Blink: ‘It’s Not The ’80s Anymore’

Ahead of a Melbourne visit, New Zealand’s Ian “BLINK” Jorgensen of A Low Hum fame sets Australians straight on ‘breaking’ America and other popular misconceptions.

[Historical image is withheld pending rights review.] What is it with you Aussies and your insistence on trying to “break” America by touring it? Playing a silly BBQ in Austin, struggling through unforgiving shows in bleak venues on the East Coast and spending thousands and thousands of dollars on trying to do something that – let’s be frank – is never gonna happen.

It’s not the ’80s anymore; it’s not even 2003. Record labels don’t have A&R dudes at bars looking for “the next big thing.” They have interns trawling the internet listening to blogs and review sites, trying to find killer singles. How good you are live doesn’t matter anymore. Most current popular bands in the US suck live. They got popular off the back of a single that went viral then put together a band to make it work, buying better musicians the more popular they become. Odds are your band is better than most of ’em. Does it matter? No.

So what are you doing? You think that dropping $20k+ on a 12-date tour of the US East Coast and playing CMJ is going to do anything better for you than sitting at home on your ass networking online or nailing recordings? You’ve all heard of the internet, right? If you’re going to play the game, you are MUCH better off spending that money recording some sick-sounding tracks and buying advertising on blog sites, review sites, buying your way into getting press, hiring a publicist, etc.

“You put all your eggs in this tired, worn, fragile and decrepit basket.”

Don’t get me wrong; oh, you NEED to tour the US – that shit’s the greatest – but forget this silly notion of “breaking” it. This idea that you need to break as a band is why so many bands break up. You put all your eggs in this tired, worn, fragile and decrepit basket, and when it inevitably fails you’re all so jaded and bitter that breaking up becomes the only solution.

Touring the world can easily be something you forge a career doing. By doing it smart and touring the right places, it becomes financially viable and something you can do all the time, year after year – while on one tour you’re booking the next. The USA becomes a place you drop into on your way back home for a holiday and some fun shows, not the focus of the trip and a place you spent $10k and six months on paperwork just to get visas so you can legally play at a dozen shitty bars to a few dozen people.

What exactly is the precedent that Australians seems to be following? Did an Aussie band “make it” in the US after playing some grassroots tour? Us Kiwis fell in a similar trap; when Shihad “made it” in Australia in the early ’00s, every Wellington band for the next decade moved to Melbourne, and after The Datsuns got big in the UK, NZ bands started heading there. Yawn. Australian success stories Stateside don’t stem from bands doing the hard yards in vans sleeping on floors, they come from brilliant pop songs getting released on decent labels and hooked up with cruisey tour supports, then tracks getting synced on hit TV shows, then festival appearances, then headline tours. Making it big “quickly” will always be about “the song.”

“You don’t go in cold and come out hot unless you’re that one-in-a-million fluke.”

The bands who do it right already have stuff happening for them; bands who do well at showcase festivals (SXSW, CMJ, Great Escape, et al) already have buzz, people working for them, label interest, etc. You don’t go in cold and come out hot unless you’re that one-in-a-million fluke. Maybe rather than trying to make a dent in the most oversaturated music industry in the world with tens of thousands of bands trying to do the same thing – all of whom think they’re pretty hot shit live – perhaps trying other markets might be a good idea? I love the USA, I love touring there, and you need to do it, but with real expectations.

Touring should be looked at as what it is: a way of gradually building your profile, fanbase and becoming a strong live act, which also leads into seeing the world, visiting unique places, playing in caves, bunkers, prisons, squats, on boats, on rooftops, in bank vaults, on mountains … broadening your horizons and having an amazing experience. Your recordings are what will take your band next level, but touring is what will give you a career.

The world is a big place. Stop thinking America is the be all and end all. Touring can be fun, rewarding and a real career. Come along to hear me rant at Face the Music and I’ll tell you exactly what you need to know to DIY tour the world, including America.

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Besides helming A Low Hum and the annual Camp A Low Hum festival in New Zealand, Blink is the author of ‘D.I.Y. Touring the World’. He’s headed to Melbourne as an International Delegate of Melbourne Music Week and to appear on two panels at Face the Music at the Arts Centre: ‘DIY Touring the World’ at 12:20pm this Friday (Nov 15) and ‘What the Festival’ (alongside BDO’s Ken West, Billions Australia’s Paul Sloan and Groovin’ the Moo’s Steve Halpin) at 10:05am the same day. Full program here. Read Ricky French’s 2011 interview with Blink.