Aug 2008
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Honor SocietyListen to Honor Society's Song, As an indie band with few resources, New Jersey based Pop/Rockers, HONOR SOCIETY, Michael Bruno (lead vocals / guitar), Jason Rosen (keyboards / backup vocals), Andrew Lee (bass / backup vocals) and Alexander Noyes (drums) need to be resourceful. Talent & good looks don’t hurt, but Honor Society’s secret weapon is a well-organized & mobilized fan base street team. AP: With your strong pop hooks & youthful good looks does Honor Society mostly appeal to young women? AP: How do you handle all your booking & marketing needs? At this point, we don't have a booking agent, so all of the booking responsibilities fall on us. It's definitely a challenge, but we've developed some good connections and relationships with clubs/venues, which helps. We‘re actively seeking a booking agent to help with those responsibilities. Recently, we hired Cassie Petrey from Crowd Surf to help us with marketing, press and radio efforts. AP: You guys really seem to understand promotion and keeping your fans actively involved– what’s your secret? We have a Street Team HQ leader who reaches out to street teams in individual states. As a band, we also stay in close contact with our street teams to keep them excited and motivated. Whenever we have an objective for the street team as a whole, we will film a video for them, informing them of the objective and how it should be completed. We often set up contests for the street teams to push them along with prizes that might include merchandise or a private web chat between the band and the street teamers. We're always drumming up new ideas to make the most of our street team and to make sure they're getting something positive out of the experience as well. AP: This summer tour will take you further from home than before, how did you budget for your expenses? This tour is our biggest and most ambitious so far we'll be on the road for about 40 to 45 days. Since it's broken up into mini-tours, the budget for each leg of the tour is a little different. We based the budget on expenses like gas, food, lodging, tolls and contingency money. This past weekend, for example, we had a 4-day tour out to Chicago and back, playing 4 shows in total. We budgeted about $500 on gas, $250 on food, $100 on lodging and $25 on tolls. I can't say that we've had to "cut back” but we certainly planned the tour with budget in mind, which is why we're only going as far as Chicago, instead of all the way out to California. It's absolutely necessary to add extra money for the high gas prices. We try not to wing anything...we don't like surprises when it comes to budgeting! Also, we're playing a slightly different kind of show for this tour - it's semi-acoustic/electric, instead of a full-fledge stage show. This allows us to take only one vehicle (a cozy van) and keep expenses low. AP: Where you play can make a big difference in your success – what do you look for when putting together a tour? AP: What must-have items will you be packing? AP: What are your most popular merch items? AP: Do you give anything away for free? AP: Do you record your shows, if so what equipment do you use? AP: Are you optimistic about the live music scene? There are so many bands out there that are touring, there's a lot of competition to book shows and get on tours. People are hungry for music, so much so that they're often willing to book bands to play at their private house parties. There's a lot of demand for live music and that's a good sign. Summer Tour Calendar For more on Honor Society, visit www.myspace.com/honorsociety |
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