October 11, 2013
I'm trying to do this from my phone since I probably won't have internet access until sometime tomorrow afternoon... it's a long drive to Winnipeg. I snapped this pic just before our set tonight. It's my 1,000 words about 100's of 1,000's of bands out there. This is what back stage looks like... most of the time.
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... I feel like there's some funny business going on... because empty toilet paper rolls seem to be everywhere I turn... that or someone in this band is using way more squares than necessary. October 10, 2013 ... today I finally did something I've needed to do badly since day 2 into the trip. I feel like I've been playing a harmonica covered in sandpaper all week. My lips have been sooooooo dry since I got out west... to the point I find myself licking them, painfully, the entire day. I probably look like an idiot during shows... or LL Cool J during any music video... but seriously, my lips have been in pain. It should've been an easy solution to pick something up but believe it or not, we haven't been close to a drug store during any stops... and all the stuff I've seen in gas stations have been the kind an 11 year old girl would buy... and I just don't want to have to explain what that's doing in my pocket to anybody. So we finally went into a little plaza today and there she was... Shoppers Drug Mart... it was like a much needed knee surgery... for my lips! So where did I leave off... today was a travel day from Regina to Lloydminster... no need to go into more detail with what the actual drives are like... so I'm gonna make this more of a photo diary blog post... because I can! We stopped off at a nearby Humpty's for breakfast. I love Humpty's. It's affordable and mostly breakfast food... with proper hash browns. This is actually the same infamous Humpty's we stopped at last year during the Buckcherry tour... were the great "you guys can't park there" incident took place. In short... we parked our van/trailer across 4 spots (since it was easier to get in/get out of the parking lot. I guess the owner didn't like that... but in reality, if all 5 of us drove, we'd be taking up 5 spots. The waitress told us we couldn't park there in a pretty bitchy way, and I sorta went all Ice T/Spock on her about it. Too hungry... and her case had not enough logic. This time we just did a "pull through park" over top of two spots on either side... taking up four spaces. It was awesome. No complaints this time though. Bacon and eggs were ordered... consumed... and check this out... ... how frightening is that! lol. On the wall behind the cash, they had these kid's colorings on the wall. I had to take a picture of a couple... I want to meet the kids that did these. Let's start with the shoes... yellow... that's ok... pants... brown... sounds good... blue shirt, classy... face... blue mustache... ok kinda weird but this is through a child's eyes. Speaking of eyes... what's going on Humpty? Sleepless nights? Been having a little too much fun with the boys down at the pub? Did you forget to bring a towel? Seriously... those are some red eyes you've got there... might need to grab some Visine Humpty. I wonder what's going on at home if this is what normal eyes look like to this kid... red hat is solid though. Picture number two... brown shoes, blue pants, blue shirt (denim on denim perhaps... not my style but to each their own)... mustache... why so sad in the eyes Humpty? Trouble at home again? Get passed over at the office for that big promotion? Red hat... I figured they'd all be wearing green hats in Regina. My favorite thing about the picture though is the hand gesture/body language. It's"WTF?". "WTF!? You took my parking spot!?" "WTF!? How was I supposed to know when you said cheese, it meant you wanted me to pick up cottage cheese on the way home?!" "WTF!? ... like seriously guys... WTF!!?" Poor Humpty... can't catch a break these days. Hopefully the kids that colored these pictures turn out alright down the road. We arrived in Lloydminster around 5:30pm (I think), checked into our hotel, then went downstairs for dinner. I've been craving an actual "dinner" dinner for days now so I had chicken, mash, and veggies. There's a grocery store down the street so I was thinking if I still had space in my gut, I'd grab one of those big ass pre-made salads. We headed there after (in the wrong direction at first... my bad guys) and picked up a few things. Basically, we all bought bananas. Just a bunch of dudes all buying bananas and heading back to their hotel room... nothing weird about that... Speaking of hotel... when we got back I felt everything was wrong... like as soon as we walked in the door, it felt like bizarro world. I said to the guys about 10 times... all the way up to our room... "I think we're in the wrong hotel." Nobody else seemed to notice until we reached "our room." We went back down to the lobby and tried to sneak past the front desk girls as to not look (even more) like losers. Mind you, Brent had just asked them where the gym was and we all went to have a look at it... what a waste of harsh elitist criticism. ... anyway... wrong hotel boys... we're next door. Back to the room... I decided now was a good time to Skype with the lady for a bit. I haven't had much quality WiFi time (or time in general) and tonight I was planning on taking it easy. I found a quiet corner in a stairwell and we chatted for an hour or so. It's awesome we have video chat these days... it's one thing to be able to hear someones voice but it's awesome to be able to see the eyes and smile of someone you miss and that misses you. It's midnight here now... I'm about to call it a day... apparently the show tomorrow will be rammed... should be awesome if the venue is as big as I remember. Big drive after the show tomorrow night to Winnipeg... not looking forward to that... but it'll be a great test to see if we can rectify our tardiness issue. - Mike ... one more thing... spotted this at the hotel. That fire is clearly on the stairs... I'd take my chances with the elevator.
