[00:00:00] James: Welcome to episode 178 of the Bandhive Podcast.

[00:00:04] James: This is part two of my conversation with Robbie from Saving Vice. If you didn't listen to last week's episode, please go listen to that first. It is number 177. You can find it at bandhive.rocks/177 or in your favorite podcast app. That episode was all about the assets you need to promote your show.

[00:00:24] James: And then this week we're gonna talk about advancing your shows. They do go together. This was recorded as one long episode, but we're splitting it into two just because there's so much content on two distinct and separate topics that I said, Hey, let's just split this up.

[00:00:38] James: It's gonna be a two-part episode. So again, if you haven't listened to episode 177 yet, please go do that. It's at Bandhive.rocks/ 1 7 7 or in your favorite podcast app. That all said here is part two of my interview with Robbie Litchfield of saving vice.

[00:00:54] James:

[00:00:54] James: This is something that is so incredibly important. I am upset at myself that we haven't [00:01:00] really talked about it on the podcast in three years. the last time we discussed it, my co-host Erin and I did an episode number 13, pre-show communication could save your show and your life.

[00:01:10] James: And we're not exaggerating with that. There are things that when you advance a show at the bigger levels of touring can save lives. So

[00:01:18] James: what does a typical advance look like for you with a saving

[00:01:22] James: vice?

[00:01:22] Robbie: yep. So I've just pulled one up. I'm not sharing my screen, just cuz there's plenty of sensitive information here, but, this is typically what I do. it may not be perfect thing, but It's one of those things that like, I try to get as many questions answered as possible.

[00:01:36] Robbie: That matter because if you send, like 40 questions to a promoter in an advanced email, it's a little overwhelming. That's a lot of questions. They don't have a lot of time. We talked about the goldfish brain thing, you wanna be respectful of their time. So I, I'll write questions out and just sending priority.

[00:01:53] Robbie: So the more important ones are at the top, but I'll go over what I do, And this isn imperfect and hey, it might change on this tour, [00:02:00] right? This is something I'm always tweaking. Kinda like your mix template, right? For your songs. Like you're always kind of tweaking it, making it a little bit better, a little bit better.

[00:02:07] Robbie: But this is what I'm currently rocking. So what I'll do for an advanced email first off, I try to advance minimum one week before the show. And usually not before two. We're not a big arena tour band, like I mentioned, so it's not like I need to advance a month or two in advance for it.

[00:02:22] Robbie: like you gotta read the room guys like, you know, know where you're at on, on the totem pole here. So like, I know where we're at a week in advance, is typically a pretty good time to do it. Upwards of two weeks I think is also fine. So I have a spreadsheet with Wes that has all the promoter. Venue, meta information, right? So who's the promoter? Their email, their phone number, et cetera. So I'll kind of sit down and I actually did this yesterday, so this is a perfect time to ask me. I'll go through and I'll send emails out to, all the different promoters of the tour.

[00:02:54] Robbie: So here's what I sent to the promoter out for our Fort Worth, Texas State. [00:03:00] subject title Subject titles are super important, especially for advance emails because you are constantly gonna be looking back at your email in that thread, and it's gonna get lost super easy if you don't have something clear and legible.

[00:03:12] Robbie: So what I have, for my subject title is the date. So for this example, 4/21 And then I have the City Fort Worth, Texas, And then I have a dash symbol, SV EOW tour Show Advance, that's the whole subject title. Not too long, not too short, right? Goldilocks level length. You can throw the venue name in there if you really want to get crafty, I think this works for me. It really is what works best for you. and by the way, everything we're talking about right now is what's called a tour manager. It's their responsibility to do. I do this for saving vice at a convenience. We have limited space in our van.

[00:03:48] Robbie: To me, hiring a merch girl to run our table, that is more important to me and my band mates. Especially like with me having done this for a while, it's good to have outside [00:04:00] representation usually, but in our case I just handle it. And also I'm a control freak if you guys couldn't tell. So it's like an anxiety reducer when I have all this information, And I can disseminate it to all the parties that matter, which I'll get to later. anyways you guys are tour managing for yourself or another band you're on the road with. This is what I do. So, yeah. So subject title, very clear, big bold capital letters.

[00:04:21] Robbie: What's going on? To the promoter, I cc our band manager in our case, Amelia, she's awesome. Dark matter management. I don't CC West cuz he will kill me. Here he gets a billion emails a day and it's also not super duper relevant for him. So I don't CC West. you could cc the other members of the tour package, which I'm not doing in this case, and I'll get to why later.

[00:04:43] Robbie: But that's something that some bands will do. And pretty much anyone else that you'd want to cc, right? Just use common sense. So this is how my emails read. I always say, hey, First name a person, this case, Jesse. And then I always start off with something, personal. You wanna start [00:05:00] off right off the bat, like, this isn't a copy and paste.

[00:05:02] Robbie: Or at least don't start off that way, you know? So I said first off, just wanna say thank you on behalf of our entire team for making this show happen. The past few weeks have been a real challenge for us, and trust me when I say we appreciate you and all the other promoters slash venues who helped us stay on the road, I promise it doesn't go unnoticed.

[00:05:19] Robbie: And I'm glad we're finally able to link back up with his promoter company, which we've worked with before. That's why I mentioned that, right? So make it personal, we're all human here. Make it a nice light note, then I'll get into the advance and I'll say, in terms of the official advance, if you could answer the questions below to the best of your ability in return at your earliest convenience, that would be awesome.

[00:05:39] Robbie: I've also attached a link to the SV advancing materials below, which includes stage plot, media assets, show writer, contact info, et cetera, Like our W nine, all that other stuff. in this case, there's no other band below us MI Lake's, not on this one, for example, but I would say as well as Mira Lakes advancing.

[00:05:59] Robbie: So I'll usually hit [00:06:00] up like MiiR Lakes manager, for instance. John, I'm gonna say, Hey, send me a Google Drive link of all their stuff, right? Stage plot, anything. The venue.

[00:06:08] Robbie:

[00:06:08] Robbie: and then I'll include that in the email. I'll attach it. See what I mean? Going back to what I said earlier with the assets, right?

[00:06:12] Robbie: A link. As long as they don't lose that link, it's already baked into that email thread. You're good. And it's updated real time. There's no like, oh, here's the up dude, Sage plot. Like, no, it's already in there. You know what I mean? Like, it's all synced. That's what's amazing about the cloud.

[00:06:26] Robbie: It's beautiful. Use it. Everyone here, use it, please. All right. So as far as my questions, right, that's probably what you're all wondering. Like that's the sexiest part of this whole thing. this is something that I've worked with over time and something that I am continually trying to rephrase and prioritize.

[00:06:43] Robbie: question number one, is parking. So what I'll do is I'll, number them, not bullet point because that confuses people, but I'll do number one and then I'll say parking all caps in and bolt. So that way it's like the tld, I like doing TLDR stuff too, right?

