Tours can be hell, but they're the destiny of most bands. They can also be exhilarating. It's a wholly unique experience to hop from city to city, playing a show almost every night, travelling in a cramped yet homey van - or, in the case of Minneapolis' Juniper Douglas, a bus.
After releasing their debut album last fall, Juniper Douglas planned a relatively massive national tour. They made their way through the South, and are now journeying along the East Coast. The group faced an unique challenge: translating their wide-ranging, robustly experimental, and just plain insane record Error to Introspection into a live format that would a) be consistently performable, b) be enjoyable for audiences, and c) maintain the artistic integrity of the work.
I was curious about this process, and what it was like to plan such a sudden and extensive tour, so I reached out to the band and their label, Subaquatic Records, via email. They were kind enough to provide some insight in a typically strange fashion.
Photo courtesy of Subaquatic Records.
Q: What inspired you to go on a larger tour through a completely different area of the United States?
A: Since the beginning of writing our album and the show, we had the plan of promoting it and using it to grow our audience as much as possible. We knew that it was more than likely that we would not achieve any sort of "big break" after simply putting the album out into the void of the Internet, [so we] began planning to book our own tour to reach more people and grow that audience in person organically.
Being there and able to play to a totally new audience every night (most of which had no expectations of us beyond that we'll be playing music) and hear different opinions or different ways people react to and interact with our shows. It helps us improve our work and put on better and better shows the more we play.
Q: What were those audience reactions? I would hope that they would mostly be good - was that the case? Were there any negative responses?
A: Most of the responses have been very positive. There are a lot of people who come up to us after the shows to talk to us and ask questions for hours after we finish. All of them feel so passionately and have more interest in us and what we do than we ever could have predicted. It's really reassuring to know that what we do really resonates with people and makes it much more exciting to play each show and get new perspectives and critiques every night.
As for negative response(s), that has been surprising, too. Outside of a few hecklers here and there, we haven't met anyone yet who has really disliked our shows and felt the need to tells us that, other than just leaving halfway through our set.
Q: What was the process of booking/planning your first multi-state tour? How did you connect with the other bands on each billing?
A: The tour really could not have been booked without Facebook and the other DIY bands in the "DIY Tour Postings" group. Basically, we plan a route of what cities we want to play in and when we want to play them. From there, we search for venues and bands in those cities we're playing and email/message them through Facebook. It's really a matter of luck as to which venues/bands get back to us, so there is a wide variety of different bills that we play with. Some nights, you may have the best, most rockin' [sic] bill in town and others, you're playing with a country cover band and a hardcore band on the same bill. It's just the way that it goes.
Q: What were the best/most interesting show lineups? Weirdest lineup?
A: The best lineup we've had so far was probably playing in Winston-Salem, NC on the UNCSA (University of North Carolina School of the Arts) campus. We played a show at a friend of ours' house to a basement full of art students and it was really one of the most well-received shows we've played yet. Everyone in the audience was so engaged it made it way easier to feed off of their energy and made our performance feel far more solid. Definitely the best way we would have kicked off our first tour.
Q: What was the most difficult part of this process?
A: It's very difficult to find the time and energy to keep booking on the road. Booking six hours a day on top of playing so many shows can be very exhausting for everyone, but it's easier having all of us book together to get more done at once.
Photo courtesy of Juniper Douglas.
Q: How did you guys translate songs from Error to Introspection (the band's debut album) into a live context? I would imagine it was quite difficult, given the huge variety of sounds and ideas that went into it.
A: Bringing Error into a live setting was definitely a challenge in the beginning. It took us a long time to find the right balance of instrumentation. We had to give up the idea that the show and album needed to sound the same and instead really focused on stripping the songs down to their most essential parts and listening to each other.
Q: Did the setlist fluctuate at all? Or did you figure out how to do a certain number of songs and primarily stick with those? Something else entirely?
A: Until recently, our setlist had been in a constant state of change. A big part of figuring out how to bring the album and the show to life was rearranging our setlist and finding new ways to play the album with different instruments and people. The first leg of our tour was done the same way at the 7th St. Entry show with Wild Pink.