... third time this week. C'mon boys... I wish this was a joke... maybe they're just messing with me. I hope they are... but I have a feeling this is someones cry for help. October 9, 2013 I did get an hour sleep this morning... I admit... I've felt like a bag of crap all day though. I thought I could sleep more in the van but there's a steady stream of distractions in there. If it's not one thing, it's another... and if it's not another... it's probably farts or something. I don't mean this in a bad way... it's pretty entertaining in there... the farts could go though... that's our own fault though from eating all the fast food lately... and perhaps a certain chip truck burger. We got back on the road around 7:45am... big drive today to Regina. About 3 hours in, Tim thought we should check/put some more air in the tires... we seemed to be losing air in the right rear consistently. We stopped and then drove awhile longer... Tim asked Brent to pop his head out the door while stopped passing through a town to see how the tire was doing... not good apparently... like "danger" not good. We pulled over to a gas station put some more air in it, and realize it was now full on hissing. Officially 100% not good. Lucky for us, we noticed all this right alongside a strip of highway that's all tire shops. What are the odds? We pull into a used tire shop... guy looks at the van... within an 45 minutes we've got the rear tires replaced and one of the wheels on the trailer swapped out as well. This is good. The tire swap took no time at all actually... it was more waiting for them to finish with their current customers... in the meantime we walked down the street to grab some Tim Horton's. Awesome. It's funny because even though I was bitching a little about the drive last night... everything happens for a reason, and I don't think we would've caught this, where we caught this if we didn't do the drive last night. Hopefully this somewhat preventative maintenance avoided a potential catastrophe in the middle of the night... or worse... the middle of nowhere... at night. Again... you have to factor in an additional 30% for time on these trips to actually get a more accurate arrival time. This can also cover some time for unforeseen events such as blown tires... and frequent pee stops. (I'm sitting in the lobby of a Quality Inn right now... the guys are all asleep and I didn't want to be click clackiting away in the room. I hate the arms on this chair I'm sitting in though... it's too tight... gonna try and power through it... I'm sure this chair is of high quality for sitting... but not for sitting with a laptop.) Aside from the tire situation this morning... it was just driving, driving, driving. We ended up arriving in Regina a couple hours later than originally planned (again... add 30% people!)... but the Papa Roach crew seemed understanding of our tardiness. Still... we really need to start leaving earlier. By the time we got there, Papa Roach and Pop Evil had finished with the stage for sound check and were basically waiting for us (knowing we were running late with tire problems). Pop Evil was spending some time messing around with monitors so it wasn't like people were just sitting on their hands. I think we had our gear unpacked and on stage in record time. No joke, I think we were setup and sound checked in 40 minutes... which I think is pretty quick! The venue isn't huge but we knew it was going to be rammed... it sounded great on stage and we were good to go! ... got our hotel room sorted out... took a quick shower... and back over to the venue for 8pm... on stage for 8:30pm. Another decent set I thought... a couple hiccups shuffled around again, but that's cool/normal. Fan response was great... last time we played here was ok, but didn't have anywhere near this strong of a line up... we were headlining! lol. Fans were singing along... it's always awesome to see a few people in the crowd who know every word to every song. I wanted to stick around and see Papa Roach's set for sure. Big bands in smaller clubs... that's my jam. I'm not sure the last time they've played a place this "small"... well it's not small, just where the bands are is a smaller section of the venue. If you are a big Papa Roach fan... this would be type of place to see them... it'd be like seeing them at a private party... and even though it was a smaller venue... they threw down hard. They were awesome. "Where Did the Angles Go" was ridiculous... again... it's such a good song... it's not fair how much it rocks recorded and how much it rules live! Again, riffs are currency in my world... that tune's a blank check to me. Jacoby put on a clinic as far as being a front man goes. He was everywhere... interacting with the fans, and sweating his bag off. It was super hot in there... but too awesome an atmosphere to worry about. A couple times in the set he'd finish a tune and bolt out the side door into the alley for a couple seconds. I could see him talking and laughing with his crew once he'd come back it... didn't need much experience reading lips to see he was laughing about how "f*cking hot!" it was up there. It's a rock show though... one the people who came out won't soon forget. We stuck around and did merch a while longer... we did attempt to pack up earlier but the Papa Roach merch guy (Ray I think...) yelled at us to get our shirts back out since people were still stopping by. lol. It's such a fun group... I know I keep saying that but it's just great vibe all around. Finally made it back over to the hotel around 1am... it's 2am now... I think it's bed time for me. We're off to Lloydminster tomorrow... travel day but also a day off. Everyone needs sleep and a good meal... and we could use a couple hours to have a band meeting/vocal rehearsal. Even if you're playing all the time and around each other 24/7, I think it's still a good idea to make time for a vocal rehearsal, and to go over band details/Q&A period. ... I think I've been up for close to 4 days now (with what I'd consider a few naps)... funny how time flies! lol. - Mike