[00:06:56] Robbie: Like parking, That way if they don't wanna read and they want to goldfish it up, [00:07:00] then they can do that. And then I have my actual question, it reads number one, bold, all caps parking, and then it says, what are the load in slash parking instructions? How early are we able to.

[00:07:11] Robbie: Do we need to pay? And if so, how much? Anything else we should know? I will tell you guys, loading in, in parking when you're on tour. If you guys have been on tour, you'll, relate with this. If you haven't, take this seriously. Loading in in parking is 90% of the stress on tour, in my opinion.

[00:07:29] Robbie: It is the absolute most stressful thing, especially when you're at a venue and a city you've never been in before. Anyone that's been to Brooklyn, anyone that's been to Philadelphia, you guys will understand what I'm talking about It is horrific. So the more information you can have, especially for a venue you've, never played before, the better so you can be actually prepared so that's why it's my number one question.

[00:07:50] James: I have one unrelated question. Would you be willing to share this list of questions and we can put it in the show notes for people if they want to customize

[00:07:57] James: it for themselves?

[00:07:57] Robbie: I think so. Yeah. And you know what's [00:08:00] funny about that? So I started tour Managing for Saving Vice last year during like the Born. well after the Born Dead, I started doing the tour managing thing, so I am still relatively new to this. And I know Wes was so like, apprehensive about it when I first started doing it, and I was like, you gotta trust me bro.

[00:08:17] Robbie: Like this is what I'm good at, blah, blah, blah. And he is like, all right. I, he is like, I got you. By the end of the tour, I was on the phone with him talking about something and he has the big roster by the way, over at Forthright. And he's like, oh all these bands are like using your template now.

[00:08:30] Robbie: I was like, what? He's like, I've heard from multiple promoters on this tour that this is the best advanced email they've received in like 10 years. so all my bands are using your template now. he's like, I hope that's okay. And I was like, gimme 50 bucks and we'll call it good.

[00:08:43] Robbie: Now I'm obviously joking,

[00:08:45] James: 50 bucks per show. More like it.

[00:08:47] Robbie: So again, just before I dive back in, great question James. And the answer is yes. again, the big note here, the big key here, when you're doing in advance, you're working with people that are moving fast, guys like fast.

[00:08:57] Robbie: Fast, okay. So you want a [00:09:00] TLDR blended with the actual question, that's why they're all numbered in descending priority. That's why they're big capital bold letters. The topic parking. Go, go, go. And then I have my actual question after. so that's number one. Number two, schedule, Big one. What are the specific times for loading sound checks, catering doors sets and venue curfew, very important one. Venue curfew. Cuz you will find out the hard way if you do not ask this question sometimes I'm serious. The last thing you want is ownership or whatever, kicking your ass out the door and you got fans trying to get Sh*t signed and take photos.

[00:09:35] Robbie: Like it's awkward and it's better to just know beforehand so You can budget your time after the show, especially as a headliner, Which we're doing. Okay, so that's schedule next. Number three, contact who are the day of show contacts and their respective phone numbers. oftentimes at this level, the promoter is oftentimes gonna be your day of show contact to noted as dos.

[00:09:56] Robbie: You might, you guys may have seen that before. That's not always the [00:10:00] case. a lot of venues like on this tour for instance, where the day of show guy is not necessarily the promoter. It might be the owner, it might be the, the sound guy, right? The front of house, Could be the bartender.

[00:10:09] Robbie: That's happened to us plenty of times, right? the bar manager or whatever. So it's good to ask that question. And also, the reason I ask for phone number, not email is because the only real reason I I would ever hit up a day show contact is because there was an emergency, or we're having an incredibly hard time parking.

[00:10:28] Robbie: I want to call this person up real time and get these answers Emil doesn't cut it. there's a time and a place, right? That being said, quick pro tip. Quick pro tip. Before you arrive at a venue, either the night before or early that morning, text the day of show Contact and say, Hey, this is Robbie from Saving Vice. Just wanna say We're super stoked for the show. Let me know if there's anything you need. That way you have a dialogue that's already started, And make sure they respond to you. Cuz if they don't, that may mean you have the wrong number.

[00:10:58] Robbie: That's happened to me [00:11:00] before. So it's good to in advance be like, Hey, like I said, introduce yourself, Ravi, from Saving Vice. Super stuck for the show. I'll give you a buzz if I need anything. And most people are like, all right brother, sounds good. So that's a pro tip. Text them earlier in the day to establish that dialogue. So it's not weird if you call ‘ em. And they're also not like, yo, what's this random number that's calling me? Click end call. Like, cuz I do that so I know other people probably do too. I'm terrible about that cuz I have too much anxiety.

[00:11:26] Robbie: All right, moving on. So that's contact number four. Question number four. I feel like I'm on Sesame Street or some Number four, catering. I'm pretty savvy about this. I hope no promoters hear me cuz this is kind of a trickster thing. I do. number four is catering and it says, what and when are the catering details? Notice how I didn't ask about do we have catering? It's always like, what and where. cuz some people will literally be like, don't want to be confrontational. So they're like uh, I'll buy you some tacos or something. And it's like, guys, anytime you can get free food on the road, take it.

[00:11:59] Robbie: I'm telling you it's[00:12:00] a huge expense. So, play on people's, you know what I'm saying? Like generosity and like, play the clueless card sometimes, you know what I'm saying? in our spreadsheet it does say if we have catering or not.

[00:12:11] Robbie: But I always tend to ask it. Cuz sometimes you never know. Sometimes you might get lucky and someone's like, you know what, these are good dudes, I'll buy ‘ em a pizza. You know what I mean? You never know. You never know. So, I always include that in the advance. Following that, which I probably could blend into the catering one, five, water, I always ask, could we please get a couple complimentary cases of bottled water for all the performing bands plus crew?

[00:12:36] Robbie: I had this phrase differently before, once you start asking for specific quantities, first of all, you look like a jerk. And I was like, and number two, I used to say for us, and then I realized I kind of look like a jerk. So if I say it like all the performing bands, which in my opinion, if you're performing a show, you should have free water.

[00:12:53] Robbie: period. I will die on that hill. I will be a martyr. I can't tell you how many venues we've been to in the past, James, or [00:13:00] you have to pay for water and I will call those venues out any day of the week. I think that is so scummy, at least have tap water easily accessible and available, I'm sober.

[00:13:10] Robbie: It's awkward for me to go to a bar and ask for water and have the bartender stink eye me. I know I'm getting kind of personal here, but my point is that like, Give us a cooler in the green room or something, bro. Something free, clean, accessible water. That's all I'm asking. it's not a tall order.

[00:13:25] Robbie: So I always say, ask that in my advances. I say, can we please get a couple? And I say for the whole performing artists, because I care about the local bands supporting us In

[00:13:34] Robbie: their crew. Right. Our emergency girl deserves bottled water.

