This is an area I never seem to get to read about for most bands or singers/artists etc.
There are so many bands out doing the rounds these days, touring overseas, or touring in their own countries. Most of these bands, the wider mass will not have heard about. For example, I could walk up to lots of people in my home town in Ireland and say “Adam Franklin”, and they’ll say “who???”.
However, from what I read here, and the albums I have bought, Adam is tipping away nicely making records and touring stateside.
But I always wonder about the nitty gritty things. Adam won’t be on MTV anytime soon, or be playing at Euro festivals, so what does he do from day to day to pay the rent, put food on the table? Or not just necessarily Adam, but other bands at a similar level?
Do they work day jobs? If so, how do they get time off to tour? If they don’t work day jobs, what do they do?
Who pays for the tours? Tours ain’t cheap, so not sure how this works.
Even things like getting a visa to tour (essentially work in another country). From my perspective, being Irish, I am thinking it would be difficult to organize visas for tours to the US, or Canada, or Aus/NZ etc. I don’t know how this works.
Even a simple thing like: Adam is English? Is he a naturalised American citizen? I was reading an interview with Kevin Drew this morning, and he was saying how they recorded in Chicago, and he just kicked back there for longer than they had planned? I’m thinking “how did you do this?” Were there not visas to sort etc etc. What did you survive on in Chicago? Personal savings or did a label foot the bill?
All this type of stuff I like to read about that nobody else does lol..
I ask this as I am a musician who may/may not go down this road next year, but I still have to pay the bills, and at the moment for me, original music doesn’t pay any bills!! If I got to the level of Adam Franklin, I would consider that success. To be able to make a living out of original music would be a success to me, in this day and age.
So, do you think Adam (and those at a similar level), make a living out of their original music, or do they/we always have to have irons in many fires…