Haleigh Bowers – PRESHOW RITUALS

In this Preshow Rituals segment, the folk rock artist, Haleigh Bowers, reveals what she does before taking the stage. You can check out the rituals, after the break.

I have a pretty unique pre-show ritual that I follow to get me in the right headspace before hitting the stage. Before I even start the warm-up process, I make sure to drink plenty of water the day before and the day of. I have a 32-ounce emotional support water bottle that I tote around and refill quite a few times. I do my warmup routine in the car (so I don’t annoy anyone else in my building) on the way to the venue. It’s 15 minutes long and was designed by an awesome vocal instructor of mine, Jeffrey Allen. This particular warmup accommodates the vocal demands as well as the emotional demands of live performing. It’s truly vital for me to do it before each show.

Sounds silly, but I also include singing along to ABBA as a warmup as well. I’m normally battling LA traffic so I use the time to practice singing along to songs with wider ranges/ intervallic jumps as a way to end my warmup… And ABBA just happens to be an artist that has a lot of those types of things in their discography!

Before I play, I sequester myself a bit. I like to get to the venue early to support other artists on the bill before retreating to the green room to do some visualization/breathing exercises. Visualization helps with the nerves; for higher-pressure gigs, I imagine running the show from top to bottom three times fast. By the time I hit the stage, I’ve tricked my mind into thinking I’m just repeating the killer show I did three times that same night. Then I can get comfortable on stage and really focus on being present with the audience and the music.

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