“Six (Hours) On the Road And We’re Not Gonna Make It Anywhere (Fancy) Tonight”
Nothing like murdering a classic truck driving country song title all for a bad pun. Party’s Over, at least according to my brain at 5 am. Woke up in a cold sweat remembering a bunch of emails I forgot to send, tour planning for upcoming dates that I need to catch up on, and social media posts I haven’t done in days. Also not looking forward to getting back in the car for another 6 hours, wondering/worrying how things are back home, and really, just plain tired. Questioning the sanity of mixing business with pleasure in this way. This happens every tour, and a lot of the time at home too. Most of the time it seems worth it. Some days it’s just hard. I’m trying to get some stuff done before leaving the lovely hotel here in Arbois (it doesn’t help that I like this town so much I don’t want to leave!) and I’m having to do things twice to fix typos and correct mistakes my sad, under caffeinated brain is making…
… 6 hours later, we’re in a little hotel room that basically resembles a Microtel next to a truck wash by the highway. It’s tiny and basic and clean, and a totally unromantic letdown from the beautiful setting of the last couple of days. We’re definitely back to work now. Some of the restaurants in the town nearby don’t open until 6 or 7 pm, this being Europe after all, so I’m trying to use the time to wade through videos I’ve been taking of some of our shows, to chop them up and make some “Content” to post on TikTok, Instagram, YouTube, Facebook etc. Artists today are required to contribute to the regular feeding of the Content Monster, so I’m trying to play along so the interwebs will keep making my stuff pop up on peoples’ feeds so I don’t disappear into the digital ether. I HATE this kind of work. It drives me insane, but it’s the world we live in. I hate that it’s even defining the world we live in when it comes to creativity. I’ve read that the rise of TikTok/short form videos/social media, along with the decrease in attention spans are influencing the kind of songs that are being written now - because videos of 1 minute and under are all the rage, people aren’t writing long songs anymore. (Good luck with that happening here, ha ha.) At any rate it’s definitely not improving my mood any today.
I’ve been asking our remaining two shows how things like CD sales are there. It seems to depend on region. In Bavaria, we did sell some CDs, while in Switzerland we didn’t sell any. Like in the US, a lot of people just don’t have the means to play them anymore. Much has been written about this and what it means for touring musicians, but the reality for us here is that CD sales used to be very helpful when it came to subsidizing things like tanks of petrol, tolls, and meals. Nowadays, you can’t count on that anymore. And unless you’re already a successful artist, streaming royalties are barely going to be able to buy you a cup of coffee, much less help with the gas and tolls. This applies worldwide. And it’s a really rough reality for blue collar, touring musicians like us with fairly thin margins. Hopefully some folks in the Netherlands will buy some CDs. Not only will it help offset the travel costs, but I don’t want to have to bring a bunch home, contributing to potential baggage fees.