Canadian Musician - January/February 2018 | Page 42

The Unique Challenges of Life as a Touring Musician | By liam Duncan
L
ast year, at the end of a month-long tour with
my band, The Middle Coast, my girlfriend
flew out to Victoria to meet me. We were
going on a road trip back to Winnipeg. The
night before her flight, she lost a lot of sleep
stressing about catching her flight. That made me
start to take notice of how stressed out travelers
are in general. Airports are like public meet-ups for
grumpy people.
There is a lot to remember when travelling, and
always the possibility of things going awry. People
are spending money, packing, planning and catch-
ing flights, and figuring out where to eat. There’s a
lot going on.
Having noticed this, I became interested in the
way that artists handle touring and being on the road.
Travel tends to go hand-in-hand with being an artist;
whether you’re on tour, travelling to write or record,
or attending meetings, conferences, and the like, art-
ists are often on the road upwards of 100 days per
year. And when we tour, we aren’t just catching a few
flights and hitting a few cities and landmarks; we’re
often in a different city every day, getting there at a
specific time with thousands of dollars in gear in tow.
On top of all that, artists are worried about ticket
sales, finances, staying healthy, and where they are
going to sleep. There is a lot to be stressed about, yet
artists are forced to adapt.
The reality is that an artist’s life is often filled with
the kind of stress that many people would find very
difficult to manage. Beyond the travel, you can be
under creative pressure to make great art, you’re un-
der financial pressure to make ends meet without a
steady income, you have to deal with the baked-in un-
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certainty of the career, and you have to deal with the
toll that a career in music takes on your relationships.
Like most people, artists typically only show off
their positive experiences on social media. While this
gives an impression of ease and stability, there is al-
ways a lot going on behind the scenes.
I spoke with a few of my favourite touring art-
ists and asked them about their relationship with
the road – how their experiences on the road shape
their day-to-day, whether it inspires creativity, and
how they deal with the unique challenges that come
with the lifestyle.
These conversations were rewarding and inter-
esting, but a few of the artists also mentioned how
cathartic it was to actually talk about how hard this
job can be.
Sometimes the
Hardest Part Is
Coming Home
One of the most interesting themes that emerged
through these conversations was the difficulty
artists have with getting home. Upon reflection,
this shouldn’t have been surprising, but initially
I figured I would be hearing a lot more tour hor-
ror stories.
The truth is, artists get pretty good at being on
tour, and are often in a state of high-functionality all