In an effort to procure a better understanding of what it means to be a touring musician during the record industry’s re-invention of itself, Shani Shousterman and Amanda Holmes have agreed to let Audioholic Media follow them during their second tour of the West Coast. We can only accompany them in spirit, but we promise to try to make it as voyeuristic and creepy as it would be if we were following them person.

Hey lovely people,

So after the successful CD release at the Knitting Factory on May 8th, things have been taking off with the tour. 2 gigs down, we’re still in LA and we’ve got about 25 to go! Woohoo!

This is tour video blog #1 of many! We started in Long Beach, just had an extremely successful gig at Genghis Cohen last night, and are setting off to Santa Barbara tomorrow! Check out our tour locations– we’d love to see you come by if you’re in the area!

Also, follow my tour blog at shanimusic.wordpress.com.

More tour blogs coming soon! Thanks for stopping by!

Shani

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For more information on Shani Shousterman and to listen to the title track of her new EP, Warm Rain, visit myspace.com/shanimusic.
For more information on Amanda Holmes, visit myspace.com/amandaholmesband

It’s beginning. Follow Shani Shousterman and Amanda Holmes up the West Coast and here on Audioholic Media. (More dates to come.)

TOUR DATES:

Saturday, May 16th
Viento Y Agua 8:30-9:55
(Special Guest Omar Perez-Then)
4007 East 4th St
Long Beach, CA

Sunday, May 17th
3rd Street Promenade
Santa Monica CA

Monday, May 18th:
Genghis Cohen 7:30pm
740 N. Fairfax Ave.
Los Angeles, CA 90046

Wednesday, May 20th
Northstar Coffeehouse, 5-7pm
916 State street
Santa Barbara, CA 93101

Friday, May 22nd
Linnaea’s Cafe 8pm
1110 Garden Street
San Luis Obispo, CA 93405

Monday, May 25th
East Village Coffee Lounge 7:30pm
498 Washington St
Monterey, CA 93940

Tuesday, May 26th
Red Rock Cafe, 7:30pm
201 Castro Street
Mountain View, CA 94041

Thursday, May 28th
Orchard Valley Coffeehouse, 7pm
349 E Campbell Ave
Campbell, CA 95008

Friday, May 29th
Barefoot Coffee Roasters (time TBA)
5237 Stevens Creek Blvd
Santa Clara, CA 95051

Saturday, May 30th
-Palo Alto Farmer’s Market, 9:30am
Gilman Street between Hamilton and Forest, Palo Alto, California 94301

-Angelica’s Bistro, 6pm
863 Main Street
Redwood City, Ca 94063

Sunday, May 31st
Book Beat 11-2
28 Bolinas Avenue
Fairfax, CA

Monday, June 1st
Rockit Room, 7:30pm
406 Clement St
San Fran, CA 94118

Tuesday, June 2nd
Luna’s Cafe, 8pm
with special guest Martin Purtill
1414 16th St
Sacramento, CA 95814

Wednesday, June 3rd
Coffee Garden
2904 Franklin Blvd
Sacramento, CA 95818

Thursday, June 4th
Downtown Chico Farmer’s Market 7-9pm
330 Salem Street
Chico, CA 95928

Friday, June 5th
Cafe Culture
931 W 5th St
Chico, CA 95928

Saturday, June 6th
World Cafe, 7pm
449 Blair Blvd
Eugene, OR 97402

Monday, June 8th
The Coffee House Cafe, 7:30pm
135 Liberty St NE
Salem, OR 97301

Tuesday, June 9th
Mt. Tabor Legacy
Portland, OR

Friday, June 12
The Coffee Garden, 8pm
2904 Franklin Blvd
Sacramento, CA 95818

Saturday, June 13th
-Its A Grind, 2pm
1800 Polk Street
San Francisco, CA

-Aquarium 9pm
1030 Petaluma Blvd.
North Petaluma CA

Sunday, June 14th
Finnegan’s Marin, 9pm
877 Grant Avenue
Novato, CA 94945

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For more information on Shani Shousterman, visit myspace.com/shanimusic.
For more information on Amanda Holmes, visit myspace.com/amandaholmesband

Currently in the midst of booking her spring tour with fellow singer-songwriter Shani Shousterman, Amanda will be touring the Left Coast for the second time in two years. In an effort to procure a better understanding of what it means to be a touring musician during the record industry’s re-invention of itself, Shani and Amanda have agreed to let Audioholic Media follow their expedition. We can only accompany them in spirit, but we promise to try to make it as voyeuristic and creepy as it would be if we were following them person.

