E1 | Burnout, Balance, and Better Shows: Why Kasador Treats Touring Like Sport

Mike Schwartz: much for me really is like you got to do a lot yourself like as a of bands think like once they get an agency that like everything is going to be like sorted for them but like ⁓ In sport, performance isn't constant. It's cyclical. Football teams play once a week. Why? Because they need time to recover, rebuild, and peak again. That's called tapering. For men, that cycle is roughly five to seven days. For women, a little longer. It extend closer to seven to 10 days, depending on physiology. Now, compare that to touring. Back-to-back shows, minimal recovery, constant travel. We romanticize the road, most tours aren't built for performance. They're built for survival. And eventually survival turns into burnout. What if the problem isn't the artist, but the system that they're operating in. This is where I think bands like Kasador are onto something. Instead of just grinding bar to bar, they're building rooms, house shows, intimate settings, real connection. And here's what's interesting. Those rooms convert. A living room full of people turns into a packed venue. That's not just exposure, that's relationship. Bars equal volume, low connection, rooms, depth, high conversion. You don't need more shows. Shout out to Kasador for coming through and make sure you go check them out as they finish up their 2026 Mama Might've Raised a Fool tour. They're in it right now, living the reality of what it takes to be on the road. And you heard it. It's a slog. And that's where I want to pause for a second, because when something feels like a slog, it's usually something other than a motivation problem. It's usually something more like a systems problem. So. Every artist is managing two things, load and capacity. Load equals the shows, the travel, the lack of sleep, all the pressure. Well, capacity equals the recovery, the strength and the nervous system regulation. Right now, the system rewards load and completely ignores capacity. So what happens? Well, you start strong and you grind and by the end of the tour, you're completely depleted. That's not a discipline issue. Welcome to MusicFit Radio, the education station for bands, brands, and fans building a sustainable creative life on stage and off. I'm your host, Mike The Schwartz, creator of the MusicFit Method, and today it's all about the touring life. I had the privilege to cover an underground show last week with my new friends, Kasador an alt rock outfit from Kingston, Ontario on their Western skid. The boys and I sat down and we got to talk about what touring looks like from their side of the fence. First the sound, then the system. Let's get to work. They're only gonna do so much for you and they are never gonna care about your career as much as you do. there's always more that you can do to make that relationship stronger And kind of like with ⁓ manager label kind of thing, ⁓ none of them will ever care about you like do. ⁓ So you have to keep that in mind. Artists create music in environments designed for inspiration, retreats, writing camps, space to breathe. Then they take that art out onto the road into a system designed for output at all costs. More shows, more miles, less rest. That is not a creative system. That is a stress system. And just like in sport, when the load exceeds your capacity, you break. This is MusicFit Radio. If this episode hit for you, take 10 seconds and leave a five star rating and review wherever you're listening. That's how this message spreads and how we start building a more sustainable music industry for everyone. Because at the end of the day, when you hurt less, you can play more. You need better ones. That's like asking an athlete to compete every day and expecting peak performance. What if bands toured like athletes? Fewer shows, higher quality, intentional spacing. Peak performance requires rhythm, not repetition. Creative sustainability isn't about doing less. It's about doing what actually works, managing load and capacity, building in recovery like an athlete and choosing depth over distance. Because the goal isn't just to survive the tour, it's to still love the music when it's all over. If the system burns out the artist, maybe it's time to build a better system. What do you guys think? Let's break that down. That is a mismanagement of energy. If you don't build capacity, the road will take more than it gives. You were mentioning earlier like an athlete like just because you have like an agent as an athlete doesn't mean that now that they're helping you get opportunities. You don't have to train as hard. You have to train harder, right? So let's talk about creative sustainability on the road and three ways that we can start doing this better. Let's get to work. This is exactly what I break down in the MusicFit method, how to build a sustainable career ⁓ stage and off. And I'm interested in hearing what you have to say. So feel free, share this out with someone you care about and we'll catch you on the next one. Peace. we