[00:13:37] James: yeah. one note on that from I did a tour on merch as well. I mean multiple, but one tour was specifically small clubs. there was no tm, it was just the manager, me and the artist, the manager never wanted to get change for merch. So I always had to ask the bartenders and I felt so bad being like, Hey, can I have a bunch of change?

[00:13:56] James: So I'd walk up and be like, Hey, I'm James. I'm the merch guy [00:14:00] tonight. I was just wondering, could you fill up my water bottle for me please? And then I'd tip him like two bucks just for filling that. And the rest of the night I would get water. And then when five minutes later I went up and I was like, Hey, I'm so sorry.

[00:14:11] James: Like I don't have enough change. Any chance you can give me fives and tens for like a hundred dollars in twenties? Like, oh yeah, sure. Because you just tip them on something that's free and like, yeah, it's two bucks, but they are your friend for the rest of the night.

[00:14:23] Robbie: I love that idea. And a lot of what we're talking about now is like the networking aspect, right? And it's

[00:14:28] Robbie: like I remember hearing this one podcast actually. you're affiliated with these guys, the six figure guys,

[00:14:33] James: Yeah. Yeah.

[00:14:34] Robbie: by the way, great podcast. I highly recommend it. I actually stopped listening and, and, the recent episodes, but, I think I got through like a hundred episodes, so quite a bit. And I remember Chris Graham said something at one point that I loved it so much.

[00:14:46] Robbie: He's like, there's a reason why you offer to take people out to lunch or out to dinner when you're trying to network and, get to know people. Because at the end of the day, guys, we're monkeys, we're animals. If you feed us food just like your dog, they're gonna [00:15:00] like you. You know what I mean? So it's like, if you feed people, like I said, we're animals.

[00:15:04] Robbie: We talk in like hunger and sex and all this stuff. I'm not saying, the promoters. That's not what I'm saying at all. But I'm saying like um, you know, you give someone a tip give someone a drink or, food or something like that. Like, it goes a long ways.

[00:15:17] Robbie: It goes longer than you think it would. people remember that stuff. I do. I remember so many promoters where we didn't have catering and they bought a pizza anyway. And it'll never go unnoticed. And when it comes time for me to do something nice for them, I absolutely will. you know, it is a business, but, businesses are founded on genuine relationships, I guess is the point I'm trying to make.

[00:15:34] James: I don't know if you can read that,

[00:15:35] James: but is it, don't bang

[00:15:37] Robbie: the tour manager.

[00:15:38] James: Yeah. Or his wife. Or his dog that was, in the bathrooms at the Gexa Energy Pavilion in

[00:15:44] James: Dallas, Texas.

[00:15:45] James: it was there 2015 without the dog note. And then when I went back the next summer, 2016, the dog note was added,

[00:15:50] Robbie: That's awesome. Hey, maybe I saw it and subliminally just repeated it out loud just now, but yeah, don't bang the tour manager. I mean, you can bang me, hit me up. No, I'm just kidding. I am the [00:16:00] only single one in my band, at least as a recording of this, so that's awesome. But uh, yeah, water is something that I am going to always vouch for.

[00:16:08] Robbie: here's another example.

[00:16:09] Robbie: and I love these guys so much, so I don't mind name dropping them. we got friends in, uh, RevNet. They're this metal court band from the Virginia area. the last date of our show last year, we played in um, Raleigh, North Carolina.

[00:16:21] Robbie: Last day of the tour. It was great, by the way. We had like, I think uh, a hundred ticket sales or something, which was really good for us market we've never played before. Awesome. And Revenant was playing before us. And I remember I went on stage and I almost slipped and ate and like broke my guitar, whatever.

[00:16:36] Robbie: I like did one of those like, whoa, you know, like out of a movie. And I looked down and it's just soaking wet. And I was like, what the And Ricky, the vocalist from RevNet, he came up to me and he is like, yeah, dude. I think the local band or something like that, knocked over their water.

[00:16:51] Robbie: And I'm like, is why we need bottled waters, not just loose cups of water on the stage, not to mention all the gear. Water [00:17:00] and music gear don't mix, guys. just to fyi. Yeah. Like it's literally at that point now it's in the venue's interest to give artists bottled water. Or you can screw a cap and if it gets knocked over, it's not gonna spill over everything in short circuit or potentially kill the guitarist of saving Vice and send 'em to the fucking er. You see what I'm saying? let's think about that here. anyway, sorry, I'm like very pressed about this topic.

[00:17:22] Robbie: If you couldn't tell, thought of a new one. By the way, this isn't on my list. I don't drink, I'm sober, at least as a recording of this video. I'm over three years sober. I'm very proud of that.

[00:17:32] Robbie: our content creator, Evan is sober. Our drummer Sam is sober. And I'm pretty sure our merch girl, no, she definitely drinks, but I just like had all these like Snapchat you know, stories in my, my mind when that came up. But, half of our crew doesn't drink is my point. And the other half, don't go crazy with it.

[00:17:49] Robbie: So it's just never in my mind. But especially at this level, it's very not weird, to get paid in alcohol or discounts, like drink tickets and [00:18:00] stuff like that. You know, I obviously don't, use those up or whatever, sometimes I'll get a mocktail or something if I'm feeling spicy, I guess.

[00:18:07] Robbie: But I mean, you know how it is James, like, you get paid in drink tickets and stuff, so I always forget to ask that question in the advance cuz I'm, sober. I don't think like that. but you could, I guess, group that into catering and see if there. Alcoholic beverages, like amenities, along with the catering stuff, or at least discounts, drink tickets.

[00:18:23] Robbie: That's not weird. It happens a lot. You play in a lot of bars and it's in their interest of barter. you guys could include that in your advance. I just don't cuz I'm sober. That's all. Next settlement number six, settlement. how, when, and who will be issuing the payouts?

[00:18:37] Robbie: Our payout information and W nine are in the advancing folder I provided below, if needed. So going back to that folder I attached, I told you guys about earlier, we have the saving vice W nine in there with our e i and everything. a tax conversation's, a whole podcast episode, and it's on its own.

[00:18:52] Robbie: but long story short, we keep our bases covered legally. We like to get paid out in checks. The reason is you can just do an e [00:19:00] deposit quickly to your bank and that's the end of that. Getting pinned cash is super hard. So we have a local credit union in Vermont, actually, James we have a local credit union we use.

[00:19:09] Robbie: I almost set the name and I was like, man, maybe I shouldn't be saying the saving vice payment details on a podcast, yeah, here's our routing number and no, I'm just kidding. yeah, so we have a credit union. So obviously when we're outta state, you know, we're in California.

[00:19:20] Robbie: It's hard there are affiliated banks, but it is a little bit painstaking to go to like a sister bank, give them your member ID and do that process. It's not super duper easy. We do do it out of necessity, but we try to keep things in check format for that reason. check is king in my opinion when it comes to payouts.

