I got the chance to catch up with my friend Emily White of Whitesmith Entertainment and her client Sebastian, who is the self-described drummer and occasional guitar player for Family of the Year.  Many of you have not heard of Family of the Year and that was kind of the idea.  I want to follow the path of a group that is just starting off their career under the guidance of a gifted manager.  I got to catch up Emily and Sebastian just before CMJ.

Musician Coaching:

Sebastian, what is your role business-wise for Family of the Year?

S:

My role is the day-to-day task manager of the band – the liaison between Emily and her team and all the other members of the team. I do scheduling, logistics, etc.

EW:

He’s done an amazing job making sure we’re staying on track. We self-released an EP last month that was donation based and that’s been going really, really well. And we’re releasing their debut album next month. There’s a lot that goes into that:  the artwork and producing the CD’s and mastering and everything that goes into that. Sebastian has been amazing making sure everybody’s staying on track.

S:

The group has naturally evolved into each person having a specific role. No one was assigned anything they didn’t want to take on. My brother (Joseph – guitar / vox in FOTY) is incredibly inclined when it comes to producing and recording music.  It was his major project to write this music and record it.  That was his natural ability.  We’ve got another guy James who has extensive audio engineering background, so he’s at the shows dealing with the technical stuff. We have whiz kids on computers as far as social networking stuff: Christina and Vanessa. Brent is our graphic designer and will eventually take over our website management. He’s been putting Vanessa’s hand-drawn art into the computers in order for us to be able to create all our merchandise and our CD art. It’s naturally turned into a finely-tuned machine.

Musician Coaching:

And you guys are from Silver Lake?

S:

Originally my brother and I are from Massachusetts and the two girls are from Orange County, CA. The two other guys are from the south. One’s from Louisiana and the other is from Jacksonville, FL. We formed in Silver Lake and we now reside a few miles from Silver Lake. We all moved into a big house that we’re rebuilding in the hills outside L.A.

Musician Coaching:

It’s kind of nice you have different sets of friends in different markets.  You must save money on hotel costs.

S:

It certainly does.

EW:

We also do that on the road.  The band bought a 1986 RV, so we haven’t spent anything on hotels.  They all crash together, and sometimes there’s a filmmaker or a sound guy or me, and everybody sleeps pretty well in it.

S:

There are seven of us right now. There’s the band and then Chris.   He’s actually making a documentary about the band.  He’s been traveling with us on and off over the last couple months. Emily is going to be joining us.  It’s usually quite a packed vehicle and really fun … and economical, really.

Musician Coaching:

I first heard of you guys about 90 days ago.  What experiences did you guys have with nationwide touring, either individually or as a group prior to 90 days ago?

S:

We had some experience, but not an extensive amount.  We basically had several DIY tours that we had put together, but we’d never worked with a booking agent.

EW:

These were other bands also.

S:

My brother and James and I used to play in a band together back in Boston for years called Unbusted.  Mostly we were in Boston and New York and the Northeast, but we did go out on the road a few times.  But they were DIY tours, and it was really hard and really expensive and kind of heartbreaking.  You get yourself so very excited, but if the framework isn’t there and you’re not getting yourself out there, then you’re not going to make money and you’re not really going to attract attention.  For years back in Boston when we first knew Emily, she was juggling college and interning and a supporter of our music.  She was on the ball back in the day telling us about mailing lists, social networking websites and things like that. She told us, “This is the way it’s going to be,” and we would say, “No, we’re traditional band that is going to keep playing club after club and wowing people, and soon people will be showing up by the thousands.”  Sure enough, we were wrong. We had some experience touring, but it wasn’t effective touring.  You could go out there and spend two years touring the states, but if certain pieces aren’t in place it’s not going to be a good experience.  We had fun, but as far as trying to build a career and a following and selling albums, it’s next to impossible if you don’t have the correct presence online.  I think that’s the major factor these days.  The biggest difference is an ability to connect with fans.  It’s the only avenue these days.

Musician Coaching:

What has been the difference this time? How did you go about getting a booking agent?

