Day 1 Bonnaroo
Wow. I officially just finished my first day at Bonnaroo 2008 and the whole experience exceeded my expectations which isn’t easy to do. Scott and I made our way down to the festival to check in and get our artist passes at around 11:30am. Little did we realize that once we got to the main street to get close to the festival grounds that we would be sitting in as much traffic as the ending of Field of Dreams (see movie
ending for humourous reference).
There were cars from all over the United States (Florida, Georgia, Arkansas, Massachussets - you name it, they were there) with music fans of all ages, anxious to get into the grounds and start partying,
dancing, etc. Our trusty GPS finally got us to the Bonnaroo registration where we were able to receive our artist passes and ask any last minute questions that we had about the festival, load-in, parking….you know,
the pertinent stuff. While we were in line waiting for our passes, we met a band from Georgia called Hi-tide Blues who won a slot to play Bonnaroo from a radio show. These guys were such cool cats and luckily
both of our sets don’t overlap in any way so we will be going to their show and vice versa.
Some of you may be wondering how I got the opportunity to perform at Bonnaroo 2008 so it makes sense to inform you all so that other artists like myself get the chance to experience this wonderful high as well. I
started the Nikhil Korula Band in 2002, although, I had been playing acoustic sets with my lead guitarist since 2001 to get people excited about hearing the music and warm them up to hear my songs in a full band
setting. This was definitely one of the smartest ideas I ever came up with because it gave me the opportunity to get seasoned as a performer while building our fanbase slowly.
The NK Band rehearsed for literally a year before we played our first show on July 25, 2002 at the Knitting Factory in Hollywood. Due to the insane amounts of promotion, we ended up selling it out which was such a
rush for me. Our 2nd show at the Knitting Factory (about 6 weeks later) was sold out as well, despite my lead guitarist warning me that we may not bring as many people because in his experience, people always come
out for the first show, but forget about the 2nd one. Luckily, that was not the case and let me tell you why.
My concept for this band is to ALWAYS keep the audience engaged no matter if there are 3 people in the crowd or 300. If I get bored with an arrangement or a song, we change it up so it feels totally different. Also, I try to be somewhat prolific so I can introduce our fans to new music as much as possible. Some bands either wait too long to do this or jump the gun in doing so which never works. If you really want a song to
be a staple in your repertoire, then make sure that first impression grabs people. As a result of our work ethic and endless amounts of promotion, we ended up selling out our first 5-7 shows. Word got to the
House of Blues about this and on our 10th show as a band, we were asked to headline a show on April 28, 2003. We have been headlining shows at the HOB in LA ever since (our 15th show at the House of Blues will be July 21, 2008).
After we started really conquering the LA scene, I decided to start my own label and management company with my family in order to take this band to the next level. This was very difficult in the beginning because not only was it a huge investment of time, energy and money, but it was overwhelming to say the least. However, this enabled the NK Band to start traveling to other cities like Santa Barbara, San Diego, Orange County, Santa Cruz, San Luis Obispo and even as far as San Francisco to help reach more fans with our music. While building our fanbase in each city, I started to contact magazines like Music Connection and Relix as well as other publications like the LA Times to inform them of our progress. Its magazines like Music Connection that all artists should build a relationship with. Here I am, 5 years later writing a blog for them about Bonnaroo. How cool is that??
Anyways, the key to our success is our email address list and how many albums we have sold to each fan on that list. I take it upon myself after each show (other than the HOB and huge opportunities like Bonnaroo, etc) to walk around any club we play and meet as many people as possible to see what they thought of our sound. This is probably the toughest job for anyone because you have to deal with the chance of rejection quite often, but it builds your confidence to be able to sell your band. Whatever it takes, just do it if you really want it as bad as you think you do, rt? So EVERY email address (I believe our email address is rt around 3500) has been someone I have made contact with or sold a CD to. Some of these fans have been on our list since 2001 and have become very close friends of mine as a result (for any of my fans reading this, you know who you are - thanks again for your loving support). The best part about this list is it now has people on it from Austraia, New Zealand, India, the UK in addition to fans from almost every state in the US.
I believe connecting to your fans whether onstage or not is the single most reason for our success. I think we do a good job of both, but things can always be better. Learn to smell the roses, but in this business, I think you need to be relentless about exposing your music to as many fans as often as possible, although at times, you have to think strategically so you get the best results.
Long story short, all of these experiences led us to playing shows with Dave Matthews Band (another dream come true for me), Tim Reynolds, O.A.R, Jason Mraz, John Mayer, Los Lonely Boys (who opened for us),
Colbie Caillat (who opened for us), Sara Bareilles ( who opened for us) and many, many more. Its important to try and garner attention to your movement in any way possible even if that means playing shows with local
artists (you never know who is going to break right around you) and building a community as we have done.
