I recently got the chance to the Long Island recently-turned threesome Straylight Run. In this first part I got some background about drummer Will Noon and learned what he thinks about the economy and what it takes to cut it in the music business.
Bethany, PopWreckoning: Let’s start at the beginning. I think that a lot of people are aware that you guys formed from departing other bands, but what were you doing before that? Did you always want to go into music? Did you take instrumental lessons?
Will Noon, Straylight Run: Yes. Personally, I’ve been playing drums since elementary school. I actually had the opportunity straight out of high school to tour. I joined a band of older guys that were five years older than me and had put out a couple records and had toured before. So I was straight out of high school and I joined this band.
Instead of college in the fall, I started over the summer going on tour. My first tour that I did I was 17, 18. It was in 1997. So yes, I’ve been touring for ten years now. But that didn’t work out so, of course, I went back to school, got my degree and started playing in another band. I toured with that band for awhile and then, finally, I joined Straylight.
Yeah, progressively, since I was nine or ten years old, I wanted to do something and tour.
PW: So your parents were pretty supportive? Were they also musically gifted?
WN: No, not really. Well, I shouldn’t say not really. They are extremely supportive and one of the only reasons why I’m able to do what I want to do. They were very supportive early on with me wanting to learn and play. And again when I toured. I think most bands have some parental resistance when their 17 year old wants to go out on tour. Although, we are actually touring with a band now, Anberlin, and their drummer is 14. So that’s a lot earlier.
Luckily, I was surrounded by people that were encouraging and supportive. Even when I was in high school, I had two teachers in particular that reached out to me and said the same thing. They said that school would always be there. They knew that I was intelligent and responsible and making good decisions. They pushed me. They said try to go out on tour and try to pursue this. Do it while you are able to because, in five or ten years, you aren’t going to be able to make the same decisions. So go for it, and if you are done in two years, five years or ten years, college or universities have been here for ten years, 100 years, 800 hundred years. They’ve been here and they still will be.
I thought it was awesome to have that kind of encouragement and it turns out they were right. I was touring with this band for a year and when most were going into their second year of college. And I was even able to get in as a freshman that year and take classes off and on. I was out on the road and luckily able to make a connection so that when I did want to return, I was able to get back into school.
PW: So what did you go to school for? You did go back for a degree?
WN: Yeah, after the one band didn’t pan out, I started off with some transfers and then the following fall, I went to Philadelphia to Driscoll University and I got my bachelors in Economics.
PW: Congrats. And now you’re kind of applying that to managing bands?
WN: Yeah, I guess so. I think that what I learned is that it is hard to separate what I learned and what I was preconditioned to think. It is hard to say. It is kind of a chicken and the egg sort of question because my brain works in a sort of analytical way.
When I took my first econ class in high school, it made sense to me. I think a lot of people, when I say the word econ or economics or tell them what I have a degree in, everyone is in shock. They’re like, “Wow.†You know people that are very intelligent and go off to school, it seems like more often than not, economics is one subject that they have trouble and will say, “It was so hard for me. I don’t understand how you do it or why you would.†But it just made sense. I have no other way of saying that, but to me it was just easier. It made sense and was a logical system.
So when I went to pursue it, I wasn’t so sure the way I am that as a result of my studying economics in college, there’s areas that I studied or wouldn’t have studied because of the way my mind works, does that make sense?
PW: Yeah.
WN: So yeah, I think it has helped, but it’s also because I’m not the average, typical “band dude.†I don’t try to sleep until 2 p.m. I read. I actually don’t drink or do any drugs or anything. So, I’m pretty much a giant nerd and always concerned about expenses and always trying to be concerned about efficiency and not creating any waste. I see what we do, I feel very lucky to be able to try and pursue what I do and create art and play music and connect with people on that level. But I also know that I prefer sleeping and living a certain lifestyle.
You can’t tour on a bus and spend money, hire a crew and pay all these expenses if you don’t know where you’ll be next year because, you know, what we do is a fickle industry. It’s based on other people’s trends and fads and what we love to do. So, like in fashion, if what isn’t popular next year because of trends and fads, will resort in a lot less money. It isn’t like we can just work harder and tour even more if you lost last year’s popularity and impact in pop culture.
I think one of the most important things that a band can do is try to manage their expenses. The paycheck isn’t stable, so you have to be aware of that and we try to keep all of our money under control as best we can and live responsibly so that we can make this a long term career, rather than a flash in the pan, and make money off this. This way five years later we haven’t spent it all and are like “OK, cool now we need another job.” That’s how I try to instill that aspect into my band mates.
I’ve worked with a few bands in the past couple years as far as management goes and I’ve tried to instill that with them, too. We do an art and it’s great. It is so much fun to be able to meet people and to tour, but you also have to step back and realize that the back end of it Is pretty serious. You can make a lot of money, but you can also spend a lot of money and not see any of it because everyone isn’t thinking about it. Sometimes you go on tour and you have all these expenses and people to pay so at the end of the day, you worked a lot and you were out on the road for days on end, but you have nothing to show for it. I think that’s tragic.
PW: Yes, and with where the economy is, money management is even more important, especially with bands out on the road and the way gas prices are constantly fluctuating everyday.
