No matter where I am in life, questions about what to do next always surface. As a musician, I spent the first part of my life asking myself everything from "how do I tune my guitar" to "if I tried singing, would everyone laugh at me?"
Although those days are over, I still feel as clueless as when I started. Although the "how do I" questions are less personal, they threaten my 'success' more than ever. I had an idea yesterday to write all these questions down... and after doing so I decided to post them here on WFISF... as a sort of Internet experiment. Perhaps some questions will be answered! I'm sure some of my fellow music makers will appreciate this discussion... if they're okay with "selling out" of course.
1 How does a local artist open for a major act at a Clear Channel venue - say the Warfield, Fillmore or Bimbo's?
2 How do you get asked to support a touring act without knowing the band or label directly?
3 How do you tour at the "inde" level without loosing money?
4 How do you attract, trap and keep a good booking agent?
5 How do you get written about by Pitchfork Media?
6 How do you get your music on a "modern rock" station, like Live 105?
7 Who are these music festival promoters and how do I meet them?
8 Why isn't the punk circuit supportive and why is it impossible to break into? I mean, come on!
9 How do you get club night promoters to return emails?
10 How do you get support from 'arts organizations' in San Francisco? Why don't they return emails or phone calls? And why do they pretend like you're not talking to them when you approach them at one of their two buck chuck events?
2007/09/06
Questions I need answers to.
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5 comments:
Okay, I am gonna try to answer as many of these as I can.
1) I am not quite sure. You could send a press kit and CD to them expressing your interest in opening for said act and follow it up with an email to the bookers. A lot of times acts that big already have support booked before the tour starts though.
2) I don't really know if you can achieve this if you don't know them? Maybe if you have a booker and they know the band's booker?
3) I think it depends on how popular you are at the "indie" level. If you have enough of a draw that lots of people pay to get in and buy your merch then you can make money, especially if you get good shows at good venues. In my experience it's generally a money losing situation.
4) I have no fucking clue on how to get a booking agent. We have contacted so many people and either get no response or are turned down. It seems really hard and probably a matter of who you know and maybe they know a booker, referrals, maybe if you're on a label they hook you up, etc.
5) If you have someone doing promotions for your album and they submit it with the aforementioned press kit and bio for review. We got reviewed by them for our first CD but nothing else was or has been written about us by them.
6) Again, this is a label thing generally. If they are sending out CDs to stations to get you played on the air. We lucked out and got to do a one-song acoustic thingy on Live 105 and they played a couple of our songs that night. I have no idea if they have since. That was cuz Ted of Bagel Radio knows the DJ and talked us up to him.
7) I don't know any personally but they are a disorganized and surly lot. Check out the websites for the festivals you want to play and start with the contact info section.
8) What is this "punk circuit" of which you speak?
9) This is really hard. Some folks are way responsive and others are not. It's always good to mention past venues you've played and how well those shows have gone as well as mentioning anyone of note you've played with.
10) I've never even attempted this. I figure they only give money to painters and crap like that. Let me know if this ever works out.
WOW AWESOME THANKS!
4. Yeah I know Chris, it sucks. I've heard from friends who do have booking agents that "they find you, you don't find them"... which sounds to me like an awful line from Fight Club or the Matrix. So how are you supposed to attract a booking agent? Send them updates on how how cool and popular your shows are?
5. The Pitchfork thing is hard for me to figure out. I know for a fact that they are barraged with any and every release known to man. It seems everyone throws their CD into the wishing well that is the Pitchfork snailmailbox. I would say more often than not, unsolicited mail goes ignored if not unopened. Maybe it's my arrogant self, but I feel like if I was able to communicate with a writer in-person, that they would write about me. I know their writers are all over the world, but I don't think that our local Pitchfork-writing-metal-dude that works at Aquarius is gonna be sympathetic to our cause... Aquarius the store is yet to give our album one of those cute little reviews. Not sure what their hold up is. Come on Aquarius staff! Maybe we want it too much.