Audioholic Media: Tell me a little about your background in music.

Amanda Holmes: Well my dad writes songs and he would constantly, always play music around me. I took piano lessons for about six years when I was a kid and then my dad said, “Yeah, you’re really awful at this. I’m not gonna pay for this anymore.” That was the stop of music.

I was actually a competitive-level gymnast. I was at the gym, like, 20 hours a week while going to school. Then my ankles gave out on me and I was like, “What do I do? I’ve been so focused on this my entire life.” I went headlong into music, and from then on, that’s what I’ve been doing.

AM: When did you start playing the guitar?

AH: I’d say probably about five years ago, but I didn’t get really serious about it until probably about a year ago. Me and Shani are learning drums, which we’re really excited about.

AM: That’s very cool. Girl drummers are always pretty bad ass.

AH: Heck yeah!

AM: Do you have a preference when it comes to playing the guitar versus the piano?

AH: Well I’m more comfortable on piano, but there’s something special about the guitar. I’ve been writing on the guitar lately. I think that I write ballads on the piano and upbeat and more percussive things on the guitar. It depends on what kind of song I want to sing.

AM: You really utilize a lot of aspects of Internet promotion. You have a blog, you have a Twitter page, you have a MySpace page, you have a Facebook… The Internet has become a kind of controversial topic amongst independent artists, particularly with the illegal downloading aspect, and some musicians feel as if the market is overpopulated as a result of too much accessibility. What are your thoughts on using the Internet as a tool to strengthen your career?

AH: The Internet is such an amazing tool, but illegal downloading is a bummer. I’m actually writing a paper at school right now about illegal downloading, and I think the part that people don’t realize is that it’s so easy to just download music and the point of it is that it’s in cyberspace. People click a button and get a song for free; they don’t think about all the people that they’re taking money from. It’s a piece of art; you should be paid for something that you do that’s art. It’s in our Constitution, it’s in our copyrights. Painters get paid, you know, photographers get paid, but musicians don’t get paid because it’s a part of cyberspace now. It’s just lost in this realm where nobody cares what they feel because it’s not physical. People aren’t going to go into a CD store and steal a physical CD because they’d feel awful. But it gets lost when it goes over the Internet.

AM: It’s interesting to hear different musicians talk about this because some musicians say illegal downloading is a great way to circulate the music and generate buzz to get people out to shows, and some musicians are very much against it because they work hard to create something worthwhile only to have it stolen.

AH: You can’t change it now. It’s irreversible, you know? They’re not gonna say, “Oh, well it’s illegal now.” The RIAA definitely tried to sue as many people as possible, and it’s a lost cause now. I mean, I’ll still try to make people feel awful about it [laughs], because that’s one of my major revenue streams. That’s, like, pretty much the only way that I get paid. I also argue that if you want good music to keep flourishing and if you want music to evolve, you should support good music. If you think that someone’s music is good, or if you want them to keep working at their music, then you gotta help them out in some way, you know? Keep the music going.

AM: I kept seeing that you have two songs in the movie Emily’s Song. Can you tell me what Emily’s Song is about?

AH: Well, actually, my father wrote Emily’s Song, and he sold the screenplay to Warner Bros., and basically we just recently bought it back because Warner Bros. stabs people in the back. We’re gonna make it happen without them. It’s the most amazing story I think I’ve ever heard. I’m 100% for it. Every person that’s ever read it has cried in, like, the most amazing, uplifting way ever, so when that comes out, I’ll have quite a few songs on the soundtrack.

AM: It would make sense to focus a lot on your upcoming tour, so… how did you meet Shani?