S:

I honestly think it was the strength of the recordings that Joseph and Vanessa had made.  The music was never really intended on being released.  It was really a love child of theirs.  They spent a year and a half in their apartment in Silver Lake recording this music together and falling in love and recording these songs.  It was really a natural, beautiful thing that was turned into our product.  I think that’s what has given us all a chance.  We were reaching out with a lot of people.  I was pretty much going through my Rolodex and saying, “Let me call up everyone I know to pull that one favor.”  I contacted anybody whether they’d slighted us or been really great to us.  I was standing in line at the DMV sending off e-mails.  We were just really excited about what was happening with this band.  We had just formed, we had a couple of really great concerts coming up and we were really excited about the music, and I reflected that in an e-mail to Emily and she came back immediately excited.  And she started kicking butt and churning up some interest from their end.

Musician Coaching:

That’s important to ask you about too.  People have different projects throughout their lives.  Did this feel different?

S:

100%, yes. It is a totally different monster.  Everybody has their teenage/high school band and has high hopes and hometown dreams to fulfill.  And then if you’re not one of those lucky few bands that makes it with your high school buddies, you have your sophomore slump with your next band. We formed another group called the Billionaires that achieved some kind of minor local success in L.A.  We played some really great shows, released some albums, sold some copies but that was a major turning point.  We went from being a small town, hard rock, raw group of kids that moved to the city and matured and settled into songwriting.  Joe always had the ability to write a good song, but I think the music and voice kind of naturally emerged.  It felt different because it felt really right.  We all agreed we could play with this band in any situation, whether it was Madison Square Garden or someone’s kitchen.  That’s really a great feeling, and it’s not just about sound, being too loud or too quiet.  It’s a matter of being really comfortable with it and it representing us.

EW:

They made incredible recordings.  But the reason they were able to do that is because they’ve been musicians for so long. I have other people saying, “How is this happening so quickly?”  Well, although it appears that it’s happening quickly, these guys have been in bands, they’ve played SXSW, they’ve done the DIY tours so they really know what it’s like.  I loved them in college, but they’ve developed so well, and it really shows.  People like us that are listening to music all day, when we hear really great music and really great songwriting, that’s really going to stand out.

S:

I guess I neglected to mention that half the band had been playing music forever, putting on concerts since we were ten with aspirations to become rock stars.  What’s great about the other half of the band is that they haven’t.  We have half junior veterans and half greenhorns.  It keeps it really interesting and fresh for everyone.

Musician Coaching:

I noticed on the website that you guys are doing the name-your-own-price for the CDs. I know a lot of people have advocated this approach. How has it worked for you so far?

S:

It’s been fantastic.  It’s just great.  Everyone gets our music.  I think it’s tough to force someone to pay for something these days, especially when it’s our first release.  We just want to get our music out there.  It’s worked out really well because we end up with the information that is their e-mail address, which I think is more valuable than five dollars.  In the end, we’re bulking up our fan base.  It’s about getting direct to the fans, so this has expedited it.

EW:

We own the rights, so we’re able to do that. And the average donation has been about ten dollars.  Obviously beyond that it’s amazing, because of course, if you can give the band your money, that’s fantastic.  They have a really great artist statement that’s really upfront:  the money goes to gas and bringing these people to your town.  But beyond that, we do just want the word spread.  And if it’s a poor college student that can’t afford anything, awesome, we just want you to hear the music and come out to a show.

S:

We’ve had people pay fifty dollars, we’ve had a thousand people pay nothing.  It doesn’t bother us.  We want the music out there.  I would give anybody a physical copy for free in person if they wanted it.

Musician Coaching:

How long have you been collecting addresses, and how many (ballpark) would you say you have?

EW:

We have been collecting since September 22^nd when it was released.  I think we’ve had 2,000 page views, a few hundred downloads and it’s definitely gone well.  We’re literally using that to spend on Facebook ads, posters and reinvest in the band right away.

