Is Gigging a Waste of Time?
Jessi Frey
http://musiconthemake.comFollow @ihelpmusicians
The first advice everyone gives to a band is to throw as many gigs as possible, anywhere and everywhere. I would like to stop for a minute and really seriously ask the question, is gigging really as important as everybody claims? When was the last time you saw a band you’ve never heard of and as a consequence became a fan? It happens, but not very often. The truth is, that most of us are not particularly interested in bands that we have NO CLUE of, and even when a band manages to raise our interest, if they can’t follow up with a cool website and plenty of songs and videos on offer, we’ll forget them as soon as the beer buzz wears off.
There are examples of musicians that have done well without throwing that many gigs. Kate Bush famously played two shows in London in 1979 and hasn’t entered the stage since. The Gorillaz didn’t tour until 9 years after their debut album. And it’s not only the insanely talented famous people who have managed to pull this off. Jemma Hixon suffers from agoraphobia (a fear of open spaces), and hasn’t been able to leave her house in two years. Instead she has been singing on YouTube. In March one of her videos was the most viewed video on Youtube in China. That’s a big following.
One thing that’s in common with Gorillaz and Kate Bush, and even Jemma Hixon is that even if they don’t gig, they do perform. Kate Bush released a dozen music videos by mid-eighties. That is a huge amount, considering this was an era before music TV or home VHS. Gorillaz famously replaced gigging with interesting visual world of cartoon characters. Youtube is the new MTV. Just ask Jemma Hixon. Or Justing Bieber.
So could it actually be a good thing not to gig? Let’s follow this thought just a little longer. Say you’ve got an average of four gigs a month. Not a crazy amount, but pretty good. Let’s say you also have a job, but apart from that you’re putting most of your time to your band. So one day a week you get a van, load it up, drive a few hundred miles, unload, soundcheck, eat, play, wait for the venue to close, load the car, drive back, unload, return the van, go home. That’s easily 24 hours of your week. Ok then you need to sleep a bit so that’s pretty much the following day gone, too. Can you do other stuff while gigging like writing new stuff? Some people can, but most can’t. So how much time does that leave to do all the other stuff on top of gigging and rehearsing. Not much.
Alternatively, let’s say you don’t gig so much. Instead you commit to writing, recording and releasing a new tune every month. You are active online, create compelling videos and your own visual world (not just goofing backstage type videos). Once you’ve made some followers you ask where they are and then you go and play there.
Just like you shouldn’t be selling you’re music before there is a demand, you shouldn’t put all your time on gigging. Instead put your effort first on writing good tunes, figuring out who you are and what you have to say. Then figuring out who likes your stuff and where they are. The magic of the internet is going to deliver your music to more people than yet another gig to your sound engineer and two best friends at the local watering hole.
Ok, so here comes the disclaimer. Yes, you’re a musician, so yes, you should be playing gigs. If you don’t your live shows are going to suck. Playing live keeps the band’s blood pumping. It’s good to get out of the bedroom. However, I wanted to stop for a while and take a hard look at the rarely questioned logic of playing as many gigs as possible. Could it be done smarter?
First off, Love the post. I think it’s a question a lot of artists I know should ask.
You see the problem in my scene is a lot of artists play as many gigs as they can. They load up and travel or they play the same pub over and over again which is great for their live performance. But a lot of them never move passed this stage, why? quite frankly, because their music stinks. They don’t have the time or take the time to really work on their craft.
I think that with the internet allowing you to share like you can, even if it’s just a few friends at first, you have the ability to hone you’re songswriting, and build an audience online first. I did this with facebook (I don’t like twitter) and my first live event I sold out along with 250 hard copy’s of my cd.
When it’s all said and done, gigging will cost you money and if you don’t already have an audience (which you can get online) I do think it’s a waste of time.
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Play play play! Human interaction is where it’s at. If you don’t do live shows I won’t buy your stuff. I’ve been a professional musician since the late 70′s and I’m hired because of my experience. Not because I can play in my bedroom but because I know what it takes to provide drums for an artist. A good song is a good song but selling a song is marketing where performing a song is artistry. You can’t be a painter if you don’t paint. http://www.davidclawson.com
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i think performing is important too, but the irony of your comparison is that painting is done “from the bedroom”! although a painter and a musician don’t exactly line up as metaphors for each other, painting could be most accurately compared to recording, not performing. again, i think both are important too.
i play about 6-10 shows/parties a month, and also have spent a great deal of time in the bedroom, making videos for youtube and writing songs. i think both are important, but for different reasons. remember how much everyone thought fallout boy sucked when they started touring off their meteoric myspace success? probably because of a lack of experience playing. but how many spectacular bands have i never heard of because they don’t put in the time to write and promote themselves online?
the answer?
1. be single
2. don’t sleep. stay up late, get up early.
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Haha spot on, Nate!
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Or you can take your spouse on the road with you like Ozzy Osbourne used to do b4 Reality TV!
