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Karaoke Stories & Arena Shows – My Performance Style & Stage Presence – From The Mind of McFarland music blog.

There’s no visual documentation of the night in question, so here’s my friend Mike & I singing “Rapper’s Delight”

Let’s start this one by admitting that I’m a karaoke junkie. Regardless of how many “real shows” I’ve played, there’s something alluring about a book full of songs just there for the picking, the lyrics up on a screen so there’s no danger of forgetting, and the opportunity to get on stage with a microphone, in front of an audience with low expectations, and just have fun. I’ve got a few karaoke stories up my sleeve, but there’s one in particular that had quite an impact on my performance style.

This would have been about 2006, when I was finishing up college in Kent, Ohio. It was a predictably hectic time, and I hadn’t gotten to hang out with my friend Jeff for several months. He called me up (back when cell phones were still primarily used for talking – what a primitive time!) and said, “hey, you down for some karaoke tonight?” How could I say no?

It was a wednesday night, and the only Kent bar hosting karaoke that night was almost entirely abandoned. There were 5 people total in the room: Me, Jeff, the bartender, the guy running karaoke, and one girl by herself at the bar. She wasn’t singing anything, so Jeff & I started stacking up the queue… why wouldn’t we?

If I recall, the first song Jeff chose was “Party Up (Up In Here)” by DMX, with me joining in on the chorus. I followed that up with one of my old standbys – there are a few rock singers that have my exact same vocal range, and I often gravitate to their songs – “Flavor of the Weak” by America Hi Fi. I just had fun with it – no mind to stage presence or performance style. When I finished, the girl at the bar came up to me and said, “That was fun. You sang that like you were in front of 40,00 people.”

I took that as a huge compliment, and have tried to take that to heart every time I get on stage – that I should approach my performance at coffeehouse or pub shows the same way that I would stadium shows. Maybe if I ever get the chance to play arena shows, I’ll see what that would actually be like!

I have many other karaoke stories, along with a great collection of open mic stories. A lot of those are much funnier than this one, but this is one that especially stuck with me.

After all, who really thinks a karaoke night will change their life?

-MMcF

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Unleaded rhythmic alt-pop fuels singer/songwriter and two-wheel troubadour Michael McFarland’s engine. Michael McFarland in the simplest summary? Writer, Rocker, Biker, Geek.

For Michael’s Music, Cd’s, Downloads, Merchandise, live show schedule, music blogs, music videos, and everything else you want to know about McFarland, visit the Michael McFarland Website at http://michaelmcfmusic.com/

Coffee House Music or Acoustic Rock? Finding My Place and My Music’s – From The Mind of McFarland music blog.

I’m now coming near to the end of my second national tour this year – just yesterday I took a second to overlay the maps of my spring and summer tours and was genuinely astounded at how much ground I’ve covered in the past few months. According to my car’s odometer (and yes, I’m in a car this time, not on my motorcycle – God willing, I’ll be back on two wheels for my next tour), I’ve travelled 6,000 miles on this tour, and I’m still 2,500 miles from home. I’ve played in all manner of spaces, from the dingy rock venue to the swanky wine bar, but the largest group of establishments I’ve had the pleasure to regale with my songs has been the ever-present coffee shop. I’ve met some amazing people at the coffee shops, and am more than grateful for the opportunity to share my music wherever I’m given the chance to, but I’ve frequently found myself wondering – do I play coffee house music?

Until two years ago, my primary musical project was a loud rock band called Aviatik. Some described us as Progressive Alt-Punk, but without getting too deep into our sound, suffice it to say that I occasionally screamed on stage, and while perhaps not to 11, our amps certainly went to 10.5. And for those who are curious, Aviatik is not broken up, we are on geographical hiatus.

Transitioning to being a primarily solo musician made finding my place in the world of performance a bit of a challenge. For a while I had a backing band, but when I moved to Asheville I decided that I wanted to go super-lightweight with my performances, to make touring on a motorcycle possible! For a while I tried playing my songs with just my acoustic guitar, but I’d written them as acoustic rock songs intended for a full band arrangement, and they felt lacking without a rhythm section.