[00:19:38] Robbie: But we will take cash. That's not weird. That's very common, especially at our level. But yeah, so settlement that's super important. That way you're not like shaken down the bartender at the end of the night, like, where's my money?

[00:19:49] James: Where's my money, Brian?

[00:19:50] Robbie: yeah, luckily I haven't gotten into any fights with any Brian's so far about payout.

[00:19:56] Robbie: There's been some discrepancy stuff that got ironed out, but it's never been [00:20:00] like the dude dipped and never paid me sort of thing. I've always gotten paid so far, at least I know some bands have that nightmare, knock on wood, There's always something new for us, so who knows? Yeah, I've never had to uh, bring out the baseball bats, but, so far we've been good.

[00:20:14] Robbie: All right, let's move on. Number seven, f o h aka a front of house who will be operating for a house for the show. And what is their phone number? Here is another pro tip for you guys. When it comes to front of house guys, the promoter or whoever you're corresponding with, like for example, This Jesse Guy, I love him.

[00:20:31] Robbie: I know him. He's, he's a great dude he actually probably will do this thing I'm about to say. But oftentimes promoters will not pass the stage plot to the sound guy. They forget going back to the whole goldfish thing. They will just not write it down and it'll be absent. And I tested this out on this last tour, James and I made sure my bass is Benjamin Heard, just because I needed a witness for this.

[00:20:53] Robbie: I went up to every sound guy on this tour for over a month or whatever, however many shows that was. And I said, Hey, did you get our [00:21:00] stage plot during the sound check or whatever? And all but one said they did not receive a stage plot All but one that is insane. my point is that like, I want this dude's details in advance so I can just text him and do it. See what I mean?

[00:21:15] Robbie: you can control what you do. You can't control what the promoter does. So it's better to just hit them up yourself, be like, Hey, Robbie, from Saving Vice, just in case you didn't receive it, which they probably didn't. Here's our stage plot. Any questions, let me know. See you soon, brother. Metal horn emoji done. See? Boom. And again, going back to the phone number thing, phone is king, phone is king. All right. Eight wifi. So I've debated about taking this one out because this is more of a do o s type question, Dave show.

[00:21:44] Robbie: But it is really important, to get wifi for the venue. When I get to a venue that's, that is typically one of the first questions I'll ask is what's the username and password? password? And I'll put it in our band torch chat, which you guys should be doing. And I'll put in the, you know, the username password.

[00:21:59] Robbie: That way our merch [00:22:00] girl, whatever, can operate off of wifi, To

[00:22:03] Robbie: save on battery. I don't even need to explain it, but a lot of reasons why wifi is important. 99% of the venues I played out some sort of wifi.

[00:22:10] James: They're probably using Square for their sales by now anyway.

[00:22:13] Robbie: exactly. It's just, luckily this day and age, it's not a weird question.

[00:22:17] Robbie: Number nine, green room. Is there a green room for this venue? If so, where's it located and what are the approximate dimensions plus amenities? Kind of a bougie question, but we're at a point in our career where we're playing some venues that are really high end. Like James, you've been to higher ground, for example.

[00:22:33] Robbie: Great example of a venue with an amazing Green Room catering staff. those guys are awesome. We also play bars where it's like the green room's like uh, broom closet. So I try to get the idea for the dimensions and the amenities. Like sometimes they'll have a coffee maker, whatever. by the way, the tour etiquette, so everyone is clear. Green Room goes to the headliner period. If it's a bigger green room and they invite you in, usually the tour [00:23:00] package and sometimes the opening bands can pop in there too. It really depends on the venue.

[00:23:03] Robbie: It really does. But when in doubt it's usually just for the headliner. And that was something that that we infringed upon in the past too, and learned the hard way. No one teaches this etiquette until you, you burn your hand on the stove. So, just want to keep that throw that out

[00:23:17] James: yeah. And places like Higher gra, you mentioned they'll even put your name on the door so they avoid that problem for you, but most places don't do that. And like, I remember we were talking about Salt Lake before. There's one venue that I toured through and it's like a 400 cap, probably maybe four 50.

[00:23:32] James:

[00:23:32] James: we toured through there and like the green room was just like this little, basically a broom closet. I think there was like one couch and maybe a chair in there

[00:23:41] Robbie: it always looks like the set of some like low budget porno film or

[00:23:44] Robbie: something. That's how it always looks, bro. It's like, geez, like,

[00:23:47] Robbie: do I want to be in

[00:23:48] James: yeah, exactly.

[00:23:50] James: And then I saw one of my favorite bands who, I'm actually wearing an Enter Sari shirt right now, but this is a band who sells 10,000 tickets to shows in the uk, for one show, and they toured through them.

[00:23:59] James: I'm like, [00:24:00] that sucks for them. They're not gonna enjoy that. Going from

[00:24:04] James: headlining Alexandria Apollos to a 400 cap with like the worst dressing rooms I've ever seen.

[00:24:09] Robbie: luckily I do have a lot of friends in other bands. Like, we got to hang out with the um, I can't believe I'm blanking on their name right now, now that I'm put on the spot, the Trinity of Terror. We went to that show last fall. Oh my God. It was motionless and white.

[00:24:20] Robbie: Iceland kills. Why am I blanking on this band? A trak. Ugh, sorry. that was just the brain fart. Yeah, we were hanging out with the trio guys and like I forget which arena it was in Albany, but No. Yeah, we were down there hanging out with them and these green rooms, like they were so nice.

[00:24:34] Robbie: They have their own showers and stuff. Each band got their own. That's so rare. Guys. for the most part, it's. You're lucky to get a couch in like a water cooler. Higher ground is a, fantastic anomaly. I love that venue so much. And the staff there, very good friends of ours.

[00:24:50] Robbie: You know, obviously Vermont based venue, yeah, no for Green Room, it's good to get a general vibe check, especially if it's a venue you haven't played before.

[00:24:58] Robbie: Sometimes I will omit this [00:25:00] question if I've already been there, cuz I'll already know the answer. And by the way, if you already know the answer for any of these, just don't ask it because you already know it,

[00:25:07] James: would add a caveat if you haven't gotten that answer recently, if it's been a year or two,

[00:25:12] James: ask it again.

[00:25:13] Robbie: redacted what I said for the reason James just said, because venues do construction and upgrades and stuff like that, their wifi passwords sometimes change per show, some of them it's just like password 1, 2, 3, you know what I mean? Like, it's like I guess the point is, I'm trying to say is there's so much gray area here that it's good to get your bases covered even if, even though it may seem like a dumb question.

[00:25:34] Robbie: But let's move on. Load in and ouch. What are the load in instructions for the venue? For example, will it take place at the front, back, right, or left entrance of the venue? Anything else we should know about? I think I could actually probably start grouping the under the parking one now that I think about it and just consolidate that one.