@tommy_the_mommy, @quinoatom, and @tommototommot played a few shows, just the three of them, on their way down to Nashville at the end of December 2018 and took a lot of time trying to figure out how to perform with the same very minimal setup - two guitars and a synth - while still trying to keep the same feeling as the album and our previous shows.
But once Twin Tom and @to.m.ivo got down to Winston-Salem, we were able to spend a lot of time rehearsing and finally solidifying the show. Now we play the same setlist every night and don't need to worry about forgetting the set night after night, although @tommy_the_mommy kind of fucks it up mostly every night.... They always set their guitar down and end up talking through the whole thing.... It's wack, but people are into it. We let it slide.
Q: What are some highlights from tour thus far?
A: Of course everyone has different highlights, favorite venues/bands we've played with, and people we've met on tour.
- @to.m.ivo: I loved being in New Orleans most of all, meeting musicians who live there and have been a part of the musical culture there. [It] was a great learning experience that I won't forget and will continue to participate in whenever I go back.
- @tommy_the_mommy: Making thick gains, bro.... We just recently got a gym membership. Showers have been inconsistent on the road, so this was the most reliable way to stay clean. And I get to pump MAD iron and get MAD thick, all while making gains on my mental health, learning more about my independence and value.... Being on the road and crammed in a bus with a bunch of other people, as well as people sharing their opinions on your art with you night after night (everyone's comments have been overwhelming in love and support) gets you to a place of needing to sit back, relax, not take shit so seriously, but also take yourself and your thoughts as seriously as you can. The biggest highlight has been the challenge of balancing health with the workload. All work - NO PLAY - isn't really a highlight, but the constant battle and the things I've learning about my abilities to stay fed, rested, hydrated, and clear-headed gets me higher than weed every could, and therefore is a highlight in my life. THICK FREAKING GAINS BRO.
- @quinoatom: Meeting all sorts of lovely people in the U.S. of A.
- @juniperdouglas: Oh! Let me tell you, I sure love to be out on that open highway with the sweet southern air blowin' my (completely natural) platinum blonde hairs back. I once heard travel lightens the soul and frees the mind. You may ask me, "Who said this to you?" That is a question I'm willing to answer, but I'm pretty darn sure I said this to myself in a dream in which I was conversing with myself. Regardless: new towns! New people! New bands! "It's all too much," said the wise father George Harrison, and he was wrong, I want more, and I want it again. Being frozen to my Minnesotan dwellings was becoming a stale living. The road offers new mysteries every day, such as "When is my next shower?" "Does this Walmart allow overnight parking?" "When did I last shower?" and "Hey, who wants to let me hit their dab pen?"
In summary, I offer this haiku from me to the all of yous:
Ah Yes! For to be,
Embodying the spirit
Of Willie Nelson
(Willie Nelson's hit track "On the Road Again" suddenly fills your ears and the camera gets fuzzy as you fall unconscious).
- @tommototommot: Gaining a larger audience and meeting people who are enthusiastic with our shows has been the best part for me. After spending so much time in such a small, insulated group of people while creating the show and the album, it's great to be reaching so many people who enjoy our work without having any incentive to coming into the show. It's very rewarding to me to see that our work can reach a diverse audience of people and be received so positively.
Q: How was the Minneapolis farewell show with Wild Pink at 7th St. Entry?
A: It's always great to be playing the Entry. It's such a fantastic and historic venue, it's hard not to appreciate.
Q: Are there any (semi-)concrete plans for new music this year?
A: New music, new shmusic [sic], are we going to post another picture on Instagram? Well, yeah.
Photo courtesy of Subaquatic Records.
Juniper Douglas continued to play shows on the East Coast before returning home to the Midwest. Find dates and locations above. You can listen to the band's debut album Error to Introspection on the streaming service of your choice, or buy it here through Subaquatic Records. Follow the band on social media here, here, and on various Instagram accounts linked throughout the article.
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