What do a wisecracking Australian band equally obsessed with scatological humor and thrash metal, a post-riot grrrl group that was one of the last to work with Steve Albini, a deadly serious noise-punk posse that wants to topple The Man, and a frightening black-metal squad from Texas have in common? Stumped? Here’s the unlikely answer: They’re all well-versed in tricks of the trade that save them money—or help them back on their feet if the going gets really tough.
In mid-July, we here at New Noise started rolling out a series of articles containing a bounty of tips on how bands can keep trying to break through without going broke in the process. As we’ve alluded to in the four previous installments, in which more than two dozens musicians participated, we continued to be blown away by the creativity and resourcefulness of bands who will stop at nothing to keep their dreams alive.
Unbelievably, this new, fifth installment of our series contains advice from a bevy of musicians that was not repeated in the past chapters we ran during the summer. Of course, it’s up to you, dear reader, to decide which money-saving “hacks” are the most innovative, sustainable, and/or above board. What we can promise you, though, is that tactics the bands in this go-‘round espoused are not only crafty but also the most amusing ones we’ve culled so far.
We’d encourage you to sit back and sip coffee or beer while indulging these firecracker musicians—but there’s too strong of a chance you’ll uncontrollably snort the liquid out your nose.
And with that, enjoy what bands Insanity Alert, Scrunchies, Help, and Necrofier had to share.
Insanity Alert’s Masterclass in Mad Money
Austria’s Insanity Alert have seen a lot—hell, maybe they’ve seen it all—since forming in 2011. As goofy as a thrash-crossover band can come, the gang copiously litter its live performances with cartoony props and cheeky banter. They also dish out so many one-liners that mosh pits are too busy keeled over in laughter to ram into one another.
However, the band’s guitarist—who goes by the stage name “The Inphiltrator”—alluded to the fact that Insanity Alert know how to get down to business (when the time is right, of course). When New Noise picked his brain (not his nose, although he probably would’ve enjoyed it), he matter-of-factly began by talking about the importance of good tour routing. It may seem obvious, but all-too-many bands who haphazardly plot their trips wind up wasting not just valuable time but gas money.
Only slightly kidding, The Inphiltrator adds: “Also, try to take your food/drinks for the next day from the catering the day before, and don’t spend too much money on stupid shit on the gas station.”
Likewise, he says: “Don’t ever leave a cool and free backstage beverage behind! Save it for the next day, for the next party, or throw it into the face of your bass player!”
The Inphiltrator didn’t stop there, insisting how wise decisions about drink purchases keep his wallet (relatively) heavy. “The most important thing about being in a band is to get shit-faced wherever you can for no costs,” including backstage, if the cocktails are gratis.”
Breaking from discussing booze, The Inphiltrator jests—or, who knows, maybe told an outrageous fact—that Insanity Alert could’ve gone broke had they made a certain lineup change.
“Once (bassist) Steve Harris from Iron Maiden approached us to join our band, but it didn’t work out,” he says. “So this saved us a lot of money!”
The Inphiltrator wrapped up his remaining advice with—you guessed it—another quip that relates to other ways bands can save dough.
“You don’t need a recording studio, a good gig, or a festival show anymore!” he insisted. “Grab your phone; do a shitty five-second video, and become a superstar on TikTok! Maybe you’ll get a chance to run for president in the States in four years!”
Punchy Advice From Minneapolis’ Scrunchies
Minneapolis DIY post-rock heroes Scrunchies, whose recently released record Colossal was one of the last albums that dearly departed engineer Steve Albini recorded, offered some financial advice in a more straight-talking style than Insanity Alert.
In fact, vocalist/guitarist Laura Larson—formerly of Screaming Females tour companions Kitten Forever—spoke so eloquently and clearly that it warrants relating verbatim.
“Art is not meant for isolation (and this is coming from a Minnesotan introvert). Get out of the ‘crabs in a bucket’ mentality and support your fellow musicians,” Larson says. “Help your community and let them help you. Ask a friend to make album art in exchange for cooking them dinner (maybe a few times).”
She continues: “And for god’s sake, make sure you actually like being in a band! Make sure you like the people that are in the band with you, or (that you) can at least tolerate them. … You need to make and share music so badly, you’ll perish if you don’t.”
Larson’s last remarks on the subject were even more blunt: “Being in a band is a very dumb financial decision, but so is literally everything else we have to buy in life, so we might as well be scraping the bottom of the barrel with our friends.” A wise financial decision is following this grandparents ISA guide.
