by Kyle Wenzel

Don’t most people see all those big rockstar movies and think, “Wow, I wish that was my life,” at one point? I think that it’s a standard desire for all people that live in today’s society to see fame and want to become an icon like Jim Morrison or Jimi Hendrix. Something else people don’t consider is the work it takes to get that fame, and how often it works. Life as a performer is hard.

People who are performers have to deal with so many different things, especially when you’re in a band. You have to figure out how to book gigs, which involves dealing with some unsavory agents at times. People in bands also have to figure out how to promote themselves, which is a huge task that is also what makes or breaks your success. Adam Tisdale put this into a good perspective when talking about how he promotes the band, Mount Bungalow:

“It takes a lot of work to promote a local show,” Tisdale said. “You have to literally tell everyone you can, put up posters, post events on facebook, everything you can. When you ask people to come to a show a lot of them tell you they’ll go and they don’t, so when you try and get a certain amount of people to come to a show you also have to take into account all of the people who don’t come. A lot of times it’s surprising the turnout that you get for a show and other times it’s disappointing.”

When it comes to playing live shows, all that matters is the people. You have to try hard to play for the people that come, and have to make it exciting for them. The singer of Mount Bungalow, Michael Gustin has a very positive outlook on the people that come to shows.

“When you get on stage and look out at your audience it’s cool to see how well the promotion for your band worked, because you see your friends there and then see other people that you never would have expected to show up, and it’s really cool,” Gustin said. “And then after the show it’s fun to talk to the people who came to see you. I think it’s just a fun experience for both the band and the audience at local shows.”

And then when it comes to being a musician and playing live show another factor in performing funding. Instruments, electronics, amplifiers, so many variable expenses add up quickly. And the worst part of it? Getting paid just $80 for playing gigs like the House of Blues, which you’d expect to make a good amount of cash. But for musicians, playing shows isn’t about making money. Brendan Kilgallen of Dream Giants agrees.

“Yeah, sure it sucks when you work really hard practicing and everything for a show,” Kilgallen said. “But after the show you still realize it was all worth it to be able to just play and make people have fun at a live show because of what you were doing.”

Musicians have a tough time doing what they do, and that’s a reason why people respect them. We aren’t in it for the money, we just want to work hard to make people have a good time because of the hard work we put it. The feeling of making people have fun with music is one of the best in the world.