Doing the Circuit: Touring with Kurb Digital Promotions

by Matt @ Kurb on August 25, 2008

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So as you know I’m off on tour, so I thought I better do some kind of post on it – because experience always translates into valuable content for your blog!

But this is more of wisdom type post than a knowledge one, kind of like when I posted about the most important thing in the music industry is being nice.

My area of expertise is in online and budget promotion, but my personal experience is that making enemies in the music scene is death to your career.

And similarly, I’m not some expert on touring. In fact that is why I don’t manage bands, simply because I found well . . . event promotion and management is what I consider pretty stressful. So with touring, I tend to forge connections with those who have the skills to deal with promoters, venue owners and managers.

Collaborating and networking is a fundamental part of building your career as discussed recently by Justin Boland at Audible Hype. amongst his prime selection from “diy hip hop biz masterclass”.

So although I have toured the country on about 7 multi date tours I couldn’t call myself a professional in any measure because I have yet to make money from it. I do it purely for pleasure in the hope we will cover our expenses and I have a free holiday and enjoy the perks of being a musician.

But where I started with this was how I’d been focusing on preparing my own music content rather than blogging and doing secondary kurb stuff because when you’re touring like this and doing 3-4 gigs a week, my main aim long term is to create as many connections as possible, because as you learn more and make more connections, it gets easier, and you can start pushing it further. So I can’t go down there and play all the same songs I did last year.

But think about it long term, you gotta do this in music. You have one big song and you can tour off it for 20 years. You know every summer you’ll do the summer spots. You know every winter you’ll do the winter spots. You know when school is in you can play to the campus crowd, and you know when exams finish they want to party. This is what building a career is about.

I do not have a big song. But I’m a DJ afterall and me my equipment take up relatively little room. If you;re a singer/songwriter you’re probably the same. And like me you probably have a large and varied repertoire and can hold the stage on your own for long periods.

But from day one there’s always going to be that guy. That guy who still needs to charge his phone, to check his emails, who doesn’t get paid until thursday, who has no cigarettes, who gets too drunk at the gigs, who forgot to shower before a 3 hour van drive. You don’t want to be that guy on the tour.

I’m the guy who fits, so despite the fact I don’t have a large following per se, I’m economical, so I get to tour.

If I was 4 or 5 guys with a whole bunch of gear I would be thinking seriously about what kind of out of town gigs were really worth it. Again, being connected with people on the local scene can save you taking a heavy fall.

Having toured a lot I can tell you one thing. If you get drunk and try and pick up birds you will put the tour in jeopardy. I’ve toured with so many people who seemed to think it was all going to be a rock star fantasy and then there’s tears before bedtime.

If you can get pissed as a newt, pack down the gear efficiently, collect any fee due, have a wild orgy without disrupting anybody else and then get up and out by check out on time the next day before driving to another town and playing a blinder, then you’ll hear no complaint from me.

Planning and communication is obviously essential. No one wants to play tour manager put if someone doesn’t know whats going on you’re headed for disaster.

So often it’s all about the right venue on the right day. You need to understand the machinations of the local environment to know when to strike. Only by learning and making connections can you gain some control over this, and build on your experience and contacts.

Here’s one example, I was playing with a band that jumped on straight after the first support and had a tizzy 3 songs in and stopped playing when everyone had left because they didn’t realise cigarette breaks between bands were absolutely mandatory in this town.

This is where digital networks come in because if you’ve been fostering interactions with similar acts in neighbouring vicinities through myspace, mentioning and linking to them on your blog, etc., you can call on them to help you get established playing in their town and agree to do the same – ye olde swap gig. The important thing is to approach just like internet dating. If you don’t expect too much you might be pleasantly surprised.

As I’ve said, when you play to less than 100 people, you manage your fans with your cell phone. Similarly, acts you connect with will probably do the same. All the friends of the bands, All their brothers and sisters and girlfriends and boyfriends, and like all the weirdo’s who just generally hang around.

Christchurch is the biggest city outside of my hometown Auckland we’ll be playing and we made a decision to break with tradition and make the christchurch gig our priority because when you play in Queenstown, it’s really just a party and who you are doesn’t really matter. But Queenstown is a tourist ski resort and Christchurch is a city, that’s where you’re looking to establish a following that will develop after 2 or 3 gigs into a demand that actually exists for you to play there.

In a town or tourist spot, if you get on with the bar owner or manager you can play there when you like. But in a city, people have choices and if they haven’t heard of you then you’re right back at square one and nobody is coming to your gig, they’re going to the gig with the music they already know they like.

So not only have we reached out to our established contacts to let them own the gig a bit more, we’ve branded it a bit more heavily for the city so rather than a showcase of artists, there’s a theme running over the night that hits a certain niche.

we’ve taken the step of spending money on radio. What that does is give everyone involved with the gig an idea that we are committed to this being a decent gig, but it’s not likely that door takings will cover our expenses once you include travel and accommodation. It’s more about a long term commitment to establishing connections that you can then leverage in future.

So in conclusion . . .

People talk about touring and gigging as the solution to artists money woes. The problem is that once again, we’re talking about established artists here. We’re talking about artists who have already built content, built fanbases, have spent and invested time and money into developing their brand.

For unestablished artists, it’s a whole other game. If you need to raise funds then you’re looking at the wrong strategy. Touring for an unestablished act is a strategy to build your initial fanbase and contacts and it’s likely to cost you money.

Also, what you’re doing of course IS “paying your dues”, is “getting your chops”, I can’t deny that playing all those gigs – though not all of them thoroughly enjoyable – really built my skills as a performer and I always come back from tour with more of a natural flow that comes from performing a lot. And of course you’re just learning so much and picking up so much feedback about what you’re doing.

The drawback of course is that it can take weeks to recover emotionally and financially. Your tour may only be two or three weeks but can you afford to commit 6 weeks of preparation and recovery into this tour when you may not be ready?

So I can see we’re going to have to talk more about touring. Specifically WHEN it’s a good time to tour, what you can look to get out of it and obviously, digital and online promotions in touring.

Part 2 coming soon.

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