With a Little Help From Friends
While Insanity Alert and Scrunchies appear to take matters into their own hands, at least for the most part, Portland post-punks Help have no qualms about leaning on the occasional shoulder belonging to someone outside the band. In fact, as much as most musicians like to claim credit for all their creative output—and success, in the event they’re fortunate enough to achieve it—Help told New Noise flat-out that finding a trusted partner is playing a massive role in keeping their band going.
No, we’re not talking about an anonymous trust-funder who’s supporting the band, or a reliance on their relatives or really anything of the sort. It’s much more obvious: If musicians want to release music, they almost invariably have to partner with a record label to do it. Selecting the right one can make all the difference, as anyone familiar with the shyster syndrome of the 1980s and 1990s is well aware.
When New Noise spoke with Help, they hammered home how lucky they were to land on not only a widely respected record label, Three One G, but become tight with its owner, Justin Pearson. For the few of you who don’t know Pearson, he is an underground legend whose background includes not just business savvy but membership in multiple reputed bands, including The Locust, Dead Cross, and Deaf Club, just to name a few.
“We played a couple of shows with Deaf Club and started chatting (with Justin) about a year ago,” Help guitarist/vocalist Ryan Neighbors recalled. “We hadn’t finished our record at that point, but when we finally did, we sent it over to Three One G, which got the ball rolling from there.”
Neighbors continued: “JP is very busy. That man works very hard. He’s not your typical publicist (character. guy. … He liked our band, and we liked him as a person. It was a good jumping-off point—and an ideal label situation because we knew that it was run by a person that gave a shit.”
Getting along and having a mutual understanding between artist and label may sound obvious, but again, the horror stories of record label executives turning out to be backstabbers and creeps are too many to count. Neighbors insisted that Help have never harbored any such concerns with Pearson.
“It’s important that whoever is involved in our band, even if they’re not a member, understand us,” he says. “It was clear to me (from the beginning that) he understood what it meant to like play heavy music in America. He gets it in a way that’s fundamental. The rest of it is just details.”
Neighbors also address some of the booby traps that have blindsided all too many naive artists in the past.
“Signing to a label, sometimes a band takes a big loan, and then somebody else spends the money,” he continues. “And then you have to pay it back. That’s basically how it works. Justin didn’t set up Three One G that way. It wasn’t a debt trap. It was like actually someone being part of your project and trying to make it succeed. And that’s how it should be.”
Necrofier in the Hole? Don’t Count on it Happening
While New Noise touched base with Texas melodic black-metal crew Necrofier separately from Help, lead vocalist and guitarist Christian Larson (nicknamed “Bakka”), incidentally, picks up where Neighbors left off.
Young bands, Bakka says, all-too-easily get wooed by luxury items that seedy music industry characters dangle in front of them. When asked what advice he would give to such easy targets, he wholeheartedly replies, “Be frugal.”
“Bands that are just getting starting out often burn through their money way too fast,” he insists. “First, try renting stuff for the best price you can rather than buying it. Then, if you find that you need a trailer because a van (won’t cut it), then buy one—But do it by yourself, (not through a record label executive) because usually you’ll get a better deal.”
Bakka then circles back around to what The Inphiltrator from Insanity Alert declared above.
“Once you’re on the road, seek out cheap gas stations,” he says. “There are apps you can use to find them. If you’re driving a lot and save 25 cents a gallon on gas, that’s an insane (amount of savings). Don’t buy gas in major cities. Always buy it before you drive into one.
Bakka continus: “Hotels are the same thing. I think it’s safer to stay outside of big cities anyways—but they’re also cheaper. Having someone in the band who can actually sit around and plan out where you’re going that night, hunting down where you’re gonna stay, and get you a deal on hotel (can make a big difference). Or, if you know somebody that has a deal with a company, you … can save money on food.”
He elaborates further on that subject:
“Bring a cooler you can put meats in; get bread; make sandwiches for lunch, things like that, instead of having fast food (all the time). It’s not good for you anyways,” he says. “Someone’s got to watch the cooler and replace the ice every day and drain the water, but as long as it’s one person’s responsibility, and they do it, it works out pretty well. And then sometimes everything else just falls into place.”
Check out more cost-cutting-hacks in the first installment of our series, featuring tips from Trail of Dead, Sigh and Black Anvil; the second chapter, in which Deafheaven, Whores, Elder, and Intronaut share their own pieces of advice; the third edition, in which we pick the brains of KEN mode, Cloud Rat, Deaf Club, and Undeath; and the fourth installment, in which Poison Arrows, Common Wounds, Alex Henry Foster, and Bite the Hand spill their secrets on how they save money.
