Geronimo Posted August 9, 2002 Share Posted August 9, 2002 I am currently working with a young female singer/pianist/songwriter. We recorded the first demo tracks and the majors are starting to nibble... While preparing her live solo showcase program for record execs I was blown away by the preformance power and presence this girl has. She never performed her songs live before but she certainly has everything it takes to carry a strong show. Music style: Pop/Rock with strong Jazz and Classical flavor (very unique!) Location: Dallas, TX I am considering to put together a live show with a full band (drums, bass, 2x guitar, keys, percussion, 2 backing singers) plus a small string orchestra (maybe 15-20 heads) for touring with her. Considering that we have to carry a grand piano plus the 20-25 musicians this will be quite a project I guess. I've never done this in the US and never at such a scale at all. So here are my questions: - How do I get good live musicians? - How do I get tour promoters involved? - Who can help me with budgeting the tour? - Is this doable at all with a new artist? - What kind of technical trouble awaits me? - Is promoting a tour possible without a record release? - How long does it take for good musicians to get a 90 minute program down? I'll appreciate any comments and suggestions. Peace, :wave: Oliver Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dahkter Posted August 9, 2002 Share Posted August 9, 2002 Hey there, Not sure how much help I can be, but sounds like some good stuff. I worked with a girl trained in jazz/classical/opera, had her improvising over hip hop beats and absolutely loved it. Anyways, here's a try: - How do I get good live musicians? How did you find the singer? Speak to your other musicain friends (both online and in the real world), either go see them perform live, ask them to come by your house and play some for you (with some compensation), or have them send/email you some demos of their style.. - How do I get tour promoters involved? Not sure what a tour promoter does or is... - Who can help me with budgeting the tour? Most likely a label, or an investor, or credit cards... - Is this doable at all with a new artist? Definitely doable, but you would need the right marketing, promotion and a finished CD, album or heavily trafficked website in order to pull it off....airplay would help too... - What kind of technical trouble awaits me? Any and all types. Always have a plan B.... - Is promoting a tour possible without a record release? See above... - How long does it take for good musicians to get a 90 minute program down? Not sure, depends on how good they are, how complex the material is, and how high your expectations are.... Hope this helps, not the most experienced with this sort of thing, but like to see good musicains advance whenever possible.... Take it easy, The dahkter... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wewus432 Posted August 9, 2002 Share Posted August 9, 2002 Hey AcidKing: I'm a piano tuner/technician, and I know some of the folks at Balwin Pianos. If your girl would sign on as a Balwin Artist they might provide a piano in each city you go to, free of charge. You just have to display the Baldwin name on the side of the piano facing the audience. They have a big program doing this for various artist, it's cheap advertising for them. The dealer in each city is REQUIRED to provide a piano for every Balwin artist that request it. I'm not sure if they'd do it for an unsigned artist but I'd be glad to check it out for you. For a reasonable fee(plus expenses) I would be willing to co-ordinate delivery, and load in, load out of the piano at each city, and provide tuning and regulation of the instrument. That solves one of your little problems, now all you have to do is come up with about $40,000 a week to finance this little adventure. BTW, how much acid did you take? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
videoeditor1 Posted August 9, 2002 Share Posted August 9, 2002 [b]- How do I get good live musicians?[/b] Actually the easiest part. Getting everyone to move in the same general direction will be the main challenge. [b]- How do I get tour promoters involved?[/b] That depends on a whole lot of stuff. [b]- Who can help me with budgeting the tour?[/b] Budgeting, as in to MAKE a budget, or budgeting as in FINANCING a tour? If the former, you can pick and choose at your whim. If the latter (financing)...well... [b]- Is this doable at all with a new artist?[/b] Sure, read above. Also, whose pockets are you going into? [b]- What kind of technical trouble awaits me?[/b] No technical trouble should await you. If you've never done anything like this, on any scale comparable to this, it is in the best interest of the artiste and her work, and her success for you to recuse yourself from anything in this area. What's your REAL area of expertise? [b]- Is promoting a tour possible without a record release?