AH: We met on campus. We both go to USC, and we’re both in the music school. It was funny, one day I was saying, “I’d really love to do this tour, I’m planning it, but I can’t do it alone,” and Shani goes, “Oh, well I’ll go with you!” Next week we were booking dates. It was awesome.

AM: So you did this together for the first time all by yourselves last year?

AH: Yeah.

AM: What was your experience with that?

AH: We had a blast. It was absolutely amazing, and thank God I went with Shani. We fit together perfectly. She works so hard, and with us two teamed together, it’s a blast.

AM: Is it really difficult to build your own tour now as an independent artist or do you think the shift in the industry is making it easier to be more grassroots about things?

AH: Basically if you have the drive and determination to call up place after place after place and haggle them– the people that we contact, it usually takes them, like, a month or weeks to get back to you, and you just have to keep bugging them. I really think that anybody can do it if they have the drive, and if they don’t give up, and if they just keep pushing and keep calling, and emailing, and doing the research. It’s just the time and effort.

AM: Are you officially signed to a label?

AH: No labels. But I do have a production deal with Jordan Productions.

AM: Is that the ideal situation, or are you looking to get signed eventually?

AH: My biggest goal is to play music for as many people as possible, all over the world. That’s my goal, that my music would be able to fund that. I’ve had a few friends sign, and I’ve watched what they do and it seems like it’s a tricky situation. I’d rather go out and do it myself and make it happen. Then if I have a strong fan base and I really got something going on that they would contact me, that I would have some kind of upper hand to be able to negotiate something where I’d have a strong say in what was going to happen. But I’m not slowing down to wait for any record label. I’m gonna push forward and make it happen on my own.

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For more information on Amanda Holmes, visit amandaholmes.com or myspace.com/amandaholmesband.

Shani Shousterman doesn’t have a structured business model, but she’s certainly on the right track. “I don’t plan everything out, part-by-part. I just kinda go with the flow, but I do have a vision and a mindset. I really hope it works, and I think it will. If it doesn’t, then I’ll move onto another strategy. You try something else.” After an hour-long conversation with her about her career and the music industry, it became very clear that Shani knows exactly what she’s doing–even if she doesn’t know that she knows.

Currently in the midst of booking her spring tour with fellow singer-songwriter Amanda Holmes, Shani will be touring the Left Coast for the second time in two years. In an effort to procure a better understanding of what it means to be a touring musician during the record industry’s re-invention of itself, Shani and Amanda have agreed to let Audioholic Media follow their expedition. We can only accompany them in spirit, but we promise to try to make it as voyeuristic and creepy as it would be if we were following them person.

Audioholic Media: You’re building your career by yourself, from the ground up. Have you gotten any advice that has helped you figure out how to go about it all?

Shani Shousterman: I guess I’m fortunate enough to observe how other musicians are doing it out there and figure out what might work for me. I’ve gone to shows, and talked to friends and people have come to talk to us at school and they all have the same advice. You tell them what you’re doing and they’re like, “You know what? That’s what you should be doing. Keep putting yourself out there and trying every sort of possible way to discover that one thing that no one else has found yet, and run with it.”

AM: With the industry in the weird limbo it’s in right now, is your primary objective to sign with a label?

SS: Not necessarily. My passion for music is something that I can’t really describe. There’s this exhilarating feeling I get when I write a song. Sometimes, its like, “Damn. I’ve got something here; I need play it for someone.” I don’t mean this in a pretentious way at all, but getting that feeling is so rewarding that makes me just want to perform for people over and over again. My hope is that somebody out there is gonna hear it and it’s gonna affect them positively in some way. I’ve had people come up to me sometimes and say, “I really understand what your saying in this lyric,” or “I can totally relate to you on this.” Its these comments that make every moment of writing music worth it, and I hope those instances will happen more often in the future of my career. Of course there’s also the element of me, personally, wanting to be satisfied with what I’m producing as an artist. So to answer your question, I don’t need to be on a label right now; its definitely not the end-all be-all. I think musicians are starting to be recognized a lot in music placement in television and movies. If I could get my songs placed as a start, I’d be thrilled. And, if I could develop my fan base, and tour, and have people love my music for the sake of loving my music, then that’s worth it to me. I don’t want to be famous for the sake of being famous. I feel like the famous part is an afterthought for me. That’s not my goal, that’s not my ambition. Regardless of whether I was famous or not, I’d wanna make music.