[00:25:51] Robbie: The reason I ask about load in, load out is I can't tell you how many times we've showed up to a venue and the entrance, is in like the f*ckin back You know what I mean? We're like, where [00:26:00] is everyone? You know what I mean? Or the side door. Play In a good example. there's venues like that where it's not intuitive, It's not as simple as loading it through the front or back door. Sometimes it's some weird, like Harry Potter, tap your wand and like bricks open up and Diagon alley, and you get to load in that way. you know what I mean? Like, there's just so much variance with that. So that's why I ask that one.

[00:26:20] Robbie: Next one, back line number 11. Back line. will we be able to keep our drums and mix rack on stage following our sound check? If not, where should we leave our gear? And again, this is one of those I could get away with, just hitting up the dos, getting that info real time. I don't really need that in advance, but it does give us a peace of mind.

[00:26:39] Robbie: My drummer, Sam. what's so bad? We, I don't think he's ever done it in our career, left his drum set on stage. Unfortunately, for where we're at in our career, it's just not a thing. in the bands I do, it do look like assholes sometimes So it's like one of those things where I'm like, you know what, man?

[00:26:55] Robbie: Just we'll rip our sound chick. Just take the pieces off,

[00:26:57] Robbie: usually we get away with leaving our mix rack up there. I [00:27:00] mean, unless it's a. tough small venue kind of thing. We can usually leave our mix racks up there, no problem. I'll probably throw a shell on or something and protect it case some dumbass spills their PBR over it or something.

[00:27:11] Robbie: But yeah, usually mix racks fine, but I do like to ask that question. Next, I'm almost done, I promise. Number 12, localized assets. Please attach the official show flyer plus any other promotional assets that might be helpful. Exclamation point. We want to promote this as best as we can on our end and make sure we're hyping up and properly tagging the local support too.

[00:27:31] Robbie: Wes taught me this, actually, not me, I didn't come up with this one. I'll give him credit. Wes is like, you gotta tag locals, you gotta tag the venues. I can't tell you how many times I've seen local bands will like post a show, but they don't tag anyone. They don't put the sticker link

[00:27:48] Robbie: It's like, you gotta promote the show, my guy. And as a headliner, it's like some of these bands are like looking up to us and stuff. Like I want to be able to tag them and show that I'm hyping them up. I'm like, yo, this band's playing the show. Let's go [00:28:00] take the five seconds and look 'em up on Instagram.

[00:28:02] Robbie: you know what I'm saying? It's like blah, blah, blah, Massachusetts. It's usually the, the handle anyway, or official or whatever. And just tag them, you know, and they're gonna share it to their story. I can't tell you. which is again, a whole nother conversation. I could go into cross pollination or cross promotion, whatever you wanna call it.

[00:28:19] Robbie: So important. Tag the venues, the venues will share it, tag the promoter, promoters usually have their own LLC anyway that they operate under, tag them, and it helps just spread even more. Does that make sense? And it generates all this hype,

[00:28:31] James:

[00:28:31] James: One thing while we're

[00:28:32] James: talking about pet peeves bands who post posters before the on sale, there's a, show at Higher Ground, which I have now for a month, been trying to get tickets to cuz the band announced it at the end of February. It went on sale yesterday. I was there Thursday night and went in to buy tickets and they said, we don't have 'em yet.

[00:28:49] James: I'm like, okay. And then the venue posted yesterday saying it's on sale.

[00:28:53] James: the lineup wasn't final. the band shared a poster

[00:28:56] James: with three bands, and then yesterday Higher Ground put out a [00:29:00] different poster with six bands, including the original three on it.

[00:29:02] Robbie: So they got trigger

[00:29:03] Robbie: happy.

[00:29:04] James: that's what it seems like.

[00:29:05] Robbie: we've dealt with that, albeit rare. We ha actually dealt with this recently, I think. this was a big news. I mean, vampire's dropped off. We're doing our own headliner. It's very important that we're all in. Noon on Wednesday Eastern.

[00:29:17] Robbie: I always put, always put time zones, by the way, folks. Okay. Always put time zones, right? We're an Eastern time, which is king. We're a superior. Just letting you know. I'm joking, I'm not joking. Eastern time, very important. You know, so all the bands are posting at the right time. show up on time to the party, You know, don't be the first guy there. Don't be the last guy just be there at noon. Schedule the posts. They make it

[00:29:39] Robbie: easy. You can do it on Twitter now. Thank you Elon. Elon, thank you, sir. You can schedule on Twitter now. There's no excuse guys. There really isn't. Just get the asset, schedule it, have a nice little post tag the bands heart emoji kiss emoji.

[00:29:54] Robbie: You're done. Ticket link, take a link, you're done. And for God's sake, please use Bit Lease please. [00:30:00] Guys, no one wants your Amazon url. That's 5,000 characters, please. Okay? is free. Throwing a u url if you wanna pay a couple extra bucks a month, you can even customize that, which I think is overkill.

[00:30:12] Robbie: But please,

[00:30:13] James: And take off the UTMs if there's UTMs that you aren't actively using, take those off.

[00:30:18] Robbie: Yes, please. Okay. I'm so sick and tired. My band mates do that too. And I'm just like, guys, come on throwing at Bitly. It takes five seconds. Five seconds. Anyways, sorry, rant over. So localized assets. Yeah, so like the flyer that could be like, if they want to go and beyond really impressed me.

[00:30:33] Robbie: Gimme logos. we talked about social media. Gimme social media handles, right? Facebook event pages, which I've mixed feelings about Facebook event pages for another time. We can talk about that. But yeah, no, just send me everything you can, I want to push the show.

[00:30:45] Robbie: My bay mates wanna push the show, We're ripping edge. Sure. But like, there's a lot of organic push I don't think artists realize they can do here to get people to come out, and that all starts with having the actual creative materials that you need to do that. anyways, moving on.

[00:30:59] Robbie: Number 13, [00:31:00] press guest list. Very important. At least that where we're at in our level, but very important. What is your guess plus press slash photo list policy? This tour has obviously generated a lot of buzz and our publicist has gotten a lot of interest from influencers, local photographers, press, et cetera, that we'd love to have out if possible. But we wanna be respectful of what you're comfortable with This is kind of a tricky one because when it comes to guest list, I know we all make memes and jokes about that. Like, throw me on the guest list, bro. Like we've all heard. Maybe we've all done it in an ironic cringey way and learned the hard way.

[00:31:34] Robbie: But as far as guest list goes, typically industry standard, from what I've seen at our level, local level, up to like kind of where we're at right now in our career is typically like one guest list per person. and that's usually like, the girlfriend policy, right? So like one guest list per member. And then photo and press pass is usually just don't be a dick. You know, you can get a couple people to come out. if you stick with that, you'll be fine, generally speaking. But the reason I ask that is because [00:32:00] sometimes venues are very quirky with stuff.

