For those of you who love lesser-known bands like Pierce the Veil, As it is, or Mayday Parade, a street team might interest you highly. Although they may sound like a gang of drag racers, street team members promote all sorts of bands. Two members (at least) go to our school: seniors Isabella Mione and Allison McCarthy. The Scratching Post interviewed them to get the behind-the-scenes on street teams.

TSP: To start off, what do you do on a street team?

Izzy: We basically just run around and do promotions for these bands that are on specific record labels. We’re on Fearless Records’s street team, so we do promotions either online [through making Facebook events, for example] or on the street, [by putting up] posters.

TSP: Can you give some more examples of promoting?

Allison: So for example, The White Noise just released their first EP (a mini album) called “Aren’t You Glad?” and sent out a mission for it. This one is actually a mission series, so [Fearless Records] broke it into three different emails and will only send out one part at a time. [The first one] is the release mission, which focuses on getting the word out about the new EP. This mission is also a teamer’s choice. That means we pick 6 of the 10 listed tasks to do and take pictures to prove we did it and email the pictures to them. Some of the tasks for this mission include: making a GIF inspired by The White Noise, give their EP a 5 star rating on iTunes and say why you like it, share their music video on a social media site and hype up the song/EP, create a lyric image, share a photo of the album on social media and say how much you like it, and come up with your own creative way to promote the band
and their new EP.

TSP: Allison, can you tell me a little about working concerts.

A: [For example,] the Mayday Parade show that I am working on March 25th, in Milwaukee, WI at The Rave has a task to do during the show. I have to take pictures and videos of the band playing and post them on social media. The way to work a show is signing up for the date you want right when they release the information because spots can fill up fast. Then you have to do the pre-show promotion[s]. [At a show,] you either go to a local show and hand out flyers with info about the date you are working or hang up flyers around town, and finally you have to do a creative way to promote the band and tour. For that part you can make a playlist on Spotify and share it with your friends, make a t-shirt, make an event on Facebook, or anything else you can think of.

TSP: What are your favorite bands to promote?

I: I love As It Is.

Alison: Pierce the Veil and Mayday Parade.

TSP: What are the benefits of working on one?

A: Free merch, free signed stuff. For example, I got a signed drumhead from Mayday Parade.

I: Yeah. You get a lot of extra cool goodies that you wouldn’t get otherwise. We’ve gotten signed posters, wristbands…

A: Drawstring backpacks, guitar picks, setlists. I [also] got a signed setlist.
TSP: How do you get into a street team?

I: We’ve been fans of the bands for a long time, and my friend Morgan was on the street team, and she told me to join, so I signed up, and I told Allison to join.

TSP: So it’s that easy?

I: You just sign up and just fill out a Google Doc kind of thing, and then they go over it and they’re like, ‘Yeah, you can be in.’

TSP: Who should join? Everybody?

I: If you like the bands. If you don’t like the bands, you’re going to have a really bad time.

A: It won’t be fun or worth it. I love getting signed posters, shirts, and bracelets because I like the bands signed to Fearless Records. It just wouldn’t be worth all of the hard work it takes to be supporting the bands that deserve the help from the street team.

TSP: Why is it so difficult?

I: It can get overwhelming.

A: The work can be hard because sometimes [the company] release[s] multiple missions at once and will make them due on the same couple days. They give us like two weeks to do them, but it’s a lot of promoting on top of school work. It’s hard but completely worth it.

I: It’s like doing homework for the bands, but it’s fun.

TSP: What genre is Fearless Records?

I: There’s different genres.

A: There’s pop punk, there’s metal core, and so on. They’re all the same rock-type music, not pop or anything.

I: They’re all sub-categories of rock.

A: All of these bands are very genuine people.

I: They’re very thankful.

A: You want to stand there and talk to them forever, not because they’re celebrities but because they’re really cool. You just want to know what they have to say. You want to sit there and listen to them and say, Wow, enlighten me.

I: Some bands, some people, you know they’re just in it for the fame and you know they don’t really care.

A few bands that I’ve worked with don’t care; they just want to be famous, and they take their fame for granted sometimes. But these bands? You know they’re really genuine about what they’re doing. They’re in it for the music; they’re in it for the fans.

A: They put a lot of time into everything they do: music, music videos… They do a lot for their fans, too. They stand there outside [after concerts] to meet fans and make sure they meet every single one.