October 7, 2013
... call me a foodie... as I eat McDonald's. I did swap out the pop for a mango smoothie though so that's kinda healthy right? Mango's a vegetable. *cough* Although I do feel like I got some sleep... it's funny how much of a difference it makes when you can wake up on your own vs being woken up. Everyone seemed to wake up here around 11am... after getting to bed at 6am... although most got a few hours sleep in the van last night. We got cleaned up, did some laundry, and were out the door for breakfast by 2pm. Yeah that's kinda late for breakfast but we were in denial we drove all night I guess. Another trip to Ricky's. I gotta say, their shredded hash browns are an embarrassment to the potato. Maybe it's just bad luck but I've had them twice in a week and they are terrible. They taste like pasta... chewy... they're the kind that should be crispy. Anyone who knows me, knows I love ketchup. Specifically fries and ketchup. So when I have a chance to enjoy some hash browns and ketchup first thing in the morning... and I get these... it's just terrible shredded disappointment... and an uphill battle all day to regain my baseline level of happiness. Also... if you have 3 different kinds of breakfast potatoes... you have 2 more than you need. Pick the best one, job done. After breakfast, we headed over to the venue (Cowboys) to load in and sound check. The bar is really nice... decent amount of stage to accommodate the bands. Pop Evil let us set up after Papa Roach again so we got to do a bit of a sound check. I honestly don't expect much in the opening slot. Pop Evil is so solid though that they might be indifferent to having a sound check. I've talked to a couple of them and they've been on tour forever. Papa Roach is also running a digital FOH (Front Of House) console so that might help keep some of the settings consistent... and speed up the change over process. Bottom line, it's a big help for us and we're super appreciative! There was only one dressing room which Papa Roach obviously had dibs on. Pop Evil has a bus. So we were wandering around before the show... it was too cold to hang around our van any longer so we eventually just headed in to the venue to wait to go on. I was chatting with a few friends there and it seemed like a few people recognized me which was neat. Just before we were to go on I was looking for everybody else... I found Matt and Tim sitting on the stairs next to the stage. I guess we could hang out in the hallway behind the stage like rock stars... or just... sit on the stairs behind the guitar tech station... drinking... a couple bottles of water. I wish I had a picture of it but in short, that's a 1,000 words of what it's like to be an opening band sometimes... or just a band in general. You want to be "rock star" as much as all the other bands... but you'll occasionally catch yourself doing something that's as rock star as having your mom drop off your lunch for you at school. Our set was decent... a couple new hiccups but again, there are certain things you just have to work out during the set... and you only get one chance a night to work them out. Tim was trying to add in a crowd interaction part at the end of "I Did It For Love" and I think he lost his place... and started going into the next section. It was the classic case of everyone looks at the one guy in the band they assume knows what's going on (in this case, me) and hopefully everyone can hold it together. I did catch a couple guys move onto the next section for a couple notes but then quickly go back to the correct arrangement. Even though we rehearse a lot instrumentally... it's crazy how strong the urge is to follow vocal cues. I even caught myself wanting to move onto the outro but it just didn't make sense were we were in the section. Ah well... stuff happens... gotta have a bit of danger in rock music. Tim covered for it, still sounded like music, and we laughed about it after. Again, hiccup. Oh... and to the guy heckling us about having to move our own gear off stage... well... yeah... I guess we are losers if we have to move our own gear. Have you seen our tour van? lol. We have zero tour support at this point but if he's willing to write a cheque... :-) Crowd response was good again though. Lots of new fans came up to talk to us in the crowd after. Yes we walk around in the crowd after the set... most opening bands should... it's important. Nobody typically knew who you were before the set so they think it's kinda cool you're around to talk to and get pictures and stuff. It's not like you're going to get mobbed or anything... plus I still enjoy watching the sets from out in the crowd. I get shit from people sometimes for sitting down and shows while I watch the bands. They assume I'm not having a good time. I can have a pretty good time sitting down... I've perfected it in some ways. I used to bring my Nintendo DS to shows... I was there to listen to the bands more than watch them. Think about it. Papa Roach was really good tonight again... Jacoby was all through the crowd which was cool. Canada is pretty tame so you can do that without risk. Oh... I think some Montreal Canadians players were at the show as well... I just checked and they're playing in Calgary on Wednesday. I'd heard talk earlier PK Subban was there so the story kinda adds up. They were pretty tall... I know I'm not that tall but they were pretty damn tall. After Papa Roach's set we hung out around merch a while longer, took some pics, signed some cds, then packed up, headed out, stopped by McDonald's, and now I'm sitting at Tim's watching Conan. We're off to Edmonton tomorrow... Union Hall... apparently