Rumpus Causes a Musical Ruckus on Tour

Regina DJ, producer, and drummer Rumpus’ newest release on SoundCloud, a set from Canadian music festival Shambhala, begins with the faithful words of Neil Armstrong on the moon. Now, while “One small step for man, one giant leap for mankind” isn’t typically how we’d describe our Tour Support Grant, it was Creative Saskatchewan funding that got Rumpus on the road for the US leg of his 21/22 tour.

Before donning his on-stage moniker, Danny Elder played instruments as a child and began producing his own electronic music in 2015. The fruits of that labour have included appearances at large-scale events like Nevada’s Burning Man and California’s Lightning in a Bottle. Like so many other artists we’ve spoken to recently, COVID put a damper on his plans for the last couple of years. 2022, however, saw him perform across the US and Canada while also finding time to release an NFT project. Those US shows included time in Los Angeles, Reno, San Francisco, Denver, San Diego, and Hawaii. He and his team say that the tour has opened new doors even when they were previously expecting COVID-related challenges to limit their success.

One of the biggest goals of the tour though was to create more demand for his return and more opportunities for new bookings and future tours and festivals in the USA. Evidently this was achieved. There have been many requests to rebook Rumpus for venues he played on this tour as well as new ones for his fall tour. Some of the promoters are asking to form partnerships with other venues throughout their state to have multi-city runs of shows, and requesting [to] have exclusive booking rights to Rumpus shows in their area.

Rumpus is no stranger to awards—he’s a multi-time Saskatchewan Music Award winner in the electronic artist of the year category— but the tour saw a tangible bump in his performance metrics. Almost 40% more people attended his shows than expected, his revenue was above the amount he estimated in his funding application, and Spotify streams increased 7% month-on-month. For Rumpus, the tour’s results echo what he meant when he expressed ambition to enter into a new stage of his career. It’s one that has seen him represented by well-known labels like Insomniac Records and Westwood Recordings, while he releases songs (nine alone last year) and EPs.

“US Festival bookings have come in post tour where organizers have stated they heard about the show from one of the tour stops and they needed to try and book him.
Overall the tour was a great success!”

You can follow along with his updated weekly playlist on Spotify and find his latest performances on his website. With March’s Altitunes Festival at Kelowna’s Big White Ski Resort already on his docket, 2023 promises to be another positive year in Rumpus’ ascension as an on-stage mainstay.

If you’re looking to use Creative Saskatchewan funds to expand your market reach and/or tour new places, you can find that information on our Tour support for live music page. Eligible projects are required to have a run of at least six live performances in multiple cities with performance fees being collected. The next deadline for this grant is February 1, 2023. Our tour support grant has recently supported artists like The Bromantics, Ellen Froese, and Autopilot. Whether you’re attending huge musical festivals like Rumpus, or a showcase with OSAC, or starting your first tour ever, Creative Saskatchewan is committed to helping this province’s musical talent grace the world’s stages.

By John Loeppky.