iDrum.

The band and i get asked pretty regularly why we do this if there is no money in it for us yet. And even if we (hopefully) get to the point where we can sustain ourselves on this, slim chance it will be large amounts of monies that people outside the industry stereotype with “signed” touring bands.

To be able to do this tour we had to quit jobs, spend every dime we have in our personal accnts on equipment, MERCH, etc. Then we pay what bills we can, and hit the road..hopefully with enough money to eat. By societies standards, not a smart way to go. By our school of thought, we have no choice..so whatever, big deal.

While on tour thus far, every penny we make goes into fuel, vehicle maintenance, hwy tolls, bottled water, and replenishing merch supplies. MAYBE a hotel room once every couple weeks if we make a little extra. Each band member is responsible for his own food as of now, no per-diem from band funds yet. When we get that we will be looking at probably $5 a day per band member to start with.

We get asked a lot what we make per show. Right now, we are blessed if we get a $50-100 “guarantee”. And thats not happening at all venues, sometimes we get a “door-deal”…meaning a cut of the door money that walks in. That usually hovers around $40-100 for us. I’ll say average, we get 50-75 a show from the venue. Then we rely on merch sales. That can be $10 on a bad night, or upwards of $300 on a good night..a good night by our standards, a band at our level and first time on a legit tour. So if we walk out that night with $250, we are PUMPED. Fuel is $4.00/Gal +- $0.40. Tolls can be $12 or more with a van/trailer. Buying a spare tire can be $160. Merch orders for us to resupply right now can be $600 or more. Thats just a resupply order, not a full.

So basically you have a nutshell idea of some general money figures, which can all vary big time. As you can see, we just try not to go in the negative and dig in our own pockets on the road so far. And so far we haven’t even come close to having to dig in our pockets. We have been taken care of by bands, venues, promoters, and new fans buying merch. And thats what keeps our new metal van wheels turning.

The question still remains though, why do we do this if we can barely break even?? One reason is passion and love of making music people enjoy. Being able to get up and play for people that having never heard of us before, at the end of our set are breathless and absolutely pumped about what they just heard and saw. It’s an amazing feeling to be able to win people over to being fans of this band with a stage and 20-45 min of their time. Another reason is hope. Hope that if we continue to do what we are doing right now, maybe a label will believe in us enough to give us a good deal, and help us make more music, gain more fans, and stay on the road playing night after night…and that’s what we want. And although a deal probably guarantees us very little, it gives more hope that we may be able to come to a point where we can sustain ourselves financially doing just this, which would be amazing. We don’t need millions of dollars, fancy hotels every night, and a tour bus for each band member. We just want to expand our fan base by the masses worldwide, and hopefully be able to pay our bills by doing what we love. Every person has their own reasons, every band is different, but those are the manor points of why we are risking everything for nothing.

-B
Trumpet The Harlot

Someone told me that I should blog more about the tour. Especially since it’s the bands first long nationwide run. We are on week two. Last night we played in Houston, & tomorrow night we play in St. Louis at a place called FUBAR. We have about another 10 hrs in of driving ahead of us.

Something a lot of people don’t really realize is what a band at our level has to do to pull this off. We have receive help from some amazing people in the industry for this tour, and they have treated us like family. But there is a lot of work on our end too. I’ll run you through a typical day thus far. Oh, side note..we aren’t at a level where we have a tour bus yet, so we have a 15 passenger ford E350 van, and a 9x12 trailer. Hopefully will have a bus, but for now this is how we roll.