I really turned a corner in my live performances when I hit upon the idea of using a loop pedal and percussive techniques on the body of my guitar to build my rhythms. I arrived at that point from seeing a number of  performances that grabbed my attention, and bit by bit the puzzle pieces fell into place in my mind. A new pickup was necessary to fully realize my guitar beats, and my Boss Loop Station completed the puzzle.

So now I have my own little portable rhythm section that fits in the pouch of my gig bag, which leaves me in a bit of a no-man’s-land between acoustic coffee house music and putting on an acoustic rock show. So which am I?

Well, if you see me play in a coffee house, I guess I’m playing coffee house music.

If I’m on a big stage at a rock venue under the bright lights?

I’ll let you answer that one…

-MMcF

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Unleaded rhythmic alt-pop fuels singer/songwriter and two-wheel troubadour Michael McFarland’s engine. Michael McFarland in the simplest summary? Writer, Rocker, Biker, Geek.

For Michael’s Music, Cd’s, Downloads, Merchandise, live show schedule, music blogs, music videos, and everything else you want to know about McFarland, visit the Michael McFarland Website at http://michaelmcfmusic.com/

Reading Comic Books: My Cure for Workaholism as an Independent Artist – From The Mind of McFarland music blog.

I’ve never been good at taking breaks. Anyone who knew me in college, or really any point thereafter, can tell you that workaholism is a serious problem with me. I’ve always found it very difficult to give myself any time off, and being an independent artist in both the realms of music and graphic design makes it that much harder for me to avoid overworking myself. Even when I would try to relax and watch a movie or some good, mindless TV, within 5 minutes I’d find myself picking up my laptop and continuing to work on some project while only half-paying attention to whatever’s on – even though in truth, it was probably only worth half-paying attention to in the first place. I tried reading novels to pass the time, but I found that too large blocks of time were required for each reading session to be worthwhile. I had to spend at least 30 minutes with a novel to have myself fully situated in the world and immersed in the storyline. Less than that, and I’d be fumbling with character names, locations, and multi-threaded plots. Young adult fiction provided a little help in this regard, but a few months back I discovered my ideal daily relaxation habit: reading comic books.

Instead of joining workaholics anonymous, I decided to start giving myself forced downtime every day and reading graphic novels. Due to the active engagement in reading (which TV and movies do not have), it’s impossible for me to work while reading comic books. In contrast to conventional novels, however, the fact that graphic novels are a visual medium makes it very easy for me to immediately drop into the story. Finally, it’s easy to digest a significant chunk of plot in not too much time, so even taking a 15 minute break is enough to feel like the story has moved forward in a satisfying way.

Reading comic books has always been an occasional pastime of mine – for the longest time, from about ages eight to thirteen, I wanted to be a comic book artist. Somewhere along the lines I realized that I have neither the patience nor the manual dexterity to be the kind of comic book artist I would want to be.

I’ve always preferred to read graphic novels to ongoing comic book series. The draw for me is self-contained stories that don’t require an immense amount of prior knowledge about the comic book universe to understand the significance of events or characters.

As of late I’ve worked my way through Y: The Last Man, The Stand graphic novelization, Strange Girl, Watchmen (again), and am almost caught up on The Walking Dead, and am starting on Sandman. If anyone has any recommendations for what I should read next, please share!

-MMcF
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Unleaded rhythmic alt-pop fuels singer/songwriter and two-wheel troubadour Michael McFarland’s engine. Michael McFarland in the simplest summary? Writer, Rocker, Biker, Geek.

For Michael’s Music, Cd’s, Downloads, Merchandise, live show schedule, music blogs, music videos, and everything else you want to know about McFarland, visit the Michael McFarland Website at http://michaelmcfmusic.com/

Acoustic Alternative & Orchestral Metal Share The Stage: Happenstances – From The Mind of McFarland music blog.

You never know what’s going to happen out on the road. You plan the entire tour meticulously, doing your best to account for every possible contingency, but sometimes life intervenes and takes you down an unexpected path, which is what happened a few days ago in El Paso, Texas. What I had expected to be a standard coffee shop show turned into an entirely unanticipated juxtaposition of my acoustic alternative music with orchestral metal… and we were able to share the stage with no conflict or backlash!

