Earn It Yourself is the brainchild of Sarah Saturday, singer/songwriter of Gardening, Not Architecture fame. After dropping out of college to put her focus full-time on her band, Saturday began developing the blueprint for what would become the present day Earn It Yourself (EIY) ideals. Saturday self-promoted her band, booked the band's gigs, managed their tours, released the band's music with their own money and even screen-printed their t-shirts by hand. Her laborious efforts put her in a unique situation, when the opportunity arose, to spread her knowledge and teachings as part of the EIY initiative. Saturday has decided, for the first time ever, to take EIY on tour -- a tour which will wind it's way through Phoenix this September.
The inaugural EIY Tour will be at Trunk Space Monday, September 28 with Gavin Castleton; Gardening, Not Architecture; Tugboat and a local E.I.Y. band to be named. That's right -- any local band that is a part of EIY's website/database can sign up to possibly play that night.
The Phoenix date is one of 62 for EIY's first-ever tour. Just knowing that Saturday, Castleton and co. are having 62 different dates to promote their innovative website is worthy of awe. It's not enough for Saturday to simply have the idea of EIY out there -- she is going from town to town promoting it and showcasing just what is possible for a young band that is struggling to make contacts and to get their music heard. She is passing along her opportunity -- her one-time chance to produce something like EarnItYourself.com -- to countless other bands who need their one opportunity to get heard and to properly market and manage themselves.
Sarah Saturday's mission with EIY is simple enough, yet it markedly more innovative for young bands than anything that has come along in the past decade. She makes it okay for a band struggling to figure out the intricacies of the music business to feel overwhelmed in the sense that she has developed a tool -- with her website -- that will help point any band in the right direction. There's absolutely nothing wrong with taking EIY's show on the road to help the hordes of local bands -- the ones in The Valley, included -- get started in the right direction.
Information on the EIY Tour '09 can be found
here, with additional information about the Phoenix show offer
here.