there's a 4th band on the bill and I'm curious how that's going to work since that stage is small and that place isn't huge. The setup is neat since the club/bar wraps around the stage area... but it's a bit of a logistics nightmare for moving gear around... we'll see how it goes... it'll still be good times I'm sure. - Mike P.S. No shortage of tits in Calgary... always a party... good times. :-) October 6, 2013 Remember when I said hopefully we can go a while keeping a reasonable day/night schedule? Well that's completely out the window now. We ran into a tiny bit of drama after the show Saturday... hiccups can really snowball into something larger when you're on a busy (and somewhat tight) travel schedule. I think I slept 3-4 hours Saturday night, and 2 hours so far today/tonight... it's a 12 hour drive from Seattle to Calgary... so much for having today off! lol. So after we got back to the hotel last night (1am), we realized some luggage was left behind at the venue. The bright side... it's not like we realized this after driving several hours to the next city... or worse, once we got to the border. This is one of those situations where everyone feels bad. You'd feel bad if it was you, so you'd rather it just not happen to anybody in the first place and wish you would've seen it/grabbed it. Bands are a team sport. But it's also understanding the difference between "everyone for themselves" and "taking care of your own stuff". That's also part of being a team player. My rule of thumb, never assume someone packed it. If you aren't sure it was packed, double check. You'll never be sorry you held everything up another 5 minutes to double checked and make sure you have everything. I'm constantly double checking I have everything, very easy to understand since I'm a drummer, but still sometimes I lose/forget things. It happens. We were only 20 minutes from the venue so I made a couple calls to see if anybody was still there. No dice. Matt and I decided to head back over just in case someone was still there. No dice... but we did manage to catch the Papa Roach crew and they mentioned the venue staff pointed out some luggage was left behind. At least we know where it is. They had a show going on the next day so it was just a matter of stopping by once the staff get there to grab it. Matt and I got back to the hotel around 2:30am, I slept horribly for a few hours then decided to just get up to hit up the continental breakfast. It's about 8am. Matt got word the venue staff should be in around noon... so we need to kill about 4 hours... 4 hours that we could be en route to Calgary. I'll tell you right now, it's 6am here (6:35am as I attempt to proofread)... that theoretically means we would've got here at 2am today. There's a massive difference in case you're wondering. Another thing, here's a basic formula to tour travel to how long the drives actually are. Trip X 1.3 = Actual Trip Seattle to Calgary = 12 hours 12 hours X 1.3 = 15.6 ... so let's just say 15.5 hours. We left Seattle at 1pm yesterday realistically. 1pm + 15.5 hours = 6:30am ... then factor in the time change... it'd be 7:30am. ... I think that's all correct. ... bottom line. The formula works pretty well regardless of where you're going... I knew we'd get in a lot later than the GPS was saying but way she goes... we were spoiled off the top of this tour... that's for sure... well... coming from a guy who skipped 3 days of driving by flying out. lol. Speaking of regardless of where you're going... crossing back into Canada was pretty easy. Much shorter line, about a 15 minute wait. Matt handed our passports over to the officer, he asked a couple questions... one being where everyone is from. Matt, in his super thoroughly honest response way said "Richmond Hill, Calgary, Toronto, Toronto, and Peterborough." The officer then asked how do we practice (being a band) if we all live so far apart? "Well we get together to rehearse before we do shows/tour"... part of me was hoping Matt would've said something like "We don't rehearse... we suck live." The officer then asked if this was a full time thing... "... well we'd like it to be... that's the goal." I'm pretty sure the officer was holding back the giggles... we certainly don't travel like rock stars.... and our van clothes certainly don't help us look the part either. He handed back our passports and sent us on our way. Such a long travel day though... at least the border didn't add any more time than necessary... especially more "waiting" time. I spent most of the day riding shotgun... the roads are constantly curving and winding through the mountains which is awesome to see during the day... but at night it sucks. The wildlife warning signs suck more... fog sucks too... the combination makes the trip amazingly stressful... well, stressful if you care about your well being and safety of others. I think they threw some "people crossing" and a single mountain goat sign in there just for good measure. ... everywhere a sign. Another highlight was witnessing this happen. I'll let you figure it out... ... if you can't see it... I mustache you to look again. We eventually made it back to Calgary though. We're playing Cowboys tonight which should be good. Last show here was with Buckcherry back in July which was great. We were all sleep deprived from shooting the "I Did It For Love" video so when we hit the stage... we were all sorta on autopilot. I don't know how many people were actually in attendance but it was definitely into legit "crowd" territory. Oh... I broke down and had McDonald's today... I'm only ordering off the value menu from now on at fast food places... nobody needs that drink... I also ate at Jack In The Box today as well... speaking of drinks... keep in mind, they ask you small, regular, or large. This is regular. - Mike P.S. Yes I know I have tiny hands... but c'mon people!?