As a quick note, I’m leaving the name of the venue out of this story – the people that I dealt with were (at least for the most part) not at fault for what happened, and I don’t wish to cast aspersions on a venue that was wonderful enough to book me in the first place. If you really want to find out where this happened, the sleuthly among you can likely track down the Facebook event related to this.

Anyway, I’d had my El Paso show on the books for three months, had received confirmation, sent out my posters, and had every reason to believe that things were on track. I arrived in town around noon, grabbed some lunch and found a coffeeshop outside of downtown (easier parking) to get some work done. I was about to do a few promotional posts on Facebook regarding the show, when I noticed there were two official events listed for that evening: “Folk show”, which I assume referred to me, since many people see a solo artist on an acoustic tour and assume there’s folk music involved, and another show, listed at the exact same time.

Featuring 7 metal bands.

I immediately knew something wasn’t right, so I packed up and got to the venue right away. I quickly discovered that the person who had originally booked me at the venue had quit a month prior, and had promised to contact all the acts he had booked to let them know the show was cancelled. He had failed to do so.

I ended up hanging around outside while waiting to hear from the owner on how the situation was going to be handled, chatting with an amazing group of guys in an orchestral metal band called Bow Prometheus, who were on tour themselves from Dallas. After a few minutes of chatting, and me sharing my sad story, either their guitarist Steven or their bassist Jeremy (memory fails), said, “I don’t care. As far as we’re concerned, you’re playing the show.”

Thus acoustic alternative and orchestral metal got to share the stage in one of the odder happenstances I’ve encountered on tour thus far. And you know what?

It was awesome.

I got to play in from of one of the most energetic crowds I’ve seen in a long time. The audience got an unexpected change of pace, which much to my surprise was accepted wholeheartedly. At the end of my set, Rusty Wayne, lead singer of Bow Prometheus, came up to me and said, “You melted a lot of metalheads hearts tonight.”

Maybe I should book more shows with metal bands!

-MMcF

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Unleaded rhythmic alt-pop fuels singer/songwriter and two-wheel troubadour Michael McFarland’s engine. Michael McFarland in the simplest summary? Writer, Rocker, Biker, Geek.

For Michael’s Music, Cd’s, Downloads, Merchandise, live show schedule, music blogs, music videos, and everything else you want to know about McFarland, visit the Michael McFarland Website at http://michaelmcfmusic.com/

Liquor before beer before music? Teetotalling and Drunk Singing – From The Mind of McFarland music blog.

This time around I’m sitting in a cool coffee shop/bar called The Percolator in El Paso, Texas. I’m scheduled to play here tonight, and I’m getting myself pumped up for the show by drinking… water. Ice water is my regular pre-show beverage, but not for the reasons you might think. I assure you, I’m not teetotalling it up out on the road, and neither is my abstinence for fear of drunk singing… but my usual mantra when it comes to drinking on the same night as a show is: music before liquor before beer. And I’ll tell you why.

When I drink, I have a tendency to burp.

A lot.

When I drink before a show, I still have a tendency to burp.

A lot.

On stage.

Basically, unless I’m looking to introduce a burping contest into my live show (which come to think of it, might be a brilliant idea! Power belching is a bit of a tradition in my family… my grandfather used to belch poetry off his balcony), letting massive burps rip on stage might not be the best idea. Trying to suppress the aforementioned belches is an unfortunate challenge that I don’t relish.

I don’t exactly consider what I play to be coffee house music, but as a solo musician with an acoustic guitar, I do end up playing at a lot of coffeehouses – which I love doing! However, your average clientele of a coffeeshop – to stereotype incredibly broadly – is a bit more restrained than you might expect to see in many of the bars where I also play. Something tells me that the average coffeeshop crowd might not be as appreciative of the glorious vocal trumpet. Therefore, it’s music before liquor before beer.

After the shows, however, all bets are off. Let the drunk singing commence!

