BRADY DEEPROSE | INDUSTRY SPOTLIGHT

Hey Brady, thank you so much for taking the time. Can you tell us a bit about yourself, as well as what prompted you to pursue merch duties alongside being a full-time member of Conjurer.

Thanks for taking the time to chat! It’s funny, being in the band actually caused the touring gig. I spent years banging my head against the wall with ‘normie’ jobs, trying to make them work around the band and as we got busier, that became harder and harder. Eventually, I realised that a decade of tour managing and merch repping for my own band was the perfect training! And now I am able to take work that fits around the Conjurer schedule and, while it’s always a bit of a juggling act, it gives me the freedom to make a schedule that works for me. 

Something that is very evident is that you like to keep busy and that you are a man of many skills – whilst Conjurer toured with Make Them Suffer last year, you also took on a guitar tech role alongside playing shows every night. This is probably not something that happens too often, but how did you juggle Conjurer responsibilities and MTS responsibilities for 24 dates?

Photo by Seppe Germaux

I was actually explaining this tour to our sound engineer on a post-show drive last night after we played NYC! That tour was brutal. I probably had 2 hours total from waking up to getting back into bed when I wasn’t busy, and that includes eating and showering - it was a lot. It’s definitely not something that we’d consider doing again as a band (our drummer Noah was also their drum tech!) but I gained a lot of important perspective from the experience - it really redefined what a ‘long day’ looks like for me and I find regular touring a lot easier now!

This industry loves to throw curveballs. What’s one of the strangest or trickiest situations you’ve run into where you had to think on your feet?

From a merch perspective, it’s actually my favourite job because it’s so consistent! Assuming you’ve done the pre-work, you get into a schedule and lock in for the tour. It’s when I end up tour managing as well that it gets trickier - the goal is always to make the artists life as easy as possible, and that can sometimes clash with maximising merch profits. 

Being on tour is tough on majority of people, both physically and mentally. How do you maintain your own well-being whilst on the road?

I’ve actually only really started thinking about this in the last few years - I got into running in the last couple years and trying to keep that up while on tour has become somewhat of a personal challenge! I also follow a keto diet both on and off the road, which really has revolutionised my relationship with food. It’s so easy to fall into a cycle of overeating and junk food, so getting a handle on that has had a massive positive shift in both physical and mental wellbeing.

Can you walk us through a typical show day on tour - from load-in to settlement. Where do you focus first?

Photo by Robert McCoy

The answer to this varies wildly depending on the ‘level’ of tour, with bigger venues and shows being a lot more uniform. But the basic structure is similar, from a purely merch-facing standpoint: arrive at the venue, anywhere between 2 and 6 hours before doors.

From there, counting in is the first big task: this is physically counting all the merch you have and then restocking from the van/trailer so you have enough stock for the night's show. Then it’s time to build my display: this is the most creative part of the day, especially in DIY venues, and where having a merch kit to help you improvise is useful - the display is how the crowd will see the merch and so you’ve got to make sure it looks great!  From there, if I’m purely doing merch, I’ll have some time to myself to catch up on emails, or eat / shower, or maybe even explore the city a little bit! I always get to the merch stand about 15 minutes before doors open and am ready to sell.

There will usually be a rush at doors and when the headliner finishes, but it ‘s important to always be behind the table to ensure you don’t miss any sales! After the show, I take the display down and count out - this, along with the count in, allows you to confirm exactly what was sold and check those numbers against the amount of money received / card sales registered. This usually takes awhile and so tends to wrap up around the time the band is loading out, so you end up getting the merch boxes there just in time to put them to bed. 

There are so many cooks in the kitchen to keep a tour running smoothly, since we are predominantly focused on the merchandise aspect for this interview – can you give our readers a quick breakdown of your responsibilities for merch ops whilst on the road.  

On top of the daily duties mentioned previously, it’s important to keep an eye on stock levels and check that sales are matching what was projected ahead of the tour - if you’re doing better, then you’ll need to get more merch printed! On the last Conjurer USA tour, our sales were stronger than anticipated so I contacted our merch company who, with excellent foresight, had over-printed our merch so had back up stock to ship us immediately - this meant that we got restocked just as we started running out of sizes and could maximise sales. The merch seller has the most direct oversight of sales and, while these decisions are usually made by the band / TM, it’s good to be aware and to flag them early!

What do you think most people misunderstand about touring in general?

Anyone who thinks for a second that it’s glamorous are being tricked by social media - people on tour post the absolute highlights and the ‘cool’ moments, but not all the long days, cramped conditions, and sleepless nights. Don’t get me wrong, it’s the best job I’ve ever had and I wouldn’t swap it for anything, but it’s a full-on lifestyle and if you aren’t willing to make the sacrifices, then it’s best to find something else!

Photo By Robert McCoy

We know there isn’t much time for sightseeing on tour unless there’s an off day on the calendar. Are there any cool spots that come to mind that you’d recommend, places you wouldn’t miss for the world when passing through?

It’s less the places I’ve visited that have left an impression on me than the people I’ve met - one of the best parts of touring is getting to see friends you’ve made all over the world that I never would have had a chance to meet if it wasn’t for doing this. That said, we got a chance to play at Valo Rock in Norway, way up in the northern town of Vadsø - it was an incredible experience, especially as it never got dark! I walked back to the hotel at 1am in the blazing sunshine: surreal.