Illiterate Light - TOUR TIPS

In this Tour Tips segment, Jeff Gorman, from the rock duo, Illiterate Light, recommends advice for being a musician on the road. You can check out the tips below:

My name is Jeff Gorman. I play guitar and sing in the rock duo Illiterate Light. I've been touring heavily for ten years. Here are 5 tour tips that I've jotted down just now after a recent West Coast tour. I just got home, and I'm sitting on my couch for the first time in several weeks. My "tips" are geared towards fellow musicians.

1. You are going to die. Accept your own mortality and play every show like it's your last. Go the extra mile. Focus all of your conscious energy into the gift you are giving the world, which is your art and the community of people forming around that. Radically give yourself to your music. The road is your path. Respect it.

2. The average human lifespan is 4,000 weeks. If you're a professional touring musician, you'll spend a fraction of that time on the road. I'd guess 1,000 weeks max. It'll be over before you know it. Drink it in. Play the extra song, take the risk, introduce yourself to the person you're scared of, watch the other band's set, go travel on your off day. Enjoy the hell out of it. It is not something to get through or endure. It is your life. It is meant to be lived and loved.

3. If you're on the road playing music you love with people you love and for people you love, you've already "made it." Simple as that.

4. Order several cases of LMNT electrolyte mix. Drink one pack per day and stay hydrated, you salty fuck.

5. You are not in control. Every van breaks down. Your amp's tubes will go out. A crew member will piss you off. You won't sell as many tickets as you hoped. The venue's PA will miraculously break in between soundcheck and the performance. Another band is cooler than you. In short, you're not in control, and the sooner you accept that and ride the beautiful wave of tour, calmly responding to the shitstorm of (minor) adversity you face, the more you will enjoy the tour, your life, and your music. Everything breaks, and everything dies. Embrace that with a willing and open attitude and go play a great show.

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