HIRIE – TOUR TIPS

In this Tour Tips segment, the reggae band, HIRIE, give you some advice for being on the road. You can check out the feature, after the break.

1. If you’re broke, cook your own food!
I had no shame busting out my oversized, rolling tool case full of canned food, rice, pasta and spices! We didn’t have much of an eating budget our first year of tour, so we had to improvise. One of the biggest money-savers when traveling with a band (in my case, there were 11 of us)is rice. I would cook rice in my rice cooker, and then make something else with my two stove burner. It was a LOT to lug around, but the boys loved the outcome. An example of a quick and easy dish would be tuna with red sauce. You can chop up garlic and onion, simmer it with some olive oil and add canned tuna. Then I’ll add a bit of white wine (cheap white wine in a small plastic bottle will do wonders) reduce it, and canned tomatoes (chunks + sauce). You can make it Italian style (oregano, Italian seasonings) or you can make it with curry spices (cumin, paprika, chili powder) and always salt and pepper. Eyeball everything. Once the sauce has been simmering for a while you can taste it, add more spices and ladle it over your rice. It’s a really delicious and CHEAP meal. We’d even give our leftovers to the sound crew at the venue, which believe me- they’ll remember such a kind gesture.

2. Spreadsheets for Beds
I found it extremely vital our first year of tour to opt for someone’s house as a place to crash versus a hotel room. We compiled a list of names, phone numbers and cities of people who were down to host us overnight. Some fans are really gracious and will cook you breakfast, or a pre-show meal. If you’re posting about a show, you can always throw it in like this: “We’re looking for a place to crash tomorrow night! We have a signed CD and some guest list spots with your name on it if you’d be interested in housing some fun-loving musicians”.

3. Stand by your merch booth. All night.
I think it’s funny when bands travel hundreds of miles to a different city to make new fans, but don’t bother spending a good hour or so at their merch booth. There are many benefits to doing this:
1. You will definitely sell more merchandise – fans want to meet you and will feel inclined to buy an album because you made the effort to be there.
2. You get to interact with your fans on a personal level – you can make a genuine connection and hopefully, that will lead to them coming out for your show again or sharing your music with their friends.
3. You could possibly score a free drink from an adoring, new fan! Haha.

4. Invest in a great TM
Tour managers make tours successful… honestly! If you’ve got an organized TM, they could be the difference between burning bridges between venues and other acts, and furthering your career. You never want to be late for sound check. That’s kind of a big no-no especially if you’re supporting a bigger band. Tour managers share information amongst each other and the last thing you want is for your band to be known as laggy or unprofessional. The more you act like a headlining band, the faster you’ll get there. At least that’s what I’ve observed. Our tour manager keeps us on a strict schedule, from early morning wakeups to late-night bus calls. We have a lot of fun, but it’s good to have someone there making sure you’re able to just be a musician with all the technical stuff like money and routing out of mind’s sight.

5. Kick ass on stage
This list of stuff is in no particular order because if it was, this would be numero uno. No matter how stellar your social media is, or how viral your last video went, you can’t sustain your career on a crappy stage performance. Even if you do, why wouldn’t you want to kick ass on stage? I pride myself on a really tight performance. The band and I have loads of choreographed movements, solos and other artsy moments that make us look good and most importantly makes our fans feel great! We are entertainers and we LOVE to entertain. I suggest color coordinating outfits, like everybody, wears maroon, gray and black. Something like that. I do believe the more effort you put into your appearance on stage, the more the booking agents, managements and fans take you seriously. Even if they don’t know you, first impressions are everything.

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