S:

Just reinvesting and reaching out a little further.  It’s great to spread out the money and invest a little more. We’re not pocketing it.

EW:

Sebastian had a great point about data collection.  It’s wonderful for me to see these e-mail addresses, the countries, the person’s name.  I write back to some people and say, “You’re in Australia, how did you hear about this band?”

S:

We’ve got these great Google analytics coming through.  Greece is number three (The third ranked country for FOTY web traffic).  It’s really cool and great information.  It’s fantastic to be able to see the information and reach out to them.  The whole world is conspiring right now to help the indie band.

EW:

Our number one traffic generator has been Twitter.  That’s great, because it’s the band interacting with fans and with other artists, and it’s making a huge difference.  We’re going to do a similar thing for their album release next month.  It’s going to be a donation-based album, a 15-song album.  Anybody that pays over ten dollars is going to get a physical copy.  We’ll probably do a couple other tiers too.

Musician Coaching:

How about the postcard campaign?

(To help fund their trip to CMJ Family of the Year offered fans personalized post cards from the road for a $5 donation)

S:

It’s going great.  We’ve had a huge response to it.  I don’t know how many we’ve done, but we’ve done a bunch.  It’s fun for the band.  It’s old school Twitter.  It’s direct to the people, and people want that.  I know I would want that if I was falling in love with a band again.

EW:

People like to know that they’re helping out.  I went to Jill Sobule’s show last night, and she brought the fan up on stage that had donated the most amount of money on her album, and she wrote a song for that fan and did a duet with her and I almost cried.  The fan literally helped make this album.

S:

We’ve had several people purchase several postcards. It’s overwhelming that if you give people the opportunity to help out, so many people will take that opportunity.

EW:

Cut out the middle person. People really like supporting artists that they’re into, so we’ve been really blessed.

S:

We’ve had a really positive reaction at live shows whenever we mention from the stage that we’re doing this on our own and we need help.  It’s amazing.  People love the idea of it.  It’s not just hoots and hollers.  People actually react and come and purchase stuff.

Musician Coaching:

I was always fond of buying a drink for a band coming through town, but gas money seems a much better use of everybody’s time. What’s this documentary all about?

S:

It just slid in perfectly with work and planning.  Vanessa is an actress and has been one forever.  The DP on the last film she worked on was a fan of our music, and we invited him to come out with us.  He expressed interest in working on a filmed documentary of the band.  It just worked out that he cleared his schedule and just fit in perfectly with the band.  It’s not as if there’s ever any kind of weirdness about this extra person hanging out.  He’s just a great friend of the band.  I don’t know how to describe it, but it just worked out.

EW:

We’re incredibly lucky that it came through. Chris has been busting ass, and I’ll wake up and see him literally sleeping on the RV floor.  He’s amazing.

Musician Coaching:

Are you going to repurpose the footage at all?

S:

We have a five-minute short that’s going to be released soon, though we’re not sure what it’s going to be released with.  Later on after this full tour we’re doing, there’s going to be a twenty to thirty minute documentary of the whole thing.  And it’s really focusing around the band doing it itself.  It’s not just the antics of being on tour.  It’s focusing on what we’re talking about so far.

Musician Coaching:

Is there stuff that you’ve tried that hasn’t work?  Advice to somebody who will ultimately be reading this?

S:

Definitely listen to Emily White. (Laughs) If we had listened to her five years ago we would’ve been a lot further down the road, though I think also if we had, we wouldn’t be here today.  But seriously, I think that in rock and roll, it’s really hard to give the Internet as much credit as it’s due.  Computers aren’t fun, computers aren’t cool, but it’s absolutely critical to be in touch with people.  It’s a new era and a new age.  And be creative.  If you’re having fun people will have fun as well.  Whether you had fun creating your artwork as a group, naming your group or making your album, it does reflect in the product no matter what it is.

EW:

Focusing on the work and the art is important.  The art has to be amazing.  I don’t think musicians should spend more than an hour or two a day on social networking.  They should be rehearsing and writing and recording.  It’s important and needs to be kept up but really cap it at two hours. We’re all here to support these artists and their music.

