Takin' It to the sticks

Dani Rabin ’07 has learned a thing or two about thriving with a band on the road. As the coleader of the group Marbin (www.marbinmusic.com), his life over the past several years has virtually been one nonstop tour. While it’s true that many ambitious young groups are hitting the road pretty hard, what’s unusual about Marbin is that the group plays its brand of original instrumental music 300 nights per year in 46 of the continental United States. Rabin and company took up the challenge of going deep into the American heartland, booking gigs at clubs that have never hired a jazz-fusion group, and winning over both the crowd and the club owner. Through the years the group has built its own circuit and fan base in places that other jazz-oriented musicians often overlook.

Others in their field have duly noted the musical abilities and business savvy of this hard-working band. In 2011, the band shared the bill on a tour with fusion guitarist Scott Henderson, and recently they completed a series of dates with their labelmate, guitarist Allan Holdsworth. Marbin’s most recent album on MoonJune Records, Breaking The Cycle, features Pat Metheny Group veterans Paul Wertico (drums) and Steve Rodby (producer), as well as Paul Simon band member Jamey Haddad (percussion).

Marbin has its origins in Rabin’s home country of Israel, where he returned the summer after his graduation from Berklee. He met up there with saxophonist Danny Markovitch and the band began as a duo. (The group’s name comes from joining the first three letters of Markovitch’s name with the last three of Rabin’s.) In 2008 the two moved to Chicago, where Marbin added a bassist and drummer to make the duo a quartet. “Our intention was always to be a touring band,” says Rabin, “so I didn’t want to move to New York or Los Angeles. They’re great cities if you want to be a sideperson, teach, or play private functions, but they’re not ideal if your intention is to tour with a band playing original music.”

Taking the Reins

With this in mind, Rabin and Markovitch have chosen to handle all of the band's business themselves and be methodical about every aspect of the band’s touring operation. The central key to the band’s success is being organized. A closer look at their system reveals a solid formula for keeping the band working and managing the costs of the road. It’s a method that Rabin hopes others can learn from. [See the sidebar “Maximizing Effect, Minimizing Expenses” on page 21.]

One of the secret weapons is a tool in Rabin’s laptop many musicians might overlook: Microsoft Excel. “We have a gigantic Excel spreadsheet of every venue in America that we’ve been able to find, and it keeps growing,” he explains. A spreadsheet from Rabin’s laptop is indeed a colorful sight: every venue has an entry with all relevant information, and each is color-coded according to category, with choices such as “not called,” “made contact,” or “booked,” and he constantly updates it.

Before a venue lands on his spreadsheet, however, Rabin’s job is one of full-time researcher. “It’s a pretty simple process, but it takes time,” he says. “You have to be patient and persistent, and be willing to get your hands dirty. I find the name of a prospective venue, go online, and call the club to find out as much as I can: the name of the person who handles booking, his or her e-mail address, the best phone number to call, what other types of acts they book, the seating capacity, and pay structure. It all gets documented.”

In addition to doing a lot of online research, Rabin spends a huge amount of time on the phone. “It sounds simple, but the phone is an invaluable tool. There’s a myth that everything is done online now. Bookers would have you believe that, but when you get them on the phone you make a personal connection that can’t be made through e-mail.” He continues, “Many booking people hate their jobs. It’s a headache, so when you catch them on the phone, if you're lucky their calendar’s in front of them. If they see an open square on it, chances are they’ll book you rather than going back to their e-mails and listening to band after band.”

When he’s in the cold-calling stage and he reaches a manager for the first time, Rabin immediately begins vetting the venue as a possible gig locale. “Playing every venue in America at any cost isn’t our goal,” he says. “We only take a gig if it’s financially viable and offers us a real shot at increasing our fan base.” In fact, Marbin has never lost money touring, in part because the band keeps a close eye on its market value. Playing so many gigs has helped Rabin gauge, for example, how much in food and beverage sales a restaurant in suburban Arkansas can expect to take in on a Friday night. Or how many people would be willing to pay a $5.00 cover charge at a typical bar in Peoria, Illinois.

“As a touring musician, negotiating pay is just one factor in maintaining your bottom line,” Rabin says. “When we’re on the road, the band watches every dollar. The money we spend on gas, guitar strings, and laundry is all accounted for. We know what our costs are, what our worth is, and how much we need to earn to make those two things balance.”