October 5, 2013 ... I'm doing this much earlier than the last few days... Papa Roach just took the stage here in Seattle. We have wifi at the venue and there's no guarantees where we are staying tonight... so I'm just gonna make sure I'm able to post while I can. Remember... don't take internet access for granted! ... I got about 3 hours of sleep last night. I woke up around 6:30am and was wide awake... so I did some emails/web stuff until breakfast... that awesome buffet breakfast. I over ate. It was worth it though... Egg's Benny with spinach, hash browns, bacon... so much bacon... waffles for dessert. Yes... have dessert with your breakfast! Why not!? Ok... onto actual "stuff". Today was our first border crossing. I've played in the US a few times but it's always been fly dates/showcase stuff. This was the first time really coming through with a longer tour, all our gear and whatnot... I figured it'd go either way... a couple taps on the roof and away we go... or "different gloves". We left Richmond/Vancouver at 10am. It's a 2-3 hr drive to Seattle. We also factored in some wait time at the border just in case. There was the debate of leaving last night to skip the potential line up... in my opinion, it makes more sense to get a decent nights sleep (yeah I know...) and then just wait it out the next day, than skip a nights sleep and be messed up the next few days. We're still in the routine of night/day on this tour... let's keep it that way as long as we can. So we pull up to the border crossing and the officer seems really nice. We're... brb... Where Did The Angles Go is being played. ... such a good song. ... so anyway, back to the border. The officer looks over our paperwork and says we need to get another piece of documentation before we're good to go. All good. So we pull over to the lot, enter the building and it's basically a giant room of two massive line ups. One (well technically three) for paperwork stuff... and one for the bathroom. Bathroom line is just crawling. I never really thought about how long it takes people to go to the bathroom... like without a cell phone. It was unreal though... the amount of ground we covered in the paperwork line vs bathroom line... what are they doing in there. Brent braved the line first... we'd been traveling a couple hours now and there's no real good place to just hop out and pee... while you're stopped in traffic... assuming there's cameras everywhere. So we work our way through the line up... people are staring at us... like... people naturally look around at other people when you're in line but this was that kinda "kung fu fight to the death" style staring... that and smiles... I like the smiles better. We get to the next customs officer and it turns out we just need another card or something... and they scanned our finger prints. ... it's crazy how nervous you can get all of a sudden for no reason at all. He also asked about merch... we paid a couple fees and away we went. One more officer checked over our paperwork and we were officially on our way. It was awesome how smooth (including the 2-3hrs of waiting) it was to get through the border. As soon as we got back on the road, my first thought was... I wanna go to McDonald's. I always hear about how cheap fast food is in the US so I'm curious to see for myself. I've already seen a few ads up for places like Subway... $2/6inch... that'd be unheard of in Canada. We'd probably politely protest those kinda deals. Made it to Seattle... found the venue... super tight parking... not really a parking lot designed for 2 tour buses to say the least. They made it work though. The venue is really nice... the setup is a little funky for two bigger bands but the crew for Papa Roach and Pop Evil are awesome. Super accommodating and seem to favor logic over pecking order and politics. My kinda people. We had time to run out before sound check so we found this pub-ish type place down the street. I think it's across the road from the first ever Starbucks actually. Everyone went chicken/burgers and fries. I went BLAT (Bacon, Lettuce, Avocado, Tomato) sandwich. Trying to be healthy here! Minor highlight... our waitress had an amazing voice. It was like... that TV commercial mom voice... or a super calm GPS... or audiobook reader. Someone should sign her. I'll skip ahead a little... Seattle or at least what we got to see seems awesome by the way. The hills are nuts... I think we drove up a 45 degree angle several times last night. Our set went well... crowd response was amazing... we went over a couple minutes (30 minute set tonight) again so we'll either chop a tune or really chop out the jibber jabber. It's always good to let people know you think about these kinda details. Amateur is about just assuming everything is cool because hey, it's just 2 minutes, right? Wrong. There are schedules posted everywhere for a reason. Hear that Toronto? Pro shows run on time. Don't tell people 9pm and you go on at 9:45pm. Screw that unless there's a real reason to postpone... like tech related. Waiting for more people to show up is not a good reason... it's a sad excuse. It's the excuse of the hobbyist trying to fend off reality just a bit longer. ... when it matters... people show up. On time. Post set we had our stuff off stage soooo fast, down two flights of stairs, and into a sketchy back alley. How do I know it's sketchy? Because multiple people saw people doing drugs in it earlier in the day, several venue staff mentioned it's sketch... and a security guard came by and doubled checked we knew it was sketchy. That's sketchy. Packed up, loaded up, re-parked the van and we're back in the venue. Response from the show has been awesome... it's always fun signing stuff and taking photos. More fun making new fans and selling some merch/cd's... merch is the lifeblood of bands. If you're not touring, you're in trouble... or at least you're missing out. Papa Roach's set is almost over... going to catch the last couple songs then we're off to the hotel hopefully. Still trying to decide if we're going to drive across US back to Calgary or straight up through Vancouver again. Maybe try the US route... gas is much cheaper down here. ... hopefully the hotel has breakfast. ... day off tomorrow means waffles. - Mike P.S.