[00:32:02] Robbie: If I get a local photographer that wants to shoot our show, you know what I'm saying? And, and they've got good material and we approve them and stuff like that, I wanna make sure that, people aren't just coming to the venue, not paying tickets that could be paying tickets. Because not only is it money out of our pockets technically, but the promoters especially, I mean, they feel that the hardest.

[00:32:22] Robbie: So that's why I, I get their blessing. I'm like, Hey, what are you comfortable with? Or are you cool? Like, you know what I mean? Put the ball in their court sort of thing. Like, you don't wanna be that band that's like, oh, they just guess list everybody and like, you know what I mean?

[00:32:33] Robbie: That's not a reputation you guys want. and we're at a point now in our career where we do get hit up a lot about that stuff. And it's kind of an awkward conversation of like, Hey, like I appreciate the vote of confidence, but we're not selling out an arena. My guy, like, this isn't like, you know, the class field trip to Robbie's show kind of thing.

[00:32:48] Robbie: You

[00:32:48] Robbie: know what I'm saying? This is come and pay the $10,

[00:32:51] Robbie: bro. It's really, if $10 is break in the bank, then we need to have a separate conversation.

[00:32:55] James: one note just on this while you're talking about rep, if you do let a [00:33:00] photographer come, obviously you've looked at their stuff so you know they're not idiots, but just reiterate and stress that no flash is to be used. The other night I was at a show and this photographer literally had the flash going the entire night, was pointing at the crowd for crowd shots, but every time he took photos of the band, he would like jab it in their face.

[00:33:18] James: Like he wasn't even focusing. He's just literally just like not looking, doing click, click right in the band's face and I'm just like, dude, those shots aren't gonna be any good. you're using flash, the camera's moving, like it's just not gonna work.

[00:33:29] Robbie: we have a publicist uh, his name's Tyler also. I've got too many Tylers in my life. Oh my goodness. His name's also Tyler Don't blink music group, by the way. I highly recommend them if any of you guys are interested. He's amazing. we will get dms on our band account and our personals.

[00:33:44] Robbie: Like, Hey, can I shoot your show? And, you know, Orlando, or whatever it is, that's not weird. Or people that wanna do uh, you know, concert review or. Radio station stuff. We get that a lot. You know, we'll come by the station, we'll do a, you know, which I love. I love that. You know, that's great. But I'm like going back to delegating, [00:34:00] which we started talking about the beginning of this podcast.

[00:34:02] Robbie: I'm like, that's awesome. Super down. hit up our publicist to coordinate this, thank you so much for reaching out. Let's, get it. even if it's something I know I wanted to, it's good to have your publicist, cuz that's his job is to filter out stuff and make sure that for example, this interview I set up with you James, like, I did that myself, but like, I still notified him like, Hey, I'm doing this that way he's not overbooking me for other podcasts.

[00:34:23] Robbie: You see what I'm saying? So it's one of those things where he's still in the loop, even though you never spoke with him. he knows to say what you said, like, Hey, like, remember.

[00:34:32] Robbie: Just use common sense, don't be an Okay If you're new to photos, that's fine. Like, I get it. Like we all make mistakes, but like, like you said, flash, I'm not trying to end up, in the ER or whatever. So like, please, like, don't be jamming cameras and stuff.

[00:34:46] Robbie: And we have a content creator, We have Evan, we, we have a guy we're hiring to come out to these shows and do stuff. So it's like, if you wanna shoot photos, that's great, but be respectful cuz he's priority, right? You'll see this on a higher level. A good friend of mine, Ian Erhart, Ian does [00:35:00] photos, he did a lot of music videos for us.

[00:35:02] Robbie: He shot photos for us forever. He's killing it right now. He's on tour with, I prevail, fit for King Pierce, the Veil. And you know, he did a tour with them. I remember chatting with him when he got home and he's just like, you know, I'm getting paid to be out here. And I remember picking his brain, I was like, so what?

[00:35:14] Robbie: how do you like, the local photographers, the press, you know, that come out to do this? He's like, usually at this level they get a song policy, You have three songs, do whatever you gotta do, and then you gotta off You see what I'm saying? We're not like, again, at that level sort of thing to be saying stuff like that.

[00:35:31] Robbie: Again, I think it kind of, boils down to the band size and the venues and stuff. that's not weird. That's something that people will tell these photographers. Like, Hey, you get three, four songs, you better get what you need because after that you're done. And you gotta make room for the people that are getting paid and hired to do.

[00:35:47] Robbie: Professionally, and,

[00:35:48] James: Typically that kicks in once you have a barricade. Cause that's when the

[00:35:51] James: photographers get into the photo pit and then it's after three songs. You get out and all the crowd surfers start coming over if they're not already.

[00:35:57] Robbie: yeah, that last tour we went on, you know, we had James [00:36:00] Perry, he's great, by the way, James Perry. he'd come on stage and you know, he's like a ninja. He is trying to like, We're a high energy band, right? So I'm like, crabbing out spinning my guitar and he's like dodging stuff like out of a war movie or something. trying to get like video and photo and stuff. Like, you gotta get the drummer, bro. that's the hardest one to get.

[00:36:17] Robbie: But it's important, you know, in our, in our drummer sand, he's a little diva. He needs his photos, you know. So, James will be on stage and he'll be getting his shots or whatever. And it's hard when there's another photographer that gets on stage and sometimes you nick em It happens. It's not like I hate the guy or anything like that, but it's like if I'm throwing my guitar, man, you gotta have some spatial awareness.

[00:36:38] Robbie: So going back to the flash thing, you're saying if you're shooting a high energy metal pop punk show, pay attention man. It takes some athleticism to be a photographer in this scene. It really does. But anyway, sorry, I know we're, going off the rails here, but, so yeah. Guest press list, try to just moreover be respectful of the venue.

[00:36:55] Robbie: trust me, you do not wanna, rep is like, oh, the guest must band or. So [00:37:00] miscellaneous, I always leave it open-ended, and I'm just like, anything else important, we should know, I'm trying to think of an example, but like, we played a, a House of Blues one time uh, Boston, There's a Red Sox game going on, like against the Blue Jays. So it was like, a divisional game. And it was like late in the season. It was like August. This was back in, I can't even remember what year it was, the year that I, I'm pretty sure it was the year they won the World Series.

[00:37:19] Robbie: So it was like 2018. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So we were playing like House of Blues, and that would've been nice to know for sure in the advance, that there was a socks game going on, literally across the street and there was a billion people walking by while we're trying to load out. that would've been nice to know, for example.

[00:37:35] Robbie: So like, events in the city, stuff like that, those are helpful. Some honorable mentions I didn't include here, local food places, I'm someone that really enjoys food and cuisine. Unfortunately, I don't really have the budget to go exploring too hard.

