Since I was 14 years old, I have wanted to travel the world playing music. That would be the best possible use of my time that I can envision, but it’s taken me a few years to appreciate just how much time and dedication effort that goal requires. I’m 22 now and (for the time being at least) I’ll settle for a few shows up and down the country. That is not to say I don’t still have my sights set on global success, I just mean that I believe it to be a gradual process and we need to lay our foundations first.
We have been playing some of my favourite West Midlands venues for close to two years now and while we love playing the local spots, we’re very keen to get out more and play some shows up down the country. We’ve played a few fun shows in London and Manchester but generally speaking, promoters are very reluctant to put on a show for an out of town band who have no fans in the area. And rightly so, it makes no sense for them to put money into a show that no one will turn up to and it makes no sense for us to pay travel and possibly accommodation costs (depending on where) for the same reasons. Herein lies the problem. How do a band make fans in an area where they can’t play? does it come down to spreading your music via the internet? If so, then how can you manage which areas you’re music reaches? and to what extent? How can you ensure that when you want to play London, there’s a few people who will come out and see you?
We have played in Birmingham as the local support for numerous bands on tour who have on most occasions, not had any fans of their own in the area to play to. Now, when we bring our friends and family to a show which consists of us and several other bands from out of town, this is a great opportunity for said bands to play their music to a new crowd and if they’re good enough, earn themselves a few new fans. I myself, now follow a number of bands that we have played alongside.
So in my opinion, making connections with the bands that we play with is the potential solution to our problem here. I believe that by befriending the bands we play with, they can be our audience to play to and vice versa, with the added bonus of course that we can bring a few fans of our own along to a show. One day soon, we might want to play Edinburgh or Liverpool and those bands might come out to see us and catch up with us. In this way we can at least guarantee a few people in the door for an out of town gig and if and when those bands return to Birmingham, we can bring a little crowd support for them. So I wanted to put this question to readers.
Please share your thoughts and experiences and tell us what you think the solution to this problem is!
Until next time.
Niall Creane.
Guitarist and Songwriter for ZERO WASTERS,
(Bmus) Popular Music Performance Student, and all round opinionated, music nerd.
If you want to know more about ZERO WASTERS then you can check us out on
facebook and you can download our music from www.songwall.com
New Music: Gigs Out Of Town