The Currency I Trade in is Experience
Hello Friends,
I think I've finally been released from the strange holiday season time vortex. I am fairly confident that today is Monday...
Time to rev up the promo machine and get back to work in earnest. Shows to book, concerts to promote, and a year to plan.
I have to be honest though. Perhaps it is because I am firmly entrenched in middle age, but I do find my ambition waining somewhat. This feeling first hit me with the COVID lockdown in 2020. I went from performing 250 shows in 2019 to something like 15 shows in 2020. If you told "2019 me" that this would happen, I would have been mortified, but when it came to pass I was so thankful for the opportunity to get off the hamster wheel for the first time in 25 years of being a professional musician/songwriter. Granted, if the Canadian government hadn't offered financial supports at the time, I would've been on the streets,(also big thank you's to the outstanding musician support organization Unison Fund, and grants from Ontario Creates and the Kingston Arts Council) so I'm very appreciative of the much-maligned Trudeau government for that(this is also a reason why I am huge proponent of a Universal Basic Income, but that is a subject for another day…).
The opportunity to take that breath was monumental for me. It allowed me to ask questions about what was important to me in life and what approach I would take going forward. In the summer of 2022 I kind of got back to my old tricks, performing 70 shows between June and September that year. I think it was the excitement of actually being able to perform again on a regular basis. Soon the shine wore off, however, and I found I was returning to my former exhausted self. Changes needed to be made...
I've now come to the realization that if I am going to perform a show it has to fulfill these criteria:
1] Experience - Is the gig going to offer an enriching experience for myself, the band, and the audience?
2] Community - Often goes hand-in-hand with #1, Is the gig going to benefit the community culturally, socially(or in terms of fundraising events, financially)?
3] Money - Does the gig pay an adequate wage? Am I being paid such that it will not serve to undercut my fellow musician?
4] Opportunity - Will the gig offer unique opportunities? I know "exposure" is a dirty word, but it is important to look at each gig in terms of reaching a new audience for the band...#3 is still a factor though. Is the gig going to allow me to work on my repertoire/test new material?
This list has served me well over the past few years. Dead Root Revival have been playing far fewer shows, but the level of the experience at the shows we decide to perform has gone through the roof. We stopped performing bar gigs in September of 2022...this allowed us to bring on Tony Silvestri as a full time member on keys(the money wasn’t adequate at a bar gig), and has solidified our (small but mighty...yet, steadily growing) fanbase. Since we've turned exclusively to ticketed events(renting the hall and providing production ourselves oftentimes) fans have become more engaged and more invested in the concerts, and often refer to a DRR show as an "experience". That's reason #1 checked off, with #2 and #3 following along.
Personally, I've settled in at around 100 shows per year. It's much more manageable (from a living life in general standpoint) than my previous 250 show per year slog. My goal for the next few years is to perform a bit more with DRR...we are almost in the sweet spot, but not quite there. I mentioned middle age at the beginning of this post, and it is definitely a factor in the decisions we make as a band...we love playing music together, and age brings an immediacy to things.
How many more times will we get a chance to do this? How many more times do we get to immerse ourselves in this "experience"?
Rock and Roll,
Tom