-MMcF
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Unleaded rhythmic alt-pop fuels singer/songwriter and two-wheel troubadour Michael McFarland’s engine. Michael McFarland in the simplest summary? Writer, Rocker, Biker, Geek.

For Michael’s Music, Cd’s, Downloads, Merchandise, live show schedule, music blogs, music videos, and everything else you want to know about McFarland, visit the Michael McFarland Website at http://michaelmcfmusic.com/

Acoustic Tour: My Working Vacation Reconnecting with Friends – From The Mind of McFarland music blog.

This blog finds me sitting in a music academy/coffee shop in San Antonio, Texas. I’m two and a half weeks into my summer acoustic tour all over the United States. So far, since leaving Asheville, I’ve hit Cleveland (Tennessee), Nashville, Peoria, Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul, Minneapolis, Omaha, Kansas City, Wichita, and Austin. I’ve had the chance to discover some fantastic songs and songwriters along the way, and have had an amazing time meeting new friends as well.

There’s no question that being on tour is a lot of work. I usually travel about four hours every morning, find a coffeeshop to work from for 7-8 hours, then play a show every night. All told, it usually ends up being 16-hour days much of the time. In a lot of ways I’d consider what I’m doing to be a working vacation – I’m getting to discover new places, do some sightseeing along the way, and am having an unreasonable amount of fun in spite of the long hours.

I’m reminded of a Goethe quote: “A man can stand anything except a succession of ordinary days.” I’m exhausted and occasionally stiff from sleeping on unfamiliar couches, beds, or sometimes in the back of my car. My days, however, are far from ordinary, and the promise of new and unexpected experiences every morning keeps me going.

It’s not just the new things that keep me going on my acoustic tour, as I share my alt-pop songs all over the country. I have friends and family scattered all across America (and, truth be told, the world). Apart from touring I rarely have the opportunity to visit them. As such, reconnecting with friends is one of my favorite parts of being on the road. This past year, while on tour, I’ve had the opportunity to spend time with friends from my home schooling and college days, as well as getting to see family in Minnesota and soon in Oregon.

In short, sixteen hour days be damned! My working vacation is pretty fantastic.

-MMcF

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Unleaded rhythmic alt-pop fuels singer/songwriter and two-wheel troubadour Michael McFarland’s engine. Michael McFarland in the simplest summary? Writer, Rocker, Biker, Geek.

For Michael’s Music, Cd’s, Downloads, Merchandise, live show schedule, music blogs, music videos, and everything else you want to know about McFarland, visit the Michael McFarland Website at http://michaelmcfmusic.com/

Kindness of Strangers & Faith in Humanity on my Motorcycle Tour – From The Mind of McFarland music blog.

Im writing this blog from a coffee shop in Wichita, Kansas, on a brief bit of afternoon downtime on my summer tour. This tour I’m undertaking in a slightly more conventional manner – unlike my motorcycle tour in the spring! Regardless of whether or not I’m travelling on two wheels or on four, I’ve been astounded by the kindness of strangers while I’ve been out on the road. I have a tendency to be a bit of a cynic at times, and the random acts of kindness I’ve experienced from people I’ve just met on tour have done a huge amount to help restore my faith in humanity.

Since I’m all about sharing stories, I wanted to tell you one particularly memorable example of the phenomenon I experienced on my motorcycle route through the eastern United States in the spring. As a touring musician, long distances between shows is not uncommon. I have a terrible mind for directions, so when I’m on my Condor A350 I use a bluetooth headset and GPS turn-by-turn directions to guide me from city to city. The only hitch is that when running both bluetooth and active GPS, my phone has a battery life of about 5 hours. Most days that would get me from place to place, but on one fateful day on my last motorcycle tour, traveling from Norfolk, VA to Raleigh, NC, it wasn’t quite enough. Taking back roads, as I like to do when I ride motorcycle tours, the trip took about five and a half hours – which left me with my phone dead right as I rolled into town, and no directions to get me to the venue.

