Lounging Around - How to book a show at the Cypress Lounge

 

The Cypress Lounge 120 Union Street Santa Cruz, CA

All Ages or  21 + depending on show

Booking contact: Ashton Hodge 

Preferred method of contact: Email cypressloungesc@gmail.com or drop off a press kit and CD in person daily after 4 PM.

Timing: The Cypress Lounge is booking about 3 months in advance for Friday/Saturday night slots. Less advance notice is needed for Tuesday/Wednesday night slots.

Days: Live music booked almost every day of the week.

Genres: Reggae, funk, blues, light rock, lounge, DJ

Capacity: 200

Payment: For up and coming bands, The Cypress Lounge will give bands 10% of sales for the duration of their show (no door cover charged). Once a band is more established and has a proven draw, a larger percentage can be negotiated.

Equipment: The Cypress Lounge provides speakers and amps.  The band is responsible for bringing a sound board, mics, stands and any other essentials they need. 

Food: As a courtesy The Cypress Lounge provides a $50 drink/meal credit to the band. 

Booking Guidelines:

When you email an inquiry include the following information:

  • Band name
  • Website/MySpace
  • Genre
  • Influences
  • Are you looking for a weekday or weekend slot (remember, you have to EARN a weekend slot!).
  • Three references (even if it is just your mom’s birthday party, let them know the last 3 places you played)

Tuesday/Wednesday nights the music permit is only until 10 PM so all shows start early and typically run from about 7-10 PM. Less established bands should target these weeknights. If you can draw 40+ people on a Tues/Wed night, the venue will consider moving you up to a weekend spot the next time around.

Thursday is reggae night. If you are not a reggae act, don’t try to book on a Thursday.

Friday/Saturday are primetime and your band should be able to draw at least 150 out to the show. Music permits go later on the weekend, so your show can start later and doesn’t have to end until 1 AM (space closes at 1:30 AM on the weekend).

The space is also open to group parties, events and showcases. They have hosted everything from Mardi Gras costume party to an upcoming Cirque de Sol style aerial event.

Original Good Times Making Noise Blog Post can be viewed HERE.

Love Letter - How Bands Should Write an Inquiry Letter to Book a Show

This is the second in my series for the Good Times Making Noise blog.  Below is some additional information to my original post on how to write a booking inquiry. Dear (Insert venue booker name here),

ABC band is interested in booking ABC venue on June 4.

Best Practice: Included you band name and the date you want to book right away. You can also give a date range if you are working on routing your tour. For example – We are interested in playing ABC venue during the month of June, June 4 is our ideal date, but we would also be in the area between June 7-20.

We are a four-piece band (guitars, bass, drums, vocals) with a female lead singer.

Best Practice: Give your 30 second “elevator pitch”. Pretend you are in an elevator with someone you just met, they ask you about your band and you need to explain it in 30 seconds.

We have been described as power pop and trash-rock revivalists. Our music could be compared to early Kinks or the Strokes.

Best Practice: Categorizing your band and/or sound is a necessary evil. You need to give people some sort of frame of reference to help them assess you as a potential act. Even if your band goes on to win a Grammy, it will still be in a category, so best to pick one now.

You can listen to song samples at www.MySpace.com/ABCband or www.ABCband.com.

Best Practice: All bands should have a MySpace page. Many bookers will go straight to MySpace to check out your song samples. Giving them a direct link will just speed up the process. Also provide links to any other meaningful press or reviews.

Our last show was on Monday, January 12, and we drew 50 people to the ABC Bar. If we play a weekend night, we are confident we will draw more than 100 people.

Best Practice: Give concrete examples. Even if you do not have previous shows to mention, reference the last house party you played or how much money you made the last time you played a street corner – something to let the booker know that you have an audience.

We have a local Santa Cruz mailing list of 100 contacts as well as a MySpace page with 500 fans, a Facebook page with 200 fans and 50 followers on Twitter.

We will have a flier produced within two weeks of our show confirmation. We will print 100 copies and distribute them to local record stores, coffee shops and UC Santa Cruz.

Best Practice: Let the booker know exactly what you will do for them to help promote the show. The more invested you are in the success of the show; the better it will work for everyone. Also include any creative marketing ideas or examples you might have.

We have a relationship with A SECOND band and A THIRD band and feel that we would make a powerful package that will sell out your venue.

Best Practice: If you have relationships with like-minded bands let the venue know. If you can help them build a package for the entire night, you just made their job a lot easier.

We appreciate your consideration and would be happy to bring by our current CD and press kit if you are interested.