Yes, this whole journey to Bonnaroo has been expensive. They aren’t paying me much, but I know the experience is well beyond worth it and I hope to move up the ladder to eventually headline this festival in a few years as I know we are capable of doing so. Basicaly, this whole journey is about moving from one pond to the next, some ponds you are a big fish, and some ponds, you’re just a tadpole. Be thankful for both ponds because they can always teach you something. Now back to Bonnaroo experience….
You could literally feel the excitement in the air yesterday when we were walking around checking out everything. People were dressed up like bumblebees, fairies, bananas - crazy stuff. It all just brought a smile
to my face. One of the coolest vendors we saw was a small booth with autographed memorabilia from Pearl Jam, Willie Nelson, Metallica and other artists performing at Bonnaroo. This was all for a silent auction
so everyone was just looking around (in silence) checking out the merchandise. The coolest part of the silent auction for me was walking around and seeing all of these legendary artists who signed guitars, posters, etc, but low and behold, there in the corner, was a signed NK Band poster. I literally couldn’t believe it. I forgot that several weeks ago, I was asked to send in some signed posters, flyers, etc for some events taking place at Bonnaroo, but had no idea how they were going to be displayed or anything. Seeing our poster amidst the company of all the biggest acts at this festival was humbling and incredibly exciting. That alone, had already made my day, but lets move onto the festival.
We walked around for hours to get our bearings before the music started around 5pm. Slowly, there was music coming from several small tents around the festival and we could hear everything so clearly. Its amazing how Bonnaroo has planned the layout of each stage, tent, etc. You literally can’t hear the bands overlap at all. It was unbelievable. So at first, we saw some new or indie bands all of which sounded amazing
and got me ecstatic about our performance on Sunday. Then, we decided to check out some of the stand up comedians such as Janeane Garafalo (spell check?) and others. It was cool to hear her stand up routine although it really wasn’t the funniest thing I have ever heard (what can I say? - Honesty is the best policy. Haha).
After her set, we wandered over to the cinema tent and watched the ending of a cool movie about one of the bands playing Bonnaroo, Sigur Ros. I’m already a huge fan of this Icelandic band, but seeing the end of their movie got me pumped about their set. After the movie, Bonnaroo was showing the NBA Finals. Being from LA and a diehard Lakers fan, I was bummed at the notion of missing Game 4, but Bonnaroo was 5 steps ahead of me. The place was packed with crazy amounts of Boston Celtic fans, but nonetheless, it was so sweet to watch the game even though the Lakers lost. Some of you may think I’m crazy for watching sports while
at a music festival, but while the game was playing, there weren’t many acts I wanted to see.
After the Lakers broke my heart, I wandered over to the comedy tent to watch Zach Galifinakis perform. Ladies and gentlemen, this comedian is one of the funniest people on the planet. Definitely check him out on
youtube or live in the flesh because he is well worth your time and I promise you will be laughing during his entire set. That was a good way to shake off the Laker loss.
Rt after Zach performed, we walked over to see one of my new favorite bands, Vampire Weekend. The best part about performing at Bonnaroo is to get an artist pass so you never have to wait in lines for the
movie/comedy shows and you can literally walk backstage and check out any performer you want.
After seeing Vampire Weekend at SXSW, I was thrilled to get the chance to see them again at Bonnaroo. Not only was their set completely epic, I was literally standing 5 ft from them watching their show from the wings backstage. What a thrill this was….truly. Here I am watching one of my favorite bands so close you could hear what they were saying to each other in between songs. They were off the hook to say the least. Right after they finished, I got the chance to meet the lead guitarist from Vampire Weekend and exchange stories. Hopefully, one day, I will get the chance to play with these guys soon. They were truly inspiring to hear musically and to meet backstage as well.
By this time, it was 12am and we were winding down, but we made our way to see an all girl Led Zeppelin cover band called Lez Zeppelin (clever name). They were great and it was so cool to hear their renditions of classic songs. Eventually, we made our way down to see the Dark Star Orchestra who played a magnificent set of Grateful Dead songs that got everyone dancing. It was an amazing way to end the night for us (even though there was music still going on until 4am).Today was truly one of the best days of my life. I had a smile from ear to ear the whole day and the best part is I get to do it again with even more bands that I want to see. I know this blog is considerably longer than the last so for those of you whom I didn’t lose, thanks for sticking with me.
Until next time… (2nd day at Bonnaroo blog will be posted soon as
well)
Thanks for believing in my dream so I can share this experience with all
of you.
Shine on!
- NK
–nikhi
