Maintaining A Relationship While Touring

Many of my friends at this point in life are touring musicians, and many of them are dating people they are not touring with. It’s no mystery that dating on the road can be hard. I mean, how many songs have been written about the subject?

Any podcast that has to do with DIY touring will tell you that in the 90s there were a lot of stop-and-go, using the payphone, sending letters and postcards, paging significant others, and other stressful situations happening in those days.

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Canadian/Mexican Bands Coming To The US: Pay Attention!

If I wanted to travel from Idaho to Canada and play music for a month, I could do so free of charge. If you live in Canada and want to cross the border to play in the United States, it’s much more complicated. Why is this? Well, the United States can be pretty hostile to foreign travelers, as most of us are aware. Additionally, navigating a new culture and place in a foreign country can be hard. In addition to your normal road trip preparations, there are a bunch of legal complications you need to account for. I want to talk about some of them here and hopefully your band won’t struggle as much while you try to play music and enjoy these troubled states.

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Orchestrated Success: 4 Required Personnel Every Big Band Needs When On Tour

Touring is one of the most exciting parts of being in a big band. Going on a tour is a complex undertaking, but the process can be simplified by bringing the right experts. Keep these four types of professionals in mind when planning who to bring along on your next big tour.

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Top 7 Money Tips for Bands Touring Abroad

Whether you like it or not, when you’re touring, selling merch, and making gig money, your band is a business—a limited liability corporation (LLC), if you choose to register that way. As such, it pays to think about how you’re going to manage the business, particularly if you’re touring abroad. Granted, a manager can do this for you—but you have to pay her, don’t you? Why not handle this stuff yourself? 

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Hit The Road: 3 Tips For The Ultimate Summer Following Your Favorite Bands

Summer is a time for adventure. When you aren’t busy dealing with school assignments, this is a perfect time to make some memories. Going to concerts is right at the top of the list for many music lovers. However, you can really take this to the next level by deciding to follow your favorite band on tour. This can be a fun way to be a part of your favorite band’s tour while seeing many different cities along the way. While this is a grand adventure, it is always important to stay safe when you are on the road for long periods of time. Here are three tips for the ultimate summer while following your favorite band.

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Tour Prep: Van Accidents

Henry Rollins wrote a book in 1994 entitled “Get In The Van,” which encourages young artists to put aside previous concerns and take a risk by starting their music career. However, he may have missed the part about when the van flips over… literally. It’s not uncommon for a vehicle accident to happen to bands on tour in fact, The Early November did it within their first two weeks of their first official tour - and look where they are now. So, the he question arises - what are the best ways to prepare, avoid, and handle such situations?

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Overseas Tour - Investigate The Venue Before Arriving

So you’ve bought tickets to the concert of your dreams in a beautiful foreign country. Now what? Before planning your trip, there are several things to consider about the venue. Read on to learn what you should know about an overseas concert before you arrive.

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Traveling Band - Touring Details to Go Over With Your Manager

Summer touring season is fast approaching and many bands are finalizing those last minute details before the tour starts. Every year, bands report issues and problems that could have easily been avoided by simply talking to their manager before they ever set foot on the tour bus. Whether you’re a part of a top selling band or just starting out with an unknown group, there are some simple details that can make this tour the best one ever.

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The Ten Rules Of The Road (And Of Your Life)

When asked what advice I might give to the aspiring touring artist, I consider my reply much the same as Polonius must have felt in passing on wisdom to Hamlet before the latter’s aborted trip to England with the ill-fated Rosencrantz and Guildenstern (Neither a borrower nor a lender be… etc.).

Here then are the ten most important things to remember as a touring musician that must be memorized in order to survive. There’s no trick to coming out healthy, wealthy and wise at the end of a tour (assuming you started the tour that way), as long as you follow these few simple tenets.

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Frugality On DIY Tour: Some Simple Suggestions

A DIY tour is expensive. There are ways to be successful, but for a band just starting out, I would recommend trying to spend as little money as possible. Here are some suggestions on how you can do that.

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Scratches And Dents: Keeping Your Guitar Safe On The Road

Traveling is great, but the wear and tear of the road can completely destroy guitars. Although guitars have a reputation as rough-and-ready instruments that you can take anywhere, they are actually quite delicate. Not only can they easily get dented or scratched from a bumpy ride in a trunk or airline luggage apartment, but they are also very sensitive to changes in temperature, pressure and humidity. The tips in this article will help your guitar survive tour relatively unscathed.

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How To Book A Tour Without A Booking Agent

One of the biggest challenges musicians face is booking tours. Many bands don’t have a booking agent, so booking a tour can seem like a daunting task the first time out.

Here are some key things to keep in mind to help you book a tour without a booking agent.

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6 Different Ways To Book A Tour Date (Even In Cities You've Never Been To)

How would things change if you could book great gigs in great cities everywhere?

If you could snatch up better venues in less time?

And if you could curse a lot less while doing it?

It’s possible.  I’ll show you 6 ways that any independent artist can use.

But first let me tell you a little about 23 year old Brandon (me) and how he (I) learned an important lesson in efficiency and humility.

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Steve Nieve "Plays Elvis Costello" To Tour In 2016

(London, ENGLAND) – November 3, 2015 – Steve Nieve stormed into England for three nights of his latest endeavor, STEVE NIEVE PLAYS ELVIS COSTELLO, and sold out shows at The Liverpool Philharmonic, Bristol’s Colson Hall and the St James Theatre in London. In 2014, Nieve had toured this show briefly in the United States and is planning a return during the spring of 2016, represented in the United States by Newburyport, Massachusetts-based artist management company, Dog and Pony Industries.

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