Can I be a roadie for A7X? Haha

[Daniel Sobota]

I just said this to my friend, I would drop out of HS immediately to be a roadie for Avenged. Well, it’s my graduation year, so I guess that I have to hold on for just a little longer since I already came this long, but seriously, becoming a roadie for them would be a dream come true. Plus, that would give me plenty of time to bother Syn to teach me the art of shreds hehe.
So if you need a roadie or something, I’m here.

 

[idssdi]

I think to be a roadie for any band you need a really broad understanding of all the technical aspects of the guitar. Also I doubt whether Syn has time to teach his roadie how to shred.
I agree though it would be really cool!

 

[Daniel Sobota]

The teaching part was a joke.
Also, the guitar techs need to really have a broad knowledge. What I would like to do as a roadie is carry shit from venue to venue, you know? I can do all the dirty work, because anything is better than what i have now haha.

 

[Ed Seith]

I’m REALLY sorry, but this is all I could think of.

 

[Daniel Sobota]

@Ed – Lmao, that one guy in the top rated comments has the same struggles as me!
For real though, I’ll even do the laundry for the band hahaha.

 

[Ed Seith]

Generally you need to prove your mettle roadying for an up and coming band before you’d have a shot at doing it for one of the big boys. And even then, bands that have made it tend to be loyal to the people that helped them get there – A7X would only likely look for a new roadie if one of their long-time people leaves for one reason or another.

 

[Daniel Sobota]

Yeah, I figured that. But I remember one guy on instagram (his name is walnuts or something like that) saying he told the band after the show he wanted to be their roadie and they accepted him. So that was pretty cool, but I’m not that lucky haha.

 

[Jak Angelescu]

My personal goal is to stand where Syn stands not where the roadie stands that’s for sure! Can you imagine that? Being up on stage, front and center, making money for all your DECADES of long, hard, grueling work. Making the DREAM come true! What a feeling that would be!
I would much rather have someone come up to me and say, “Man, Jak. Your music kept me from going over the edge. I found an outlet in music thanks to you” than “Hey Jak lug this gear up on stage for me”.
Dream bigger than that, my friend. This isn’t to say a roadie’s job is a dead-end one because that’s not the case at all for sure. But think about it. Would you rather be up on stage opening up for Avenged Sevenfold or lugging their gear out?
Not me. I’m working my way up to play with the big boys. Not work for the big boys

 

[Daniel Sobota]

Well, that’s the goal, Jak. But you have to understand how hard is it for me… I live in a province in the middle of Southeastern Europe, guitar music is dead here. If I want to succeed in the music industry I need to find a way out, and I’m willing to mop the floors in tour buses if it means I’ll see the world, you know? It’s just temporarily, until I get into the game. You have to start somewhere haha.
Point is, I have to move to the US.

 

[Jak Angelescu]

Honey I hate to tell you this but it ain’t much better here. I lived out in Los Angeles for years. I mean YEARS. I even tried in New York City, Boston, and Kansas City. I actually went to Finland with my singer hoping for something better there. That’s how scarce REAL music is here. Sure you have your up and coming bands of young people like yourself that are on their way. But they’re a cookie cutter with no originality and no real guts and passion and they don’t last very long or being in their band is a fucking nightmare. At least none that I’ve seen. You can mop all the floors in the world (coming from someone who did sound check for Billy Idol, Camp Freddy and Dave Navarro at their work including having to pick up GOD amounts of trash afterwards) and nothing could come of it.
You work hard at what you want to do and make good connections that way. If I could give you one piece of advice I wish someone would have told me years ago, it’s to not wait around and hope the opportunity comes by enslaving yourself to someone else hoping to get noticed. Get YOUR music recorded. Play your ass off in as many small clubs as you can. Get your gear up and have backing tracks going. And then come here as a musician who works hard at their craft, not mopping floors. I don’t know what your plans are but don’t be like my singer and I where we waited for a band to happen because no matter how hard we tried, it just wouldn’t work. Nothing was ever good enough.
If you believe you got something to offer (and I am positive you do) you go make it happen. Yes there will always be dirty work involved, but please don’t believe that being a worker for the big boys will eventually get you in. It may, it may not. But coming from someone who did that, I lost myself and it took me 5 years to get back on track.