we're in BC and it's something that is always nice there is that they have ⁓ mountains and a whole kind of different... ⁓ environment that we do so flying in like you feel like you're not playing home anymore because you've been around Ontario a bunch and it feels like it is good but it's like you're you know you're you're still at home you can go home after but here is like you're just starting what feels like a real real tour. had a funny one. ⁓ a long time ago so it's not my go-to now but we used to walk up to Love Me Sexy by Jackie Moon. Coffee and tea. out to the AeroPress. Actually don't know I have any non-negotiables. my guitar and ⁓ stuff. I'll figure it out. I forget something I figure bring pants on a full tour. You forgot to pack pants. Pants. That was a while ago, but yeah. I did forget pants. I borrowed this one guy's in the band. – he's not in the band anymore – I had to wear his pants for the entire tour. I think he burned them after. growing up one playing like in particular hockey and then Boris soccer and hockey as well. I think a lot of the music that you listen to, like you would listen to before... I think been awesome for us. Really supportive, like great crowds. They're all about playing a game, at practice. Like if you're playing NHL on the frickin' playstation The first time I heard, smells like Teen Spirit was in a hockey dressing room. I think even like you and then you go to shows at the arena You know where the team plays and I feel like it's pretty integrated and also it kind of has that energy that you ⁓ a big part of life growing up. So I think ⁓ does pair well and we've had a lot of pairings with like pro sports to this ⁓ So I think I think it does and for us it seeps in to me quite quite a lot. Drive. In multiple ways. You son of a bitch. Hustle, why not? These guys slept a combined total of like 40 hours. was, yeah, I mean, we kind of run on fumes and we've been running on fumes for a bit. And I think it was our first day off yesterday. So we just took that basically entire day to sleep. are, mean, we've been doing this for a while. So I think we're pretty good at like, we do get on each other's nerves sometimes, but we're pretty good at like keeping it pretty light. And, you know, we have the tour, I don't tour secrets down, but like, Drive is better. We all pretty experienced in touring so know what we're getting into so think expectations are generally pretty ⁓ par. I would say the best place is Combo of Instagram and our mailing list. All the A ⁓ bit of everything. I mean I made some ⁓ changes. Yo show him your thing. What's that? ⁓ yeah. ⁓ pretty gnarly, what do call these? Hematoma? Blood blisters... it's the best sign actually this might be a sign of some adjustments I have to make in holding the stick which I was about to say like a couple years ago I think I re-approached ⁓ like on the drum set ⁓ make it so you're not ⁓ overworking body more than you have ⁓ to it was a much more technical approach to them ⁓ anywhere you listen to music is probably the best place. We are a band. used to but it's paid off. Like you can actually sustain, right? So you've been hitting harder lately haven't I have been hitting harder. A little bit, a little bit. Uh, chronic pain? I don't know. You've had a wrist thing or something, didn't you have like an arm thing or something? I think over the years, I mean we probably all have, over the years like you get little things that you have to address. So it'll just progressively get worse and then you know you'll feel incapacitated. Like you want to be able to just freely play your instrument. We've been doing a lot of vocal warmups and stuff and I do stretching and then... I've adopted high kicks into the set a lot. Just a lot of leg movements. I've been doing lot of stretching. enough water, yeah, vocal warmups. are Kasador this is our big man and you're listening music fit radio boys ⁓ Gotta hit the practice pad. Sure. Yeah, also like warming up your fingers. Gotta do that, stretch. feel like the support in general. ⁓ like ⁓ ⁓ lends itself to wanting to support live music still. you'll get venues that a lot built-in crowds already. Not really two days off We have to drive. It's be a slog yeah. We're gonna try to catch a soccer game. We might be able to in Scotland. We're gonna try and catch like a third division Scottish league game it's hard to tell what a misconception is because my version of reality is like I'm pretty tempered at this point but like you can have a really good show even in the same city you play. play to a really good crowd and then you go back again and like no one is really there you feel like you should be growing and maybe you will over like a longer period of time but there are just like there are a lot of ups and downs it can be easy to get discouraged I think it's just like the little the little blips so you're saying it's not like a it's not a to b It's not linear. Or A to C. like getting A to Z. Yeah. Not getting discouraged really is the hardest thing to do. Yeah. The only thing that comes