Starting off Barefoot Truth was just two high school friends (Jay Discoll and Will Evans) writing and performing songs for their own enjoyment. When they started playing out they got such a good response that they decided to record an album. By the time they both graduated college Barefoot Truth was no longer just for fun. It was a full band, and it became a career.

Since spring of 2007 the members of Barefoot Truth have been working full time on the band. Recently they have received national attention and an undetermined amount of money from success on Pandora Radio. The internet radio site exposed Barefoot Truth to a much larger audience, and that audience can’t seem to get enough of Barefoot Truth. The band has had more than 4.5 million plays on Pandora.

Although the band had little influence on promoting their music on Pandora, their dedication to making quality music and their professional approaches to the band are key to this success. The band is doing everything right. They made the band into a small business and keep track of all of their money. They even get tax write offs at the end of the year.

Discoll took the time to help answer some our questions about Barefoot Truth’s success.

How do they afford to be professional musicians?

“We have a pretty good situation, we all live together. So a lot of the money we make as a band stays in the band going towards our own rent…it really just cuts down on costs.”

“When there is downtime…we’ll have our own little things going. Odd jobs and things are always coming up.”

What was the first step to becoming a regional band and getting shows in different areas?

“Show swapping is defiantly a big thing for us. It has been for breaking into new places…We’ve also been lucky to have interest from a lot of colleges and high school students [then we] go to their student activities board and tell them [the students] would like us to play at their school. It’s been cool to break into new markets. From there we try to get into local clubs.”

How does Barefoot Truth handle management responsibilities?

“Right now it’s pretty much mainly handled by the band. We’ve been though management a little bit and had booking agents and had some help with different tours…but beyond that we are constantly booking shows ourselves. We do a lot of the admin stuff ourselves which definitely gets tedious.”

Barefoot Truth’s first recording was produced by a Grammy nominated producer and has worked with the band Dispatch, how did that come about?

“We’ve always looked up to [Dispatch] and we went to what was planed to be their final show back in 2004. We happened to meet them, and we actually had a cassette tape. We played it for them in our car. They were really cool to us, and they said if we were really serious about making a CD we can hook you up with our producer Jack Gauthier. We said yes. We got to record our first few CDs where they recorded their CDs.

We’re never afraid to talk to people. We love meeting new people in the industry and learn how other people have gone about their career.”

The band has gotten a lot of exposure from Pandora, but how much has it helped Barefoot Truth?

“We started getting requests from different parts of the country to play, then we started seeing CD Baby sales from all different parts of the country. When someone buys your CD on CD Baby they get a chance to tell you how they have heard of you. About 80 percent was coming from Pandora, and we thought wow this is cool. Then our music got on iTunes, and we were making way more digital sales than physical sales…It’s grown exponentially.”

What advice does Barefoot Truth have for young bands?

“The biggest thing for us has been to put all the money back into the band. You can’t grow without putting money into recording, gas, graphic design or publicity. There is so much to put into the band you need to have a money flow. Just don’t get greedy with the money you make at gigs.

And don’t be afraid to play anywhere. One example that I remember we played a very small bar gig we were hesitant to play. We were pretty sure no one was going to come hear us who knew of us, but it ended up meeting a kid there who is an IT guy. He was able to do an internship for us, and he was able to build us an entire website and graphic design and get credit for it…you never who you are gonna meet and what each gig is going to bring to you.

And don’t drive in the snow…We got into an accident, and that sucked.”

Learn more about how to get your music onto Pandora, advice from Pandora’s founder and getting royalties from internet and satellite radio.

image by Rick Audet

When a pop rock band emerges out of metal stronghold Iowa it would be a miracle if anyone came to see it. Yet through a well-executed marketing plan, The Actress Adorable was able to sell out the first show they ever played.

By bringing in close to 300 people to their first show, The Actress Adorable has been able to get any show they want from hometown venues and have given their fans quality performances from day one.

It all started with metal guitarist, Jesse Barnes’, dream of starting his own band.

