Eggroll

Listen to Eggroll's Song, "Must Be Something," Here:

Originally formed in 2001 as a cover band while still in high school, the Israeli Psychedelic Prog. Rockers, Eggroll have enjoyed significant success including opening for Jethro Tull and playing for crowds of 25,000.

The band, Lior Seker - lead vocals/guitars; Sagi Ahiel – vocals/lead guitars; Dan Carpman – vocals/ bass; Lior Talmor – vocals/keyboard; Gil Idan – drums; and Niki-violin, spent 40 days spreading their exotic Eastern sound during their first American tour. Eggroll’s philosophy - “with hard work you can survive, with harder work you can thrive - anything is possible!” seems to work. Of course, Skype, pre-sales and free beer were also key ingredients to the tours success…

AP: How did you arrange your first US Tour?
Eggroll: The tour was produced by our manager who used many Internet resources, local sites, forums, personal contacts, networking in the industry, community and colleges.

Fan management and the rest was a great group effort with band members working on various elements was through MySpace and Facebook.

AP: What are important considerations you make when deciding what clubs to play?
Eggroll: The name recognition of the place (known for label reps. hangout - A&R), good sound system, good potential fan base/draw, and of course "free beer!"

AP: How much money have you budgeted for your tour and how did you determine that amount?
Eggroll: We predetermined our costs based on personal experiences of other touring musicians traveling to the USA. Keep in mind, EGGROLL traveled from Israel and so travel costs and general budget was much higher.

We took into account the goals of the tour, performing as much as possible getting our music out there, especially concerts that paid well -even if it took us to places we hadn't planned on traveling to (that was good - we really got to see the country.. singing the whole way). In addition to the traditional club playing, the group performed in events that were pre-sold, budgeted taking into account the costs involved, accommodations and the ability to save some of the income to cover other basic costs of travel for the entire tour.

AP: How did you account for the higher cost of gas?
Eggroll: The gas prices really started climbing during this tour, but we had no choice but to accept what it was, and fill the tank only after keeping a watchful eye where the cheapest price was. We used a van for neighboring states, and flights crossing from the East to West Coasts when performance dates were close and the venue or event insisted on it.

AP: How did you economize during the tour?
Eggroll: Due to tour high expenses, the group stayed at motels based further out, shared rooms and accepted invitations from local families to host the group in several places.

AP: How do you promote your shows in advance?
Eggroll: With the help of the clubs/venue themselves, social groups (facebook), community/organizations, papers/radio, college fraternities...etc.

AP: Are you finding that audiences are getting smaller because less people can afford to go to shows?
Eggroll: Not necessarily. But, there is a lot of choice and people do budget.

Get tour dates: www.myspace.com/eggrollband