BoR BLOG: The Big Move and NYC Subways
1-2-09
The Big Move
We decided to pack our bags, leave Rochester, and head out to NYC. After all, that’s where musicians get signed, (or almost get signed). We didn’t have much of a plan going in - we were just kind of hoping for the best.
We collectively decided to live in separate apartments, for fear of killing each other.
Erin and I came across some really nice apartments in the quiet town of Ridgefield Park, NJ, which was pretty much an old folks community, also near NYC. We ended up finding two apartments in the same complex, 50 feet away from each other.
There was also a “fifth-member” of Break of Reality at the time. Our friend and colleague Jesse Yang was brought over to NYC to assist with business and administration, such as website maintenance, merchandise sales at gigs, and booking performances. He ended up living closest to NYC, in Fort Lee, NJ.
For the most part, we were clueless. Rather than playing it safe and searching for cheap apartments, we ended up in apartments with monthly payments between $900 and $1100. I know, too much for a subway musician. I still ask myself, “What the heck were we thinking?
And our parents – well, they thought we were nuts. After all, not many graduates of first tier music conservatories strive to be subway musicians.
We did the math and came up with a strict schedule for street performing, (along with real performances), that would hopefully support our living situation
The Subways
Some of our most memorable musical experiences in NYC happened while performing on the 59th Street subway platform. That’s right. The platform. I think our parents were right…
There was one time we spotted a large crowd of commuters waiting for a train that had been backed up. We set up on the platform and busted out Welcome Home by Coheed and Cambria. They soon forgot about their train.
At the end of Welcome Home, we typically chant a melody, just like in Coheed’s version. When we got to this part of the tune, Chris stood up and encouraged everyone to chant along. And they did. The whole crowd, probably about 75 people or so, was chanting the melody to Coheed and Cambria’s Welcome Home on a subway platform. It was weird, in a remarkable and amazing way.
During this year, I’m sure we performed for more people than most classical musician do in an entire lifetime. It was the best part of street performing – being so close to, and connecting with, so many strangers through our music.
Given our quota, we really needed to find and play in good “spots” in the subways, with lots of people. We’d wake up at the crack of dawn to get to some of the good spots. Sometimes, other musicians were already there. Other times, when we’d finally get a good spot, we would be arbitrarily asked to leave by NYC police officers. It was tough, especially since we had bills to pay.
We eventually came up with a system of spots that worked, and worked them hard. We found that 42nd Street Times Square was great, but almost always taken by permitted subway musicians. Eventually, we figured out how to get a permit by becoming MUNY (Music Under New York) musicians, and life became a tad less difficult.
INTERACT: Do you have videos or photos of Break of Reality performing in the NYC subways? Share them with us by uploading them on YouTube or your Flickr account!
TEASER:
Believe it or not, we played real gigs in NYC - lots of them. We performed at the Knitting Factory, Joe’s Pub At The Public Theater, Baruch College, and The Triad to name a few. And lots of people showed.
Read Baruch College’s Article on Break of Reality
There was a definite upside to subway playing. We would promote to our subway fans by passing out flyers – two weeks later we’d see the same fans in the front rows of our shows. [More on our “real” gig experiences in blogs to come.
The Business Plan
For some time, someone said something about creating a business plan. We didn’t think much of it. They were persistent, and kept bringing it up. Finally, we were all convinced of this, put our ideas on paper, and came up with a mission statement to dictate our actions as a band. We actually took a good week off from performing to get this done.
Although a fantastic idea, we came to realize a big flaw in our scheme: real businesses operate in the real world, not in the subways. Financially, we couldn’t dictate how much money we would make in the subways, given the outside factors beyond our control, such as weather, other subway musicians, police, etc.
This meant that when we had a good spot, we had to stay there as long as possible, to bring in as much loot as possible. So much for our mission - this was survival.
Some days, we’d spend an entire eight hours planted in one spot. It was tough, sometimes sad. But, we forced it, and made it work for the time being.
One sunny day, tired of the subways, we tried something different. We decided to lug our stuff out to Central Park…
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Next week on BOR BLOG: BOR meets Yoko Ono and that lady from Groundhog Day, sells many CDs, and has its first “fight” in Central Park.
Stay Tuned!