[00:37:48] Robbie: But if you guys have money and you have the budget for, it might not be a bad question. It's be like, Hey, what's the good cuisine around here? what would you recommend? that's a common question. Hotels, again, if you're a budget, like chain [00:38:00] reaction. We're playing chain reaction in la part of their uh, show rider was like, oh, if you need hotel options, I think they have affiliations with certain hotels so you can get like discounts and stuff. So great if that's in your budget and you, you know, we're a Walmart parking lot band as of right now, so that's kind of our vibe.

[00:38:15] Robbie: But like I said, you gotta spare a couple hundred bucks and wanna go do that. Go for it. I mean, I think that's pretty much it anything else or I want to go over the end of the email if that's okay.

[00:38:23] James: Please do. I was just gonna say, that's a great list.

[00:38:25] Robbie: and like I said, I could even probably boil this down more if I want guys. Less is more. I know this has been a long podcast. I've been talking forever, but less is more. don't be fooled. So that's the list. That's what, 14, I could probably whittle it down to 12 if I really want to, or even 10 if I get rid of some of the questions that don't matter till the day of show, like wifi, for example.

[00:38:46] Robbie: you know what I mean? I'm not gonna lose sleep if I don't know the wifi password of chain reaction. Like, you know what I mean? I'll just ask the bartender when I get there. so there's certain things you can pick your battles on. Here is. But that's my list. That's what I'm rocking right now. I'm sure that will [00:39:00] change by the time even this podcast airs, Then I'll include our advancing materials. So it says SV Advanced Materials inside there.

[00:39:07] Robbie: I'm just gonna quickly tell you what's in there. I'm not gonna actually break it down for you, cuz that's gonna take too long. I got our bio. Sing Vice bio. I've noticed, uh, a lot of venues like to put the artist bios in, like the ticket links, like higher ground does that, for example. And like, I've just noticed that trend, so I'm like, it I'll just send the bio with it.

[00:39:25] Robbie: Google, Dr. Bio, logo obviously. Duh. high res white p and g guys. Come on. I, I'm so sick of as a designer. I can't tell you how hard it's getting. Multicolored gradient logos from bands that are just low res JPEGs. I'm like, are you serious? High res? High res, white, solid. R r RRGB White p and Gs.

[00:39:44] Robbie: Okay. Nice and legible. Okay. That's what we want. Or black, right? Pick your pick or pick or choose. Or both if you want to be like me. An overkill. SV contact info. That's just a list of like who's on our crew. So there's six of us. Yeah. Our band plus Taylor in heaven. Yeah. So [00:40:00] six of us in the crew.

[00:40:01] Robbie: Cool. And like our respective contact info. Right? So that's what that is. SV payout info. So going back earlier, you know how I said like uh, we like getting paid in checks. That's what I have here. Preferred payout method check. Here is our bank routing, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. In case they wanna do direct deposit, which has happened.

[00:40:17] Robbie: That happens a lot actually. Here's our cash app, which is great. I hate Venmo. Whole different story for another time. In PayPal, the whole,

[00:40:24] Robbie: Big pharma, big PayPal. No, my, I'm all good. Cash is obviously fine. It's not king though, as a band getting paid, I want to check personally, but moving on, a promo, A nice clean promo of the band. That's super helpful. Our show writer. So the show writer's just like amenities, food, stuff like that. Your allergies, Oh, by the way, that is a great question that you could ask in your advance. Sorry, this isn't in our advance cuz I told you I'm sober.

[00:40:51] Robbie: You could ask their drug and alcohol.

[00:40:53] Robbie:

[00:40:53] Robbie: That's not weird. Actually, you know what? That might be a a better in-person question. I just realized cuz some venues might be [00:41:00] like, I'm not saying on record, but you can go smoke in the green room or whatever. some places are four 20 friendly, you know, and some places are very much not like that.

[00:41:08] Robbie: Like Texas we found out, is not like that. So you know, you're playing a bunch of states on tour guys, like they have different laws and they can contrast drastically. you cross one board and it's a different game. So take it seriously So yeah, show writer. Uh, What's next, next, next, X vehicle info.

[00:41:25] Robbie: Very important, Year, make, model, plate number, Very important. Trailer, uh, six by 12. License plate. Total length of your rig. Length of just fan. I don't know why I included that, I guess just to be bougie, but yeah, so I have everything they could want to know about my vehicle. next W nine, right? For tax stuff. Very important. If you guys dunno what that is, Google it, please do yourselves a huge favor and Google what that

[00:41:45] Robbie: means.

[00:41:46] James: Esle, I R S W nine.

[00:41:48] Robbie: Yeah, I'm sure James probably has podcast episodes about that. So yes, W nine and last but not least, the most important piece of your advancing drum roll.

[00:41:56] Robbie: Laylan. Get a drum roll sample going in here. [00:42:00] Effects, most important piece of your advancing package is stage plot. Bare minimum, that's what you need to send venues. If you guys don't have a stage plot, make one. Or have a friend make one. There's tons of free ones out there. James has probably talked about this a bunch.

[00:42:15] James: I used to use, uh, stage Plot Pro, which I

[00:42:17] James: still do,

[00:42:18] James: but it's super glitchy now.

[00:42:20] Robbie: I just use Photoshop cuz you know, I have

[00:42:23] Robbie: those skills, but there's, like I said, tons of free ones online. Tons. Or make the business investment of a whole whopping 4 99 and get it done. Okay?

[00:42:31] Robbie: or ask a friend or something, but get a s stage, black eyes please. Bare minimum.

[00:42:35] Robbie: Okay.

[00:42:35] James: And keep it up to date.

[00:42:36] Robbie: it's so funny. I started advancing and every venue or every promoter got back to me. Some of them were like, yeah, send over your stage plot. And I'm just thinking myself like, bro, I just sent it to you. Like, what are you talking about?

[00:42:48] Robbie: And I look in my folder and it's not in there. cuz I'm in the middle of redoing it right now because we have tour prep next week. There's a couple things. We have a different lineup now than we did before. So like, there's a couple things I have to adjust.[00:43:00] I can't figure out for at least a few more days, so I just never updated it.

[00:43:04] Robbie: I never put one in there, but I'm already advancing, so you see what I'm saying? I'm like, ah, geez. but I don't wanna tell 'em the wrong thing and have 'em run with that to the finish line. You see what I'm saying? So like, I don't have an answer for that one, but in any case, yeah, so a link to that folder, again, it's updated real time so when I do upload it, it'll be there magically And they'll be nice in honky dory.

[00:43:23] Robbie: Lastly, I end with a nice, again, personal Oreo of a happy, happy, happy business, business business. Happy, happy, right? How all your emails should be. Again, thank you so much for the help. If you have any questions or concerns yourself, please feel free to reach out and let me know.

