So this week it was reported that Axl Rose and his band, Guns N' Roses, walked off stage in Dublin after the audience started throwing bottles at them. The reason for the onslaught was that Axl and the boys were 90 minutes late getting on stage.
The fact that they were 90 minutes late should come as no surprise. It's Guns N' Roses. They're always 90 minutes late. He should have thrown bottles at the audience for showing up so early. It's an insult to think that a rock 'n' roll badass like Axl should be punctual. It took him 15 years to make one record!
I think he had every right to walk off. There seems to be this idea that, if you pay for a ticket to see a show, you're permitted to go psycho at the drop of a hat. I've seen people behave worse at a music concert than they would at a boxing match.
After I posted my last blog, I received a comment from "Keith" with a few questions about publishing that I thought I should address.
Keith: Very useful info here, thanks so much. It seems to me that going (sic) playing gigs to getting a manager and booking agent is a very large and expensive initial step.
Me: Well, playing gigs is pretty much essential. It's possible to move forward without playing anywhere, but it happens very, very rarely. Getting a manager and an agent shouldn't cost you anything. They will take a percentage of the money they make you, but (in theory) they should be making you more money than you could make on your own.
Keith: I have a million questions now. I'm not fully understanding about publishers, you are saying they're necessary to get your music played on regular TV and radio? Does that include satellite radio, college radio, internet (is myspace band advertising done by publishers?), etc.? Are publishers a choice, do you go to them or do they come to you?
Last blog I started to explain the basics of the music business for the beginner. I touched upon the various things most bands have to do to get out of the basement and onto the stage, and how to start building their audience and spreading the word about their general awesomeness. So what happens once you've been playing for a while, built up your hometown crowd, and are ready to make the leap into the big leagues? It's not feasible to expect that selling out your local pub every other Friday night is going to put food on the table, let alone posters on the walls of adoring teens. You have to get your show on the road, and get your music out to the people. If you haven't already recorded an e.p. or an album, you'll want to. If you already have that opus under your belt, you're going to want to share it with the masses.
I often meet people who have bands and want to know how to get into the music business. They've been playing away in the basement, have written some songs, and maybe even recorded those songs, and now they don't know what to do with themselves. People aren't usually expecting to be let in on the "secret formula", but aren't sure what steps to take to start getting noticed. It can seem like a jumble of terminology and hoops to jump through, a veritable mountain to climb just to get going. The music business is a "business". It has its set ways of doing things, and this is usually based on everyone not getting ripped off, and everyone getting paid for what they do. There are always exceptions to the rule, but for the most part bands end up following something of the same path. The unfortunate thing I tend to run into is the band that is too cool for the music business and think they can by-pass all the ugly steps and just waltz onto the Coachella stage. This can happen, in theory, but even the bands that come across that way in the press probably have some embarrassing gigs or press shots they hope remain hidden and forgotten. The business has changed over the last decade in terms of how music is made, sold, and even valued. The promotion of bands hasn't changed that much, however. Touring is still key, and there aren't any apps available, to my knowledge, that can replace your manager or booking agent. Yes, you'll need those guys, and probably more, but not right away. I'll spread this topic over two weeks, as it's a bit long. What I'm writing here is from my own experience, and is meant as a brief overview of how things generally work. If it seems scary, it's not. I've had a blast, and shared some amazing experiences with a whole host of people associated with my band and our unified quest for world/national/provincial/regional/municipal domination.
Recently Sloan released an EP and a rarities compilation in a "digital only" format, deciding not to manufacture and sell physical copies (cds or vinyl). This decision was met with much interest and, in some cases, disapproval. We received a lot of press about the fact that these were not physical releases, that they were available through our own online store, or other vendors like iTunes, and that we were doing this all on our own, shunning the label system that has had a strangle-hold on how music has been released and how much it has cost. There were some people, however, who expressed their disappointment that they weren't going to be able to buy an official cd to add to their collection, that they felt they weren't getting their moneys worth if they couldn't actually handle the item they bought. The interesting thing that most people complained about with regard to the digital only format wasn't the sound quality (although there has been some of that), but that they wanted an official cd (ie: not their own burned copy of the digital download) so they could have proper art work, and not the digital photos that were provided with the download. So the music wasn't even the issue. That being said, the majority of people wrote about how, as indie stalwarts, we were taking a brave new step in the direction of the future. And we were.
