THE MAINE (Pat Kirch) // The Helping Musicians Podcast // Episode 157

Today's guest is the endlessly wise Pat Kirch - drummer and founding member of The Maine, and the brains behind some of the smartest fan-community moves in modern music.

We get into all sorts of value on this show - building a fan base that actually cares, the truth about the 1000 true fans theory, plus why the band edited every music video on their latest album two days before release...

THE MAINE INSTA - ⁠https://www.instagram.com/themaineband/⁠

OUR INSTA - ⁠https://www.instagram.com/helpingmusicianspod/⁠

Episode Features:

• Why 50 people buying tickets and 15 of them grabbing a t-shirt is a proper career starting point, not a failure
• How the famous "1,000 true fans" essay plays out in real life, 20 years into a band's career
• Why trying to reach everybody means connecting with nobody - and what going deep with a small fan base actually looks like
• How MySpace messages and post-show dinners with fans grew into 8123, a community with its own festival and tattoos
• Why fans connect harder when they get to watch you evolve, and why looking a bit DIY early on works in your favour
• How building each album into its own era, colours and all, helps fans tie your music to chapters of their own lives
• Why every music video from the new album was edited two days before it came out, and why that's the whole point
• The Tour Next Door - why the band's tenth album tour skips the big cities and plays the towns next door instead
• What playing free shows in mall car parks did as a thank you for ten years of fan support
• Why nothing in your career is as make or break as it feels in the moment

New episodes every Monday x