Revisited: Tristan Clopet -- Tours, EPs, and Growth as a Musician

Tuesday, December 29, 2009

By Ric

Tristan Clopet and The Juice Last time I wrote about Tristan Clopet he had just released his first EP, Duende, and had competed in Miami New Times' Grove On Battle of the Bands. He had been performing as a fulltime musician for just under a year, but was gaining a lot of momentum. He had gotten a regular gig at the now closed Eleven Leprechauns, plus building a fan base around Miami, particularly in UM crowds. Things were heading in all the right directions for Tristan.

Also, Tristan is one the people in the scene I speak to regularly. Him and his father/manager, Julian, regularly send me emails about Tristan's growth and happenings. I stressed this in the past articles, but Tristan is a genuine human being and overall nice guy, even though that modesty can sometimes inhibit him (more on that later).

I focus a lot of attention on Tristan on REV because he is on my short list of Miami performers who have the talent and attitude to become commercially successful.

He is a consummate professional and approaches his music and art seriously and as a business (I know, music purists will balk at this, but keep in mind, record labels have become almost nonexistent and the modern musician needs to be multifaceted, including being a smart and industrious business person).

Recently he took an East Coast tour with his band, The Juice, and is getting ready to gear up for an acoustic solo tour up the East Coast again with percussionist Richard.

But, despite all of Tristan's hard work and positive attitude, sometimes a musician can become a victim of circumstance.

It is no secret, but Miami is not exactly the best city for bands to come through and become nationally recognized musicians, particularly for Rock music. Maybe someone could point at bands like Dashboard Confessional or Iron & Wine (at a stretch of calling him nationally popular or even from Miami at all), but any way you look at it, we're not known as a mecca of Rock music.

It's easy to tell how hard a toll this takes on an artist. After talking with Tristan about his amazing one month tour up the East Coast, his entire body language changed while talking about their first local show after returning from their tour. Rather then being welcomed back with open arms by their devoted fans, longing to have their heroes return from tour, it felt like the time away from the city only proved that building a fan base in Miami can be somewhat fruitless.

After playing to crowds of over 100 people in New York, who go to shows simply to experience new music, Tristan returned to his hometown to play to a crowd of only 10. Situations like that would make any artist question what the term "hometown" means.

But don't think that Tristan is one to complain. Rather than beat up a city for who they are, he rolls with the punches and is beginning to understand the term "road warrior."

So once again Tristan goes on tour to support his new upcoming EP, Purple. And while a lot of artists take a "what have you done for me lately" attitude, Tristan understands that time on the road, playing shows, and learning his craft is reward enough in itself.

A secondary reason for a solo acoustic tour is to develop himself as a front man and learn to be the leader of his band.

It is Tristan Clopet & The Juice for a reason.

Personally, I will continue to root for Tristan, knowing that he'll finally find a footing and get the attention he deserves soon enough. Right now he may be a struggling, touring local artist, but his music says something drastically different -- that he won't be an underground secret for too much longer.

Tristan's new single So Alive, off the Purple EP

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LINKS

Tristan Clopet & The Juice's Website (www.tristanclopet.com)
Tristan Clopet & The Juice's Myspace (www.myspace.com/tristanclopet)
Tristan Clopet & The Juice's Facebook (www.facebook.com/tristanclopet)
Tristan Clopet & The Juice's Twitter (www.twitter.com/tristanclopet)

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Tags: Tristan Clopet & The Juice

This entry was posted on Tuesday, December 29th, 2009 at 7:14 pm and is filed under Music. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.

NOTE FOR COMMENTS: Do not flame or leave obnoxious comments, THEY WILL NOT BE APPROVED. Constructive criticism should always be welcomed by any artist, but don't be a d-bag, show some class. Thanks. - REVMiami Staff