Tell us about your tour vehicle.
2016 Mercedes Sprinter Van. This is our 3rd one – we live in that thing and love it so much. We’ve been playing around the country 250 shows a year for quite some time now. We drive about 120,000 miles a year. The seats kind of suck, but its nice to stand up and stretch your legs, especially through the 20 hour drives we sometimes would have to take.
How do you eat cheaply and/or healthy while on tour?
Cheap and healthy are two different things when you live at gas stations. I try to eat gas station fruit during the day and when I get to the venue I’ll walk to the local restaurant and use my per diem on something local. That’s my favorite part about touring – seeing what the locals eat.
How many instruments do you break in a typical year? How much does it cost to replace them?
I’m a piano player but because I’m so aggressive with my piano, I’ll go through 2 pianos a year. It’s pretty expensive – like $1500 a keyboard – but hey, that’s rock ‘n’ roll.
Where do you rehearse?
We’ve only had maybe 3 band practices total as a band. We all live all over the country so it’s hard to practice. We normally do a quick thing at sound check and see what happens. I’m not one who likes to prepare for anything – just go with the flow and be present. Hopefully it’ll work out lol.
What was the title and a sample lyric from the first song that you wrote?
“Girl on Maury” was the song – I was kind of emo back then. “Throwing rocks at your bedroom window, screaming your name as the rain poured down” hahahahahaha
Describe your first gig.
Cedar Rapids, Iowa during a BlackHawks game – no one gave a shit about the band. Lol
What was your last day job? What was your favorite day job?
Never had a day job. I bought a van with my bar mitzvah money right when I graduated high school and hit the road. Been on the road every since.
How has your music-related income changed over the past 5-10 years? What do you expect it to look like 5-10 years from now?
I think as you keep doing it year after year financially it gets easier. You just have to never give up.
What one thing do you know now that you had wished you knew when you started your career in music?
I wish I had learned an instrument better before I started touring. The first couple of years I was just doing shows through crowd work and jokes. I had to play catch up to get to a point where people finally took me seriously as a musician. I wouldn’t change it though.