The very first guest EVER on our Export 101 podcast was singer, songwriter and pianist extraordinaire Louise Page. She dug in on her process for booking a tour (get your dry erase markers ready) and how she’s leveraged cover gigs to grow as an artist and performer. Here are a few of our favorite takeaways – click below to watch or listen to Louise’s full episode now.
Go Where You Know (People)
“On my first tour, I planned a lot around where I knew I had friends and family. We didn’t tour in Norfolk, Virginia, because it’s poppin’. We played it because my aunt lives there and let us stay there. No shade to Norfolk! It just makes sense: there are people who’ll come to your show, and hopefully you’ll get a free place to stay. Get a map and mark the cities where you have people you know and see if you can make a route.”
Have an Anchor
An anchor date = that one well paying gig that makes lots of other smaller gigs worth the trip.
“On my first tour, we had an anchor date at the Central Pennsylvania Festival of the Arts in my hometown – I interned at the festival when I was 18, so I have an ‘in’ there. We were a young band when we played but we made decent money.”
Solo effort or group project?
Louise is a solo artist who has prioritized touring with a band – which is no easy (or cheap) thing to do. Her advice is to be prepared for the dollars and cents.
“If you want to have a band but retain creative control and be the face of it, you have to be prepared to back it all financially. When I bring my band on tour, they don’t pay for anything. If you want people to invest in you like that, time and energy into your work, your project, you can’t then also ask them to invest financially.”
Building Your Chops
Not every gig is a dream gig – but every gig can help you evolve and grow your craft.
“Playing the piano bars – it almost turns into a service industry job. You’re dealing with the public. You have to find a way to be personable with people who are not always being personable with you. It gives you stamina, it builds your repertoire. It’s given me a really good handle on what people want to hear. It’s demystified the audience for me.”
Louise Page on what it means to be export ready: “I think, if you’re looking for an extremely tangible answer, to be export ready you should have hit a couple of early career milestones. Specifically, you ideally would have enough original music that you are comfortable performing to fill up at least a 30 minute set, you will have played at least 10-15 local live shows, and you will have attended enough live music to begin to build a social network of independent bands and musicians around the country. The last point is important because these will be the people that help you book shows in cities outside of Memphis.
Having said that, I think with any art – including music – everyone’s timeline and journey is completely different. It’s important to be brave, to be bold, and to try new things. It’s also very important to forgo perfectionism – because if you wait for your music or your live set to be ‘perfect,’ you will never begin.
Ideally you will have at least a little bit of experience performing original music locally before you take it on tour, but if an opportunity to go on tour or play music outside of Memphis presents itself, I say whether you feel “ready” or not – go for it!”