For those of us that have had the pleasure of doing a senior project, then you know it is a roller coaster of excitement, angst, fun, and tribulation. I myself, have been working on a senior project since August of 2012, with it recently wrapping up at the beginning of April 2013.
Let me back pedal a little bit first. Prior to deciding my senior project, I knew I wanted to do something that no one in my Music Industry program had done before. I then remembered another project I had done for a different class, concert production. We had to set up a (fake) tour for musicians down to SXSW and back. I thought to myself, “Wow, that would be a really cool senior project if I could pull it off.” So after much thought and consideration, I decided I was going to make it happen in real life.
Of course, there were roughly three main components to this.
- A band
- Money
- A tour
*Disclaimer* If you want to jump to the “wrap up” of this project, scroll down to the “lessons learned” section.
A band
For roughly 3 years now I have been working with a St. Cloud, MN based band, Seazon of the Fly. I have known the guys since the band was first formed 10+ years ago. Over the last ten years, they have built a rather small, yet dedicated fan base in Minnesota. If I had to pick a genre for them, I suppose I would put them in the progressive hard rock category (think System of a Down, Alice in Chains and Tool). Three out of four of the members are in their thirties with full time careers and families (I’ll explain why that is relevant in a moment).
I pitched my idea to the band in early August just to see if they would go for it. Much to my surprise, every member LOVED the idea. Now I officially had a band and was onto the next component, money.
Money
If you don’t know this, then you are about to. Going on tour is EXPENSIVE. Not only was this my main concern, but the band was rather concerned about this too (imagine that). After shooting around a variety of funding ideas with the band, we decided to do something that many bands have done: crowd-funding. However, the band had never heard of crowd-funding. So, after showing them a variety of campaigns and how to be successful at this, we decided to go with Kickstarter.
Funding, check.
A tour
We identified one of the band’s biggest issues as their lack of exposure. So, what better place to send them than the biggest networking music festival of the year, SXSW. Thanks to my previous school project, a majority of the research was already done for this component. That’s what you call a “win-win.”
The tour would be a 2 week tour in March that would start in Minnesota and make its way down to Texas (SXSW) and return to Minnesota.
At this point, I was ready to chalk it up to a success. Then again, it was only the end of August…
Being that I had all of my components to be a success, I was ready to hit the ground running.
Fun side note: In order to play SXSW, you need to submit an application and a press kit to be considered as a featured band for the festival. The list of who gets to play the festival is released in mid-late January. So not only do you not know if you are playing until then, it makes it rather difficult to book a tour around a “maybe.” Especially so late in the booking process.
Phase 1
Right away we got to work on the Kickstarter campaign. Being that each member of the band had full time careers and families, each member needed to “send home” $500 a week in order to justify going out on tour. Being that this was to be a solid 2 week tour, we would need to raise a minimum of $4000. We also knew that their current fan base could not reach that goal for us. We lowered our initial Kickstarter goal to $1,500 so they would at least get some help with the funding. We knew we had to offer some incentives that people were going to want and didn’t already have.
Some of the incentives were:
- Apparel
- CD’s
- Exclusive Kickstarter T-shirts
- Skype lessons on any instrument
- Autographed Cymbal
- Pro Tools master sessions
- Infinite guest lists
- Custom Artwork
- Guitars
- Drums
- and more.
One of the incentives, which happened to be one of the biggest catalysts wrapped within this project, was a brand new EP, “The Heart of Diptera.” Seazon of the Fly would record this EP specifically for this project.
Throughout the Kickstarter, we were also going to release videos of the band playing cover songs as we hit certain goals with the funding. Anything from Deftones and Tool, to Michael Jackson and the ever popular “Kiss the Girl” from The Little Mermaid. We felt as though we had a very strong campaign ready to go. We were right. Thanks to my team of social media students, and a dedicated Seazon of the Fly fan base, we were able to raise 125% of our funding goal. By mid November we were able to knockout half of our minimum funding needed for the tour. SUCCESS!
Now that the Kickstarter campaign was over, it was time to focus on the tour.
