Sean Smith – TOUR TIPS

In this Tour Tips segment, the dance pop artist, Sean Smith, gives you his tips for being on tour. You can check out the feature, after the break.

1. Arrive early (If possible) – We all know that sometimes it’s impossible to arrive in good time when a tour schedule is jam packed. It’s more likely to be fine with the appointment of an exceptional tour manager, but even then you can’t odds a pile-up on the M6. I find though that It always takes the pressure off when I arrive with plenty of time to suss out the venue and get a vibe of the place where I’m about to throw my soul!! It’s also cool to spread your best self to the people who work at the venue, your charisma and energy flows throughout those people to your audience as they enter.

2. Sound Check (When possible) – Again there may be times when you can’t soundcheck (like at a festival where acts have been on and off throughout the day) But, Each venue has different acoustics and although you may trust your sound engineer there’s no-one who can get a feel for the on-stage mix quite like you can. We all know it’s difficult to get into flow if our mix is off.

3. Stay in your own zone – Being onstage can be like an ‘out of body’ experience for some people. I always like to go through it all meticulously in my head before stepping out. Of course, we can never be 100% sure of how it will play out so we need to be ready to roll with the punches (Enter drunk heckling moron) but it’s best to be sure of how each careful step is going play out. Be VERY aware of those who come in and take your focus, keep your head in the game. It’s better to excuse yourself from these people than to lose the 1st few songs being peeved as to how they managed to enter your headspace.

4. Put on your favorite playlist – There are certain tunes that just get you feeling a number of things from excitement, emotion, and passion to being pumped up within an inch of your life!! Whatever puts you into the correct headspace, make sure it’s on your pre-show ritual playlist. Either have it on in your dressing room or use headphones if you have to.

5. Sit or stand at the back and imagine reaching that person from the stage – I’ll never forget when I played the O2 Arena with my sister on the sold out ‘X Factor’ U.K. Tour. After soundcheck, we sat at the very furthest seat away from the stage and looked down at how tiny it appeared. We then realized that whomsoever purchased that seat had paid out their hard earned money for the ticket like everyone else had, so they must be reached. It was a surreal but freeing experience once we took to the stage knowing how it felt to be watching from there, we could apply ourselves so our spirit and energy could reach them. You can benefit from this with any size venue

Choose love not fear, peace out
Sean X

Keep up with the artist on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram!