Balancing Acts is Metal Insider’s new column, in which artists explain the challenges within the music industry by juggling day jobs or multiple jobs while pursuing their musical careers. Seven Kingdoms guitarist Camden Cruz discusses the group’s recent success, resulting in spending more time within the music industry. The new EP, The Square, is now available.
Hello Everyone! My name is Camden Cruz. I’m one of the guitarists of Seven Kingdoms.
Recently Seven Kingdoms has found some success in the last few years that has allowed the members to have either no regular jobs, or just some part time gigs. I actually went full time ‘Music Industry’ this January which has been a lifelong dream of mine. While Seven Kingdoms can provide a very basic living for everyone in the band, I am not able to pay everything with that alone in my own life. I have been a Tour Manager for over 10 years, ontop of playing in the band. In this time, I have grown my company, CCE Presents, which provides tour services in North America for many other bands, booking agencies and management companies. This, along with the band has given me the financial freedom to live along side Sabrina and the boys without worry of how the bills will get paid.
As a TM, I manage all aspects of touring once it is booked. It is a very small world when it comes to the music industry and I am lucky that this portion of my career has also only gotten busier and busier! The combination of this and the band has taken a long time for me in order to stop working a typical day job, but it has finally paid off this year with going full time in music. The most difficult thing with this now is juggling the Bands’s Schedule with the schedule of other bands needing me to tour with them. Luckily there is a plan for this and I am building a larger team of trusted people that will work in my company so I will not have to go out quite as much as I am currently, while still providing the services that our clients need.
Before this though, I did work in my family business of custom painting. I did that for 18 years. Being a family business, it allowed me a flexible schedule there with the support of my parents to do the things that were necessary for Seven Kingdoms to grow over a long while. Without that I would not be where I am today. I didnt enjoy the work very much, but I was thankful that it allowed me to grow in other areas of my life. Starting a band in the modern era is very difficult and it requires lots of sacrifice in one way or another. Not any two stories are alike and will differ. I have tremendous respect for anyone that has made a living in the music industry as it, along with so many other industries, are very difficult to stay alive in, or take real effort to get to the point where it pays your bills or can even save money on top of whats needed to survive.
For a long time being in the position I am now, felt like something that was unattainable. For some reason, I just kept pushing no matter what happened, and that was the biggest key to success I believe. I still have tremendous goals in mind and that I am still trying to achieve on and off the stage. You can never get comfortable and you will always need to push to reach that next level, no matter where you are at. To anyone that is in that position, you must keep pushing even if it feels like everything is against you. It will be for a long time. It’s up to you to break through that wall and the only thing that will do that is a consistent pressure on that wall. It will break, and you will find success if you want it bad enough.
Remaining Tour Dates:
w/ Striker, Lutharo, Osyron
11/12 Oklahoma City, OK @ 89th Street
11/13 Albuquerque, NM @ Launchpad
11/14 Colorado Springs, CO @ Vultures
11/16 Phoenix, AZ @ Last Exit Live
11/17 Las Vegas, NV @ Sinwave
11/18 San Diego, CA @ Brick By Brick
11/19 Los Angeles, CA @ Knucklehead
11/20 San Francisco, CA @ DNA Lounge
11/21 Portland, OR @ Hawthorne Theater
11/22 Seattle, WA @ El Corazon
11/23 Kelowna, BC @ Jacknife
11/25 Calgary, AB @ Dicken’s #
11/26 Edmonton, AB @ The Starlite Room #
11/27 Saskatoon, SK @ The Black Cat #
11/28 Winnipeg, MB @ Sidestage #
11/30 Chicago, IL @ Reggies
12/01 Detroit, MI @ Sanctuary
12/03 Brooklyn, NY @ Meadows
12/04 Baltimore, MD @ Metro
12/05 Greensboro, NC @ Hangar 1819
12/06 Atlanta, GA @ The Masquerade
12/07 Tampa, FL @ The Orpheum
12/08 Orlando, FL @ Conduit
# = Osyron Joins