WN: Exactly, and it is hard because it is not just affecting us. I’m from the east coast, so driving to a concert for me was not that a big of a deal when I was growing up. I could even get a bus into the city or Long Island. But there are people in Iowa and Nebraska and Illinois, or I guess I should get even further out to like Salt Lake City or something, but people are driving eight hours to a concert just because there isn’t anything else within less time.
Like Texas is huge, so once you get into that area people are driving like four or five hours, which was like no big thing, but when gas prices jump around, they can’t come to the shows. Or if they do, they can’t buy a t-shirt. So it affects them and that in turn affects us. When we’re spending $120 just to fill up our gas tank and getting less than ten miles to the gallon with a trailer attached to the back of the van, it affects everybody.
PW: So you manage Straylight Run. Are you primarily concerned with the finances of the band, or do you do other duties?
WN: I actually don’t manage Straylight Run proper and we’ve actually been through a few managers. Right now we don’t have one, so I end up taking on the role of band manager a lot, but I don’t feel comfortable saying that I am. John [Nolan] and Shaun [Cooper] have just as much say on a topic as I do. The main difference is that I tend to be concerned with a lot of things that they don’t tend to be concerned with, again, just because of my mindset, so I end up taking on that role.
I tend to be the one in direct communication with our booking agent or our long distance manager. Sort of things like that. I used to manage a band called Envy on the Coast. I did that for about two years and just recently started managing a couple of younger bands, but they aren’t really on the touring level yet.
PW: Any bands that people should be checking out MySpace pages for?
WN: Yes, if they’d like to. There’s one band from Brooklyn that are good friends of mine called The Narrative. They’re an awesome band with a heavy Death Cab influence and both male and female vocals.
Then, there’s a band that, I don’t know if they’re from Buffalo or Indianapolis because they are kind of split between the two, but their name is Maraday. They’re awesome with a sort of more down tempo, indie folk sort of thing. But Kirsten, their singer/songwriter, is extremely talented and has been writing songs that are brutally beautiful, especially with her voice. It’s very compelling and I’m excited to see what comes from them and they’re probably going to get some music out this winter, so I’m very excited to see what she can come up with.
PW: So getting Straylight music to the masses hasn’t always been the easiest venture, especially now that you guys are on your own. What has changed for you and what have you learned from those experiences? Do you prefer having more control of things now that you’re label free?
WN: It is hard to say. I definitely think that having a label is a great thing, well not just a label, but having anyone support you is a great thing, whether it is family, friends, work associates or companies. Having a band, having a core team of people that cares like a booking agent that cares is awesome. Having them working for you and having a label that is doing the same. Having a press agent doing the same thing.
All those things are awesome, but at the same time — basically in our last situation — we got on a label that didn’t really know what they were getting into and they thought things would work out a different way, so when it came time and things started to happen, they realized it wasn’t the situation they thought it was, they totally backed out. So, they didn’t really support us the way we needed.
That’s something that we just don’t need. We don’t need a label that’s not supporting us because to us that’s useless and we might as well be doing that ourselves. So, that was our first reaction to it. A lot of people were like, “Yeah , I think that’s great what you guys are doing and that label sucked.†I don’t think that label sucked, but if they’re a group of people that are very concerned with the band’s career and getting the band’s music to the people, then they are an awesome label. They do want to get bands out on the road and in front of people to share the music. It was just our particular relationship where we couldn’t find a relationship that made sense, so we decided to music on our own. If this label wasn’t going to support us and just put out our record and forget about us, then we can do that ourselves. There’s no reason to have somebody else do that, so that’s what we are doing right now.
We’re putting out a series of EPs over the course of the next year. We’re not actively searching for a label, but we know a bunch of different people that have come to us and said, “Hey we’re prepared to work with you in the future and blah, blah, blah,†you know. So at some point there is a chance that we may be on a label again, but for now we are going to do things on our own and try to keep things simple and low key.
We did a couple of shows in September on our own and now we’re out on this Anberlin tour. It’s just great. They’ve been super helpful and supportive. The turnout has been great. Then we are going to Australia in February. This is all without label support, so it’s not necessary, but it is nice when you have people that care about you.
PW: What advice can you give to a new band trying to cut it in the music industry?
WN: It’s hard. There’s a lot of different ways to approach it. I think right now that music is so saturated where people can learn by playing Rockband or Guitar Hero, but when I was in high school and learning how to play shows it was different because it was different to learn how to play a song and write a song. I don’t know if I was very good, but I was good enough to play a show. I don’t know if that was the cool thing to do, but right now it is the cool thing to do and there are so many bands. I feel like if you want to make money and that was a goal, then yeah, you put together a band and you look at whatever was new and cool and mimic that, but I don’t there’s any longevity to that.
But for anybody who cares about what they’re doing, I think that it is a matter of being smart. Once you start to get that fan base and start work hard at writing the best music you can, then you promote it and try to write on myspace and websites and forums. But managing your expenses is the next step. Start shows locally before going out nationally, because that’s the next step. Take things gradually, step by step and manage your expenses are the most important things that you can do.
Check back soon for pt. II!
Straylight Run: website | myspace | live review | interview pt. II
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