Bowling For Soup’s Jaret Reddick – HuffPost 4.22.11
Mike Ragogna: What is your advice for new artists jumping into music now?
Jaret Reddick: The thing is, things are changing so fast now. For many, many years, there was a formula–it was so simple–songs for the radio fit a certain model and bands went out and did the same things–you bought a van, and just went out and toured. Things are different now, obviously, with the decline of the live music scene, and with people more focused on what’s happening on the computer. So, social networking almost takes the place of touring for a lot of young bands, in my opinion. You’re just being able to go out there and market yourself and push yourself online, and then tour regionally and build it that way, which is super important. It’s funny because every day is different. You used to have to learn to do six or seven social networks, and now, we’re back down to two or three, and who knows what’s going to be next? It’s an exciting time for us because we’re putting this new record out, we’re re-releasing our first three albums, which haven’t been available for years and years. And we just released a Christmas album this past year that we had been kind of sitting on, so the cool thing is, once you’re free of the label only allowing you to do certain things, the audience gets more content, and I think that’s pretty important with as much access as the audience has these days.
MR: (laughs) Yeah, I had to rephrase that. I usually ask this question towards the end of an interview, but it makes sense to ask it now–what is your advice for new artists jumping into music now?
JR: The thing is, things are changing so fast now. For many, many years, there was a formula–it was so simple–songs for the radio fit a certain model and bands went out and did the same things–you bought a van, and just went out and toured. Things are different now, obviously, with the decline of the live music scene, and with people more focused on what’s happening on the computer. So, social networking almost takes the place of touring for a lot of young bands, in my opinion. You’re just being able to go out there and market yourself and push yourself online, and then tour regionally and build it that way, which is super important. It’s funny because every day is different. You used to have to learn to do six or seven social networks, and now, we’re back down to two or three, and who knows what’s going to be next? It’s an exciting time for us because we’re putting this new record out, we’re re-releasing our first three albums, which haven’t been available for years and years. And we just released a Christmas album this past year that we had been kind of sitting on, so the cool thing is, once you’re free of the label only allowing you to do certain things, the audience gets more content, and I think that’s pretty important with as much access as the audience has these days.
MR: In your case, your years of hard work have paid off, and now you find yourself in the same boat as a lot of other artists, the difference being that you guys have already had seventeen years to mold your career. When it comes to your act, isn’t just a little scary not having the major label to take care of things?
JR: Definitely not. We’ve been self-sufficient forever. We weren’t a band that got money from the label to tour–we’ve always been self-sufficient on the road–and we do our own artwork and things like that, so we didn’t depend on the label for that. Obviously, to not have their money to go make a video and things like that is where it hurts a little bit more–to actually have to figure out how you’re going to get a video made–but that is, again, where technology comes in. You just have to get out there and figure out what those resources are going to be. We just made the “S-S-S-Saturday” video, and we’re actually asking fans to submit footage of themselves, and be part of the video–you just have to get creative. I’m definitely not scared because, like I said before, I do not ever deny or run from how absolutely blessed we are, and how amazing and loyal our fan base is, but it’s crazy. I know that as long as we keep putting out great songs and playing great shows, they are going to support us. So, I don’t sit around and worry about that stuff, I just try to stay up on everything, remain as creative as I can be and challenge myself to do things better.