New York City
PERKS
“Being by yourself is better than being in a band. You don’t have to deal with any other personalities, and all the money goes to you. I literally bring headphones and a CD case to the gig. In the vinyl days, I’d spend maybe $300 a month on records; now I can get anything from any where. Maybe I download three songs from Beatport before a show, but I wouldn’t call that big overhead.”
PAINS
“I usually travel alone, and sometimes it would be good to have one person there watching over things. There are a lot of people doing drugs, and out of love, they’re annoying as fuck. I’ve been almost yanked out of a DJ booth. They’ve got my arm, and all of a sudden I’m off the ground. I’ll be in a corner by myself, and I can’t flag anybody for help. I don’t want to escalate the situation, so I just nod my head and try to snake out of it. They start repeating the same things, and I’m like, ‘I gotcha, dude.’ Cocaine makes people feel like they’re Superman.”
PAY
New York City
PERKS
“I’ve worked with everyone from David Byrne to the
Beastie Boys, and hanging around listening to them
talk about their art is inspiring. People have this per-
ception of publicists as bombastic and full of shit. But I
bring art to the masses. I’ve had artists say to me, after
their first big magazine feature, ‘Now my parents think
what I do is legitimate.’ And they mean it.”
PAINS
“There’s less money to go around, so you have to take
on more clients to maintain your standard of living. On
the Web, there’s a problem of accuracy: To get info up as
fast as possible, sometimes you lose the facts. Sometimes
I have to explain reviews to my clients: ‘Is that bad
or good?’ ‘Well, he did say you sound like Arcade Fire,
and everyone likes them, right?’ If something goes
well, you can take credit, but if it goes wrong, you get
blamed. And press still doesn’t sell records.”
PAY
Los Angeles
PERKS
“At a major label in the 21st century? It’s a leaner,
meaner record business. The expense accounts here
are now very, very modest. But people are still wowed
by the fact that you’re in any type of entertainment. It’s
a lot sexier to have a business card with my company’s
logo than to be working at Kinko’s.”
PAINS
“I scour North America for records on independent
labels or unsigned talent with airplay on local stations.
In the old days, you could break records regionally. Now
it’s very difficult. It’s hard for local acts to gain traction
nationally. In pioneering times, you’d just call a whole
bunch of record stores and they’d say, ‘ 3 Doors Down’—
they didn’t have a label then. But in the shrinking retail
environment, when you call a Best Buy, you don’t get
anyone on the phone who has any passion for music.”
PAY
Toronto
Los Angeles
Florida
PERKS
“It’s like a vacation. I get my own room and tour the
country. You count the merch around 2 P.M., and then
you do whatever you want until showtime. I’m even
into counting merch. I like going, ‘Oh, I can get rid
of this box and consolidate that and label this box.’ It’s
weird, because I’m not that organized in my home life.”
PAINS
“People wanting to know if there’s something on the
back of the shirt. Or they’re standing there forever and
there’s a giant line behind them. Other people on the
tour think that the merch people are the lowest on the
totem pole, and it’s bullshit. We’re making the money
that makes the tour go. On the White Stripes’ tour, we’d
sell $19,000 to $25,000 worth of merch a night, and
that was paying for everybody’s payroll for that day.”
PERKS
“The lifestyle. I’ve always liked being on the outside of nine-to-five culture. The whole romance of being in a band and not working, even if you’re dirt poor, it’s still a great life. When you’re on tour, you surrender yourself to the day’s schedule, and there’s something amazing about that. You roll out of bed on the bus and your meals are paid for and you’ve got a per diem, 20 to 30 bucks a day from the label. Either the club makes the meals or it’s catered. You’ve got fruit and food in the dressing room, plus things like clean socks and cigarettes. Finding a good cup of coffee is your most difficult job of the day.”
PERKS
“We’re treated with respect: Our rider says we get a
bottle of booze and beer at each show, and our meals
are paid for most of the time. Those are things you
never get when you start out in the music business.
You’re talking about guys who were working menial
jobs. I was making $20,000 a year busting my ass
on a job site.”
PAINS
“I have kids, and if you have a family, it’s quite a strain.
And you’re not paid every t wo weeks. You won’t get
anything for a few months, so it can be a juggling act.
I’ve worked as a carpenter on the side, and it’s good to
have another trade instead of just being a musician.”
PAINS
“I’m on the phone constantly. We’re not paying a
manager, and we don’t have a record company. The
job doesn’t have a pay scale. One guy can work for
nothing, and another guy can make hundreds a night;
there’s no way to gauge it. The fans have high
standards—you’d better be really good or they’ll
turn their backs on you.”
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