Meaningful Connections

Like most touring bands, the members of Marbin know the importance of thoughtful communication via social media and the need to keep their website up to date. “Of course you have to have all of your online tools together: website, YouTube videos, Facebook page, and mailing list,” concedes Rabin. “But you have to put them together in ways that have real value to your fans, not just as self-promotional tools. For instance, if any of our fans mention Marbin in their Facebook update, they get a discount on merch, or discounted admission to one of our shows.”

While all of these business practices are important, Marbin is well aware that the first priority is making good music that resonates with people. “Music industry people have written so much about how the music business has changed, but in so doing they’ve created an illusion that it’s changed more than it actually has,” Rabin asserts. “It’s not all digital, and it’s not all about social media. Those things are important, and you can use them to reach thousands of people, but you’re getting to them in the same superficial way that a lot of other people are getting to them.” He believes there is a true hunger for good music, especially in rural areas of the country where there isn’t a vibrant music scene. “For example,” says Rabin, “we do very well in smaller towns, particularly in the Midwest. There are some famous jazz musicians who sadly consider that area to be the ‘flyover states.’ That mentality has led many to miss out on some potentially rewarding gigs.”

Rabin continues, “We have people at our shows who have never heard a jazz record in their lives, and they sit for four hours listening to our instrumental music with their mouths open. They’re starved for culture, and are too often overlooked.” Regarding these small-town audiences, Rabin feels that some musicians wrongly assume that people living in small towns won’t be interested in sophisticated styles of music. But his experience tells him otherwise. “In many cases they have a much deeper way of listening. They’re not concerned with placing you in an artistic hierarchy. They listen and enjoy the show with no hang-ups!”

For Marbin, making an emotional connection through the music is the biggest piece of the puzzle. “Some jazz today misses the emotional factor,” opines Rabin. “Since we’re so influenced by artists like Leonard Cohen, Johnny Cash, and the Beatles, our writing is informed in a different way, and we’re able to attract a lot of fans who would otherwise not go for instrumental music. To genuinely succeed with an audience, your music must come from a place of personal conviction, and it has to resonate with others. You must play very honest music that has some kind of power.” This aesthetic has helped Marbin grow a large, dedicated fan base for their improvised instrumental music, a genre where success is illusive and hard-won.

Ultimately, the path Marbin has chosen is not an easy one, but it’s a labor of love that the group members find worthwhile. “You have to really know what you want,” he concedes. “Doing what we do involves sacrifices. We don’t always sleep well, often the food isn’t great, and it’s very hard work. But calling your own shots, playing live four hours per night, 300 nights per year is artistically gratifying in many ways. The highs are high, and the lows are low. But it’s always interesting.”

Maximizing Effect, Minimizing Expenses

Find 2-for-1 lodging. If your tour requires frequent overnight stays, you can often get two nights at a hotel for the price of one by asking for an early check-in. “If you finish a gig at 1 a.m. and your next gig is a few hours away, make the drive after the gig," says Rabin. "When you arrive at your hotel, request an early check-in. That way you can get some sleep in the morning, and sleep there after the gig as well.” Two nights for the price of one.

Stretch your food budget. “If you eat out with four people, it can often cost $40 to $50 per meal,” notes Rabin. “We carry a portable grill, purchase food at a large supermarket, and cut our food costs in half.” Also, when negotiating compensation for their gigs, the band always asks that food and drinks be included. “Restaurants have huge food and beverage markups. $50 in food and drinks is not $50 coming out of their pocket. Think about the material worth of what you’re getting, and the cost to you versus the cost to them.”

Take control of your sales. “Our record company keeps 100 percent of the profits from selling our CDs,” Rabin says. “But in exchange, they manufacture a certain number of CDs for us and give them to us for free. We keep 100 percent of the profits from selling those CDs at gigs.”

Sell quality merchandise. “Don’t cut corners on merch quality," Rabin advises. "For example, you’ll sell more t-shirts if they’re high-quality and made by a popular brand.” Rabin depends on the sales of band merchandise to offset lower-paying gigs on Mondays and Tuesdays, typically slow nights at clubs.