[/b] Shit, yes. I work on such tours all the time. Given the size of the group that you are trying to assemble, I have to ask... Have you ever done anything remotely close to what you envision? If you're asking these questions [b]and[/b] (emphasis on the A N D), you don't have the money yourselves, or SOLID connections...you've done as much as you can do for the artiste. You should find the person or entity to take this lady to the next level. [b]- How long does it take for good musicians to get a 90 minute program down? [/b] If we're talking orchestra level here, then we can assume the music has been properly transcribed/etc, and ready for consumption [ ;) ]. Are you goingto be the conductor/MD - if even for the rehearsals? If the music is "proper", you can nail this 90 minutes down with pros in 3 days x 8 hrs day, with 1 day or "pre-production". For what you want to do, you're inna jam. Cost CANNOT be a big issue (think: what if you have to fly in and house musicians for a week...$$$$) Yiu want the absolute best of a few worlds. The whole group has to be tight together as a unit. That translates into more than one week of rehearsals. Where are you going to find a facility that can house 30 people, as they would be laid out on stage? ($$$$). For the size of the production involved, you're gonna need a crack tech team. (more $$$) The payroll for 30 people even at a "piddling" $1000/wk baloons into $30k/week - not including any money the act needs to earn. So you're looking at close to (reastically) (production, payroll, hospitality, agent(s) fees, rooms, trucks/bus airline?) $120K-180K/week flowing out of somebody's pocket (promoter, rec company etc) ... shit, per diems (@ $25/day) would be in the region of $5G's a week.... Hey, I'm outta steam. Take a look around (ProSound News etc) and see what the tours out there are grossing etc... Last, If the artiste has never quite toured before, she could quite possibly damn well break down on the road - cuz it can get strenous. Respectfully NYC Drew Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Henchman Posted August 9, 2002 Share Posted August 9, 2002 Unless you have very dep pockets, I would do the opposite. If she is that amazing, and has great songs, I would do a a show with her, and a keybaord player. And first try and blow people away with simplicity. Mark IMDB Credit list President George Washington: "The government of the United States is in no sense founded on the Christian Religion." President Abraham Lincoln: "The Bible is not my book, nor Christianity my religion." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Felix_dup1 Posted August 9, 2002 Share Posted August 9, 2002 [quote]Originally posted by TheWewus: [b]Hey AcidKing: I'm a piano tuner/technician, and I know some of the folks at Balwin Pianos. If your girl would sign on as a Balwin Artist they might provide a piano in each city you go to, free of charge. You just have to display the Baldwin name on the side of the piano facing the audience. They have a big program doing this for various artist, it's cheap advertising for them. The dealer in each city is REQUIRED to provide a piano for every Balwin artist that request it. I'm not sure if they'd do it for an unsigned artist but I'd be glad to check it out for you. For a reasonable fee(plus expenses) I would be willing to co-ordinate delivery, and load in, load out of the piano at each city, and provide tuning and regulation of the instrument. That solves one of your little problems, now all you have to do is come up with about $40,000 a week to finance this little adventure. BTW, how much acid did you take?[/b][/quote]Wewus, is that still working the same since Gibson's purchase of Baldwin? From what I understand, they used to have about 250 dealers, and now have only 30. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wewus432 Posted August 9, 2002 Share Posted August 9, 2002 Yes they are still maintaining their Concert and Artist division the last I heard but of course there is more distance between dealers now. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tedly Nightshade Posted August 9, 2002 Share Posted August 9, 2002 Geez, Wewus, I got a lady here who's dying to become a Baldwin Artist- actually she's dying to become a Bosendorfer Artist but they aren't nearly as desperate, for obvious reasons. ;) Our whole lives are completely hung up over the logistics and the big bucks of getting ahold of a 9' piano every night. Please do find out what you can and don't mention Bosendorfer! :eek: Curiously the woman over here is doing something like pop/rock with massive infusions of jazz and classical, and she has the magic to impress anyone who cares to listen, except some jealous old prunes. As for the gala production for the other lady- why bury her under a huge revue? Have it be solo or add drums and bass maybe. She'll shine a lot brighter. A WOP BOP A LU BOP, A LOP BAM BOOM! "There is nothing I regret so much as my good behavior. What demon possessed me that I behaved so well?" -Henry David Thoreau Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Geronimo Posted August 9, 2002 Author Share Posted August 9, 2002 Wow, thanx for all your responses. I know my initial proposition is kind of overkill, and the above mentioned cost and logistic involvements could prohibit the