Guitarist Camden Cruz of Seven Kingdoms is helping Metalhead Money kick off the year, sharing perspectives honed from years in the DIY music grind as a musician and tour manager. Seven Kingdoms will be hitting the road across the pond in February and March 2025, embarking on a European tour with heavy metal stalwarts Unleash the Archers -- and hopefully we'll see them stateside again soon!
Tell our readers all about your band! Where are you from and when did you get started? What is your music like?
Seven Kingdoms is a female-fronted power metal band from Florida. We have been a band since 17 years, have 5 full length records, 3 EPs and a single. We are a fast paced, catchy and fun version of heavy metal that you will absolutely enjoy!
What are your goals for your band?
We want to bring our music to the world and be successful at it along the way!
What do you do for a living?
I am a full-time musician and tour manager.
How do you balance your work and personal life with the band?
It was difficult at first, especially during the time when I would have to juggle a day job plus -music. Now that music is full-time, be it with my own band or with others, it’s much easier and streamlined. The stress is still there but it’s less and I have more balance in my life now which is really great. It took a very long time to get to this point, but I'm glad it's here and really look forward to the coming years as this becomes more of a thing!
What do you consider to be the best investment you've made, music-wise?
Probably just dealing with the tough years of building our brand as a mostly DIY-style band. Now we are getting some attention and have the proper team, its making a lot better moves for us, but we wouldn’t have been in this position if we did not choose the harder way to go by being independent for so long. On the gear side, I would have to say it’s our flyable In Ear Rig that we can put in a box and fly anywhere for a show. The gear was not cheap and it was an investment -- but with that rig, all our shows are super consistent and it makes it super comfortable for us to preform all over the world. This is how we get the best and most consistent shows possible!
What's the worst or least helpful thing you've ever spent money on as a musician/band?
I would probably say that poor management is the worst thing a band can do. ’Signing’ to a person or company that doesn’t have the clout but then you pay for it anyways is a mistake a lot of bands make early on, and why we were DIY for so long. There are great management companies out there that make a lot of amazing things happen for bands. These are the ones that are worth it, but these are not the ones that many young bands get with and that's usually what sucks the little money out of the band that they have, or just is a huge waste of time for them. It’s better to figure it out yourself, then when you really need help with actual administrative work or connections, that's when it’s time to search.
What kind of merch sells the best for your band? And what do you purchase most often as a music listener?
Shirts are still the king of sales. Everyone loves the concert shirt and any variation of soft stuff. The vinyl is still popular and patches sell like crazy. Personally, I buy vinyl, shirts, hoodies and beanies….. Tank Tops if they have them!
Can you share some tour budgeting tips?
Before you go on tour, learn how to make a spreadsheet and learn some simple formulas. Once you can make a clean sheet that can show you the list of dates, your expected incomes, expenses and then the picture of what you think can happen on a bad or good side, then you can really see what you are getting into. If you cannot do that, or someone in the band cannot do that, then its going to be legitimately impossible for you to succeed, or see the necessary data on how to fix problems and grow from them.
Seven Kingdoms had six really impressive Kickstarter campaigns, with one that even raised $50,000 (for the album Zenith). Wow! What do you think made those campaigns so successful?
I think the success was firstly because of the fans. We have always been a very transparent band on how the records are made and costs involved and stuff like that. So with the Kickstarter, it gave us that public goal to hit and gives people the opportunity to see where funds go and be a part of that story. It allows us to be more directly involved with our fans running it DIY this way and we really enjoy the depth that we gain with our fanbase this way. This along with proper scaling and multiple sets of data allows us to properly place goals where they need to be and grow in this model and platform. I would bet there will be bigger bands doing this and adopting a model that is the same or close to this as time moves forward.
Which online music or social media platforms are most helpful to your band?
We use Facebook, Instagram, Discord and Twitch mostly!
What does "making it" mean to you, and what do you think a band needs to make it in 2025?
Making it for me means that I am not working a day job, and surviving by working in an industry I chose and built. Until I am able to be more successful and afford the next level of my life, I don't really use that term though. I would use that term openly once my whole family is set up and I have everything I need to fall back on…. There’s a long way to go to that version of made it, but for the time being I am satisfied that I've at least reached this point in our career.
February and March 2025 European Tour supporting UNLEASH THE ARCHERS:
12.02 - Substage - Karlsruhe, DE
13.02 - Colos-Saal - Aschaffenburg, DE
14.02 - Live Music Hall - Cologne, DE
15.02 - De Kreun - Kortrijk, BE
16.02 - The Underworld - London, GB
17.02 - La Machine - Paris, FR
19.02 - Dynamo - Zurich, CH
20.02 - Legend Club - Milan, IT
21.02 - Backstage - Munich, DE
22.02 - Masters Of Rock Cafe - Zlin, CZ
23.02 - Barba Negra - Budapest, HU
25.02 - Szene - Vienna, AT
26.02 - Kwadrat - Cracow, PL
27.02 - Hellraiser - Leipzig, DE
28.02 - Rockhal - Esch-Sur-Alzette, LU
01.03 - Kronensaal - Hamburg, DE
02.03 - Patronaat - Haarlem, NL
Thanks to C Squared Music and Reigning Phoenix Music.
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I know Camden! Great guy, great band.