S:

I guess I neglected to say that because it’s such an automatic thing for me.

EW:

There are so many musicians that get too caught up in all the social networking stuff, and I think that can be overwhelming and dangerous.

Musician Coaching:

Yea, I have found it can be a dangerous time suck as well…

S:

Back to the whole dynamic of the group and the roles.  It’s been amazing that Joe, who is the band leader, producer, songwriter hasn’t been tethered to this business bologna at all.  Of course we all make the decisions together, but he’s not getting on Twitter.

EW:

I don’t want his head in it.  His head needs to be in music all the time.

S:

It’s really been ideal.  If there’s an opportunity to divvy up jobs where it’s stress free, that’s the thing to do.

EW:

These guys are working their asses off.  It’s really impressive.

S:

I want to reiterate “practice.”  We’ve been playing forever, and it still isn’t enough.  We spent six days a week since March from 7 p.m. to 3 a.m. in our rehearsal space.

EW:

I wanted to say on the filmmaker thing, we have to be creative about those partners too.  I know tons of video directors and filmmakers that are used to getting budgets from labels.  But MTV doesn’t exist and YouTube doesn’t always give the rev share people need to get the money back.  For Chris, we haven’t set exactly how we’re going to release that content. But that filmmaker is an artist too, and that’s part of the donation process.

——

Check out family of the year

Or is it great managers make great bands?  Chicken and the egg I suppose.

As some of you recall I interviewed Emily White of Whitesmith Entertainment about music and management not too long ago. She had just started working with a group called Family of the Year. Granted Emily is a gifted manager and got the band in front of the right people but I thought it would be interesting for everyone to see the progress they have made in the last few weeks. They are doing some interesting things to tie in show attendance with their new release and some cool promotion ideas.  I won’t tell if you decide to steal these ideas.

I suppose it might seem odd to interview a band that hasn’t made it but when I speak to people who have followings they tend to speak more about maintenance than building…

From Emily @ Whitesmith:

The band is releasing their debut EP, Where’s The Sun on their brand new imprint, Washashore, which will be available exclusively by donation on 9/22 at FamilyOfTheYear.Net and up on itunes/amazon via Tunecore, shortly after:

People who show up at the 9/16 Knitting Factory (LA) show will get an advance DL code for free (7:30 set time, fyi). The band also plays The Knitting Factory on 9/27.

After interest from various agents after playing only TWO shows, the band signed with Steve Ferguson at Paradigm on Wednesday. Steve immediately locked a support slot at The Troubadour (10/12) and The Great American Music Hall in San Fran (supporting World/Inferno Friendship Society) and is working on an East coast tour around CMJ.

The band will be playing the Whitesmith Entertainment/Indaba Music showcase at The Living Room at CMJ on 10.21 and Whitesmith/CASH Music party at Crash Mansion on 10.20.

To help fund the trip for CMJ, the band is doing an “Old-School Twitter” promotion. Next week, we are launching the EP promo page that will also allow fans to buy a postcard for $5.

FOTY will send you a postcard from the road as a thank you to help fund their trip. However, before it gets popped in the mail, we will scan it and upload the various postcards online, so fans can look online where their piece of the tour story falls in the collection.

Also, we are collecting email addresses with Google Voice at shows. The band made this sign to show it off during their set.

I would like to say that this band is moving forward so quickly for three reasons:

1. They made incredible music. I say all the time “make great art.” We tend to get caught up in all of these business models, platforms, and strategies and sometimes I think both the artist and industry forget why were actually here.

2. They’ve been blessed with a team of volunteers and early supporters (not all Whitesmith) to help out with the band for the love of it. We couldn’t do it without them. But don’t over think this, it’s about 5 people total ranging from an 18 year old Boston University intern who is currently in classes and helps in his spare time.

