app. Look it up. It takes a bit of time for people to start trusting that you’re not going to snort cocaine
and throw a television out a window, but after a few good reviews its pretty smooth sailing. Be wary of homes listed with more than five cats and you’ll be golden.

2. Hide from your bandmates! When we were starting out touring, ages between 17 and 19, we treated tour like a vacation with friends. We wanted to do everything together and share everything, and by the end of two months, we all shared the overwhelming desire to kill each other. Emotional health isn’t something to be sneezed at when you’re choosing such a demanding path. Find ways to take time for yourself away from your crazy bandmates.

3. Love hard, don’t die young. A lot of people we meet on the road expect us to be drinking and partying every night, but if we took advantage of every free drink deal we got at venues, we’d probably be dead by now. Give yourself some limits and guidelines. We also buy groceries each week and keep them in a cooler in the car. It saves a lot of money from fast food or gas station meals and it’s much easier to eat healthily. We generally get sandwich stuff, spinach, eggs, and a bag of apples. And exercise! It helps. I go running and two of my bandmates use Anytime Fitness, which has facilities across the US. Plus, showers at every location.

4. Remember the beginning. Don’t let the normalcy of this once novel life rob you of the joy. Make an effort to find a beautiful (free) place to hike, wander around the city, jump off a cliff in a lake in the Black Hills, enjoy the music festival you’re at, look at that big rock, see that giant canyon, swing by Niagara Falls if you’re in the area; In this job you have the opportunity to do that and that’s pretty amazing.

5. Appreciate the people you’re with. Have a drink and share stories with that cool stranger you met on Couchsurfer, and be open to really listening to people you meet after shows. Take some time to reconnect with your bandmates. If you’re like us, they’re some of your best friends. Don’t take that for granted; celebrate it. It’s hard to find time and this life is exhausting, but if you make time for it you won’t regret it.

And a bonus tip for midwesterners- tour south for the winter. ‘Nough said.

Keep up with the band on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.

Upcoming tour dates:
8/22 Hudson, WI
8/23 Minneapolis, MN
8/24 Spooner, WI
8/25 Austin, MN
8/29 Lacrosse, WI
8/30 Waterloo, IA
8/31 Des Moines, IA
9/6 St Louis, MO
9/7 Pana, IL
9/10 Westerville, OH
9/11 Columbiana,OH
9/12 Jamestown, NY
9/13 East Aurora, NY
9/14 Fairport, NY
9/15 London, Canada
9/17 Oakland County, MI
9/18 Kalamazoo, MI
9/19 Sullivan, WI
9/20 Eau Claire, WI