When Barnes wanted to start a pop rock band, he was going to do it the right way. He was not going to cut any corners, something he had learned from previous experiences.

Barnes had played in a professional touring metal band only months before starting The Actress Adorable. His time with the band left him with bad memories of how to run the business aspects of a band.

As the newest member of the band, Barnes was paid the least from touring. Often Barnes was paid as little as a $100 while at the same time the band’s roadie was getting paid $800.

“These guys ripped me,” Barnes said.

After this experience, Barnes considered giving up on his dream of being a professional musician.

Barnes decided to enrolled in college, and shortly after realized he could not give up on his dream to be a musician. On a trip to Michigan he heard some bands that he had never given much of a chance.  He started listing to Under Oath and Armor for Sleep and realized he wanted to start a band without a being tied to a specific genre.

Barnes and three of his friends started writing music, but is soon fell apart. One of the members did not like playing anything other than metal, forcing Barnes to rethink his strategy. He now realized to create a great band, he had to start by being great from day one.

Everything had to be done right 100% of the time.

“I wanted to find five rock stars…in it to win it,” Barnes said.

Barnes looked for not only talented musicians, but musicians willing to put in the time to making the band successful.

Once the band was created members got full time jobs with the intent of paying for a high quality recording and professional marketing. The members would pay whatever the band needed until the day the band could pay them to be full-time musicians.

The Actress Adorable wrote enough songs to get a professional recording with a producer. They hired a web designer to create a high quality MySpace page with photos they got from a professional photographer. All before they set up their first show.

Barnes even made connections with a national distributor, Quickstar Productions, to have their music available on iTunes.

The launch of the MySpace page and the announcement of The Actress Adorable’s first show was released to the public the same weekend. Then, promoting the show began.

Until the day of the show, every weekend the band took off work and spent two 12-hour days out on the streets talking with people. They lived close to several colleges and spent much of their days going from dorm room to dorm room.

The band also found a way to get the local media to write articles about the show. Two local newspapers ran page-one stories about the show.

The members of the band had a friend who needed medical assistance, so some of the proceeds from the show was going to help their friend’s bills. Once the local media got information that the show was also a benefit event it became local news.

“I put 100% of my effort into promotion,” Barnes said.

When the band finally played the sell out show it was a new experience for many the members. Some had never played for that may people before.

The club owner said that if they could sell out shows that The Actress Adorable could set up any kind of show they wanted.

Right from the start the band was getting a lot of respect from clubs and other bands that were more than happy to play with them. The Actress Adorable became the only local, non-cover band to play the largest venue in their hometown.

The sell out show also had a big effect on the work ethic of the band. They wanted to have this kind of audience for every show they played.

One of the biggest marketing tools they learned from that show was putting in the long weekends of hitting the streets pays off, and they have continued this practice for every show to date.

Working the streets with the full band has had great success to bring people to shows. It does a lot to help connect with the audience. First, it allows the band to talk to a lot of people in an area at once. Second, it allows different members strengths to come out whether it’s talking with girls or talking tech with music fans. Last, it helps to keep the band a tight group, something touring bands deal with every day.

Even as The Actress Adorable grows, the lessons they learned from their first show are still helping them succeed today.

Here are some of the tips for selling out your first show like The Actress Adorable:

Be prepared with marketing- When the band started promoting the show they already had a MySpace page with music for people to check out and follow. They followed this by making the music available on iTunes where fans were able to buy their music.

Meet people offline – Connecting with fans face-to-face is the fastest way to make die-hard fans and friends who can help your career.

Make the event more than just about you – The Actress Adorable’s first time on stage was also a benefit show. Give people more than one reason to come out and see you.

Don’t cut corners – Put away real money towards making the band better. Great recordings and good producers will cost money. A band is a business, and businesses need investments to get off the ground.

Don’t be satisfied – Congrats if you sell out your first show, but the job is not over. Promoting shows is a constant battle. Don’t assume that if you sold out your last show you will sell out the next one.