A Day In The Life
Summerland Routine
The life i have led so far as a musician transplanted to the United States from Yorkshire, England is certainly a lot different from that of my parents. I was just on the phone with my dad today, telling him how great a job he had done raising a family of four kids on one salary, and getting us all through college. Hugh (my father) is 82 and is like our dearly departed Robin Williams, a Parkinsons Disease sufferer. Williams' suicide brought accutely into focus the indignity of a condition which has the power to render you non functional to all around you. After a lifetime of supporting everyone in your family, it must be doubly humiliating to succumb.
So after all that it is probably hard for my folks to understand the pressures of the modern creative, but things have changed for sure: To start with, it's hard to imagine any family surviving from one salary and one job from one person these days.
And if ones job requires that one is away from home for periods of time it makes it all the more complicated. For these reasons i have to think twice before stepping away from home and onto a tour bus.
For some reason most people think that artists read from a completely different rule book to anyone else: You're not a 'real' artist unless you are in a constant state of purgatory. The only way to really enhance your credentials as a musical trailblazer is to jump off the nearest cliff! But i reject that completely and i am nobodys matyr!
With my partner wholly comitted to a full time postion in corporate fashion, it fell on me to leave no stone unturned before leaving town. First order of business was to interview and hire a full time nanny; check.
After that we had phone and Skype to reassure my 2 year old that Daddy was in fact 'coming back'. I learnt this helping raise my now 16 year old from opposite sides of the Atlantic after i broke up with my ex-wife: That a plan to meet again before you said goodbye, went a long way to ease the anxiety of those months apart. As a teenager my eldest wound up joining my nanny as part of the team to look after my two year old on her summer break! looks like that 14 year break between them paid off afterall!
Armed with these skills and vital team members, off i went into my other life as a rockstar. Once we had rehearsals out of the way, my day would usually look a bit like this:
1, Wake up, Late, breakfast, emails (advancing details to shows further along the tour), phone calls, (manager, agent, missus, nanny, daughter,)
2,Try and get a meditation in (doesn't always work out)
3,Walk out of the now stationary bus, figure out where the hell you are, locate venue, hotel, shower, etc.
4,Double check on load in/soundcheck times with other tour managers with the entourage.
5,Build my kit, maybe give the cymbals/drums a quick polish.
6,Lunch,
7,Soundcheck.
8,Meet and Greet, Radio or any press engagements for that day in that window between sound check and showtime.
9,Meditate (this one is the important one because it can help clear your head before we perform).
10,Warmups.... I got mine, everyones different, but i have to have a pair of sticks in my hand for a bit before i go out there.
11,Showtime; Where the magic happens (or not).
12,Head straight to the merchandise table to sign tee shirts and cds etc: Like most bands, we have realised that a physical presence at the merchandise table helps boost sales and puts you in touch with those whose lives you might have touched through the music. It's easy to be aloof, and disconnected, but i've gone out there so many times and my reluctance has bumped smack into the humbling moment someone tells you a story about how they met their wives/husbands at one of your concerts, or how they played one of your songs in a covers band they were in or how a lyric empowered them to do something positive for themselves. So to all those folks i've met out there, i say thankyou for sharing those thoughts and please come back someday!
13,After that i am straight backstage to finish up the pack down of the gear and loading into the trailer.
14,Scope out dinner and call the missus!
15, Drive to the next show: Depending on how much energy i've got left i might sit with the driver for an hour or two before retiring to bed. Our last tour as part of Summerland, included an RV, which wasn't the smoothest of rides. So either way it was commonplace for me not to sleep until the vehicle had arrived at its destination, hence the late starts!
Special Thanks to my boy Mike Popovich for the wonderful pictures, captured on his iphone inbetween the odd 12 hour drive.