3. The band all know their roles and are each bringing something to the table. Joe Keefe (lead vocal/guitar/piano) has his head in songwriting, that’s where it belongs. His brother Sebastian (drums/acoustic guitar/vocal) is the liaison from me to the other 5 members of the band. He makes sure everyone stays on the time line we set in place. Christina (keyboards) has a day job at a PR firm and helped to write the bio, skin the Twitter page, and runs the MS and FB page (so great when it’s genuinely the artist and not one of my peeps!). Vanessa (female lead) has been designing the EP and merch artwork as well as hooked up a film crew for their first show, who owed her dad a favor. Jamesy (electric guitar) is a sound guru and has been handling all of the mixing and mastering that we’d otherwise have to pay for, even though we self-recorded everything in their rehearsal space). And newest member Brent (bass) is a web designer. They are like trivial pursuit pieces of pie that all fit together perfectly. I am honored to work with Family Of The Year.

—————

The band also quickly wrote a song based on a Twitter trending topic (yesterday) RT @FamilyOfTheYear exclusive song for today’s trending topic: “When We Were Little”
#wheniwaslittle

I often get asked by clients about the best way to find a great
manager. It is no easy task attracting a manager who can really
deliver. I recently met Emily White of Whitesmith Entertainment at
the New Music Seminar and, having heard her speak, I realized that she
was very familiar with the business and was damn good at her job.
Whitesmith Entertainment handles Margaret Cho, Alina Simone, Sydney
Wayser, Family of the Year and others.

Emily started her music business career as an intern for Amanda
Palmer of The Dresden Dolls and began working as The Dresden Dolls’
tour manager. Before starting Whitesmith Entertainment with partner
Keri Smith Esguia, Emily worked with artists like Paolo Nutini,
Keller Williams and Amanda Palmer (when she went solo). I decided
to ask Emily about what she was looking for in prospective clients
and about how artists build businesses in general.

Musician Coaching:
I get artists often asking me how to find a good manager. Along those
lines, what makes a client attractive to you for management? How do
you go about client selection?

Emily:
For one, I don’t want to care more about the artist’s career than
they do. An artist needs to be passionate about their career and
have already displayed a willingness to work. We [Whitesmith
Entertainment] tend to go after artists that have more than one
thing going on.

Margaret Cho, who we manage, is a comedian, an
actress, an author and has a music album coming out. Another client
we signed a few months ago named Alina Simone approached me and she
had a book deal in place, an album done and lots of press and tour
dates lined up. So we also look for artists who need something or
who have an existing business that needs managing.
I get artists approaching me all the time but we’re not miracle
workers. It’s not like I alone can make tours happen without the
artist having already put the time into their own career.

Musician Coaching:
Speaking of tour, what would be your advice for artists just starting up looking to break out of their home market or just building a following
locally?

Emily:
Oh gig swaps definitely – Trading an opening slot with a band
in your market for an opening slot for them in a market where they
draw well. It’s so easy with the internet – start looking for bands
in other cities on MySpace and reach out to them, you know?

Musician Coaching:
What I did in my band’s home market was befriend the one guy
who started booking my band’s gigs and asked him what a good match
for my band and I convinced the promoter to let me in for free and
hand out flyers and meet the band and network that way. I met great
local and regional bands that were a good fit for my band. It also
worked when asking about bands in the next town over.

Emily:
I can’t stress enough how getting shows is about 80% artist
to artist and only 20% from people like us [she vaguely gestures
back and forth over our green tea that has gotten cold]
there is always this assumption that “if I get an agent I will get
all these tours…” For example Trent Reznor saw an early Dresden
Dolls video on MTV2 and it was he who put them on tour with Nine
Inch Nails.

Musician Coaching:
That was my experience playing on a local level but you have
seen this all the way up to major acts like NIN?

Emily:
Oh yea, I mean our (The Dresden Dolls’) management had good
relationships with NIN’s management so I mean having good executive
relationships helped but ultimately that decision came from Trent
Reznor.

Musician Coaching:
So you would say artist networking then is very important?

