ASK WEEGE - Taking the Next Step

28 September 07

Welcome to The Pier's 'Ask Weege' column. Every week the 880 South's front man and music scene veteran will be answering questions and providing tips for up-and-coming bands and musicians.

Josh from Hellaware (or Delaware, whatever you prefer) asks, 'At this stage, 880 South is still booking their own shows, right? From what I understand, in Cali, managers can not legally perform dual responsibilities such as also acting as a booking agent. At what point do you believe 880 South will be ready to approach a professional booking agency? How will you know you're ready?'

Weege: Well I don't want to incriminate anyone, but we do have management. They do help us book shows. They don't make any income doing it however (booking that is). That's one way of keeping it "legal". I could be wrong though. There is nothing wrong with people helping you out in the early stages.

I probably shouldn't expose our plans for this coming year. I'll just give you a little insight. 880 South will approach a professional booking agency this year in fact. Currently our focus is on the completion of the next album. It is slated for an April 2008 release. So probably sometime this December we will approach an agency for tour dates and such to promote the 2nd album.

There is no gauge for when a band is ready to go this route. You just have to believe your music is marketable, be willing to put down your day job, and hit the road. We haven't toured since the year 2000. I know that's a very long time. Of course we play all over California and the west coast. However, 880 South has been ready to tour since we came out of the gate. We've had the itch for it for quite a while now.

You have to understand a lot of the reasons why we haven't toured. One mainly because touring doesn't pay enough to support a family, pay a mortgage & put food on the table. It's tougher as you get older. Still it doesn't hold us back, it's just taking us a long time to put it together.

Things like DEMAND IT on eventful.com are great tools. They allow us to track where people want to see us in the nation. Also our CDBaby account allows us to see where we sell the most CDs and MP3s (iTunes sales). It's been great thus far. Some of the hottest spots for us have been Florida, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Virginia, Texas, New York and of course Arizona. Internationally we are almost even in comparison to Florida and California. Our top 2 markets. Japan loves us. Australia loves us. The UK has love for us and still growin'. We just can't afford to fly our asses out there.

So at what point do you go...'Do I need a record label? Do I need a PR specialist? Do I need a booking agent? Where do I find this kind of money?' Some folks get lucky, some folks get busy. We're about to get busy. In fact we have gone from the average of 1-3 shows a month to 3-5 shows a month and growing. Our current focus is conquering our local markets: San Francisco, Santa Cruz & of course our hometown San Jose. This is the best way to get people to notice you.

So at the stage we are at. We've come to the realization that you have to spend a little money to make a little money. So our first task, finish the album and press it. Then focus on press and media. In order to do so we will promote the album through the radio, podcast, internet and get album reviews prior to our release date. Press Releases are key! An effective Press Kit and EPK is also necessary. This is no easy task, but if you have a reliable team behind you like Left Coast Boardwear. Things can happen. It's always easier when you have a collective effort of people who believe in your work. I suggest to anyone to go out and find people who believe in you, your music and include them so that you can build a foundation.

880 South is ready to tour.

This week Asks Weege comes with a bonus question from Eric who asks, 'this is a random question I just like to ask people I meet, I never asked anyone in a band before. If you could have your own concert, call it Weegefest if you like, and can only have 5 bands at this show. Who would they be? These 5 bands can be died or alive.'

Weegefest would have: Sublime, Queen, Bob Marley, the Clash and Marvin Gaye.

If there was an option for an opening act (880 South of course). I would love to have played with any of these performers. It really wasn't that hard for me to answer that either. Note these bands are all defunct (in fact all of their front-men are...in heaven) R.I.P.

I could divulge as to why, the obvious is; they are all amazing and influenced my music in many ways. I can't forget James Brown either, but I mean Marvin Gaye is amazing. Anytime a former Motown back up drummer can come out and become a front-man and a life changing solo artist. I'm all for it.

I would say Led Zeppelin above all of these bands because they are my favorite band ever. However...they are reuniting with the son of their OG drummer. So I wanted to go a little outside of the box and I think Queen is one of the most overlooked bands of the century. Plus they aren't all dead.

Did you know I love The Beatles too?

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