If you’re a great band, and you wanna tour smart, who you gonna call? Martin Atkins.
Ok, well maybe you can’t call him, but you can read his new book, “Tour: Smart,” full of great little gems of knowledge on everything from how to use your budget wisely with marketing and promotion to choosing the right transportation for those long, hot treks from city to city.
Atkins will be in New Orleans on Sun, Jan. 27, at Tipitina’s on Napoleon Avenue for a free “Tour: Smart” workshop and discussion. He will also be at Loyola on Jan. 28 to give the workshop during the Music Business Forum, from 5 -6 p.m.
Atkins, known for his drumming in post-punk and industrial bands, has an impressive 30 years of touring experience with bands such as Public Image Limited, Killing Joke, and the most recently, Pigface.
He’s even played with Flea from the Red Hot Chili Peppers and Trent Reznor from Nine Inch Nails on their Grammy Award winning track, “Wish.” Reznor sang with Pigface briefly and has been known to cover their song “Suck” in Nine Inch Nails’ live show. So, with this extensive resume behind him, Atkins is more than qualified to advise young bands on the tricks of the trade.
“I don’t know if I’m particularly smart, I just have the dubious distinction of having done this for a really long time … And without sounding like a TV evangelist, I feel a responsibility almost to get this message out there because I knew if I had this book 20 years ago, I would have been a millionaire. I mean, I’ve made huge mistakes,” said Atkins.
But commercially, Atkins’ successes far outweigh his mistakes. He’s managed to be in numerous high profile bands, beat alcoholism, raise a family and even start his own label, Invisible Records. And for the latter half of 2006, he was in China recording an album called “The Martin Atkins China Dub Sound Systems,” and signed many new up-and-coming Chinese bands to his label.
“I knew that China was up-and-coming and I wanted to be involved in that. I just wanted to, you know, be a part of something cool and large and very happening and emerging everyday and I just went with it,” Atkins said.
So with his busy schedule of touring, recording, and collecting art for his gallery, when did he find time to write a book?
Atkins says it all happened five years ago when he began to teach “The Business of Touring” at Columbia College in Chicago. The students were using a textbook from 1963 and Atkins saw that as unacceptable.
“It just seemed crazy to me because music is evolving every day,” Atkins said. “So I started putting stories and lesson plans together … and after going to different conferences as a teacher, people were saying to me, ‘Wow, when is this book coming out because we need it.’
“So, I started to put it together in earnest. It seemed like a really good idea. It took about three years, which is ridiculously insane, but I’m glad we stuck with it.”
Atkins had a little trouble with the use of profanity in his book, however, “There were maybe three too many f—‘s that were just (unnecessary),” Atkins laughed, “But if someone’s offended by the language, then they have no business being on the road. I’ve been threatened with baseball bats and several guns. It’s not a place for the timid. And if bad language is going to derail someone, then don’t buy the book.”
But this thick black-framed and bleach blond-haired rock star is more than happy to help out any band that is sincere and really wants to make a great show. He’ll even hand out a few free copies of his book if he sees you on the road.
“(Handing out copies) could make thousands of dollars of difference and it can make them survive,” Atkins said about the free merch. “That’s a problem with young bands because we live in a society that’s focused on image and they feel like they have to project the image of knowing it all – and they don’t.”
But the most important lesson from his book that he wants anyone to remember – budding rock star or not – is: “to take responsibility for things and do it yourself.
“By doing it yourself you gain the knowledge that it’s done, and you get to know what’s involved in certain tasks. You know what works and what doesn’t. Plus, when you let somebody else do everything, you give them the ability to completely derail your career because of lack of attention.”
His second most important lesson: “For local bands to stop overplaying their local markets. Your friends won’t tell you to stop playing because they’re your friends,” Atkins said jokingly.
He ain’t afraid of no tour.
Briana Prevost can be reached at [email protected].