execution. On the other hand, she can very well enthrall an audience just by herself. So I will definitely look into the option of a more simplistic approach. :wave: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wewus432 Posted August 10, 2002 Share Posted August 10, 2002 I'll check out the application process for Baldwin Artist for both you guys. There ARE many 9 ft. Balwin Concert Grands, the SD-10, I've worked on many of them. The Concert and Artist program originally had 100 SD-10 stationed around the country and available for artist to use, I'm afraid that number is greatly reduced since the shakeup. Here's a little secret. For anything but classical music I think the SF-10, seven footer, sounds better. The little bit of inharmonicity in the bass gives it a little more punch. Try it. I think it is THE best piano for pop, rock, jazz, anything but classical. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tedly Nightshade Posted August 10, 2002 Share Posted August 10, 2002 Interesting, Wewus! My gal plays bass on the piano along with a quiet drumkit (piloted by meself) so big, healthy, thundering bass is in order. "Ted, is there a CD I can buy available of your pop/rock/classic/jazz gal? I'm always interested what the 'competition' does." Well there would be if we could get our sorry asses off the ground. I'm glad to see "competition" in quotes- we're not competing! This is a totally unique article here, I'm sure yours is too! The lady also is a monster composer- a lot of times the first time through is an improv, the second time is a composition. I could probably get something together if you're real curious, out of out-takes and work tapes we have here. It seems like it's all out of date as soon as it's made- she's growing fast. I appreciate the Steinway only thing, but you got to have bucks to insist on that... A WOP BOP A LU BOP, A LOP BAM BOOM! "There is nothing I regret so much as my good behavior. What demon possessed me that I behaved so well?" -Henry David Thoreau Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Meriphew_dup1 Posted August 10, 2002 Share Posted August 10, 2002 I would focus on the local area (Texas) if I were you. If she's as good as you say she is, then she should draw enough attention to be scouted. No sense in dragging her across the country with you footing the bill, at least not yet. Be the big fish in the small pond. www.meriphew.com Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
StoneKnife Posted August 10, 2002 Share Posted August 10, 2002 Very good advice above. Having toured with a 13-piece band plus 4 support people doing lights and sound, I can tell you that running even a 'lttle deal' of that size is a full-time pro's responsibility. The gigs must support the expense. You will need to sell some serious tickets as NYC Drew correctly observed. Not likely to be pulling in 200 thousand-dollar gates with a virtual unknown -in the first year. Best thing you can do is put together a core group that has some very good key/MIDI strings and get that tight. All the other stuff can be added later. "We are the Federales... You know, the Mounted Police..." ---"If you're the police, where are your badges?" "Bodges?..." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
teh dri Posted August 10, 2002 Share Posted August 10, 2002 im just going to take the easy answer and say: "whoaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa" those logistics would be way over my head man are the strings really necessary? thats some big outlay good luck with it anyway! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Henchman Posted August 11, 2002 Share Posted August 11, 2002 And last, but not least, I assume you do have a contract with her? IMDB Credit list President George Washington: "The government of the United States is in no sense founded on the Christian Religion." President Abraham Lincoln: "The Bible is not my book, nor Christianity my religion." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Meriphew_dup1 Posted August 11, 2002 Share Posted August 11, 2002 Good point Henchman. www.meriphew.com Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Geronimo Posted August 12, 2002 Author Share Posted August 12, 2002 Thanks guys, Yes, I do have a contract with her. Over the weekend we worked thru some of the options we have and it seems, that we will take some of your advise and run with it. There is an opportunity in town to throw a major fund raising bash at a very classy mid sized (2000 seats) venue. We would do a core program with her solo on the piano and bring in a couple of guests for specific songs. Guitar, a percussion performance group, maybe parts of the local Symphony. That way the planning and financing is within a certain manageable range and if we can pull it off and make some waves then we take it from there. The involvement of Clear Channel in some aspects of the event might help in the future as well. :cool: Keep the good stuff coming, as you see, I can use every bit of advise I can get. Peace, Oliver Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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