Wildwood Kin – TOUR TIPS

In this Tour Tips segment, the the indie pop band, Wildwood Kin, recommends advice for being a musician on the road. You can check out the tips, after the break.

We have been touring on and off for the past 4 years now and there are lots to adapt to, learn and grow into as your journey on tour.

Here are just some helpful tips from our experience of touring life so far:
1- Try to be environmentally conscious.
This has been the hardest transition as most of our journeys consist of quick stop takeaways when hunger strikes.
Our team on the road have started to take reusable water bottles/canteens with us to try and reduce single-use plastic. Plastic bottles really do mount up especially if you request water on your tour rider for every show. Also, items like a reusable coffee cup are important to bring with you too. We all know how much coffee/tea and warm beverages it takes to fuel a touring team throughout the day so this again will reduce our waste.

2- Get some fresh air!
Even if it’s just for 15 minutes a day! It’s tempting to just nap in your dressing room when you arrive at the venue but make an effort to get outside, find a park, walk around the block. It helps to clear your head and create little memories of your time away in all these fascinating towns and cities. It’s also healthier too; we often have our tour dog Bear with us which helps to motivate us to go on little walks when we can!

3- Nap when you can on the road.
Late nights are something you can’t avoid on tour and gearing up for adrenaline fuelled show and meet and greets really do take it out of you, especially if you’re an introvert! We always nap in the van and just have some quiet time because it’s all GO GO GO when you arrive at the venue!

4- Eating healthily is an obvious one!
Touring life is hard physically and mentally and making sure you get the right nutrients to fuel you for the day is so important. We are rubbish at this sometimes and it’s taken us a while to be clever when looking out for healthy snacks when we stop for food. Service stations are awful when it comes to providing healthy food stalls amongst the fast-food chains that can be so tempting to fall into.

Buy a punnet of apples/oranges/nectarines, whatever you fancy- keep it in the van with you so that when you get peckish you can top up on your five a day! When you go out for meals, don’t go straight for the comfort food options, be intentional with making sure you’re getting a meal with veg or salad.

It really does make a difference to your energy levels if you look for the right things to eat. It’s hard but so necessary! It’s your job to look after yourself!

5- Communicate well with your team.
We all get to a point on a long tour where exhaustion kicks in and lack of sleep routine can make everyone grumpy and short with each other.

Be understanding, check up on your team and be generous, make that cup of tea for your crew members, look for things to lighten the load of others in your team. Yes, you are the musicians but a happy team is a healthy team and keeping to yourself in your own bubble will isolate you and everyone else.

Have a laugh, be silly and create great memories together!

These are just a few tips from our experience on the road!
Happy Touring!

WWK x

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