Ah touring, everyone’s favorite sexy alluring demon beast of the music industry. It can be one of the greatest and worst uses of your time as a band, turning moderate fans to lifelong superfans, or causing you to lose thousands of dollars and play to empty rooms. Personally, I have toured over half the country, and played absolutely empty rooms and festivals (one opening for Tool, Coheed & Cambria, and Primus) but have since declined tour offers in the last 16 months.
Here’s Why.
1) It Ruined My Production Business
Being in a touring band, or being a hired gun for a variety of bands, is an incredibly demanding job in every way. You have grueling long hours on an irregular schedule, which can make it hard to nurture and develop relationships back in your hometown.
I certainly ran into this when dealing with touring and my music production business. I would schedule in clients a month or two ahead, and have to cancel on them for a tour. It was deeply sabotaging my ability to grow my freelance business into sustainable income, and with no additional people to rely on financially I have to make sure my bills are paid and clients are taken care of before I can dive into new ventures.
2) Physical and Mental Health
One of the big things people can’t really comprehend until you’re on the road is the amount of physical and mental strain you go through while touring. Depending on your setup, you may be in a cramped vehicle where you can’t fully stretch your body for 12 hours in a day, you may be sleeping in the van, you’re hauling tons of heavy gear over and over, getting little or no sleep some nights, eating worse food … and that’s just the physical end.
The mental roller coaster is non-stop. You get these insane highs for 30 minutes every night, and spend the majority of your waking time staring at the horizon in a deep mental emptiness, waiting for your next “high”. This constant up and down really drained my mind over time and I started to crave a sense of stability in my day to day. And I’m not alone, I’ve been in enough band van arguments to see the mental side effects of being cooped up in a box for 30 days straight.
3) Money. Of Course.
While I deeply love the adventure, spontaneity, and kinship of touring, the money is hardly ever worth it. And yes, the “return on investment” for touring is FAR beyond just money, but it’s doubly important because committing to touring means you can only hold a freelance job when you are back, which means you need to be TRIPLE hustling to maintain this business and book yourself in the exact slots between tours.
As I was developing my music production and mixing freelance service business, I could really feel how much I was hindering my own growth with touring. I would work for 2 or 3 months, have some money saved, then it goes right back into the ether by touring. Save up, maybe break even one run, but then BOOM the next tour sucks all the pittance savings away.
Something I REALLY advocate for with anyone who is in the music world is to get your finances in order before making high-risk investments like touring. Be okay with losing money in any high-risk investment, and never put in more than you are willing to lose. I have seen several people breakdown on the road because they completely ran out of money. It’s heartbreaking to see, and I hope nobody goes through that again.
I have a whole 13-minute video essay on this topic titled “Why Touring Is A Waste For Musicians” here https://youtu.be/APBoYf73oz4 if you want to hear more reasons, and see me deliver it with skits and 100% goober-ness.
JOHN MCLUCAS
John McLucas is a full-time pop/rock music producer, mixing engineer, and content creator in Los Angeles California. He’s worked with professionals from all corners of the music industry, including Grammy Winning Engineer Dennis MacKay (Judas Priest, George Martin, David Bowie), Joey Sturgis Tones, Unstoppable Recording Machine, and Oculus VR. His strength is in coming up with unique creative concepts in both audio and visual mediums for his clients, corporate and personal.
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