Justin Peter Kinkel-Schuster – TOUR TIPS

In this Tour Tips segment, the singer-songwriter, Justin Peter Kinkel-Schuster, gives you some advice for being on the road. You can check out the feature, after the break.

These tips will hopefully apply to any poor soul foolish enough to undertake to play music on an itinerant basis. They will be even more important, though, to those foolish enough to do so alongside other human beings.

1. Know how to keep your mouth shut.
It’s a fact: most people (particularly creative types) talk too much and don’t know when to stop. That tendency becomes even more aggravating when on tour. Unless you’re blessed to be riding around with mentally and emotionally balanced individuals, try to keep the peanut gallery as quiet as possible. If you don’t have something nice to say, don’t say anything at all.

2. Don’t stink.
Hygiene on tour is crucial. When living in close quarters, particularly in the warmer months, the body gets funky real quick and nothing is more offensive in a confined area than body odor. Even if it’s just a quick whore’s bath in the sink, wash your damn pits and your ass. Everyone will thank you.

3. Always have a plan.
Group inertia is real and touring is often like herding cats. Do your best to have some idea of where you are going, staying, doing, and when, even if it only applies to your own self. It helps immensely.

4. Pack light.
Always have plenty of underwear and socks, these items being reliably clean goes a loooooong way. A band’s touring vehicle is entropy embodied, so every item you bring that is unnecessary will exponentially increase that entropy.

5. HAVE FUN.
Playing music on tour/for a living is always, always, always a choice! No one has a gun to your head and if you’re not having fun each day doing something that you love then you are probably in the wrong line of work. Sure, touring is hard and messy and uncomfortable at times. But at the end of the day, appreciating the goodness that is playing songs, riding around, seeing the country, trying different foods, meeting different people, and generally ENJOYING YOURSELF has got to be the most important thing. See you out there!

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