Emily:
Totally! I mean Amanda (Palmer of The Dresden Dolls) was
always great at that. We would be at European festivals and I would
come back to the trailer and there she would be chatting with Elvis
Costello…Good girl!

Another artist we work with, Sydney Wayser, was at the Wanderlust
festival. She’s 22, totally brand new and this was one of her first
big festivals. I told her “your job is to go out and give your CD
and chitchat with Andrew Bird and Jenny Lewis and all your favorite
people that are here.” Sydney is shy, but she did a great job. So
that is much more effective than me talking to Andrew Bird or me
talking to Andrew Bird’s manager or anything like that.

Margaret Cho is another great example of effective artist
networking. She had a list of about thirty to forty artists she
wanted to work with for her upcoming album. Keri and I reached out
to artists that we knew and all of their managers and followed up
but eventually we exhausted our resources as managers. Margaret and
I went to Bonnaroo together and I told her it that what we needed to
get out of attending Bonnaroo was her sealing the deal with artists
directly and she absolutely did. Yes, we had been talking to the
Decemberists but when she was trying on sunglasses with them at the
Kaenon booth and told them about her album…that’s actually how that
happens. I think artists definitely need to establish those
relationships.

Musician Coaching:
Bringing this back to a more local and regional level, would you
say that for bands just starting out that approaching the big local
band is acceptable? For example in the case of your artists, who
tend to be artists with a great deal going on, are they willing to
give out advice to smaller bands if they are approached?

Emily:
Sure. Amanda was open to it. There is nothing wrong with
approaching a big local artist. I mean, I hesitated in approaching
The Dresden Dolls in 2003 because they were a big local band and I
figured they were doing fine but when I met Amanda and I said “I
intern at WBCN and write for this magazine and I’m a music business
major. Let me know if you ever need help with anything,” her
response was “Can you please come over tomorrow?” You’d be
surprised. Even bigger bands always need help.

Musician Coaching:
Good one. Changing gears, I often get approached about music
licensing for artists on their own. You’ve had some success at
that. Where does that come from? Is shotgunning stuff at music
supervisors of any value?

Emily:
Most of my bands are a little too weird for that. The Dresden
Dolls got some placement in the show Weeds and in a commercial in
Austria. I think with regard to licensing the placements Moby got
cracked it wide open and it became acceptable and not selling out
and it’s great exposure so people began to flock to that.

Musician Coaching:
The moment things seemed cracked open for me was Led Zeppelin’s
music in a Cadillac commercial.

Emily:
Yeah, that is an awesome way you can get exposure and make
money. It’s an ideal route but everybody is onto it so it is
incredibly competitive. As a result, it’s just not at the top of my
priority list. I do have some incredible relationships with some
music supervisors and people that shop songs but, again, some of my
best successes with that has been music supervisors who are fans or
again from the artists themselves.

Musician Coaching:
Going back to building something and having people come to you?

Emily:
Yeah. For example, Family of the Year [a band Whitesmith
just picked up for management in the last week] already had two
films interested. Granted, one of the members is an actress but the
band is very licensable. In general, most of my artists are a bit
too unique. I mean, when it happens, it happens and when it happens, it
can REALLY happen and pay well and do well but it is just such an X
factor. It’s a hard thing to count on.

Musician Coaching:
Tell me about what you think are must dos for artists out there

Emily:
Email list is absolutely number one, data collection. Having your own
website is key, using Google analytics which is free, fanbridge is
free to start an account and have an email list… All the stuff is out
there, you just have to have it organized. It definitely helps to
have a web savvy friend.

Musician Coaching:
With all the online tools now do you utilize the online feedback
on MySpace etc for song choices or single choices from the fans? Does
that kind of feedback ever determine what winds up on an album?

Emily:
Not yet, but it could. I think if we did it that way there
would have to be a promotional tie-in, some kind of contest.

Musician Coaching:
So back to basics again, if you were to start over from scratch
with an artist, what would you do? What would be the plan?

Emily:
I am so lucky to be doing that with Family of the Year right
now. I have this amazing music that they self-recorded so we are
literally starting from scratch. We booked them a few shows in L.A.
and we are bringing them in for CMJ. We started growing the email list
after taking names from their old band’s mailing list.