Since I am in travel mode these days, I'll post another travel based blog. As I've written about recently, I have to travel to various cities to play summer festivals. This often means flying to a city in the morning, playing a show that night, and then getting on a plane and flying right back home again the next morning. Between early lobby calls, bored cab drivers, seat selection pleas at check-in, the hoop-jumping at security, over-priced food, and being crammed into tubes with strangers and flung huge distances across the country, it can be stressful. I find a good way to handle this stress is to allow my anger to get the best of me. Here are some little notes I wish I could hand out as my trip unfolds. A note to my cab driver: You think WestJet flies out of Terminal 3?! I'm assuming that, since you work for a car company that has the word "airport" in it's name, you drive people to the airport. That's your job. It's what you do everyday. I'm not flying Air Latvia. WestJet is one of the four or five most flown airlines in Canada, you drive people who are flying it everyday. If you're just making conversation, try something that doesn't make you seem like you don't know what you're doing. Or, better yet, just drive me to where I want to go and let me play Angry Birds on my phone in peace.
It is a Friday morning, and not only am I up with the birds, I'm actually way above them. As I write this, I'm on a plane, heading to Newfoundland to play a summer festival. This time it's "Salmon Fest", and it's happening in a town called Grand Falls-Windsor. Throughout the summer my band, Sloan, plays various "fests" around Canada and the U.S.. Summer Fest, Bay Fest, Lake Fest, Balloon Fest, Road Fest, Chair Fest, Ground Fest, Gravel Fest (actually that one would be Rock Fest), all sorts of them.
So what is this thing they call a “rider” all about anyway? When a band performs a show, part of their contract includes their rider, a list of what they require to be provided to get the show done. In pop culture there has developed an idea that riders are an excuse for bands to flaunt their “star power” by demanding a laundry list of extravagances provided for them backstage. From the inside, given that almost every touring band has some sort of rider, it is usually just a few bags of groceries that help a band and crew get through their day.
Certainly there are examples of over-the-top demands. The Smoking Gun has a ton of riders from various aspects of the entertainment industry. They enjoy pointing out the outrageous. I'm not always on their side. If Madonna wants a brand new toilet seat in her private bathroom, am I really going to call her on it? She's Madonna. Buy the seat.
I was going to start this blog entry: “It amuses me that there are people who come to a show and are so desperate to get backstage and “party” with the band that they’ll risk getting kicked out by security before the show even starts”. Upon grammatical research, however, it turns out that it actually “bemuses” me. So: It bemuses me that there are people who come to a show and are so desperate to get backstage and “party” with the band that they’ll risk getting kicked out by security before the show even starts. Here’s the deal: there is nothing going on backstage. That goes for almost every band on tour. Period “.” (.). There are several adults waiting to go to work, and several others already working. There might be an open bottle of wine and a few potato chips being pecked at. There might be some casual conversation regarding people and things you don’t know anything about. Every once in a while there might be a friend or relative that someone is hanging out with.
Sloan has enjoyed a healthy relationship with radio stations and video channels throughout the years. While we’ve had one or two “bona fide” hits in Canada, placing in the top 5 on rock or pop charts, we’ve also had a good number of songs that we’ve found are recognized by the general public. We play festivals across the country every summer, and when the crowds sing along to songs that were not radio hits, we’ve come to realize they should have been radio hits, and that someone wasn’t doing their job! So let’s just say all those songs were basically hits as well. The question comes up often: How do you write a hit song? Allow me to divulge. First of all, let’s get everyone up to speed on what a song actually is. A song is basically the arrangement of lyrics, vocal melodies, and chord progressions in such a manner that they (hopefully) sound pleasing to the ear. Most songs consist of a couple of verses, a couple of choruses, with a middle eight, which is that different part in… the middle. I have pretty much abandoned middle eights in my songs, going all meat and no fat, save for the guitar solo of course, but feel free to middle-eight-away.
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