Phase 2
In the midst of the Kickstarter campaign, I was able to get connected with Seazon of the Fly’s booking agent, Leni. Leni is a music industry veteran with 30 years of booking under his belt. He runs his own company called Ten13 entertainment. After a few chats, he said he would help book the tour. Who in their right mind would turn down a booking agent with 30 years experience? Turns out, I should have, and this was one of the biggest lessons I learned during this project.
I had a system figured out for the tour. If I could get the venues to pay between $200-$600 per show, we could get by without having to pay for gas, lodging, or food.
(The band wouldn’t necessarily make money, but then again, this was their FIRST tour. I don’t know of too many bands that are capable of MAKING money on their first tour out).
Leni had a different idea in mind. Leni wanted to book the band out at each venue for no less that $800 per night. That’s right, he wanted to book a band that no one outside of the 5 state area had heard of before, for $800 per night. Not to mention a full rider. But being a 30 year veteran, I figured he knew what he was doing. The tour we had laid out was pretty basic straight down to Texas and back.
(Minnesota, Iowa, Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas, Arkansas, Missouri, Tennessee, Kentucky, Illinois and Wisconsin).
So I began cold calling and sending emails. I always knew social media was important for bands and artists, but I never really realized that it determines whether or not a venue will hire them. At this point in the project, Seazon of the Fly had roughly 700 “likes” on Facebook. Of course, every single venue I called or emailed immediately went to Seazon of the Fly’s Facebook page and saw this. After they entertained me enough to hear what the band “required” for sound, lights, lodging, and pay, the results were an immediate “no” from every venue. Not only did every venue say “no,” but I always had the pleasure of relaying the information to Leni who would curse, sigh, and moan at every piece of news about a venue not wanting to book the band. Leni did book a few shows though, however they did not follow the dates, or route of the actual tour we had originally agreed upon thus making it that much more difficult to complete the tour.
By the beginning of January, I had zero venues booked, no additional funding, the band had just STARTED to record the EP that was promised for the Kickstarter campaign (due in March, mind you), and we got official news that the band did not make it into SXSW.
Take a moment for that to settle in.
Phase 3
Back to the drawing board…
It was at this point that I became more of a facilitator than a tour manager (although some would argue they are one in the same) between certain members of the band over whether or not they wanted/could afford to go on tour. In other words, we were addressing concerns that had already been discussed, agreed upon, and had raised money for. After a few more discussions, the band decided we were not going to be able to do a tour at this point due to lack of funding and booking.
So now we needed to decide how we were going to complete this project. We quickly decided that the band would come to Mankato, Minnesota to play 2 shows at local venues. One show would be a Kickstarter “thank you” show ( a large number of the donors were from the Mankato area). The other show would be an EP release party for the EP that was promised to donors in the Kickstarter campaign.
I quickly sought out the booking agents at both venues. The first one agreed to do the Kickstarter “thank you” show. They agreed to provide a couple kegs of FREE BEER and Seazon of the Fly would play for a couple hours. The second show agreed to do the EP release show with a variety of local bands. SUCCESS!…kinda…
The shows were slotted for the beginning of April. If you do the math correctly, that is 8 months since the project started.
As the shows quickly approached, I did everything necessary to ensure they were ready to go. I gathered three extra bands for the EP release show, set up promotions for both shows, checked to make sure sound guys were in order, and I even made sure to coordinate other students to help with load in and load outs at both shows.
Then the phone rang…
It was the lead singer from Seazon of the Fly letting me know that the EP probably wouldn’t be done for the EP release show. To top it off, they did not want to headline their own show either because they didn’t think there would be anyone left at the show. Once again, back to the drawing board. I shifted around some show times and chatted with one of the other local bands. Luckily, a band called “Angry Waters” was cooperative and said they would headline the show.
