How To Pull Off a Solo Acoustic Tour
In the last column I detailed an effective “Anchoring” method for booking a small band tour. In summary:
“An effective strategy is to use a method called ‘Anchoring’ - you get yourself booked at a festival that will ideally pay for you to get there. If no travel help is officered, but the fest is an officially recognized festival, some grant organizations in Canada offer funding to help with travel cost. In short, apply to very festival you can and when you get a booking use that money to “anchor” you financially to get there, and from that solid footing, you can now book smaller gigs along the way.”
The same thing can be done for a solo acoustic tour, yet it's much easier, simply because you’re only one person, not a handful. If you get yourself a festival booking, it’s much easier to pay your way as one person with money from that. You can also do solo tour with just smaller paid gigs. With bands I have a responsibility to keep things on budget and make a profit, so that the musicians can get proper renumeration for their time. For solo I only answer to myself! For this reason, and because I have curiosity and wanderlust to see the world, I’ve done solo tours that I also view as “working vacations”. I don’t need to drink tequilas on a beach doing nothing, I just need to see the world while also playing music.
In 2018 I booked my first world tour, with show all the way to BC, Orlando, and Europe. I had paid gigs, but I also fit in non-paid shows in-between those just to see a new place. I mean, I think I fit in Liverpool with a pass-the-jug show just to visit Beatles sites. Or this summer (2024) I did a West Coast tour (in support of F-105 III: Baby Makes Three Mix’ EP) from LA all the way up to Victoria BC. Again, mostly paid gigs (no festival anchor) but I was able to fit in an unpaid Star Wars fandom gig in LA just to see my friends and play for fans of my music in that world (that’s another column, “Finding A Community Niche”!). I had other paid gigs in LA, to Santa Barbara, San Francisco and Seattle, which helped me get to Victoria BC to play some shows and see family again. I was also able to have my friend Kanae (aka ‘Ochakumi Girls’ from Japan) join as opener.
One way to save money is hostels. I used to do cheap hotels, then Air BNB to save, but both are now out of control price wise, so I tried hostels on my friend's advice (i.e. $50 a night instead of $200). This unexpectedly became one of the most rewarding things, as the global hostel community has a communal spirit of meeting new people and helping each other. Just do an online one to make sure you find the quiet ones, if sleep is important to you!
F‑105 (Din Yalonen) is a mythpunk folk rocker from Toronto, weaving between electric alt‑rock and acoustic folk.