Typical day:
*morning: wake up in a van bench, usually hot/humid inside. Still in clothes from last nights show, although not stage clothes..those are hung inside the trailer to dry. We usually find a giant truck stop to sleep at so when we wake up we can fuel, eat, get coffee, bathroom/brush teeth, shower at truck stop showers of accessible. But some venues have showers so, maybe we showered night before. Take care of morning business and eat, maybe take a babywipe shower and put a clean shirt on..deodorant and a splash of cologne at the least..for me..not all band members go that far. Side note, some people are kind enough to take us in some nights, can’t thank them enough.
*mid-morning: it takes us about 40 min or so to get on the road after waking, if everybody is on top of their game. We average a 5 to 6 hour drive between shows. We drive in 3 hr shifts. The co-pilot up front is required to stay awake with the driver, day or night.
*early afternoon: usually the load in at the venue is around 2pm. We show up, contact the promotor and start loading gear in. On this tour we have been helping tech for Shadows Fall as well. So we generally unload their trailer first, help them set up, and then after they are good to go we get our own gear loaded in and set up. We back line the gear on stage with the other bands playing. Depending where we are in the line up that night depends on if we soundcheck or not, but the headliner always sound-checks. We try to get friendly with the house sound guy too, because he can make the difference between sounding great or miserable, no matter how good a band is.
*early evening (4-6pm): now is when we eat, take a nap, or sometimes shower at venue. This is the biggest waiting period. Merch was set up when we loaded in, and this is the most quiet anybody gets all day long. For our band, this is usually personal time where we just do our own thing. Unless we all go get food together.
*pre-show prep: when the band before us goes on is when we all go get our stage clothes from the trailer and put them on..hopefully they are dry from the night before by now. I get my post-show backpack ready with a dry…but not necessarily clean set of clothes, and dry shoes. After changing each band member breaks off to do his own pre-show rituals. For me, I put band-aids on the potential hot spots on my bands…better than athletic tape for me because they are more flexible under my gloves. Then i put my drum-gloves on, clip my in-ear monitors on, and start stretching. I stretch for about 30 min. and mentally go over what I think needs tightened up by me during our set based on my/our performance the night prior.
*show time: when the band before us lets their last note ring out, we are ready to go. Usually there is a 10 minute set change, limited to 10 minutes before it cuts into our allotted set time. No more than 15 min set changes, and those aren’t common for us. All the bands gear from before us needs removed from the stage, and ours needs put on and mic’d. Then we check levels quick. This HAS to be on point so we get our full set time and don’t piss off managers, sound guys, venue staff, and the headlining band. Our band is good at this, so as long as the band before doesn’t dilly-dally and if the sound guy is quick about mic’ing everything, it goes fairly smooth. Then we get a quick light flash from the back of the house and we are on. This part is always a blur to me. I get lost in the music and let emotion flow through my drumsticks. As long as the sound guy gives me a good mix in my ears, there isn’t much thinking involved here.
*post show: as soon as we thank the crowd and stage lights go off, it’s time to hustle to get out gear off the stage ASAP, unless we are the headliner…but on this tour we are not in that position. Out of respect for the band after us, we don’t socialize while getting gear off the stage. I try not to be rude but a clock is ticking and it’s something we take seriously. Once our gear is clear, I go back to the stage to stand by for Jason (Shadows Fall drummer), and make sure he is good to go. Then I watch and listen very carefully the first few songs to see if anything needs adjusted. If he needs a change in his monitor mix I have to mouth read and relay the message to the sound guy, then get a nod from Jason if it’s what he needs. He will let me know if he is good for the set and when he is, I then go pack my drums up. Sometimes Craig helps get that started while I tech for Jason to try and help get a move on. We watch Shads set, shake hands with new fans, and sign whatever people want signed during this time. Which is crazy because we aren’t anybody yet in the industry. After Shad is done we help them pack all their gear up and help load it into their trailer. After that, we load our own gear. Once that’s complete we thank the sound guy, thank the other bands that played, thank new fans, and then say goodbye to Shad until the next day. We wish each-other safe travels and part ways until tomorrow. Pay is also settled during this time. Including a percentage that the venue takes from our merch sales sometimes.
*onward: by this time it’s around 2am. We are sweaty, hungry, and tired. Depending on how tired everybody is, we may seek out the closest truck stop and sleep, or we may shove off and drive through the night to the venue then sleep once there. We may get food if we can fin anything still open, or make a sammich if we have stuff in the cooler for that. Babywipe shower again, then settle into our bench. We have a power strip in the van, so phones get plugged in and we get to sleep.

Thats a typical day on this tour so far. In a nutshell anyway. We have until June 3 until we return home from this tour. Hopefully we can go right back out and keep doing this, building our fan base nationally. We gotta do our time in the trench, and hopefully reach the point where we have a tour bus, crew, and are the headlining band. This is our life, and we absolutely love it. What a blessing.

-B
iDrum

Trumpet The Harlot