[00:43:38] Robbie: Ma I said, man, in this case, sometimes you wanna throw, you know, jargon in there just to be casual and I said, we'll see you soon. Then I said, Rob Litchfield guitar slash tour manager, my phone number and then I have our, whatever, our email signature for the band. Let me ask you something, James, can I pick your brain on?

[00:43:52] Robbie: So,

[00:43:52] James: absolutely.

[00:43:53] Robbie: So for me, advancing as like a tour manager, obviously there's like a weird conflict of interest because I am in the [00:44:00] band, right? So

[00:44:00] Robbie: I'm the guitarist I, I've been advancing through my band email, through the saving vice email.

[00:44:05] Robbie: Should I be doing it through my own email

[00:44:07] James: I think

[00:44:08] James: it's fine either way.

[00:44:09] James: Whatever's easier for you.

[00:44:10] Robbie: This one's easier for me

[00:44:12] James: Yeah. Then keep doing it that way.

[00:44:13] Robbie: Okay. Plus my band mates are so nosy. I dunno if you guys can relate. If any of you guys are like, the leaders in your band or whatever, do a lot of the business stuff. My band mates are so nosy all the time.

[00:44:23] Robbie: Like, I can't tell you how many times I got asked over those five days of like, rebooking the stuff. Like, where are we at? Where are we at, where are we at? Like, you know what I mean? Like everyone's twiddling their thumbs, anxiously. It got to a point where I just shared the spreadsheet with 'em cuz I'm just like, I'm just so sick of questions.

[00:44:39] Robbie: It's getting updated real time anyway in a Google sheet. Like There's nothing in there that I don't want 'em to see. Like it's, there's nothing sensitive in there for my band mates at least. So it's like, but oh yeah. By the way, guys keep spreadsheets of your shows, right? Promoters dates, Venue names, addresses, payout, like the deal you guys made, Your guarantees door, deal back, end, all that.

[00:44:59] James: this is an [00:45:00] opportunity for me to pitch something. I have a free master show log, which you can go to Bandhive.rocks/history to get. And not only does it let you log all your shows, but there's a little like eighties video game retro style dashboard, which shows you, your highest pay, your lowest pay, your average pay.

[00:45:17] James: the same for attendance. Your highest, your lowest, your average merch per head is in there, all that kind of stuff. So you have this really neat dashboard view of like, Hey, this is how we're doing as a whole, and then you can go in and view the details on the next tab of the spreadsheet.

[00:45:32] Robbie: James, have you, have you shared this with me in the past?

[00:45:35] James: I might have.

[00:45:36] Robbie: please share this with me cuz I would love to check that out. That sounds

[00:45:39] Robbie: awesome. I think what we have is pretty thorough, but if you guys couldn't tell, like the whole point of this is when you collab with other people, you're gonna learn new things.

[00:45:48] Robbie: Here's another great example. I, we were on the tour with revenue. I had mentioned them earlier. They've been doing this for a while too, in fact, longer than us. And I remember looking in their trailer and they had this weird like, clothes line around the inside of [00:46:00] their, their trailer and it, the comparable size to ours.

[00:46:02] Robbie: And they had like their stage clothes hanging there, like on coat hangers and stuff. I just thought that was so genius. You know what I mean? And they picked up from some other, like born of Ocirus when they went out with them or something.

[00:46:12] Robbie: Like, you know what I mean? So it's like one of those things where it's like, I just love how touring bands and everything, like we share ideas. Like, James, I'm sure you picked up a bunch of stuff on this interview, you know, maybe you haven't thought of. I just love learning and like sharing knowledge.

[00:46:25] Robbie: And it's like, I know I'm not perfect. I'm always trying to build my systems to be as efficient as possible, because when you're trying to juggle all these different things, guys, you have to write stuff down. You have to have systems. Okay? you need this stuff for your business. If you wanna succeed in a band, you can't just muscle through it with good songs.

[00:46:43] Robbie: it's not like that anymore. you need to have fundamentals. And I think that's the whole mission of what James is doing with the Bandhive. Which I think is great. I love in another life, I'd love to be your co-host or something, you know what I mean?

[00:46:54] Robbie: Like, I, I love this stuff and I love paying it forward to other bands out there listening that, don't know any [00:47:00] of this stuff. Cuz I have to learn a lot of this by myself through trial and error,

[00:47:04] James: absolutely. Like there's so much to it and I think you're already halfway there to being a co-host cause I'm gonna split this up into a two-part episode, so you're gonna have

[00:47:11] Robbie: I'm so sorry. I am so sorry, James.

[00:47:13] James: about this and because we're talking about two different things.

[00:47:17] James: I'm going to split it we talked about the assets is gonna be one episode and the advancing is gonna be a separate episode.

[00:47:23] Robbie: That's totally fine. I'm sorry, Leland. I'm so sorry, sir.

[00:47:27] James: Well, Ravi, man, it has been a pleasure. I just sent you the link on Facebook Messenger. For anyone else who wants to get that spreadsheet, it's totally free. Head on over to Bandhive.rocks/history. Aside from that, saving vice.com, all the tour dates are there. You're at Saving Vice everywhere. Twitter, Instagram, TikTok, all of those places you're on there as far as I know.

[00:47:49] James: If you're in an area where Saving Vice is playing, please go check out the end of Winter tour. Like Robbie said, this is your last chance to see a lot of those songs live, so go do it and I'm sure the ticket [00:48:00] price are, are reasonable. It's probably like 10 to 20 bucks for most of those shows,

[00:48:03] Robbie: Yeah, exactly. Super affordable. anyone who's here that's, regardless of you're a fan of my band or you want to pick my brain, you guys are all more than welcome to come out and, and hang out. Like, I'm a pretty easygoing guy. I love clearly talking with people about this stuff.

[00:48:18] Robbie: You know, if you wanna hang out after the show and. You know, rip a couple butts or whatever and talk business I'm so for it, you know what I mean? So please, yeah. Everyone here is welcome. I love meeting new people.

[00:48:27] James: Well, Robbie, thank you again so much, man. I really appreciate you taking the time to sit here and just nerd out with me. This is the conversation I

[00:48:33] James: love, like just thank you so much and I hope you have an amazing weekend and best of luck on tour.

[00:48:37] Robbie: Thank you James.

[00:48:38] James: VAT does it for part two of my interview with Robbie Litchfield of Saving Vice. Thank you so much for tuning into both parts of this, and I hope that you'll do us a huge favor and subscribe to the podcast, so all of the tips that we share in the future. You can hear those as well.

[00:48:52] James: And we do have a backlog of 176 episodes. That you can also check out. You can find those at [00:49:00] Bandhive.rocks/podcast. We'll be back with another brand new episode of the show next Tuesday at 6:00 AM Eastern. Until then, I hope you have a great week. Stay safe, and of course, as always, keep rocking.