June 23, 2010
Martin Atkins is a legendary drummer with a career that has spanned decades and genres. Over the course of his career, he’s played with legendary and influential bands like PiL, Ministry, Nine Inch Nails and Killing Joke. He founded PigFace and Invisible Records, and has contributed to countless projects under that label.
Most recently, he has taken his years of touring experience and turned them into a book called Tour:Smart, where he teaches musicians to put together tours. A sequel entitled Band:Smart is due for release, and he is now taking his experience on the road with the 2010 Vans Warped Tour, where he’ll be teaching newer bands how to not make the same mistakes he did.
We caught up with Atkins just before the launch of the Warped Tour, where he let us know what he’s been up to, and also how he feels about the PiL lineup for the most-recent reunion.
RC: First of all, as longtime fan of PigFace, Ministry, RevCo, Invisible, Damage Manual, and on and on, it’s an honor to speak with someone who has played such a large role in the history of industrial music. What have you been up to lately?
MA: Well, thanks. What have I been up to lately? Well f**k! Teaching, reworking some courses, writing a book - Tour:Smart - video blogging, going to China and making an album and a documentary there, having a few children, dj-ing my mash ups quite badly, starting a new gig at Madison Media Institute where I'm going to be working with their very cool staff to create some real world entrepreneurial courses and hopefully create a place where people will leave with a set of skills and a mindset that will help them to triumph in the face of adversity on a daily basis - whatever the economic situation. I was just in Brazil and I’m heading out all over the place during the rest of the year - bouncing between Chicago, Madison and the rest of the world!
RC: And also a new book - Band:Smart. What is Band:Smart about?
MA: Hmmmmmm, it’s like a band-centric version of Tour:Smart. Loads of people asked if I’d write something to help them with their band situation… so, a couple of years later, there’s 600 pages! There’s no shortage of information out there on the internet about everything - but it’s mesmerizing and not very funny - so I pissed all over it, kind of, and twisted it up a little, and stumbled into some pretty good ideas along the way. Great stuff about why you would even want a deal these days - but how to go about getting one if you do - but please don’t!
How to build a soundproof room, strategies for choosing a lineup and engineer, a manager, how to fill a room, more great stuff about being better at being a band, creating a great show, getting people there, making better decisions about routing, merch, food, drugs - all of that stuff - and great tips for recording, putting an album together, making more money every night from your merch booth and, errr… 400 more pages...
RC: Now you’ll be spending some dates on the Warped Tour. What will you be doing there?
MA: That’s a good question, I’ll be over at the Kevin says stage a lot seeing the bands - involving myself in the DIY panels that they are having over there - I might do some Tour:Smart things if there’s space and desire, or I might use the opportunity to hang with some bands and give them a quick business tuneup. I’ll be video blogging a lot and just taking the opportunity to immerse myself in someone else’s nightmare tour!!!
RC: Is there a single message you can sum up for bands right now on the best way to tour smart?
MA: Get out there and do it - the more you play the better you'll be at being you as a band, the better you'll be at choosing the right gigs next time and avoiding all of the mistakes you are going to make the first few times. You'll be better at doing interviews, deciding on the merchandise you're going to make yourselves – all of it. You'll stop playing the sh**ty songs and write better ones, the road will help you grow as a band and as a brand. Unless you’re sh*t, rude, lackluster f**kheads - then it will stop you in your tracks.
RC: Are there any bands or musicians that you look at how they’re going about being a band and touring, where you say “they are totally doing it right?”
MA: Well, Amanda Palmer is really doing some great sh*t with Twitter - then I look outside of music and see Panera taking the Radiohead idea and offering “pay what you feel” food at its St. Louis store - then I look at other businesses outside of music to see who’s doing what that’s inspiring; from telecoms to shrimp marketing there’s great shit out there, you just have to open your eyes and look. Right now I'm reading Soccernomics and a new book from Micah who started Oasis CD manufacturing. And, I’m always getting email suggestions and ideas from bands who are out there doing it - Kimberly Freeman of One Eyed Doll is amazingly entrepreneurial - an inspiration to any band trying to get a foothold.
RC: Looking back on your years of touring, is there one thing that you know now that you wished you known in the beginning?
MA: Oh, f*ck. I wish I’d had my book.
Seriously, they say that you only really start to learn when you teach, and that’s true. One of my first classes, a seven-hour touring class at Columbia Chicago seven years ago, I was thinking about bringing my agent in to talk to the students - then I realized he was an a**hole! I excused myself from class and fired him.
Writing stuff down is a great way to have it reenter my consciousness and actually become learned behavior so I can get on with my life version 3.0 and onwards. I think, having had a few people with whom my creative DNA is mixed with on vinyl or CD or whatever medium you choose - having seen them die and know that I can’t make music with them anymore, or just hang out and smile a bit about some of the sh*t we got up to, I think I would have stayed in touch more. Making music with people is special and I've been really lucky to have done that with some f*cking amazing people.
And, if I’d known what I know now about having a record label I might not have done that at all...