Musician Coaching:
How are you growing that?

Emily:
The social networks, pen and paper at the merch stand. It
also helps to have a cute intern go around the room and ask for
emails. We also set up a Google voice number so that people can
text in email addresses. We used to just call out a crew member’s
cell number from stage and get email addresses texted to them.

As for the real basics of band business, they were already
registered with BMI but we have registered the new songs. We are
figuring out what domain names to buy and getting Google analytics in
place. I mean we had the MySpace page up first. It’s kind of a one-
sheet for a band. Here’s the music, here are the tour dates, here’s
the email list etc.

Musician Coaching:
I look at having a MySpace page as being in the phonebook and
not usually much more important than that but, then again, you have to
be in the phonebook.

Emily:
Yeah and that is something that is easy for a band to set up.
We are cleaning up all their web properties and we are going to
release a digital EP in September.

Musician Coaching:
What is your philosophy on getting fans on MySpace? Is that
something you actively seek out?

Emily:
We absolutely do seek that out, in particular with Alina
Simone because she is at home writing for the next six months and
she’s shy. She’s on Twitter but not on it as much as other people.
I’m having someone I work with reach out to fans of similar artists
(PJ Harvey, Cat Power) and asking them if they have heard of Alina.
We feel she needs it.

Musician Coaching:
Thanks so much for taking the time to sit down with me. I’d be
thrilled to know more about Family of the Year as the story develops
so please let’s have them check in or you check in again soon!

I am actually pretty psyched about the New Music Seminar book that was given out when you purchased a badge. In the past guidebooks tended to be lists of the events and panels and performances as well as a contact list of the industry people who were attending and very little else. This guidebook has tons of information geared directly to the artist including sample tour budgets, riders and advice from industry professionals on their topic of expertise. My personal favorite piece of advice from the book was from Kevin Lyman of the Warped Tour who suggested checking the oil in your van on a regular basis and several ways to prevent your gear from being stolen on the road.

I was perhaps overly critical in my post yesterday about the panels as I forgot to mention that Emily White from Whitesmith Entertainment offered very real and tangible ways that Amanda Palmer and her other artists retained fans from the road including having her tour manager’s cell phone number shouted out from stage for the purpose of collecting fan email addresses via SMS. Of all of the panelist I got the sense from her that she had spent the most time at ground level working with bands (and it turns out she started out tour managing the Dresden Dolls). The rest of the panelists were discussing some good advice for fan retention and interaction but I wanted to hear more about the process of building a fan base. As I mentioned yesterday I missed the touring panel and I am sure judging by the members on it they would have much more experience in growing a following than I would but this is what I’ve learned and oddly most of it came from my time as a gigging musician rather than an industry executive.

I played bass (and became the manager by default) of a seven piece band that had a three year run from 1992-1995. The band was by no means a big success but we did manage to bring between 200-300 fans out on a regular basis towards the end of our little run in the NYC market which is a particularly difficult market to build a following. I’ve had other projects but this one makes the most sense to describe because it was really the band I learned the most from because I knew absolutely nothing when I started. I have since used modern tools in other projects I have been in more recently but these examples somehow still resonate.

Our first gig came about opening for a friend’s band. We were spared the cold calling and got a pretty lousy time slot club that at best held 400 people (I mean really held 400 people not what the fire marshal said it should hold). It was late-ish on a weekday night but we did manage to put 35 or so people in the room and we were invited back. At that point I don’t think we had even spoken to the guy who booked the room other than to ask what kind of back line was available and I’m pretty sure as it was our first gig that none of us really knew that it was called a back line.

It’s a funny thing being in a band, the idea was to play music and not have a real job because I hated the part time jobs I was able to get at the time and I think I dreaded job interviews even more. I would come to realize that every gig we ever played was simply a job interview for the next gig. If we wanted a better job at a better time slot on a better night we had to out perform the attendance expectations. If we wanted the same people who were there that night to come back the next time we played then we had better put on a damn good show.

