California folk artist Jessica Pratt released one of 2012’s best debuts and followed it up this year with her stunning sophomore effort On Your Own Love Again which she’ll be playing for us live very soon with some very intimate Meredith sideshows while in Australia.
Ahead of the trip we caught up with Jessica and got the lowdown on life on the road, with these five reality-checks she’s experience on tour.
1. Touring is not travelling
Travelling and playing music as a profession is so much less forgiving than just traveling for yourself. When you’re travelling and you don’t really have to do anything any given day, you don’t have to deliver at the end of the day. You can be in any condition and sleep and eat at weird hours – it allows you to feel a lot more adventurous.
I feel like you end up feeling a little bit caged when you’re on tour. It turns into this thing where the whole day is held captive by knowing you have to prep for the show. You get into that of course and it becomes a very ritualistic thing, but I guess I find myself often envious of people who are travelling not in the way that I do. I envy their freedom.
Watch: Jessica Pratt – Back Baby
2. Sleep is gold
Getting sleep is really important. You can get worn down really quickly when you’re in a different place all the time.
3. Try and keep healthy
You’ve got to try and eat somewhat healthy food every once in a while. And maybe don’t drink a ton.
4. Pack light
I try to pack as light as I can but you often have to bring a bunch of shit with you. Like merch and – if you’re travelling for three weeks and playing shows every night, you want to try and not look like a homeless person because that will wear you down after a while too – feeling like you look like shit.
So you want to bring some options and try and bring more than one pair of shoes if you want to dress up a bit one night. I try to stay as minimal as possible within that but usually when you’re travelling you don’t end up wearing half the shit you bring. So if you can, travel light.
5. Tour with a small set up
I tour with just my guitarist and sometimes a tour manager but it’s pretty minimal. Fortunately when I tour Europe there’s places where I can have merch sent, but most of the time we have some strategies [for getting merch and gear places]. When you play places a little bit off the beaten path, sometimes you end up having to bring things and then it becomes complicated with border crossing and shit like that.
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Grab all of Jessica’s tour dates below!
Watch: Jessica Pratt – Game That I Play (Live on P4K Radio)
Saturday, 5th December
Fairgrounds Festival, Berry
Tickets: Fairgrounds Festival
Tuesday, 8th December
Newtown Social Club, Sydney
Tickets: Ticketscout
Wednesday, 9th December
Black Bear Lodge, Brisbane
Tickets: Oztix
Thursday, 10th December
Northcote Social Club, Melbourne
Tickets: Ticketscout
Saturday, 12th December
Meredith Music Festival
Tickets: Meredith