... ended up at a Days Inn last night... breakfast and WiFi! Good times. ... just to get this out of the way. This is what I sat down to this morning. ... always try and leave things better than you found them. That's how I was raised. ... moving on. October 3, 2013
Travel day. That's all days like today are... a day in the van... chewing through the 'time remaining' on the GPS... stopping every few hours to pee and/or eat. It's nice scenery driving through the mountains though... especially if you've spent a fair amount of time driving around the prairies. Everyone woke up around 8am, got cleaned up, and then headed over to Ricky's for breakfast. Rule of thumb, if the place ends in y's, it's a safe bet for breakfast. On travel days, you might as well load up on food in the morning... since it could be a while until you're stopping some place decent again. Also, when you have multiple drivers, you should take advantage of it, and not stop for long (more than 20 minutes) periods of time. It really adds up when you have a 10+ hour drive to do. Bacon and eggs for breakfast. Good start. We ran a few errands, picking up some more merch and stopping at Long & McQuade. L&M had my snare skin of choice in stock in Calgary... Evans Super Tough... they don't carry them at my local L&M anymore (it seems)... I grabbed something that was close, but after putting it on last week and trying it... not the same. I like a bit of a 'ring' in my snare... without it, I feel like I'm playing a phone book... a really loud one... but it's missing that extra thing I like. A lot of a drummers personality is in their snare sound in my opinion. I think we left Calgary around 11am... 10-ish hours on the GPS... a walk in the park for me considering Matt, Brent, and Trevor have been driving for 3 days already... while I flew in last night. If you haven't been in the van as long as the others who have been in the van, you can't complain about anything related to being in the van. Nothing too much noteworthy today... lots of stupid jokes and staring out the window at the scenery to pass the time. Minor highlight was this raven (I think) that swooped down at me while we were stopped in a town called Golden. I was just standing there... watching this giant black bird flying towards me. Part of me started thinking... "that bird is getting pretty low..." Then I started thinking "I hope it doesn't poop on me... because that's a big bird." Then as it got closer and closer... getting lower and lower... "This bird might swoop down at me... this bird might attack me... I might have to fight this bird." Part of me was totally down with fighting this bird... I mean... if that bird's got questions... I'm sure I could find it some answers. Bring it bird. ... while the other part was thinking... I don't really wanna fight something that doesn't really have arms... I'd feel obligated to only use kick attacks. So the bird skimmed over my head (missed me by 3ft maybe), it was pretty loud... landed behind me... then standing sideways, started giving me stink eye, and hopping towards me. Kinda reminded me of the Igor type character from Young Frankenstein. I guess I was standing near some sandwich droppings in the parking lot it was after. I moved out of the way and let it chow down. It was a really funny bird though... it had a lot of personality... almost as if a very tiny person was in costume controlling it's movements. If I could have a pet bird, I would pick that bird. Sorry Big Bird. More driving, until an Arby's stop for dinner. It was between that and Carl Jr's. I've never had Carl's before... but when I'm hungry, I want to go with a safe bet... taste wise. Too hungry to be disappointed (just in case) so Arby's it is. Driving, driving, driving... and we're finally in Vancouver/Richmond. The hotel here is super nice... and there's a casino attached. If it wasn't so late I'd wander around just to have a look... but it's been a long day and I have a bunch of things to catch up on online in the morning... it adds up quickly not having email (or cell reception) majority of the day. ... buffet breakfast tomorrow... quick acoustic/vocal rehearsal... then it's off to the venue. Since we're opening on this tour (first of three) the set will fly by. Short sets are really fun to play though... and it'll be nice to get the rust off in front of a few people the next couple nights. ... for now though... time to get some sleep. - Mike Ok... this is kinda part 2 to the last post... but if you know you're getting a good deal... don't push it. I used to just see this as people trying to negotiate... some people have been taught to try and negotiate everything. What's the harm in trying right?
