What Does A Lighting Director Do On Tour?
What does a Lighting Director do? A lighting director, also known as an LD, is the person on tour that’s responsible for the stage lighting during the show. They spend time programming and creating automated cues for the tour, as well as operating the...
What Does A Front Of House Engineer Do On Tour?
A front of house engineer, aka FOH, is the person on tour that takes care of mixing the sound the artist is putting out to the audience. The front of house engineer is usually in a barricaded box or tent in the middle of...
What Does A Production Coordinator Do On Tour?
What is a Production Coordinator? A production coordinator, also known as a production assistant or band/personal assistant, is the person on tour responsible for things like booking accommodations for travel and ensuring everyone is taken care of on their off-day. They have very similar...
What Does A Guitar Tech Do On Tour?
What is a Guitar Tech? A guitar tech is the person on tour responsible for the maintenance of the guitars. Their main priorities include loading and unloading the guitarists’ gear, tuning and prepping guitars for the show, cleaning and changing strings, and replacing broken...
What Does A Video Operator Do On Tour?
What Is a Video Operator? A video operator is the person on tour that produces any video content requested by the artist. Video operators, sometimes called VJ’s, are most commonly found in the DJ world, but video walls are becoming increasingly popular in other...
What Does A Tour Photographer Do On Tour?
What is a Tour Photographer? A tour photographer is a person on tour that is responsible for photographing the artist throughout the day and during the show. Many different routes can be taken to get involved as a tour photographer. It’s possible for photographers...
What Does A Drum Tech Do On Tour?
What Is a Drum Technician? A drum technician is the person on tour who’s responsible for the setup, break down, and maintenance of the artist’s drum kit. They’re also in charge of ordering replacement parts for the drum kit, maintaining good relationships with their...
What Does A Monitor Engineer Do On Tour?
What Is a Monitor Engineer? A monitor engineer, also called a sound technician or front-of-house person, is the person on tour who handles all audio for an artist’s in-ear monitors or wedges. When on stage, the artist can’t hear anything because the PA faces...
What Does A Merchandise Manager Do On Tour?
What Is a Merchandise Manager? The merchandise manager handles the transportation and sales for all the merchandise (aka merch) on tour. They’re responsible for getting the merchandise from the vendor to the venue, loading it in and out, and selling it every night during...
What Does A Tour Manager Do On Tour?
What is a Tour Manager? A tour manager, also known as a TM, is the person in charge of everything that happens on tour. They handle accounting, logistics, scheduling, and booking before a tour starts and once they’re out on the road. If anyone...
Never Miss Bus Call
The next 11 episodes of Don’t Shit On The Bus’ theme is Never Miss Bus Call. Much like The Essential’s theme – Don’t Shit On The Bus – there is more to it than * just* never missing a bus call. What is Bus...
Touring Etiquette and Don’t Be A Dick
If you have made it this far, you probably understand the basics of *what* goes on, on tour. How just as importantly – and maybe even more important, is the how. WE have talked about this before, and we will talk about it again....
Getting Hired and Paid to Tour
Getting on tour is one thing – getting on tour and getting paid is a whole different thing. I mean, of course, we all want to get paid for what we love to do. But touring requires that you get on the road and...
A Day In The Life Of Being On Tour
A lot goes on during a day of being on tour. Everyone is working hard, working constantly, and most importantly – working together. Tour is a big traveling organism that only flows if everyone is working together. But what does everyone do? And when...
The Different Ways of Traveling On Tour
The artist you are working for on tour determines the way you go about traveling for the tour. If they are a prominent artist, you will be traveling a lot nicer than a small artist. However, nicer does not always mean better. For example,...
How To Start Getting Real Life Experience
Getting real-life experience in the Music Industry is the key to starting the snowball effect that will eventually get you hired as a crew member with a band. I am sure everyone has heard the following line. We want to hire you, but what...
Networking In The Music Industry
Networking is the most important part of the music industry – and maybe even life. You should probably read How to Win Friends and Influence People. It is a classic for a reason. But if you want to learn some networking skills that apply...
The Pros and Cons of Touring
When you’re touring, you’re on the clock 24/7. The work can seem unrelenting at times, but the experience will mold you into a stronger, adaptable, and considerate individual. On tour, the highs are high, and the lows exist too, but all experience those lows,...
Touring 101 – What Is Touring And How Do I Do It?
Touring with musicians is a tremendous challenge and a true test of endurance, but also one of the most rewarding experiences. Since you’re constantly traveling, the job requires long hours and daily duties to be performed in and adapted to new environments every day....
Welcome to Don’t Shit On The Bus with Adam Elmakias & Neil Westfall
Welcome to the Don’t Shit On The Bus Podcast! We are happy you are here. Our goal is to get you from the couch to the tour bus, so stick with us and we will teach you everything we know about being successful on...
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What does a Production Manager do on Tour?
What is a Production Manager? A production manager is the person on the tour that is responsible for overseeing all the crew on a tour. The production manager is a more specialized version of the tour manager, and the two often work very closely...