The Famines guide to touring Canada
Ask nine out of 10 musicians and they’ll tell you the same thing: Touring Canada is tough. From shady small-town venues to unending Prairie drives and — possibly worst of all — widespread indifference the Great White North presents a plethora of problems. Unless you’re riding in style on the Tragically Hip tour bus the more likely scenario is a rented shaggin’ wagon or cramming inside a borrowed minivan or something equally gas-guzzling (in other words wallet-draining).
As one half of Alberta-born berserker garage duo The Famines Raymond Biesinger is no stranger to the road. Throughout four national tours and numerous regional jaunts he and drummer Garrett Kruger have learned the tricks of an incredibly daunting trade. Combining this wisdom with Biesinger’s overlapping illustration career (every Famines release is graced with his signature black-and-white type-heavy esthetic) the two-piece has issued the indispensable pamphlet How to Book a Maybe Successful Tour For a Band that Hasn’t Received Hype on Pitchfork etc.
“After our third tour we realized we might actually have some knowledge about making things happen without causing incredible stress and breaking up a band” Biesinger says. “At first I tossed around the idea of making a book. Then on our most recent tour our friend Mark from Kingston was really curious about our process because he’s in a band called False Face on a similar level. I wrote him a long email outlining how to book a tour for a band without hype and 80 per cent of that text became the pamphlet.”
Split into sections such as “Planning A Soft Route” “First Come First Serve” and “A Note On Pay What You Can” the eight-page accordion foldout serves as a quick and dirty Touring For Dummies. Though some of these tips might seem obvious to seasoned veterans neophytes will learn the basics on everything from emailing promoters to passing the hat and changing your oil every 5000 kilometres.
“Hopefully it will teach the norms that some beginners don’t get” says Biesinger. “Even the simple stuff like how you should start booking shows four months in advance is lost on many bands. I see people on their first tour with three- or four-day gaps which could be by design but I imagine it probably comes from not working enough in advance. There’s even a section on etiquette with people at shows or bars. I think most bands are doing things from the pamphlet but there might be a number of steps they forget about didn’t occur to them or simply didn’t know about.”
Biesinger’s recent move to Montreal — Kruger remains in Edmonton — has shifted the band’s MO dramatically with future plans to fly one member either east or west during tour time largely avoiding Canada’s difficult middle stretch. It’s a loss for the Prairies and western Ontario perhaps yet The Famines maintain wanderlust.
“Over the years we’ve played a lot of places where other people usually don’t bother” Biesinger says. “There are lots of places we haven’t bothered with as well but I’ve been really excited about small-town Ontario. There are so many similarities to the Prairies. Growing up in Edmonton all your friends move away by the time you’re 25. The amount of drain that happens in Peterborough Guelph or London is probably even more severe so I like talking with people creating independent art in those areas to see how they’re dealing with the problem.”
“I just like the notion of spreading art honestly” he concludes. “I’m not much of a partier and don’t really drink but I like eating at restaurants that I don’t get to eat at very often and talking with people who have similar interests. The funny thing is that I’m not very good at talking about music but it’s always great when someone is aware of the political or visual art side of The Famines and wants to talk about that. That excites me.”