The harm is you run the risk of coming across as a complete douche bag. A douche bag who either doesn't know the value being exchanged, and/or a douche bag who wants to leave the meeting feeling like they've totally screwed over the other party. That makes them feel awesome! Meanwhile in life, those types of people typically get screwed over constantly. We all know them... and nobody has the hard to tell them to pick better battles... or at least fewer... since they don't seem to learn. In my opinion, in business, you should generally want do good business on both sides. Trying to screw the other party over, or even attempting to, isn't good business... and guess what else? It affects your reputation dealing with others. Funny how that works, eh? So a quick recap... negotiate where you can, work out a deal if you can... there's no harm in no deal being made if simply no deal could be made... but don't try and push too far past a good deal. Sometimes that's what breaks a deal. I know it has on my end in the past... why would I want to work with someone who so blatantly showed they don't value my time? It's that whole "give an inch, take a mile" thing - Mike Ok... I have a secret to share... my website not only tells me how many people come through my site, it also lets me know what they were searching for to get here. Many people have found my first post about whether to do EPs, singles, or albums... but tons of people search about costs.
I've held off writing this for a long time... mainly because I couldn't decide how to approach it (and keep it under 250,000 words) and because there are so many things to take into consideration. If you've ever read "Confessions of a Record Producer", a highly recommended read by the way, there's a great section discussing REAL WORLD recording budgets. ... the scary ones where EVERYTHING is accounted for... those $100,000+ ones! ... well scary because you might be realizing now quality costs money... and how your hobbyist friend with Cubase probably isn't going to help you record the next Bohemian Rhapsody... based on observations at least. So I'm going to approach this from a typical 5 piece (drums, bass, guitars X 2, vocal) band perspective, since I work on these types of projects quite often. First question out of the gate... who is producing this donkey show? Are you hiring a producer? Self produced? Co-Produced? ... and I already hate writing this... that last bit alone I can rant about for an hour... 2 of those 3 options are kinda stupid. ... anyway, you should choose this at the beginning and sorta stick with it... UNLESS you pick self produce or co-produce. If you pick either of those, know that during the process, eventually someone (typically the engineer) will be producing the project... making sure it gets done, to the best of your ability, on time and somewhat on budget. It just depends if you decide to let them know upfront AND decide (or at least attempt) to pay them for their expertise. I'm also just going to talk about the cost of a basic rock song "time wise" and then we can multiply that for EPs/albums. So... basic studio time (engineer included! very important!) necessary to record a 5 piece rock band rock song! ... that rocks. DRUMS - I'd give 45-90 minutes to record, 90 minutes to comp/edit... so let's just say 2 hours. *Note: I'm not including setup time for drums... or anything for that matter. Drums typically take half a day (4-6 hours) to get the actual drums set up, mics on, sounds, and to get comfy. Obviously you don't have to setup each time for every song, but some studios charge, while others don't for drum setup... oh wait... this is the charge everything budget! Except for this/setup times. BASS - Anything longer than 45 minutes tracking bass on a 3 minute song and I start reaching for the hemlock. I talk a lot though and I'm a nice guy so let's just round it up to 1 hour. GUITAR - This is where it can get tricky... sometimes you can blast through 6 tunes in a day, sometimes you're grinding through 1. Typically you can do 2 songs worth of basic rhythms/leads in a 10-12hr day. Why does it take so long? Because Bohemian Rhapsody is a masterpiece and we care about being in tune. Tuning means you care. One song is a half day so let's say 5 hours factoring in my legendary storytelling. VOCALS - This can really vary from producer to producer... I typically get through a lead vocal in 1.5 hours, then another hour to do any harmonies/doubles. Factor in another hour to comp/edit, 2-3 hours to edit further and "fine tune"... and then you probably got yourself a half decent vocal track... or at least one that makes Axl happy enough to stop mentioning they woke up with a sore throat that day. So vocals, 5 hours. DRUMS - 2 BASS - 1 GUITAR - 5 VOCALS - 5 ========= TOTAL 13 Hours! ... oh wait... what about mixing and mastering? MIXING - Straight up... if there's a place to spend money on a recording, outside of drums, it's mixing. That being said, don't think a great mixer can polish your el cheapo, home brew, aural ass blast into something it was never meant to be in the first place. I take good recordings for granted because I think they're pretty simple to do at this point... considering you have the right ingredients to begin with. A great mix will really bring out a songs best... while a bad mix can ruin something that could've had a chance. Most mixers need a few hours to prep and organize (and edit if necessary) the mix session... or have their assistant do it overnight... and then a day or two to mix and pick away at the tune. So... to keep things simple... let's just say 10 hours total. MASTERING - Mastering is important, especially on projects more than 3 songs. Get a fresh set of ears on the tunes... don't be fooled by people who are mixing and "mastering" their own mixes. Yes, eventually we will be mastering more of our own mix projects, but we aren't there yet. If it's a serious project, don't be cheap. Bottom line, they have higher hourly rates... 