Nick's Blog #012: Addressing D&S' Touring Situation

We get a ton of people asking us when we will be playing a live show near them or when we will be touring their part of the country next. This has always been a very tough question for us to answer simply because of the dynamic that we have have set up as a band and our methods of recording and releasing music. I don't feel that we have done a very good job of explaining ourselves when it comes to this particular topic. There are some issues that we as band deal with that have directly affected our ability to tour in the past and will continue to affect our band in the future. But I would first like to say, that these are not excuses for us not touring. We fully understand that EVERY band on earth has specific hurdles that they come across especially when it comes to touring and traveling across the country. Our touring situation (or lack there of) has been a conscious decision of ours and I want to make it very clear that this is in no way an excuse, but rather, an explanation of why we have made the decisions we have made. I personally feel that if we are asking you, as fans of our music, to wait two years between our first and second album without any shows of any sort outside of California, then we owe you somewhat of an explanation for these decisions.

As some of you who have talked to me online may know I have a genetic lung disease called Cystic Fibrosis (CF). I was diagnosed with this disease relatively late at the age of 16. If you don't know what CF is you can visit this website for more technical information: What is Cystic Fibrosis? Basically what happens when you have CF is there is an inbalance of certain chemicals in your body which causes serious problems to occur in your lungs and/or pancreas. Thankfully, I have a relatively lighter case and am what is called pancreas sufficient. So my pancreas functions fine but I tend to have lots of problems with my lungs. I tend to develop infections in my lungs with symptoms that can range from a really bad cough to more serious problems and pain in my lungs. Personally, I develop one of these infections 3 or 4 times a year with some years being better or worse than others. Some of these infections can cause me to have to visit the hospital for 7 to 10 days at a time to receive IV antibiotics, with another 2 to 3 weeks of IV's at home. Now, I could go on for days about the specifics of the disease, but these are the basic problems that I deal with on a regular basis.

Okay, so there are the obvious reasons why going out on a low budget music tour would be a bit daunting with this disease. Obviously if I were to get sick while out on tour there would be problems with me getting the proper medical treatment I needed since I see a highly specialized doctor specific to CF. I worry quite a bit about staying healthy for our local shows in California, let alone across the country! But there are some other problems that may not be so obvious to someone who does not live with CF. One is that most CF patients have around 2 - 3 hours of physical therapy per day that they must do in order to stay healthy. I personally use 2 different machines that help me to inhale medicine and help me to clear my lungs for 1 hour twice a day. If I miss one treatment I tend to feel shitty for up to a few days because of it. Now at home this becomes routine, and I barely think about it. On the road however, this could become very difficult as both of the machines require a power outlet and I need somewhat of a clean, private place to do this. In other words sleeping anywhere but a hotel room while out on the road would be very difficult, which in turn would bump the cost of a tour for our band WAY up.

There are also a lot of smaller issues that wouldn't bother me as much but altogether could prove to be very difficult on the road. Issues such as having to distance myself from a band member if he were to get sick while on tour. One thing that I think any CF patient will tell you is this: while a cold or the flu for a normal person might be very uncomfortable, it usually lasts about 2 to 5 days. If I get a cold or the flu the health problems can last weeks, lead to infections, and quite often lead to precautionary, but week long, hospital visits.

With all of this said I would once again like to say that NOTHING IS IMPOSSIBLE. I would hate for anyone to think that I am saying that because I have Cystic Fibrosis it is impossible for me to go on tour because it's not. All of the problems that I mentioned above can be solved. And this is what we have been doing for the past 2 or 3 years: Trying to figure out how we can get out and play for you all while at the same time staying healthy and happy enough for it to be worth our while. Obviously there are a ton of variables to cover here but with every local show we play we are learning how to better deal with these obstacles.

As I had said before, I don't feel that we (especially me) have done a good enough job in the past expressing this stuff to all of you. Again, I feel that if we are asking you all to buy our albums, buy our merch, and help us to spread our music, then we owe it to you to let you know why you have not yet seen us play in your town. Please, please, please feel free to ask us any questions that you have regarding shows or even CF. I absolutely have no problem talking to people about my disease and think that the more people that hear about CF personally from somone the better!

Thanks for reading guys!