Notes from “Tour” by an Indie Artist

In August of this year, I embarked on a journey from my home in Santa Cruz to Vermont and various places around the East Coast for a “tour.” In actuality, I was going on vacation to visit my family cottage in Maine and to attend my younger brother’s wedding reception in my hometown, Swarthmore, near Philadelphia. I decided that if I was gonna travel all the way over there, I might as well try and book some shows to play.

So I asked my sister Rose what some venues were over there and I sent like 4 emails and got no response. This is to be expected of course; anyone who’s ever booked a few shows can tell you how rare it is to get a response from a first cold email. I knew this, but even after the hundreds of shows that I’ve played, reaching out to venues I’ve never played at, still triggers fears about my self worth. To anyone else who shares this struggle, know that you’re not alone and that facing these fears has helped me to grow my confidence and belief in myself. Anyways, a couple of months before I left, I decided to get serious and started making a concerted effort, reaching out to dozens of venues, musicians and friends trying to figure out where I could play. Many venues I followed up with 3-5 times before getting a response. After all this I had 3 shows on the books. This also is not surprising; conventional wisdom dictates starting to plan a tour 6 months ahead of time and I understand why.

The first venue to get back to me and agree to a date was The Fox Market in Vermont. This was a recommendation of my sisters and close by to where she lives. It’s a super cute little, queer-friendly store with some delicious baked goods and beers. They have a random upstairs room that is full of couches and comfy chairs, which is where the show took place. I had big plans for my promotional efforts but in the end it consisted of making a flyer, having my sister invite some people and post the flyer on a community info group that she’s a part of. Other than the staff, who were downstairs, 6 people came to my show. Two of them were Rose and her boyfriend Graham and the other 4 were her friends. When I started the show it was just Rose and Graham. That said, I gave the best performance I had to give, and it seemed like everyone really enjoyed it. Of course if I have the choice, I’d rather play to a bigger crowd (at least a little bit haha), but still the opportunity to connect with 4 people who’ve never heard my music is worthwhile, and much better than playing to a room full drunk people who aren’t listening and don’t care. The show was unpaid but they gave me some delicious hand pies and a drink.

The second venue was Alphaville in Brooklyn, who I got connected to through my friend Katie. First they sent me to a booker to put a bill together. I reached out and they said do you want to do this date, and I said yes. Then a few weeks later they hit me up and told me they weren’t gonna do it anymore because of their own personal relationship with the venue. So I scrambled to hit a bunch of bands in NYC/Brooklyn and managed to get a couple other acts on board. Then we get the advance deal from the venue and it said there was a $350 room fee. Oof. I decided that given how few people know me out there it didn’t make sense to go on with the show. In hindsight I wish I’d tried to do a house show or something instead but c’est la vie. 

The final venue was Warehouse 3 in Swarthmore, where I’m from. This one was pretty much a guarantee because I played there a couple years ago, and the owner Rob, a super cool guy, told me I’m welcome there any time. Nice. For this show I reached out to my friend, and super talented Philly artist, Rachel Andie to play the show with me. She was down, which was exciting both because I love her music and because she’s built up a following in the area. Then for the few weeks before the show I couldn’t get ahold of her. I went ahead and made the flyer using an image I ripped off her IG and made a couple promotional videos which I used for some paid Meta promotion targeted towards the area. Then a few days before the show she texted me and said she couldn’t do the show and explained why (it’s personal but suffice it to say that she had some very understandable reasons for not being able to get back to me, this is in no way meant to be throwing shade). I was pretty stressed out and didn’t really know what to do but I decided I would just ride it out and play the show solo if need be. Then the next day she calls me and tells me that her friend Erik Kramer is down to fill in for her instead and that she’ll sing backup vocals with him. Sweet. Anxiety relieved.

This last show was definitely a highlight. 20 people came out and paid $15 entry; 8 were family, 7 or so were high school friends, 2 were Erik’s parents, and there was a couple randos and one guy who said he’d seen me the last time I played there. Erik ended up being a super rad dude and put on a great performance of original songs with Rachel singing harmonies and leads on a couple songs. I was relieved that people showed up and excited to be able to connect with some friends and family. From the $300 we brought in, $100 went to the sound person, and $50 was gonna go to the house. I ended up negotiating to get $175 which meant $135 to split up with Erik after the $40 I spent on advertising. I’m breaking down the financials here because, while I do play music for the love and passion, I do also aspire to make a living as a musician and I know that some of you might as well, so I figure it might be of some interest.

Recapitulation time folks. I put a lot of work into a tour that ended up being two pretty small shows. That said, I was going on vacation anyways so I was pretty ok with that from the start and, while small, both shows were meaningful experiences. Playing outside of the Santa Cruz bubble is always a refreshing experience for me and something that I’m working on doing more of. Also, a lot of the work I did reaching out to venues and getting ahold of bookers, will come in handy for me for booking future tours. Overall, I’m pretty excited about playing on the East Coast again. Next time I’ll plan a lot further in advance and will be more intentional about my planning. Or I won’t. We’ll see. Haha… If you made it this far, thanks for reading! Please share any thoughts or questions you might have.