I parked my motorcycle in the lot of an ALDI grocery store, pulled out my laptop, and started charging my phone off the USB port. I sat there on the curb, guitar case open, laptop on the mulch, phone hooked up to it – I’m sure I was a sight! I got a few interesting looks from customers.

Right as I was about to pack up and get back on the road to the venue, a middle-aged woman, who had parked her car right next to where I had the bike, came up to me after loading her groceries into her vehicle.

“What size boots do you wear?” she asked.

“Uhhh…” I was dumbfounded, and not sure how (or whether!) to answer.

“Are you a size 10?”

“Yeeesss…?”

“Hold on a second.”

She walked back to her car and pulled out a plastic grocery bag, containing a pair of motorcycle boots.

“Try these on.”

They fit perfectly.

“These were my father’s boots. He passed away two months ago. You look like you’re on an adventure, and I think he’d want you to have them.”

That’s only one example of the kindness of strangers I was shown on my last tour. If that won’t restore your faith in humanity, I don’t know what will!

-MMcF

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Unleaded rhythmic alt-pop fuels singer/songwriter and two-wheel troubadour Michael McFarland’s engine. Michael McFarland in the simplest summary? Writer, Rocker, Biker, Geek.

For Michael’s Music, Cd’s, Downloads, Merchandise, live show schedule, music blogs, music videos, and everything else you want to know about McFarland, visit the Michael McFarland Website at http://michaelmcfmusic.com/

Fitness On Tour – Can Frequent Travelers Find a Gym? From The Mind of McFarland music blog.

About a year ago, I made the decision to try to get healthy. Not because I wanted a beach body, not because I thought washboard abs or bulging biceps would attract the ladies, and only partly because I like dipping potato chips in Nutella (try it some time!). The biggest reason was that I’d chosen to make touring a big part of my life, and fitness on tour would be an important thing to keep in mind.

I’ve never been a particularly healthy person, with my predisposition to migraines, my finicky stomach and my joints that started going bad when I was 15. Getting sick was a regular part of my life, and if I was going to be touring regularly I needed to stay healthy. Finding a place that was conducive to fitness on the go, somewhere that works for frequent travelers and is welcoming to an independent musician, seemed it might be a challenge.

So, I was on a mission to find a gym. I auditioned all of the gyms in the Asheville, NC area to find one that was a good fit for me, and like the proverbial Goldilocks of fitness institutions, after a few months of free trials I settled on the gym that was juuuuuust right: Anytime Fitness.

If I were writing this as an Anytime Fitness review, there are a lot of things I could say, but in short: Yes, it’s a chain. But it’s a low-pressure chain (no hard sell!), the contract wasn’t particularly frightening, and the local staff were friendly. The biggest selling point however, ranking right after 24-hour access, was ubiquity. This year I’ll be playing shows in over 50 cities spread all across the US, and almost every one contains an Anytime Fitness. My membership gives me access to all of them.

That doesn’t just mean that I can maintain a level of fitness on tour.

It means that I know there’s always a hot shower waiting for me. No matter if I have to camp out or sleep in my car.

Staying healthy on the road is a big deal – it’s not easy to sing with a stuffy nose or a sore throat – but if I’m going to be meeting new friends all along the way (one of my favorite parts of touring) it’s probably best I don’t smell bad.

-MMcF

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Unleaded rhythmic alt-pop fuels singer/songwriter and two-wheel troubadour Michael McFarland’s engine. Michael McFarland in the simplest summary? Writer, Rocker, Biker, Geek.

For Michael’s Music, Cd’s, Downloads, Merchandise, live show schedule, music blogs, music videos, and everything else you want to know about McFarland, visit the Michael McFarland Website at http://michaelmcfmusic.com/

It’s funny, as soon as I started making these graphics, I realized how many of these sorts of thoughts go through my head on a regular basis. As soon as one crosses my mind now, I make note of it. I’ve already got a few weeks worth of backlog. So, in other words, it doesn’t look like I’ll stop making these any time soon…

This week we cover slacker snails, Billy Madison and Garden State references, anthropomorphized cars, and dreams of peace in the middle east conveyed by advertising mascots. Ready to waste another 73 seconds of your life?