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What a Full-Time Touring Musician’s Daily Schedule Really Looks Like
Just another typical tour...
No two full-time musicians' schedules are identical. Depending on the projects they're involved in, the to-do lists will vary greatly. There are few better examples of an exceptional hustle, however, than that of Alex White, one-half of the heady garage-rock duo White Mystery. She and her brother Francis have been kickin' under that moniker for more than five years now, and in that time have put out four LPs, toured relentlessly around both North America and Europe, played huge festival gigs, been featured in promotional campaigns for Levi's and Converse and, just recently, even made a nutty, psychedelic rock 'n' roll film based on recent travels. And they've accomplished all of that in a completely DIY fashion.
"My life, physically, is like coffee, emails, working out, playing, sleeping. And some eating. But mostly coffee," Alex says.
We spoke with Alex to get an idea of a typical workday, but she couldn't give us just one. Below are loose accounts of her two schedules: one during a tour, the other during the off months, and each with some extra bits that are actually crucial to how she operates. New bands especially, I think, will find her efforts inspiring, and the actual nuts and bolts of it all quite illuminating. It won't work for everybody, of course, but it's certainly worked for White Mystery.
A typical day when not touring
7:30 a.m.: On a day like today, I wake up at like 7:30 in the morning. I get up, I make coffee – like six cups of coffee – and I sit down at my computer and open my inbox. I see what's in there while the coffee's brewing, make my bed, pour myself a cup, and sit down and start looking at my emails. I get almost 100 every day. I start answering them in order of easiest to answer to hardest, which may not be the best strategy, but that's how we do it because I kind of like to get those easy ones out.
11:00 a.m.: Today I went and worked out for an hour; I lifted weights, and I ran.
1:00 p.m.: I came home, and my three interns came over. They come at 1:00 p.m. every Monday, three Columbia College students. We learn a different discipline every week and apply it. I do so many things that I always have a project related to what we're talking about. Today with the group we focused on booking, and they have the option to call in or come in person.
2:30 p.m.: Around [this time] we have lunch, they work on something for me until, like, 3:00 p.m., and then I get back to my emails and see what's come up.
3:00 p.m. until late night: I take my dog for a walk, and then I work until, like, two in the morning answering the rest of the difficult emails, like contracts and stuff like that. Today it's 7:30 p.m. and we ordered a deep-dish, Chicago-style pizza.
What are those 100 or so emails about, actually?
It's a lot of organizing and planning, and the particulars shift based on the project at hand. Lately, a lot of Alex's work has been focused on making the band's movie, That Was Awesome, come to life.
"[What] took up a lot of my time was developing the film," she says. "Working with an editor and his questions and the filmmakers, who each have their own part, and then booking the premiere party for it. You're trying to cover a lot of ground by communicating with people." READ MORE about this article - CLICK HERE
Article Credit: www.blog.sonicbids.com
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