ION INDIE MAGAZINE February 2016, Volume 21 | Page 92

working on writing songs for the new album. We’ve got one song complete right
now, and we’ve released an early demo of the song to our Patreon backers
(Patreon.com/LordsOfTheTrident). The demo caused one backer to double his
pledge, and another one to triple his pledge, so I’d say we’re on the right track.
We’re going to continue writing for the first half of 2016, and at the end of May,
we’re headed to Canada for our first international tour!
Scotty J: Speaking of touring, you guys seem to have a pretty solid schedule.
Between now and June, it looks like you are playing quite a bit in the central U.S.
Do you have any plans for West Coast or East Coast? And what would you say are
some of the challenges with touring for you in particular? I know for most
independent artists it's a matter of financing. Would you say that's the primary
issue with making yourselves more physically available to a wider fan base?
FANG: We’d love to do either coast
someday. I think the East coast is
more feasible, because there are more
large cities between our hometown
(Madison, WI) and the East coast. If
you look at a map of population
density in the US, try cutting a line
down the middle. You’ll find that 70%
of your possible market is going to be
EAST of the midline, which makes
going West that much more difficult.
90% of what stops us from touring
further is financial. I’d love to do a
larger U.S. tour, but without venues
offering us guarantees, it’s incredibly
difficult to make it work. It seems like
a catch-22: you need to draw in a city
to get a guarantee, but you also need
to tour to build your draw. If you have
a few bad nights back-to-back--and
believe me, most bands do! After all,
who’s going
to
come
out
on
Monday/Tuesday/Wednesday?
That
could financially sink the whole tour. If you’re a newer band who needs $200 a
night to cover gas and food, and you make nothing three nights in a row, the next
night you need to make $800. It’s an incredibly difficult business to make money
in. This is why we meticulously plan our longer tours, and focus on building a fan
base using the internet. Additionally, as music doesn’t yet cover our living
expenses, and pillaging the local community can only get you so far, many of us