8. I'm not sure what punk is. I've been trying to book a show with Eddie Numbskull for three solid years. He has everything to do with shows on the Central Coast of California. His shows were the only thing going on in my youth. I call him, email him, MySpace him... and nothing happens. He never picks up, returns calls or emails. I'll never be mad at Eddie, but I sure wish he'd book us, we wouldn't disappoint him. -- We've also tried Gilman's... who asked us to write all of our lyrics out for inspection. They were nice enough to respond back to us, but they never pull threw. And you think it would be easier to get a punk show... being that they are SO accepting and cooperative and all.
9. This a good tip about booking monthlies Chris. I fail to mention other venues/clubs I've played in my requests. How did you guys go about booking Pop Roxx?
10. I kind of feel a responsibility to bother these arts organizations. I'm not really sure what they're doing most of the time. My suspicion is that they are just graduate student projects gone haywire... I have to say Patrick from I.C.A.N. is a super cool guy. I was sad to see that place close.
Re: the Pitchfork thing.
All the staff writers are given a list of albums that are already assigned to be reviewed and a list of albums that "need" to be reviewed.
Writers are "encouraged" to write about records that aren't on the list...so your best bet is to contact writers that you think will like and favorably review your material. The regular writers are listed on the staff page, but you'll probably have better luck if you track down someone who is new or lesser known.
Pitchfork writers are asked (or were, i'm a bit out of date) to submit two reviews a week, so there's actually a reasonable amount of bandwidth.
Hey Miles,
I did a little brainstorming and came up with some answers. None of these are surefire and require a little luck.
1) Sell out, make crappy music and or share a drug habit with the headliner and make sure you are their only connection or put out an obscure single and send to Thurston Moore. Another approach is to endlessly promote your band until you become part of the public consciousness, then you'll be the headliner. The world would be a better place if your band was headlining big venues so don't be shy!
2) Agree to do the tour for no pay, sleep with someone in the headliner or refer to #1.
3) Have your parents underwrite the tour.
4) By being able to make them money.
5) Make a shrine to Madonna or Gwen Stefani or any other huge musical celebrity. Pray to it three times a day and talk to it like he or she is your best friend. Start talking only about celebrities and ignore all of your friends and family. Talk about celebrities as is you personally know them, celebrate their birthdays, mourn their tragedies and soon everything will fall into place.
6) Do all of the above then make a record that sounds like the music they already play.
7) Trust me, you do not want to meet them. If you absolutely must I can put you in touch with Jeff Ray.
8) The punk circuit is totally supportive and would love to beat your ass.
9) Keep calling, eventually they'll have a cancellation and they'll need you as much as you need them.
10) Forget about this one, unless you want to develop a multi media presentation that questions societies acquiescence towards brutality and violence, celebrates minority culture or addresses the horrors of drug abuse/aids or restless leg syndrome. There can only be on Jersey Boys so I think you missed the boat on this one, but that doesn't mean you should stop attending these events. Take me with you next time, I miss you guys.
Re Elton Tom
1. Yeah, I've already tried the Thurston Moore connection. I confronted that giant 15 year old and handed him our album... but I think there were too many songs on it. I'm working on the public consciousness thing. I want a sponsorship with Coca Cola or Pepsi. I think it will be easier enter the public consciousness after I brand myself with a super plain American caramelized drink.
7. Yeah... the festival organizers I want to meet are the ones who throw the big festivals in Europe. The idea that someone else will pay for my ticket... excites me. Freddie Mercury said he was a "musical prostitute." It's a bit easier to put yourself in these odd situations if you think of it that way. I have no problem going anywhere as long as concert organizers pay. Hey, it worked for Queen.
10. Ha ha ha! Yeah, it seems like the larger ones are only concerned with something like Jersey Boys and their annual black tie fund raising gala. Aaron met with someone from intersection for the arts... but our band is yet to be asked to play their weekly Sunday jazz concert.... I mean come on... there hasn't been any relevant jazz for... what? 30 years? Opps... I shouldn't start my beef with jazz. Can't the jazz people just play at their respective universities and middle aged outdoor festivals?
Re scarfdisco
Thanks for the tips on Pitchfork... I'm gonna look for a lesser known writer. Good tip!
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