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Nice article Jessi,
This is a push and pull with me daily. I have been gigging about 2-4 times per month since last October. Realizing that since then I have not recorded or finished a lot of songs. I keep going through the process of trying to work a band and make music. With all the time it takes to book, rehearse, and promote a gig, it leaves very little time for anything else music-wise. Especially with a day job and family. I find myself contemplating my live band everyday. In the end I am still doing both, mainly because I feel it’s not fair to the guys in my band, to work up our show, rehearse and do gigs, only to tell them that I can’t do both and I want to get back to the writing and recording. Not sure how this is going to play out but I can totally relate to this article! The way I am looking at it is, if the band is not in high demand gigging-wise within a year of our debut, I will then go back to the studio and just write and release music online. Perhaps with some live “in studio” performances. We’ll see how it goes but this touches on something I think about daily!
Troy Castellano
http://www.troycastellano.com
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Thanks Scott for all the great posts and info. To gig or not to gig, that is a question of balance and proportion. Since you’re in the
website, cyberspace business and are a big proponent of the ‘Music Marketing Manifesto’, it seems natural that you will plant seeds in that direction. Kate Bush was produced by David Gilmour and married to
Peter Gabriel, played live in her early years and had her early song ‘Wuthering Heights’ covered by Pat Benetar. Perhaps Kate fits your example. Gorillas, I believe was a studio band first anyway. Van Halen was discovered playing live at a gig by Gene Simmons, Green Day went huge after playing Woodstock 94 with the mud fight that was filmed. Perhaps you can cherry pick a wider sample of examples. If you were in the gig business directly, would you plant seeds to the effect of ‘it you’re all hooked up in social networking, have a killer site and blog, would you need to gig?
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Yeah this is really great to think about. I think it’s about balance for sure. For me and my band, we try to put on a show about once a month, not more, in and around our area to sell our album and like someone else said ‘to keep the blood pumping’.
Other than that I think releasing online content of any kind, and focusing huge on creative output and skill development should be a big big focus point. Thanks!!
Loraine
http://www.myspace.com/divineisnothing
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Is ‘Not’ Gigging A Waste of Time?!
http://www.flavors.me/henrysoul
http://www.facebook.com/pages/HENRY-SOUL/100983011050
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Hey thanks for your comments!
@Henry and David: I do agree with you but wanted to push the topic a bit.
@Marcess, Troy and Lorraine, great to hear your thoughts on this.
@Zowie interesting thought, is the online presence vs. gigging a bit of a chicken and egg? Which one comes first? Both has to, I suppose.
It’s all about the right balance, as you say.
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Get out of the house and get some fresh air or you’ll go stale. On stage you will relate to your fans better and vice versa, maybe even pick up a few new fans. You’ll find out how your songs connect or not and see what to improve. The work gigs make the band tighter. Also, a chance to sell some product and see fan reactions first hand, more fun and personal.
Too much gigging takes away from creative time to write, easy to get sloppy and is monotonous. I always want time to myself to improve technic and get to writing stuff in the back of my mind.
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The non-cynical part of me says that gigging is essential and invigorating. You get to play your music in front of others and entertain people, and you get out and get to (hopefully) have fun.
However after spending the past 25 years practicing at home, rehearsing with bands that ultimately went nowhere, and playing shitty gigs to rooms full of drunk assholes I feel obliged to say stop now because its all a waste of time and find another hobby, or better yet find a hot chick to screw/
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Gigging certainly can be a waste of time, as well as puttering around on all the web 2.0 sites online. What it comes down to is having a plan; if you don’t have a plan for WHY you’re gigging or WHY you’re tweeting/facebooking etc – you’re wasting your time.
You can get burned out gigging and at the same time, I found nothing helped to kick my bands ass into gear better than booking a show somewhere. Balancing the two is tricky, but without a plan chances are you’re wasting your time either way.
And if your plan isn’t working? Make a new one and try again.
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Hey Jessi
Great topic and a real thinker here. I’d like to present this from a slightly different angle though. Yes, I agree that gigging CAN be a waste of time if you don’t approach it properly… but really, the same can be said for the recording and online promotion. Many artists are under the impression that they will get discovered in a live setting, and this is where I completely agree with you: it just ain’t going to happen (rare exceptions excluded). HOWEVER, if artists approached gigging as less a discovery tool and more an engagement tool, they will likely see much more success. Here is the model I would follow: use the internet to grow the fanbase (and obviously engage with the fanbase on a regular basis) but use the gigs to get some face time with your fans as well.
What does this mean?
It means seeking out the location of your existing fans and playing shows that may or may not be intimate, but surely cater directly to them; to those who are ALREADY your fan and are looking for more than tweets and videos.
In agreement with you and this article, the biggest problem that I see from many emerging artists is the idea of booking the wrong gigs, in the wrong places, for the wrong reasons. But that said, I wouldn’t go as far as to say that gigging is a waste of time.
Jon Ostrow
MicControl.com
@miccontrol
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Perhaps thats why she still appears distant — even threatening — to.journalists and media people who seek to discover the REAL Kate Bush. She achieved that largely through writing pouring out her deepest pent-up.emotions onto powerful stark poetry. He was so impressed that he paid for her to make some professional.demos and lost no time playing them for EMIs Bob Mercer.
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