I befriended the promoter of that first venue, it turns out he also booked a few other clubs and as we drew well for him on a usually slow week night. He was kind enough to suggest a few other nights at his other venues with bands that were more “our kind of music”. At the time we wanted to be like the JBs but were all very young and overplayed too much so it wound up being more like (sigh) disco. We played many such gigs with other bands who had a similar sound and were able to pull some fans from them as well.

I can already see this will be too long winded so I’ll sum up the things that helped the most going from a few dozen friends to a regular draw of several hundred people.

1) Make personal connections. I am going to take it for granted that everyone wanting to build a business is collecting email addresses and on all the social networks and using some restraint so as not to mass email everyone six times a day about important stuff like the lead singer having a headache. But I most remember being out and about with my bass on my back talking to people I worked with, talking to people I went to school with, talking to record store clerks and just talking to anyone about music. We wheat pasted flyers to telephone polls and send out mailers but I most remember that the people I stopped to talk to (without hard selling them) and actually handed a flyer to were the people who most often showed up. I still believe that looking someone in the eye will always be much more effective than emailing (at least locally). A side note about wheat pasting, I’m pretty sure no one does it anymore and it’s illegal (in NY) and the clubs get fined so be wary. Also be wary of smoking cigarettes while wheat pasting because inhaling wheat past that lands on your cigarette can be rather disorienting albeit not entirely unpleasant.

2) Be fearless. Like a band? Want to open for them? (and no, not U2, the big local or regional act) Introduce yourself after a show, get an email address explain your situation if they have some time. I’d be surprised if they didn’t do the same thing to the big regional act when they were coming up. Several larger acts mentored me after introducing myself in this way and one in particular became a life long friend. These relationships allowed my band to open up for some really powerful regional acts and really grew our band’s profile.

3) Be humble – Ask questions. Find people who have what you want, or even better find people who have what they want and ask them how they got it. For better or for worse I asked a local promoter for an unpaid internship because I wanted to learn how to get my band signed (yea, yea it was the 90s, shut up) and it got me an internship at Atlantic records. Ask the people at local clubs what they have found to be the most effective ways of promoting shows at their venue as soon as you book the gig and listen. The question alone let’s the person booking your act know that you care about your business.

4) Be Polite, follow up and don’t take rejection personally.

If you are in a position of cold calling put yourself in the position of the person on the other end of the line. And then think back to the stereotype of all musicians- guys and gals – as a rule, we suck! How much mediocrity and worse is out there? Do you silently groan when you see 3-4 normal looking people who are unknown to you take the stage before they have even opened their mouths or played a note? Well okay then… now picture it is your job to sift through mediocrity that we all know so well. If the last visual didn’t grab you go immediately to Guitar Center and stand in the guitar section listening to people trying out instruments for an hour if you come back smiling (from joy not Schadenfruede) please Fedex me some of what you are on immediately. Short story long – would you be happy to hear from a musician you didn’t know? I’m gonna go ahead and guess no. So call, be polite – provide facts about your business and accolades not how talented you are and then call as many other clubs that would have an act of your size and hope for the call back. Ask them their preferred method of getting material to them and do it as they request. Monday nights and open mics are the way to start and take baby steps from there.

5) Start small, start segmented. I will give it up to Terry McBride from Nettwerk who when I asked the basic build a band question to the panel he was on @ NMS simply said “start small, start local – Tribes.” This is sound advice. Go after an audience or community one community or segment at a time. At college- go after college students. Work at a big company? Go after co-workers. Belong to a strong group of some kind be it religious, national, political or hobby oriented? Group them together and market to them. The band I was in targeted the intoxicated, NYU students, Kung Fu fans and video gamers and even before the internet we manged to find these people. Be sure you are a part of these communities though because outsiders pedaling their wares with a hard sell are not at all welcome.

I may be way to scattered to be a blogger but those are some of the things that helped me – drop me an email I want to hear from you.