AM: I think my favorite song featured on your MySpace player is “Genuine Smile (Chiyuch Amiti).” Is it in Hebrew?

SS: Yeah, it is in Hebrew. My dad’s side of the family’s from Israel and we went there for my grandfather’s 80th birthday. My family threw him a huge party and of course expected me to come up with some insanely amazing birthday present for 80-year-old grandfather. It was something like, “Well, what in the world do you get your grandfather? He probably already has everything you were thinking of getting him.” So I decided I’d write a song and dedicate to him for his birthday.

I had to sit down with my cousins and actually work out the Hebrew a little. I do speak Hebrew but lyric-wise, it’s really different than English. Our concepts, like metaphor, personification, and poetry, are expressed differently there. But I wrote the lyrics first and kind of envisioned the melody and the chords in my head—something I’d actually never done before. It turned out really well, though. I sat down at the piano and in like twenty minutes and it was done.

I performed it at his party, where it was a little nerve-wracking because everyone was practically hovering over the piano, and I’d never performed in anything in a different language before. But he loved it so much he cried. Great birthday present, huh?

AM: You’re also a DJ for your campus radio station. Has that given you any insight regarding the music industry?

SS: More than I ever expected. It’s been very beneficial as a musician, to be on the other side of the spectrum. Having my show every week forces me to find music that’s out there, waiting to be discovered. Also, I love the fact that I get to promote new talent because they’re doing the same thing I’m trying to do, and I want them all to succeed. When I discover [new music], I start listening to it, too, and that helps me become a better musician. It influences me in so many ways, whether I realize it or not. [Being a DJ] makes me excited about music over and over again and helps me remember why I can’t live without it.

AM: Do you have a lot of new music of your own coming out? How is the writing process going for you?

SS: I do! Hopefully soon I’ll record it. [laughs] I’m working on writing every day. The more I write, the easier it is to for everything to flow. I realize there’s so much out there to write about, and I think that the more you write—even if it might suck—the more inspiration will strike and you’ll come up with the great stuff more often. If you keep waiting for that inspiration to come–what if it doesn’t come for a year? A year and a half? What’re you gonna do until then? Songwriting has been one of my top priorities in the past year and I’ve written plenty of songs–there’s a couple that I don’t like and might not dig up again— but there’s a lot of them that I’m like, “Wow, I would really like to perform this for people.” Sometimes its hard for me to decide how to put my set lists together cause I just want to play everything. Right now, I’ve got a whole new batch of stuff that I’m piecing together and am stoked to share with everyone when I go on my tour. Hopefully some will find their way onto the demo I hope to produce for the tour.

AM: What’s it like for you, building an entire tour in such a grassroots way?

SS: It’s honestly one of the most valuable experiences a musician at this stage of her career can have. It’s all hands on, dirty work. And the best and worst part of it is that Amanda and I are doing all of it. That means doing the research on venues, picking up the phone and talking to people from all walks of life, and being really annoying just to get a gig at a coffeehouse somewhere in central California. Not only that, but this time around–we did a tour last summer as well–we’ll be going up into Oregon, and spending more time on the road. We’re looking for sponsors and experimenting with other ways in advertising and promoting ourselves.

So yes, it’s a hell of a lot of work, but so worth it. I have learned so much from my experience so far that it is hard to put it in words. I believe you only know how things like this work when you do it yourself.

My experience last year far exceeded anything I had ever imagined. We were received extremely well and had some wonderful and incredibly funny times. Whether it be losing our keyboard cable on the way, locking ourselves out of our car half hour before a gig, or getting food poisoning, everything enriched our experience and made me feel like I had nothing in the world to ever lose.

This time around we know what we’re doing a little more, and hopefully that will benefit our tour. But the bottom line is that Amanda and I are laboring over this because we love it. We love creating music and sharing that with people. Plus, what better way to start our summer vacation than road tripping it on an adventure?

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For more information on Shani Shousterman, visit her official MySpace page.