Making a Scene Presents

Making a Scene Presents an Interview with Christina Crofts

Christina Crofts is a singer, songwriter, guitarist, and slide guitarist—and a true veteran of Australia’s blues and rock scene. Known for her uncompromising bottleneck tone and a “big sound” that far exceeds her small frame, Crofts has spent years building a reputation as one of the country’s most commanding live performers and distinctive slide players.

Born in the coastal town of Coffs Harbour, Christina grew up in a multicultural household with a Norwegian immigrant father and an Australian mother. Her family later moved to Brisbane, where her passion for guitar took hold in her early teens and quickly became central to who she was. As her playing developed, she headed to Sydney, where she met guitarist Steve Crofts. What began as guitar lessons eventually became a lifelong musical partnership, and the two later married.

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Making a Scene Presents - Creating a Touring Syndicate for Increased Leverage

For years, indie artists have been told the same tired story about touring in America. Build your streaming numbers. Pray for algorithm luck. Hope a promoter notices. Spend money on ads. Guess which city might work. Book the run. Drive the miles. Cross your fingers. Lose money in three towns, break even in two, and call the whole thing “building.” That story has made a lot of middlemen comfortable. It has not made a lot of artists stable.

The next version of touring is going to look different. It is going to be less like gambling and more like infrastructure. Less like each band wandering alone through the dark and more like a network of artists carrying a flashlight together. And the artists who get there first are going to stop acting like their fan data is just a mailing list and start treating it like a shared economic engine.

That is where the idea of a touring syndicate comes in.

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Making a Scene Presents - Predictive Touring: Using AI to Decide Where You Should Play Before You Book the Show

There used to be a standard indie-touring ritual. You stared at a map, circled cities you had heard were “good markets,” texted a few friends, checked which clubs had an open Thursday, and called it strategy. Then came the long drive, the half-full room, the weak merch table, the gas bill, the post-show talk where everyone said, “It was still good exposure,” which is music-business language for “the math did not work.”

That old way is not brave. It is lazy. Or, more accurately, it is what artists were forced to do when the people with the good data kept it for themselves.

Now the wall is cracking. An indie artist can look at streaming geography, social engagement, ticket-click behavior, search interest, audience segments, and most important of all, owned fan data, before they ever email a promoter. AI can take that messy pile and help turn it into a map. Not a fantasy. Not a guarantee. A map. A risk map. A money map. A “where are my real people actually concentrated?” map.

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Making a Scene Presents - Stop Sending Fans Back Into the Machine

There is a bad habit all over independent music right now. An artist works hard to get attention on Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, Facebook, Threads, or X. A new fan finally bites. They click. And what do they find? Another stack of links, another rented profile, another platform asking them to wander off and forget why they came in the first place. That is not a funnel. That is a leak. Pew’s latest U.S. social media data still shows huge reach on YouTube and Facebook, with Instagram and TikTok especially strong with younger adults, which is exactly why these platforms matter for discovery. But reach is not ownership, and attention is not the same thing as a relationship.

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Making a Scene Presents Gerry Casey's Interview with Jamie Williams and The Roots Collective

Jamie Williams & the Roots Collective are a roots-driven live band built for one thing: a great night out. Fronted by singer-songwriter Jamie Williams on vocals and rhythm guitar, the band also features Dave Milligan on lead guitar, Jake “The Dude” Milligan on bass, and James Bacon on drums. Together, they walk what they describe as an imaginary tightrope between Tom Petty and The Rolling Stones—hooky songs, swaggering grooves, and a rootsy bite that lands somewhere between country blues, rock, and Americana.

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