The Road to Madness: The Dangers of Touring and How Musicians Cope
Vol. 1, Issue 19, Jan 31, 2023
Last month, I was approached by an editor at SPIN Magazine to write a piece on the psychology of being a touring musician. A mutual friend suggested that I might be the right person for the work. So, after a slight delay, this dispatch from the Ecological Uncanny leads us to SPIN’s ‘Impact’ section, where this month’s writing appears. It was published as “The Road to Madness: The Dangers of Touring and How Musicians Cope.” In the process, I spoke by phone with Dr. Chayim Newman PhD, C.Psych of Amber Health (currently, the service is known as Borer Newman, but is undergoing a change of identity). Dr. Newman was extremely gracious with his time. I also spoke by video call with one of my heroes, David Rhodes, guitar player with Peter Gabriel. The article discusses the presence and nature of the archetypes of rock’n’roll, as well as ritualization.
The article involved extensive interviews, and not every contribution could be included. I’d like to share a little of that here. For example: Jay McDowell, Archivist at the Musicians Hall of Fame and Museum in Nashville, and former upright bass player in BR5-49, told me, “I had an identity crisis when things took off for us in the beginning. During my whole childhood, I used playing an instrument as an escape. When the band blew up, it became my full-time job…As things got chaotic around me, it did no good to escape into playing an instrument. I started shooting and editing video. I turned to yoga. It helped center me, and the meditation side helped me come down from some of the overwhelming highs.” If McDowell met one of his childhood heroes, and discovered a mutual admiration, “I would almost have to experience the opposite sadness or despair within a day or two.” At first it didn’t make sense. “Then, I realized that it was my psyche compensating for the incredible high that I had just experienced.”
“We need to make sense of that internally,” Dr. Newman says, “and at the deepest levels, psychologically, that’s what we’re addressing.” Some might argue that all professions have some equivalent of this. “The most similar thing to being on the touring side of the music industry is being a soldier in the military. There’s exhaustion and lack of sleep, there’s being far away from home, there’s are stress and pressure in a profound way.” Just as military veterans explain that they fought and endured for the person next to them, “When you ask people in the music industry, why do you do this, despite all of the unhealthy components of it? They all say the same thing: I do if for the person standing next to me. I do it for the rest of the crew, or I do it for the person standing next to me on stage, and that’s just the camaraderie and connectedness that is so powerful in this industry and keeps us coming back…That’s why on both levels of what is most wonderful and what is most unhealthy, that’s the closest parallel we have.”
Of touring with Vic Chesnutt in 2008, Elf Power’s Andrew Reiger writes, “We spent a day off in a rented cottage by the ocean in Yachats, Oregon, spending the night wandering the beach, and it was a much-needed relief in the middle of a grueling tour.” Some excursions are more esoteric: “When we were playing the Egersund Visefestival in Norway, a long hike to see the local ancient stone circle was similarly rejuvenating. We also stayed at a remote lighthouse one year in Egersund, being transported to and from it by boat. Even in the middle of a big city, a walk in a park in San Francisco or New York City can be a great way to relax and recharge.” All this suggests an ecopsychological approach that could be elaborated on at some point.
David Bowie warned about becoming enamored with the archetypal star, inside or out: “If you think we’re gonna make it, you’d better hang onto yourself.” It’s good advice. Jung reminds us that these archetypes, the shadow of the ego, and the various aspects of the self require integration. The ecstatic rituals of performance usher them forth, for better and worse.
Read the published article at SPIN [click!]
Thanks, as ever, for reading and I hope this gives you some ideas.
Regards from Santa Fe,
— James Reich
www.jamesreichbooks.com