GUEST COLUMN: Touring For The First Time
posted in: Music News • Rock
Hello, my name is Tyler and I’m the vocalist of a hardcore band from Washington DC known as Over & Out. I’m originally from a little town in Pennsylvania called Landenberg, and the best way to describe where I’m from is to say I’m outside of Philly when in reality I’m closer to Delaware, and it takes about a 20 minute drive to into town.
Music has always been a huge part of my life, and the catalyst of which was the film That Thing You Do!. I started drumming at a really young age because I wanted be Guy Patterson from the film, and after running that VHS into the ground I continued to learn about music from my older brother. New Found Glory, Green Day, Sum 41 were my gospel, and growing up in an age where videos were easily accessible via what we call the internet I became completely enthralled by the idea of the live show. Shows, concerts, gigs, whatever you want to call them, I needed that experience in my life. At first, I thought that thirst could be quenched by going to concerts and shows with my friends. I’ll always remember the first time my brother push me into the pit at a Linkin Park show. From this point out I was addicted to punk and shows, addicted to the chaos, addicted to one of the only places that really made sense in my life. It was only a natural progression that I wanted to be in a band, and while it never really germinated in high school, I knew that I needed to at least give it a shot. Music had given so much to me, and I needed to at least try to give something back as well.
Flash forward to the Spring of 2012, and my good friend Lee and I have an idea to write some music. He’s an Audio Technology Major at American University (where I go to school), and has access to a studio to record, so we wrote 2 songs in about a week. He plays guitar, I decided that I would handle vocals, and our friend Alec would record the drums. After one practice, we recorded the songs, and put them up on Bandcamp. Local DC kids seemed to enjoy them, so the next natural step was to write a few more, and play shows. Over & Out was officially a real band, and we booked our first show in June with a bunch of bands from Florida. Alec wasn’t around in the Summer, so we picked up my friend Robin to play drums, and it just so happened that Robin, despite being in high school, booked shows at this local place called Casa Fiesta (this venue charges no money for us to book there, and allows us to have shows basically any time that we want. It’s pretty much perfect). We played two shows over the Summer, and after we had some lineup changes we became a solid five piece in the Fall of 2012. We recorded our debut EP, Plastic City, in November with our guitarist Lee who did an absolutely wonderful job recording, mixing, and mastering. But it was even before this point that we had our eyes set on an East Coast tour in the winter, and we made sure it become a reality. We had done a weekend tour to Richmond and Maryland in September, but we knew deep down we needed to hit the road.
Before I get into the process, I think it’s important you know the other members of the band too. Over & Out is raw Bill on bass, Robin on drums, resident tough guy Lee on guitar, the enigma that is Brendan on guitar, and then myself on vocals.
Robin is essentially our booking agent for shows, because the amount of contacts he has is absolutely incredible. He is 18 years old, and his contact list is incredibly extensive. Since he books tons and tons of shows in DC with bands all over the country, he has gotten to know lots of people who put on shows, as well. When we decided as a band that a Winter tour was going to happen, Robin immediately put his nose to the grindstone and started hitting up all the people he knew. After about a month of emails, Facebook messages, and just general searching, he booked a nine day tour for us around the East Coast. We had some roadblocks along the way while we were booking, with dates dropping close to the tour kickoff, but we persevered and continued accessing the contacts we’ve accumulated with helping other bands with shows and we filled all of the holes again. The Free Tenley Tour Winter Tour was booked.
I’ve heard a lot of horror stories about a band’s first tour. I’ve heard it’s miserable, that it’s terrible, that you lose lots of money, kids hate you, and there is a large possibility that you’ll hate the other members of your band long before it ends. We found none of these cynical views to be true for us, at all. Tour was honestly one of the most incredible experiences of my life, and I can say that with a lot of confidence. This was a dream, realized. We stayed with lots of people we knew along the way, and everyone was incredibly nice and courteous to us. There were moments that I won’t forget from tour, such as a late night gathering in a hot tub with snow all around us. But there was one moment, more than any, that will always stick with me. We’re playing a show in Natrona, Pennsylvania, which is just outside of Pittsburgh, and we thought we were in trouble. Over & Out didn’t fit in on the bill at all, but we were excited to play regardless because it was in a skate park. We were playing one of the first songs we wrote, entitled Scarred Back, and I’m losing my voice to a bunch of kids that are standing in the back of the room with their arms crossed. Not an uncommon sight for an opening act, but you can’t relax just because cause kids are hanging out instead of moshing. Then, out of nowhere, this kid comes from the mosh pit that formed and starts screaming my lyrics back to me. And this isn’t just the nonsensical kid who doesn’t actually know the words, he knows almost all of them. As I write this, the idea that our songs can travel all the way to Pittsburgh and impact someone in that way without having ever met us still blows my mind, and it lit a fire under me that I don’t think I’ll ever be able to put out. It was the most gratifying thing to ever happen to me, and the way he talked about how he listened to us while he did college apps will mean more to me than he will ever know.
If there is one thing I can not stress enough it is that if you want to tour, do it. There are no substitutes for the hilarity, satisfaction, and gratification that playing music with your best friends can bring. Like everything else in life, If you want it, run after it. Don’t walk, don’t toe the line. Nobody ever got anything done from being passive. Our guitarist Lee is studying abroad for a semester, but Over & Out is going to be playing some regional shows while we write new material in hopes that we can put out a new release this Spring. Nobody in the band can imagine touring without Lee, so we are already planning our next set of dates this Summer. Where are we going to go? I’m not sure yet. I want to go to the South. But I do know one thing, we’re going to keep grinding away, doing what we love.
Written by: Tyler Osborne