Preshow rituals can really be very different for every person. As a singer, I noticed it starts with choices. Choices on what to consume. What weighs me down as a performer or vocalist? Often times I find myself opting for a salad over something heavy like a pizza. For me, I perspire quite a lot I
have to keep the salt intake as low as I can so that I'm not distracted by buurrning sweat! AUUGHH! Every day you're different so getting in tune with your instrument is imperative. As a guitarist, it helps me to prep my equipment well in advance and go through my precheck rituals. Have the batteries been changed? What equipment needs repairs? Do my strings need changing? Do I need to adjust the set order if I noticed something caused lagging in the set or I was struggling with something the night before?
Something I didn't mention in the interview below with Digital Tour Bus, was post-show rituals. Just as important as preparing for a performance is what you do immediately after. The majority of the time everybody wants to talk to you right after the show. Personally, I've seen way too many musicians leave equipment behind or blow out their voice from talking to quickly after a performance. Often I'll do cool down voice exercises while packing my equipment and passing it off to any roadies we might have. Getting the equipment into a safe place is imperative since it's our livelihoods. If I'm able to pass off a job quickly, I can make my way to the merch booth to meet fans and thank them for coming to the show. But I can't do that if the equipment is safe.
If you've ever hung out with any of my bands or myself, William-does-fancy-himself some drinks but again this comes to choices. Is it my shift to drive the tour bus? How far do we need to go? Am I performing the next night? Do we have a driver? Are we staying in town? At the end of the evening when all the hanging out is done and we're in our bunks on the road to our next show, the prep work before and after a show will allow us to be consistent as performers. At this current stage, every group I've been in still has to pull their own weight even if we do have roadies or drivers. So it becomes my responsibility to be consistent so that fans get the same show energy even if we are midweek on a 2-month tour.