It’s All About Who You Know | Compass & Cavern

The highway from Colorado to Kansas feels like it never ends.

I’m writing this post in the passenger seat of our touring vehicle as windmills, farmhouses and cornfields fly by. Our hired drummer and good friend, Collin, is behind the wheel as Will, our lead singer and guitarist, stretches out in the back playing Pokémon Omega Ruby on his new Nintendo DS. I’m jealous.

Google Maps tells us we have five hours and three hundred and seventy-five miles until we reach Topeka, the first stop of our Midwest Tour. This is the first time we’re taking Compass & Cavern on the road for more than two nights away from our home in Denver. We’ve done a few “weekend warriors” together to iron out the touring kinks and wrinkles but nothing like this.

Are we prepared? We’ll see.

As we leave the Mile High City behind and the outline of the Rocky Mountains fades into the distance, I’m reflecting on our journey as a band – how far we’ve come, how far we have to go.

Compass & Cavern was born in late 2014 out of the ashes of a previous project that fell apart shortly after moving from Nashville to Denver. Personnel changes over the years have left Will and me as the gears and engine of the band. The dream of one-day being full-time musicians has only grown stronger over the years, even as “real-life” pulls at us more than ever.

Before setting out on this tour, we met with many people who all have different roles within the Denver music scene – some band managers, a radio personality, a few talent buyers, fellow musicians – to collect their thoughts on how to “crack the code” and make it as a band. Every conversation was insightful, and yet, people have different ideas of what the path to success is:

“It’s all about who you know.”

“Play as many shows as possible.”

“Just write awesome music. Success will follow.”

My guess is the truth is likely somewhere in the middle.

Sometimes I enjoy reading artist biographies on Spotify or Wikipedia to try and uncover nuggets of truth about how bands go from being locals to nationals and from playing garages to arenas. What I find is that there’s a gap in many origin stories –

“So-and-so band independently recorded a five-song EP in their studio basement which was then released to critical acclaim, leading to their record deal and tour with Taylor Swift.”

What? How?

That just can’t be…bands release new music all the time. Super talented bands release great music all the time. What was different about that band’s situation that led to their newly budding careers?

I’ve found that dwelling on the success stories of others isn’t particularly helpful for me. I either feel overwhelmed or helpless, neither particularly healthy. Plus, the music industry is changing so rapidly that something that worked for a band a few years ago may not work anymore.

So, here we are on the road, hundreds of miles of farmland and plains between us and our first show on tour. And I’m confident.

I’m confident because we are giving this crazy pursuit a real shot. We’re not trying to recreate someone else’s success or follow a specific formula that we found in our research. We’re not sitting at home wishing we were living another band’s story, but instead we’ve set out to write our own.

Topeka, here we come.