Thanks, ABC Band Contact Info Band Website

If you have a SC Music question you would like me to investigate – email me jenn@santacruzrehearsalstudios.com

Young Performers Showcase

Santa Cruz Rehearsal Studios has donated some rehearsal time to this awesome organization working to support local music programs in the Santa Cruz City Schools. We are really excited about this event and hope to see you there! If you have a cause you would like us to lend support to. Please email and let us know.

Saturday, March 20 @ 7:30: A benefit concert to raise money to support music programs in the Santa Cruz City Schools, the Young Performers Showcase is a review of talented, young local performing artists, ages 13-28.

Performers include the rising star rock trio Almost Chaos, singer and dancers Camille Castro and her sisters, Musicscool All-Stars featuring James Durbin, D.S.R. and Co. Dance Crew, Harbor High Cheerleaders, jugglers Noah and Robin, singer/songwriter Tess Dunn, Dancenter Hip Hop Crew, singer Alysha Antonino, Guest MC Sven Davis and house band, ROMP, from Planet Cruz Comedy Hour and a special performance by Grammy Award nominee Tammi Brown.

This program was developed by a small group of Santa Cruz business professionals concerned about the steadily declining budget for music programs in the schools. They decided to "put on a show" as a fundraiser to supplement state and local funding sources. Studies confirm that children who are exposed to music and music performance in schools show many benefits including increased academic performance, self-esteem, concentration, self-expression and connectedness to school.

Please join us for an enjoyable evening of family entertainment and help support music in the schools. There will also be a "50/50" Raffle and Silent Auction of valuable prizes.

Show time: 7:30 pm Tickets: $8 for Students; $20 for Adults; $40 for Gold Circle seating and are available at Streetlight Records, Rio Theatre Box Office (night of show only) and Ticketweb

How to book a show at The Crepe Place

The Crepe Place1134 Soquel Ave. Santa Cruz, CA

All Ages

• Booking contact: Adam Bergeron • How to Introduce Yourself: Fill out the web form on The Crepe Place website. Do NOT call. Do not drop off a hard copy CD/demo. • Timing: The Crepe Place books about 3 months in advance. • Days: Live music booked almost every day of the week. • Genres: Indie rock, country, folk, funk • Capacity: 100 • Payment: Typically The Crepe Place splits show proceeds 70/30 with the band. The venues 30% is used to cover the door and the sound engineer. • Equipment: The Crepe Place provides standard venue equipment including PA, monitors, mics/stands, DI boxes. The band is responsible for bringing their guitar and bass amps. • Food: As a courtesy The Crepe Place feeds the band and provides drink tickets.

Generally every night includes a 2-3 band package and each band does a 40 minute set. A typical night breaks down something like: Doors @ 8:00 PM Opening Act - 9:00 – 9:40 Middle Act – 10:00 – 10:40 Closing Act – 11:00 – 11:40 (or Midnight if larger headline band)

*Helpful Hint* When your set is over, don’t hop off the stage and hit the bar, make sure you break down and clear the stage for the next band that needs to set up.

Booking Guidelines:

  1. Pick the Right Venue. Visit The Crepe Place before you send a booking inquiry. Notice the type of music being played; notice the type of crowd that is coming out for the show. Recognize that The Crepe Place is a restaurant that also does live music. It is important for The Crepe Place to keep ALL of their customers happy, those coming out to a show in the front of the house, and those having dinner in the back of the house. If you are an ear bleeding death metal band, be realistic about the fact that this is not the right venue for you. Trying to force a square peg into a round hole doesn’t help anyone and can just be a waste of time for all involved. 
  2. Understand the business. The Crepe Place, like all venues, can only operate if they make money. It is very easy for a venue to lose money on a show. Before you send a booking request, you need to be confident that your band can draw at least 50-75 people out to the show on a weeknight night. Playing to an empty room hurts everyone. The venue loses money, you lose respect and it will be nearly impossible to book another show at the venue again.
  3. Give the venue what they want. Adam appreciates when band inquiries are concise but specific. Make sure to always include your band name, the date you want to book and a link to hear your music. Instead of the generic “Booking” or “We Want to Play the Crepe Place” subject line, instead try “Band Name – Date You Want to Play – Descriptive Term”. Think your correspondence through.
  4. Package Yourself. If you know that a typical night at The Crepe Place includes 2-3 bands, pitch your own package. Think about bands you have played with before or that you share friend groups with. A perfect scenario is 2-3 like-minded, but still unique bands on the same bill. Remember some basic band etiquette, if you on the bill with other bands, don’t bail after your set and take all your friends with you, stay and support the other bands.
  5. Promote. Everyone wants a show to succeed and one way to help make that happen is to promote the show locally. When you send a booking inquiry to The Crepe Place let Adam know what you will do to promote the show – be specific.

