Tuk Smith: The Biters were paid £75 a gig and were ‘pissing in a bottles on the bus’ in England

By STEVE MASCORD

NASHVILLE singer-songwriter Tuk Smith has revealed his former band the Biters were paid just £75 a gig while on tour in the UK in 2016.

Smith has just released the second single off his upcoming second album from the Restless Hearts solo project, “Glorybound”, and has been outspoken in his criticism of the music industry’s ingrained inequalities.

“The Biters were around for almost 10 years and it was really hard – we were making no money,” Smith tells Hot Metal.

“Support slots pay shit so we would be in Europe … doing the Kerrang! tour and they were paying us £75 a night. The whole band, That’s what they pay.

“Or you go and … like, we did a HIM tour and it’s not even enough to cover the costs. And we were going in debt and we were putting everything on credit card.

“It was great, we were playing for a lot of people but you know, dude. We were pissing in bottles on the tour bus.

“It’s not as glamorous as it looks. It starts to wear on you after a while.”

The Biters broke up in 2018.

“I think in any great rock’n’roll band you’re going to have one or more people with something seriously wrong with them,” Smith said,

“…whether it be drug addiction, some kind of childhood trauma, mental problems. That kind of volatile energy makes a great rock’n’roll band.

“The think is with Biters, we had most times three to four members all being fucking crazy people all at the same time.

“And we were having trouble with the record company fighting with the management. I was like ‘I wanna get off’.

“Some of the band members wanted to do things, like have steady jobs, pursue other things – which I totally get.”