Big James Arsenian, frontman for Montreal-based Endast, has posted a new How-To touring blog on his Right Hook Mics site. An excerpt is available below:

"Recently, the two piece band Pomplamoose, who have enjoyed some level of success through YouTube and other online avenues,  released a financial breakdown of their most recent tour providing some insight into the inner workings of a band that most people consider to have 'made it'.

Their 28-day tour of the United States cost them $147,802. Their revenue for that tour totalled $135,983 netting them a loss of $11,819. This is painful to hear and potentially discouraging to aspiring musicians who have dreams of touring and one day filling the Fillmore in San Francisco, as Pamplamoose did on this very tour.

I am in a metal band called Endast, based in Montreal. My younger brother, Chris, has shared the stage with me in this band for 10 years along with three other amazing dudes. We've played over 1300 shows in that timeframe and learned every lesson the hard way. Nobody taught us how to tour, we just booked shows and drove. We've grown a lot as a band and seen some moderate success but absolutely NOTHING like Pamplamoose. To this day, our turnouts still fluctuate wildly from one city to the next from forty people to four hundred and so every tour is a calculated financial risk.

My brother Chris, who keeps meticulous records of each tour, pulled out the file on one of our recent tours to provide a breakdown of how an independent, underground band does things to provide a comparison to Pamplamoose's numbers. Our tour was one show shorter than theirs, but nearly a week longer out on the road because Canadian cities are very spread apart. The drives are sometimes gigantic, (15 hours and up) which means extra days on the road. So in total we played 27 shows in 35 days across Canada, all booked by me.

Gas: $4472.93

On this particular tour, we were using an 8 passenger van from 1989 pulling a 5x8 trailer that was packed so tight it was ready to burst. If we could have afforded a better, more fuel efficient van, we would have bought one. Believe me. Notice there is no parking nor toll charges included in this because we find free places to park and we avoid toll roads wherever possible.

Tour Manager: $600

We have reached a point where we absolutely must bring one staff member out on the road with us. We need someone who can drive, do merchandise, settle up, handle daily logistical tasks like getting food and booking hotels, and in the worst case scenario, do front of house sound for us. We have a very small budget for this, as you can see, so for this tour we chose someone who is self-employed and doesn't have to worry about leaving work for five weeks. We struck a deal where we would pay him a nominal fee to essentially cover his rent while we were away and we would feed him and shelter him while we were out. We've been EXTREMELY lucky to have found people to help us with this position for the past few years and all of them were amazing at their job and we would have been lost without them. They were mostly just stoked to go on an adventure and have fun with us on the road. 

Food: $1947.43

The general rule of thumb for us as a band is that we budget a $10 per diem to each band member and then we choose to work as a team and pool that money to get a communal meal. A couple of roast chickens with some salad and bread for supper, coffee and breakfast sandwiches for breakfast at Tim Horton's, as an example. If we had stuck to that budget of $60 per day for 35 days it would have come out to $2100. Truthfully there are days where we don't technically spend anything on food, and days where we go over that budget, but more on that later.

Go to this location for the complete educational read.

Arsenian recently checked in with an update on his Metal Mics business venture, which has been re-named Right Hook Mics:

For more information go to RighHookMics.com or the official Facebook page.

Endast recently released a video for the single "Suck It Up" from their new album, Thrive, released on April 28th:

"The video serves as a reflection of our efforts to live life to the fullest. Every day. To be proactive and make something of ourselves."

Big James Arsenian recently checked in with the following update:

"If you want success, you gotta work hard. It's really easy to get distracted by other people's success, to become jealous of how easy it seems for them, but in the time I've been in Endast, a lot of more successful bands have come and gone and we are still here. Still sharing our passion with you guys. Still making memories on tour with new and old friends. The difference between us and them? I'd wager that we're still around because we continue to believe in ourselves, even if the music 'industry' doesn't. And so we keep working..."