 If you have done all of this and you don’t hear back from Adam, please don’t take it personally. The reality is that not everyone gets a show. It doesn’t mean your band is not great or that you should stop trying to build your career, but there are only so many days in each month.

The Crepe Place books not only local bands, but touring regional and national acts as well.

This is the first in my series for the Good Times Making Noise blog. If you have a SC Music question you would like me to investigate - email me jenn@santacruzrehearsalstudios.com

Good People + Good Music + Good Beer = Grand Opening

A big thank you to everyone who came out for our grand opening celebration this weekend. The music of the Western Skylarks was the perfect complement to the beer provided by Santa Cruz Mountain Brewing. We felt the love.

I Saw The Sign

We are feeling very offical now that our sign is up. Big thanks to our Harvey West neighbor RCR Fabrication for cutting the letters (and answering coutless questions about how we should attach them), and to Craig at Koala Tree Care for providing his 70ft bucket truck ( 2man ) to get it hung. Just in time for our Grand Opening party this Saturday from 1- 3 PM.

Top 10 Things I Learned at the "Making a Record" Workshop

Last week I had the pleasure of attending the "Making a Record" workshop at Gadgetbox Recording Studios (the event was co-sponsored by SCRS). In addition to getting to meet some amazing musicians, I learned a lot about the reality of the recording process. I thought I would share some of my favorite gems with you.

  1. Make sure the band is ready and well rehearsed before you book time in the studio.
  2. Having guest artists on your records is a great way to not only enhance an album, but give you other avenues to market the record in once it is released. For example, your guest artist(s) might already have a large fan base that will be interested in your CD because of their involvement.
  3. Not all of your songs need to be on the album. There are so many opportunities to use songs not on the album for digital download, digital bonus tracks, giveaway, etc.
  4. It might be better to do a 3 song record, 3 times a year, rather than a full length record once every 2 years. It can be the same time and $$ in the studio, but the first option gives you a lot more fresh content to market to your fans.
  5. Listen to your final mix for at least 2 weeks before mastering.
  6. Master your CD outside of the studio it was recorded in (this will allow a last set of fresh ears on the project before it is complete).
  7. Most new artists press 1,000 discs in their first run. Popular duplication companies include Disc Makers and Oasis.
  8. At least 3 months (but the farther out the better) before your CD is ready to be mastered, you should be thinking about what you are going to do when you get it.
  9. Prepare your digital release well in advance of your CD release (it can take 6-8 weeks for digital tracks to be uploaded to iTunes, Amazon, etc.).
  10. Having the final CD is only the very first step, doing it justice in the world is another major journey, and another workshop.

T-Shirts Now Available

Our T-Shirts are now available for sale if anyone is interested. Local price is $15 or $20 if you want us to ship to you. Currently we only have men's sizes Large and X-Large in both American Apparel and Hanes brand (navy shirt with lighter blue SCRS logo). Email us (jenn@santacruzrehearsalstudios.com) if you want to order outside of Santa Cruz (we can do credit card orders over the phone).

Instructor Promotion

Our instructor studio (RS. 4) is 15 x 10 and includes PA System - Yamaha EMX 512 SC with 2 BR 15 speakers. 4 mics with booms. Normal rate is $13 per hour. Mon-Fri from 10AM  - 6 PM this room is available for students with or without instructors for $ 8 per hour (no minimum time requirement). We also have a full drum set available to rent for an extra $ 2 per hour. Mention "Instructor Promotion" when you call or email to book.

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D.I.Y Sign

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We are still trying to get a sign up on the building. We've got as far as our letters cut out and a possible layout. Still not exactly sure how we will get it up there...open to suggestions....

Think Local First Santa Cruz

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        We just joined the awesome organization Think Local First - Santa Cruz County. The mission, according to thier website is a network of independent and locally owned businesses and community organizations joining together to promote economic vitality and preserve the unique character of our community. Sounds good to us.

The building of Santa Cruz Rehearsal Studios

We built our studios from the ground up. When we rented the space it was a big concrete box. Before SCRS the space was  Java Bob's coffee roasting and before that I heard it was a killer deli. If anyone has old pictures I would love to post them. In no particular order, here are some construction photos. We learned a tremendous amount about soundproofing during the construction phase (tons from Butch Rider with West Construction). If you are working on similar projects, we'd be happy to share what we now know. Just stop by or drop us a line.

Grand Opening Celebration - Sat. Feb. 20 - 1 PM

Save the date for our Grand Opening Celebration/ Open House. Come down, have a cookie, tour the rooms! We will be doing a ribbon cutting with the city around 1:30 and then we will just enjoy the local color of Harvey West.

Acoustic Panels all in

 

After much delay we finally received our full shipment of acoustic panels. Life is good.