 

[Daniel Sobota]

I appreciate your advice, you seem to have a lot of experience so I respect that. But there are so many problems surrounding this. First of all, my partner in crime lives in Canada, a guy that I have plans to start a band with. Me and him are totally on the same page and I’ve tried finding potential “band members” out here as well, it’s just that it didn’t work. People in Croatia aren’t willing to take those risks, but me being a crazy little fucker that I am, I’m all for taking those risks. There is no market for metal over here, so I understand people not wanting to do anything serious. And as for me wanting to start somewhere as low as mopping the floors, it’s more of a personal thing. I don’t want to get into details, but it’s in regards to my personal struggles and what I’ve been through. So when I say I’m willing to mop the floors in order to get out of here, I mean it. Because there is no chance at all my music career will succeed if I stay here.
Also, I don’t want to sound pompous or anything, but I feel like my ideas and concepts are really strong and innovative. I still may only be a beginner at guitar, but I also write lyrics, come up with visual ideas and everything else that comes with being a musician. I’m also trying to learn how to sing, but I can scream kinda, so that’s good for starters haha. Again, it’s just that there is no way this will succeed over here.

 

[Jak Angelescu]

Dude, I love your ambition so much. There are so many, and I mean SOOOO many details in what you just told me that remind me of my singer and I. THAT behavior and mentality is going to take you far. I’m really happy to see someone with the same determination. It’s refreshing. And continue to be confident in yourself. DON’T let anyone tell you anything else. If there was one thing that beat my singer and I off the path, was that we started to believe we didn’t have anything to offer because no one cared.
Do what you gotta do, buddy. I truly expect big things from you! Have you thought about going to school here? There are LOADS of schools that are affordable here that can help you with that tech like stuff. And it’ll help get you over here as well.

 

[Daniel Sobota]

Oh wow, thanks for saying that! Haha. This made me smile. I’ve had rather shitty couple of weeks so it’s nice to see someone say things that make you feel good. And yeah, I’ve always felt like I have something to say. It’s like an inner voice that tells you to do something, innit? The guys in Avenged must feel the same thing as well.
As for schools, I don’t know… The thing is that college over here is free, and I come from a working class family, so coming to school in the US isn’t quite possible, but who knows, I still have this graduation year to finish, so maybe if I’m lucky I find something affordable.

 

[Filip Tomiša]

If our croatian band Cold Snap managed to get signed by Nuclear Blast Records then it’s pretty possible to succeed here. It just takes a lot a lot a lot a lot of hard work. I understand your point of view but just moving to USA won’t change anything. As a matter of fact it might be even harder to succeed there cause there is so much more competition than here. It doesn’t matter where you come from, you can always succeed but it takes A LOT of work. Keep grinding everyday, don’t wait for something to come up an eventually if you keep working an opportunity might appear and who knows where that takes you.

 

[Daniel Sobota]

Filip – true, but Cold Snap already had big promotion around them. Their singer is an actor/son of a famous Croatian actor, so they had a pretty big head start compared to all the other bands in our country. There is this band from Dubrovnik called Krakatoa, and they are sort of like “known” in Dubrovnik, but nobody knows them anywhere else in the country.
And you are right that moving to the US wouldn’t solve everything, but as I said, I have someone I want to work with that lives on that side of the world, so that would make it easier than here, where I have nobody to work with haha.

 

[Filip Tomiša]

They might’ve gained some popularity here in Croatia but outside nobody knew about them. They traveled all over europe to find a record lable, they had to risk a lot of stuff but in the end it payed off and it wasn’t because his dad is popular but because they were dedicated and worked their asses off.
Skype can solve that problem, you can jam on skype, send each other riffs and ideas and try to work with that. USA isn’t really close to us so you have to improvise somehow .

 

[Daniel Sobota]

They did risk and work their asses off, but again, I don’t have anyone who shares that same mentality with me over here. First of all, not that many people of my age are into metal over here, and those who are into it aren’t willing to risk because of the economical status in our country. So my only option is to work with people from somewhere else.
I guess Skype will do for now, but nothing compares to being in the same room together. Oh well…

 

[idssdi]

I feel like you should do whatever you want to do Daniel. If you make a wrong decision ease make sure to learn from it. I also want to leave you with some videos which may help you