There’s one great plastic, fantastic reason for you to get out there, make noise, jump up and down, meet people, shag people, smile at people, listen, interact, make friends, expose yourself, push, push, push, and make your music as important to other people as you can…

If you don’t do it with yours...
somebody
else
is doing it with theirs.

You don’t need to look far for an example of how important it is to get out there, tour, and do the work. Do you think for one second that, if it wasn’t essential, that any politician in the country would ever leave home? Can you imagine the torture they endure? The lengths they go to protect themselves from air-borne and hand-borne germs? Most of those guys can’t even bring themselves to think about other people, let alone touch them—unless it’s on the ass. So the only reason they are out there is: 1) More ass or 2) Every one of their advisors has told them that they have to, shown them the evidence, and pushed them out the door. “But,” you ask, “How does this affect me? I’m not into politics; I’m just making music!” Shut up, get real, and get in the van. Every single element affecting your career and your ability to continue is helped by touring:

• The record store is more likely to stock your music and put up a poster.

• The local paper is more likely to review your CD or mention your show.

• Anyone anywhere is more likely to check out your MySpace page if they see you are coming to town.

• Any promoter in any other city is more likely to give you a gig if they see you are performing in other parts of the country.

• People on the Web write about things that happened at shows they went to, not shows that didn’t happen, that they couldn’t go to….

• You’ll have direct and immediate feedback from a real, live audience, either smiling and jumping up and down because the songs you thought were great really are, or screaming and throwing things because you are delusional and your songs are shit. Either way, this is way more valuable than a bunch of people on your MySpace page plugging their own music.

• People are more likely to buy your CD or listen to it somewhere, anywhere! So they can sing along with their favorite songs at the show and look like they’ve known about you for years.

• If they buy the CD before the show, they’re more likely to buy a T-shirt at the show and a copy of the live album.

• Your manager, if you have one, will prioritize you over another band because you are working harder (unless the other band is Radiohead.)

• You can be the eyes and ears for your label, if you have one... or for other bands. You can tell them where responses are good, let them know where no one has your music, and at the same time give them a real reason to tell retailers why they should stock your music, like: “We just played to 450 people on a Tuesday night! People went crazy! We sold three times the CDs we usually sell from the booth because no one can find it around here.”

• Your agent, if you have one, will pay more attention if you show him you are going to do seven shows a week. That means if he can get you a point where you are earning $1,000 a night, then you have the potential to earn him $1,000 a week.

• You are creating more of your own content... you can’t release a Live in Paris album if you don’t go and play there!

• The more you play, the better you get!

Some once asked me: “You’ve said that it only makes sense to do one tour if you’re going to do three more. Explain the reasoning behind that philosophy.”

My reply: The first time through, you’re generating smoke. If you don’t do something with that smoke, it dissipates. People’s memories are short. You’ve got to be better the second time to seem as good as you were the first time to the people who already saw you. Then you need to go back the third time to have those people bring their other friends and the guy from the paper who couldn’t come the first time. Then you’ve gotta tour the fourth time because if you don’t, that good review is wasted because you haven’t turned it into some T-shirt sales.

Peace, Love, Respect

Martin Atkins