Show #1
The Kickstarter “thank you” show was finally here. Seazon of the Fly showed up on time, we loaded them in and helped set up their gear. The next thing that happened was the last vital lesson learned. The band wanted to make sure that the $200 in free beer that the venue was donating wasn’t taken out of their $200 payment for the night. Neither myself, the venue, nor the band EVER agreed upon the venue paying $200 to the band to play for 2 hours. We did agree on the venue providing $200 in FREE BEER. After all, I thought this was a Kickstarter “thank you” show. Wasn’t the $2000 in Kickstarter funding enough? So, I did what any college senior would do: I walked over to the ATM, pulled out $200 of my own money and paid the band. Seazon of the Fly did put on one hell of a show (probably one of the best shows I have seen of them). Once the show was over, the booking agent mentioned that there was more people there than a typical Thursday night. They gained a number of new fans, and the venue wants to have them back in the future. SUCCESS.
Show #2
The next night was the “EP release show.” My crew and I showed up and loaded everyone in. The best way to describe this show, is it was a “typical show.” There was a $5 cover, each band had their set times, and the door was split by the bands at the end of the night. I had a crew hand to help with additional load out and stage changes. There was a rather decent turn out and each band was “satisfied” with what they were paid. I think the biggest thing that came out of this show was the networking between bands. Sounds like a number of them would love to play together again and are looking at doing some gig swapping. For an “EP release show” with no EP release, I think it went as well as it could have.
Hope for the best, prepare for the worst.
I think this rang true throughout my entire project. Whether it was reaching our goal for the Kickstarter, setting up the tour, or needing to rearrange the overall plan of the project, each aspect ended up needing to be revamped in order to make it successful. Nobody wants the worst case scenario for any situation, but as long as you are prepared for it, you will be able to handle it.
Sometimes, you are the only person you can count on.
At various points throughout the project, I found myself being the only one I could really count on. Whether It was getting the band to follow through on a certain portion of the project, having the third party booking agent do what he was suppose to do, or even something as simple as a street team hanging flyers. At times it seemed as though I was the only one that would provide the results necessary to move forward. I definitely learned that you can’t count on others to do a job for you if there is no incentive for them to do it. Even when there is an incentive, it’s worth keeping tabs on their every move, so you may as well do some jobs yourself.
It is difficult to make everyone happy.
I think this was one of the biggest lessons learned for this project. You have to have a certain amount of give and take when it comes to every day life, but just remember you cannot, and will not, make EVERYONE happy no matter what you decided to do. If I tried to satisfy one band member’s request, I ended up making the other three upset. If I made the venue happy with the turn out, the bands complained about the amount they were paid. If the cover for the show was $5, people complained as to why it wasn’t free.
Be prepared to adjust to any situation.
If there could be a theme for this project, I think this would be it. Since the day I started this project, I don’t think there was one situation that came up that didn’t need to be altered in some way. From adjusting the amount of money we needed to raise, the route of the tour, to whether or not we were going to do a tour anymore, or even how much the band was to get paid. If you are capable of “rolling with the punches,” then there will be no situation you won’t be able to handle.
Under promise, over deliver.
I think this rang true with the band and the Kickstarter project. We promised the people that donated certain things by certain dates. Some of the promises were upheld, others were not. It’s important to deliver what you say you are going to deliver because that’s called being honest. When you over promise and under deliver, it just sets you, and others, up for a disappointment If you under promise, and over deliver, you will always make someone happier, and more than likely they will come back to you again, and again.
Overall there are things about this project that I am very happy about, and there are some other things that I would liked to have seen go better. I really enjoyed taking a starting idea, developing it, and executing it as best as I could. There is plenty of blame to go around on why certain aspects of this project did not work out, myself included.
If I could do it over, I would never have gotten involved with the third party booking agent. At the time I figured it would benefit me, but all it did was create for more frustration, confusion, and loss of time. The only other thing I would have done differently, is to have each band member sign a written document stating the expectations of myself, the tour, and their role.
I am glad that I set up a timeline for myself. That was extremely beneficial to be able to visualize when certain tasks needed to be done by in order to complete the project.
I hope you can take a thing or two away from my experience. This project was full of excitement, angst, fun, and tribulation. I learned a lot about who I am, what I am capable of doing, and most importantly, how to adjust to ANY situation.
Thanks for reading.
-Andy
The hairy cochlea 