2-3 times most recording studios... so we'll say 2.5 hours to be safe and compensate for their hour. DRUMS - 2 BASS - 1 GUITAR - 5 VOCALS - 5 MIXING - 10 MASTERING - 2.5 ========= TOTAL 25.5 Hours! ... and mastering screwed up my alignment... thanks mastering... you always find a way to make me feel bad. ... what about producer fees? PRODUCER - Well... I'll be honest... most bands below a certain level flat out refuse to understand how producers can charge for their time and experience ON TOP OF recording, mixing, and possibly mastering their project. That's the day and age we're in though. Typically, if you were to pay for a producer, just plop another $1,000-$3,000/song onto the budget. For the sake of this example... we'll just say 15 hours. Roughly the time spent up until mixing... plus a couple hours to cover some of their psychiatric costs. DRUMS - 2 BASS - 1 GUITAR - 5 VOCALS - 5 MIXING - 10 MASTERING - 2.5 PRODUCER - 15 ========== TOTAL 40.5 Hours! Now... keeping this simple, here in Toronto, I'd say the average studio hourly cost is $60/hr for a place with a competent, experienced engineer. Again, rates vary, do your homework, and adjust your expectations however necessary... but know full well you're going to get what you pay for at $15/hr, while you might not need a room (for an entire project at least) that's $100+/hr. $60 hr X 40.5 hours = $2,430 Now... in my mind at the beginning, I really wanted to just say $2,500/song... and doing this quick budget, I'm amazed at how close we got. Now, minus that ridiculous $900 producer fee ($60 X 15 hours) that no band can ever seem to understand because why in the world would you think someone who brings a general overview and years of experience to make sure the project gets done on time, on budget, and to the best of everyone's ability is worth something... and you'll find yourself at $1,530. ... but again, this is the EVERYTHING counts budget... so $2,430 it shall remain! Single - $2,430 5 Song EP - $12,150 12 Song Album - $29,160 ... and for those of you bad at math and/or can't read between the lines. Single - $1,530 5 Song EP - $7,650 12 Song Album - $18,360 So there you have it... how much does an single, EP, or album cost? That's the ballpark I think a decent sounding, professional, commercially viable product typically costs these days. Of course again, MANY (and I do stress the word many!) other factors can come into play, especially political ones... but you simply need to weigh the pros and cons with these types of investments. Still, always remember is not the cost of the hour but the value brought to the hour. If you can get the end result you want for less, perfect... but just because one person can work wonders in an hour, doesn't mean they should charge the same as someone who's completely inexperienced and realistically takes 10 hours to do the same job BUT working for $15/hr. By all means, make records with them though... by the way... what's your time worth? - Mike ***Note: Stuff like strings, drum skins, alcohol, session players, rentals, time off work, FOOD, etc, have been left out... but everyone should factor them into their own budgets... they can really add up if you're aiming for "cheap as possible"... which always works out costing more in the end because you didn't prepare and usually scrambling to fill gaps in your project... and that's your own damn fault for not doing your homework!*** Straight up... there's a shit ton of money related topics so I might as well tackle one of the easiest to deal with.
Odds are everyone in the band have different levels of income, and just as important, their own list of expenses and responsibilities. Life costs money... but your band, which if you're reading this you're trying to run like a business, also costs money to get up and running and maintain... way more money than most of you think. A common problem discussing recording budgets is the one person who basically goes "I can't afford that." ... and? (lol) It's a band expense... not a personal one. Is the band supposed to be held back because someone has a lower income or higher expenses? What if one or two people in the band can handle the financial investments/costs of running a band while the other two can't? Is that fair? Is that unfair? I can understand it's easier politically if everyone contributes equally but life rarely works out that cleanly... especially when there's this many people involved. The way around this... have a serious sit down a few times a year to see where people are at financially. You're a band. You're somewhat all partners in a business. You have to have the money talk sometimes. There are guys I've seem bank roll the entire project for years and guys who've said up front they can bring no help financially whatsoever. Both are ok... just know that if and when money starts to come in, the ones who invested get to put their hands in the pot first (or at least have way more say regarding what to do with the money... this also applies to potential issues with private investors), while the ones who didn't invest/contribute need to keep their hands in their pockets. Really keep in mind money equals votes/say in the band... and the band needs to be your baby. Whatever baby needs, baby gets. You'll see this is common among the hardcore folk in any passion... or vice. That alone should motivate you enough to do what it takes, see the big picture, and make sure finances get dealt with. Don't cripple your band (aka business, aka baby) trying to set your budget according to whoever is able to contribute the least, regardless of the reason. If you are, this should be a red flag it's just for fun and not really worth investing in in the first place - Mike. |
Mike Langford - Official BlogBeing on both sides of the glass, I get the chance to wear many hats in the music industry. This is a place to share my thoughts, views, predictions, rants, stories and news! Categories
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