Nervosa - PRESHOW RITUALS Ep. 544

Hi everybody, this is Diva Satanica, vocalist of Nervosa, and I'm going to share with you my pre-show rituals. I don't have any ritual at all, but yes, I need to do a couple of things before hitting the stage. So, for sure, I need to do my warm-up, and it's not very complicated because I only need to warm up my voice, obviously, my body, just to feel my body active, because I need a lot of strength to perform. It's like going to the gym for me, so yeah, I need to be active. I need to do a warm-up for my facial muscles as well, because I tend to open a lot my mouth just for the projection of the voice, and yeah, so I do a very simple exercise for 10-15 minutes, like just trying to take a deep breath, and then... Because when you're moving your lips like this, you're activating your facial muscles, you're warming up your voice because you're projecting the sound, and you're working with your diaphragm, that is the most important thing for rollers, and yeah, that's all. I just try to walk all over the room, just not to get bored of this time, doing all the time the same. I confess that I'm not a very big fan of warming-ups, but I understood that with time, I need to do it, because if not, the following day, I couldn't sing anymore, so yeah, it's needed and I can do a show without warming up before. Yeah, there is another one that I really like, that it's just pushing with your diaphragm to the front, it's like 14 times doing... until 14, and then just pushing downside, and this really helps me a lot to activate my diaphragm, and it's a good complement of the other exercise, and that's all, I think I'm just trying not to talk to anybody, just to get focused on my warming-up, because if not, I just go to chat with anybody in the room, so yeah, that's not good, so I decided not to talk to anybody while I'm doing this, just to get focused on that, and yeah, I do my warming-ups, and then I start to get dressed, because for me, I hate putting my makeup on, so I do it just... the last thing that I do is just get dressed, and yeah, that's all, I don't drink, I don't eat before singing, because for me it's... the feeling of having my belly full, it's awful, doesn't let me sing, and pushing properly with my diaphragm, so I have some hot tea, if possible, or just water, if I needed to, while I'm on stage, but I try not to drink too much, or eat too much, because it made me feel like it, no, that's not good for me, and no, nothing about drinking alcoholics, nothing at all, no, never. I'm going also to share with you some pre-show rituals that I have. In 25 years, I discovered that there are some things that are quite essential for me to perform better. For example, for years, I was not warming up, I was, you know, only doing this, and I was taking the bass and I was starting the concert. Now I have this ritual before the concert, and it's to do a session of stretching, real stretching, especially for wrists, and for fingers, and for arms, and now that I have this problem, I am stretching more and more, because it's a bit weaker, this arm is a bit weaker, but I'm working out every day, so the balance now is fantastic, and it's 100% recovered. And the other thing is that, I know it sounds extreme, but I'm not usually eating so much before a concert, at least I want to eat 5 hours before the concert, and then I'm not eating anything else, because when I'm on stage, I'm really moving a lot, I am really banging a lot, so I don't want really to puke on stage, because if I have some food in my stomach, I start to feel nausea or things like that, or I feel full and I'm not moving like I would, so yeah, I'm not eating too much, but I'm drinking coffee, not many coffees, only one coffee that gives my body the energy to perform, and usually I am a sugar hater, I don't like sugar at all, but I'm drinking coffee with sugar, because also sugar gives you energy, immediate energy to perform on stage. I have water on stage, I have also Prosecco on stage, but this is another thing I don't want to talk about, but I'm drinking a lot, because when you are performing, especially when you are performing extreme music, you are sweating a lot, so to avoid dehydration from sweating, I'm drinking a lot of water. Hey, I'm Elen Inota and I'm going to share my pre-show rituals with you today. So, I haven't played drums, and this means that my body has a lot of work to do during a show, and the pre-show ritual is vital for me, because it helps me to take care of myself better and perform better. My pre-show ritual isn't just 5 minutes before a show, it's basically the entire day of the show. I'm going to share first the most basic, you know, predictable stuff of my ritual, like sleep and food, and later on I will go on to the mental stuff. I always try to sleep as much as I can, because if my body and my brain are well rested, I will function better and perform better. I'm not always able to sleep 8 hours, of course, but I try to aim for 6 hours at least. The food plays an important role. I always eat a big breakfast the day of the show, and around noon, afternoon, I completely stop eating. If I'm really, really hungry, I will eat just a piece of chocolate or a cereal bar, something small, because if you eat a lot, you know, all of us want to eat like 3 burgers or something before a show, but, you know, it's not a good idea to do it, because when you play and you've eaten pretty much the entire McDonald's, you feel the food going upwards, not, you know, not a nice feeling, of course. Your body feels like it's cluttered and more heavy, it's like lifting double your weight. At least I feel like this when I eat a lot, and after that I play. So yes, I avoid eating many hours before the show, and after the show, I eat anything I want. Also, I never drink alcohol before a show or during the show. I will drink, of course, a couple of beers after the show, if I'm in the mood, but not before or during the show. Before the show, I always drink a coffee, but no more than one coffee. I have to be really disciplined for this, because I'm addicted to coffee, but I only drink one, because if I drink more, I want to pee during the show, and it's also not a nice feeling, it's really uncomfortable. So just one coffee before the show, and during the show, I always have a bottle of water with me. I once forgot to bring water with me on the stage, and it was a freaking nightmare. After the fifth song, I was dying, so always a lot of water during the show. Also, a really important thing of my ritual is the warm-up. You know, when you do the soundcheck, your body gets in the mood of playing, and this mood lasts for a couple of hours later, so the soundcheck is my basic warm-up, but of course, 30 minutes before the show, I always have a practice pad with me, and I play some speed exercises and paradiddles, so my hands can get warm again. This way, I avoid injuries, of course, and also my performance is better, because imagine if your hands are cold, the first song will be horrible, you won't be able to play it properly. So, yeah, also stretches for my legs, because it's hard to warm up your legs by playing, unless you have pads for your feet, it's really hard. So I stretch my legs to have them warm, and I play paradiddles on a practice pad for my hands. Last but not least, the mental part of my pre-show ritual is that, you know, many people tend to have stage fright before the show, no matter how many gigs they've played in their lives, and I happen to be one of these people. I always have a bit of a stage fright before my shows, no matter how big or small they are, and over the years I discovered that the best way to fight this stage fright is to have like a mental ritual, a personal mental ritual. It's not something that someone has showed me, I figured it out by myself. I want to, the last minutes before the show, I want to isolate myself from all the voices and people around me, so I tend to go backstage to a corner and sit on a chair or a sofa for a couple of minutes, I close my eyes and I try to imagine my every move during the show. I remind myself that I have practiced these songs a lot of times, I know this at least, and most important of all, this is the thing I love to do the most in my life, and if you love something that much, it can never go really wrong. And also I whisper to myself the phrase, it will go really well, it will go really well, you know, repeatedly, a couple of times, so that my brain processes this phrase and, you know, all of my body can feel it. It may sound kind of stupid to some people, this ritual, now that I hear it out loud it actually sounds a bit stupid, but it has really helped me during my musician's life. This is pretty much my ritual, yeah, no alcohol, no food, a lot of sleep, a lot of water, a bit of coffee, a bit of a warm-up and a bit of meditation and everything will go perfectly.