Describe the setting of FMF and your general experience, when was your set time? Who did you play before/after? What will you remember the most?
Fusebox Poet performed at 9:30 pm on the main stage on Saturday night, April 21st (the last night of the Florida Music Festival). 90's rockers Candlebox headlined that night and took the stage at midnight. We performed right after the Gainesville, FL band Of Valleys. Over 175 bands performed over the weekend throughout 10 local Orlando venues all within walking distance of each other. We did an unbelievable amount of networking and promoting throughout the weekend and were able to meet a number of important music industry folks. We had the pleasure of meeting Kevin Lyman (Vans Warped Tour Founder), Steve Robertson (Atlantic Records - Paramore/Shinedown) Jason Bieler (Bieler Bros Records - Nonpoint/Skindred) and many more. The festival hosted industry conferences and panels on Saturday afternoon, which allowed us multiple opportunities to meet and connect with important industry execs. I think we'd all agree that the most memorable part of the festival was looking out into the audience and recognizing a few important industry folks that really have the power to change our music career in an instant. It was even cooler that some of them were bobbing their heads and enjoying our show! We definitely brought our A-Game on stage when we knew some of those guys would be watching!
How valuable is an opportunity like this to play in front of 1500 (mostly new?) fans?
Playing for close to 1,500 people in downtown Orlando was a very exciting and beneficial opportunity for us. This was our first time playing in Orlando and I couldn't think of a better way to introduce our music to the city. We made friends with a ton of bands from the area and it was nice to see many of them in the audience supporting us.
What's next for Fusebox Poet? Any new music coming? Tour dates?
Fusebox Poet will be touring the state of Florida for the remainder of the month of April. When we found out that we were going to be a featured main stage artist at FMF, we booked an entire tour around the opportunity. The "Turn It Up Tour" featured shows throughout the Southeast including Charleston SC, Charlotte NC, and multiple markets throughout FL including Winter Park, Tampa, Largo, Jacksonville, West Palm Beach, Hollywood, and Orlando. Being featured as main stage artists really helped up create a buzz throughout the state of Florida and it was amazing how willing many venues and local bands were to work with us for the first time. We were also given $1000 in artist development funds from Sonicbids/FMF and we really used this money to our advantage. We could have just used this money to get us to and from Orlando for the festival but instead we decided to really use that money to improve our live show. By booking a tour around the opportunity, we were able to split up drive times, and make gas money to get use to and from gigs. Instead of blowing the $1000 on gas we really used it for "artist development!" We turned a sweet festival slot into a two and a half week tour of the Southeast! Talk about capitalizing on our opportunity!
When we get home at the end of the month we will continue the process of recording demos and shopping them to record labels, producers, etc. We are slowly releasing these professional demos to our fans for limited time periods. We like for our fans to be able to hear how our music is evolving and to be included in our song development process!
Pepsi or Coke?
Neither! We are absolutely hooked on Dunkin Donuts coffee. It's become a part of our daily routine on the road. We frequently drive miles out of our way to get our morning cup!
Check out more on Fusebox Poet here.
