World Famous In San Francisco

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?