Interview: Jason Kutchma, Tour Guide

Jason Kutchma certainly lives up to the definition of “road warrior.” From Durham to St. Louis, Kutchma’s band, Red Collar, has toured tirelessly over the years, with him going so far as to quit his job at UNC’s School of Pharmacy to pursue his musical dreams.

Kutchma will lend his wisdom Wednesday to a touring edition of Secondhand Freespace, a quarterly music industry forum at Local 506. Looking forward to the event, Diversions Editor Jordan Lawrence sat down with Kutchma to talk about the hardships of planning a life on the road.

ATTEND THE PANEL

Time: 8 p.m. Wednesday
Location: Local 506
506 W. Franklin St.
Info: local506.com

Diversions: Why do you think touring is something that needs to be discussed?

Jason Kutchma: There is no magic bullet. As much as the industry changes and technology changes, you know you hear of people being written about say in Pitchfork, and then they take off. You’re given the impression that there is a magic bullet. You know, ‘All I need is to just get here, get this opening slot for so-and-so or get this great review, and then that’s it.’ Those happen very rarely for people that are lucky more often than talented.

It’s still the tried-and-true way. You have to write a great album, and then you go out on the road and play that great album for people. It’s been that way for 50 years, and it’s not going to change.

Dive: What do you find that’s hard about the process of booking and getting a tour together?

JK: You’re just one of another at least dozen people that e-mailed that person that day. And what’s really interesting is I think the bigger the venue the less e-mails they get. So we’re all in this big ship full of s--t that keeps e-mailing these smaller venues.

I mean, I’ve played with some of these bands and just wondered, “What the f--k is the matter with them? Why do they think they should be going out now?” They should have waited a little bit longer and worked on their craft a little bit more and got it together before they went out.

It’s really tough because there’s just so many bands that are out there. I think before there used to be this underground, and the tough part was just being good. That’s unfortunately the fault of the underground. Before, you just had to work really, really hard to be a great band, and if you were a great band, well, then you’d probably start to get in touch with the underground and what kind of venues were going to be in touch with your music. Now you don’t really have to be good. You just have to sound professional in an e-mail and have OK songs on MySpace.

Dive: Has it become more that way as you’ve gone along?

JK: No. I used to feel bad. You’re always trying to be positive about people like, ‘You can do it. Attaboy,’ patting people on the back and everything. I used to say you can find at least one good thing to say about any band. Admittedly — I’m admitting this to you even though I’ve never really admitted it to Red Collar — they would say some of these bands were awful, and I would say, ‘Well, they’ve got nice shoes.’

I try not to be cynical because it’s so easy. Once you’re on that path, forget it. It’s Mr. Negative. So you want to be positive about people.

That being said, people are making CDs today that just should not be made. You know, taking the best two or three songs off of every CD and after three years have a really great CD as opposed to spending so much time and investing money into something that shouldn’t be out there.

It does end up being like a bell curve, just like anything. You have A students. You have F students. You have a couple B students, couple D students, and everyone else is a C. It doesn’t matter. It’s the same thing for rock ’n’ roll.

Dive: When you are planning a tour, how many venues do you contact in comparison with how many actually get back to you?

JK: The bigger cities are always the worst. Memphis is a great example. It took me six different venues until I got a response from one venue in Memphis, which is a pretty big city, and I don’t e-mail the big places.

We had a former band member one time when we were going to travel to Boston or somewhere. They said, ‘Well, we should try this place.’ And I said, ‘Well, how big is it?’ And they said, ‘Well, it’s about as big as the (Cat’s) Cradle, maybe a little bigger.’ I thought ‘Not a good idea.’ You got to aim low.

Dive: Do you find that each time it gets better and encouraging or was it discouraging at first?

JK: It is always discouraging actually because you’re always playing to new cities. Once you get that Little Rock connection or that Charlotte connection where you’re welcome all the time, you’re still trying to crack Asheville. You’re still trying to crack D.C.

You’re constantly trying to get new cities. And even when you retread the same cities. Even within them, like we have St. Louis, and we have Little Rock, but everything in between is still a mystery.

Dive: At the end of the day, are whatever accomplishments you feel you’ve made on a tour enough for you to stay positive?

JK: They’re enough for me to feel that what we’re doing is a good thing. The people that do respond are so positive and affectionate and supportive of us. You’re thinking, ‘Wow, there’s another me in another town that gets it.’

I’m not looking at it in terms of shows. I’m looking at it in terms of individuals. So yeah, it’s definitely worth it, and it’s definitely enough to stay positive.

Contact the Diversions Editor at dive@unc.edu.