In my last post, I talked about the support a band needs
from friends and family. This post will be about the other kind of support -
what I call “organic” or “earned”
support.
Let me start by saying organic support has nothing to do with granola.
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| Granola is delicious, though. |
Organic support comes from the actual, real fans that you
earn with your music and from sponsors. Friends and family can become real
fans, but they usually don’t since, as I mentioned in my last post, they tend
to have a certain vision of you off stage that trumps whatever kind of amazing rock
star you are on stage. They’re invested in you remaining their little
brother/college roommate/co-worker instead of a rock star.
So real fans usually don’t know you outside of your band.
The thing that makes real fans so awesome is you know their fandom is real. If
they tell you you’re awesome, that’s how they really feel, since unlike friends
and family, they don’t have to be nice to you. Strangers who don’t like you
either walk out or drunkenly scream at you just how bad they think you are.
Real fans actually pay attention at your shows. They buy your CD because they want to listen to it (not just to be nice), and they learn the words to your songs so they can come to the next show and sing along.
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| No, that's not Johnny in tight pants. That's Jeff Scott Soto when he fronted Journey for 10 seconds. They draw a slightly larger crowd than we do. Or at least, that's who the photographer, Marty Moffatt, says it is. I only really recognize Steve Perry and Neal Schon from Journey. Admit it, you do, too. |
Real fans are fuel for your fire. They’re what keeps you
going when it isn’t fun – when you play a show for no one, or it’s freezing
cold, or the venue tries to stiff you, or you’re bone tired but you have to get
up there and play anyway.
They’re the ones who give you motivation to keep writing new
songs. When you feel like you write and write and no one ever hears your stuff
or cares, it’s hard to keep putting yourself out there.
But when there are people out there who hear your songs,
really listen to them, and even pay you for them – people who will come to a
show specifically because you’re on the bill, and who will sing the words to
your own song back to you – well, that’s pretty much the best feeling in the
world.
Even better is when there are people out there who believe
in you enough to sponsor you. We got our first real sponsorships last year –
four companies who gave us different levels of financial support to make them a
part of what we do. Three of those four, plus a new company, have come on board
to sponsor us again in 2014:
We can’t thank these companies enough for their support. You
all ROCK!
We love what we do. Playing music is undoubtedly the
best job in the world, and if we couldn’t do it professionally, we’d sit around
the house and play for each other.
I remember, many times, making up songs for my roommate’s
dog back in the day. I would chastise him in a jaunty tune about his perverted
relationship with his stuffed purple dinosaur. (Hey, someone needed to explain to
him the rules of polite society, and if I learned anything from The Sound of Music, it’s that you teach
children and dogs through song.)
But, that said, being able to do this professionally because
we have organic supporters – real fans and sponsors – who believe in what we do
makes this the best job ever. Our friends and family make our lives off stage
happy, but our fans make our time on stage a dream come true. And that’s not a
cliché - we have all three dreamed about doing exactly what we are doing and
having fans like the ones we have.
So, THANK YOU, to our fans and our sponsors. We appreciate
every single one of you!
(Did that get sappy? Here’s a photo of an old lady who has had it up to HERE to get things
back on track:)
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