Yes You Are – PRESHOW RITUALS

In this Preshow Rituals segment, Kianna Alarid of the pop band, Yes You Are, shares what she does before every show. You can check out her rituals, after the break.

So, this is going to be the most anti rock-n-roll preshow ritual ever! After touring for over 15 years my preshow vibes have gone from screaming and slamming 20 beers, to quietly humming and doing 20-minute sessions with my personal steam inhaler. Ok, I never slammed 20 beers, but you get my drift. I’ve basically found that taking care of myself is the most important thing on tour, so now I focus on being professional and prepared.

About a half hour before we go on stage I start to do very basic vocal warm-ups. I never properly learned how to sing, so it was more of a trial and error thing for me and it wasn’t until two years back that I even started to do warm-ups. I’ve definitely seen how much easier it is to sing for a longer period of time and I don’t have as many issues with my voice being strained now. If my throat feels sore or strained, I steam my vocal cords with a personal steam inhaler for at least 20 minutes before we go on. This is not always the most convenient thing to have to do, but it’s so worth it. I actually try to steam before performances on the regular, even if I feel good, just to keep everything extra healthy.

While I’m warming up I like to visualize my performance the way I’d ideally like it to go. That way my energy is set up to expect that, and I go onstage in the right mood. About 10 minutes before going on I generally stretch out a little and do a few full backbends (because it gives you crazy energy) and jump in place to get my blood moving. Then I take a few really deep breaths and breath them out really strong and really focus and center myself. It feels really good, really powerful. Then the band huddles up and we say a few things we need to remember about the performance and then we have a moment where we just look at each other and smile like, “I can’t believe we get to this!”

Then, as soon as I get my in-ear monitors situated its time to walk out onstage! It’s so exciting still… every single time.

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