Adrienne Lloyd is bass and keyboard player with Hunter Valentine, a Toronto-based indie band with big touring plans. The three-person band — singer Kyomi McCloskey and drummer/vocalist Laura Petracca are the other members — manage to get themselves and their equipment and luggage into a single van. They've logged 35,000 to 40,000 kilometres in the van since October 2007, travelling throughout Canada and the United States. They're just back from a trip to Prince Edward Island, Montreal and New York, and will be off to St. Catharines, Ont., on the next leg of their tour. This summer they're travelling on a festival circuit that sees them making a lot of one-off trips to other Canadian cities.

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Members of Toronto band Hunter Valentine. From left are Adrienne Lloyd, Kyomi McCloskey and Laura Petracca. CBCnews.ca: How have rising fuel prices affected your livelihood?

Adrienne Lloyd: When we toured in the fall on the West Coast of Canada, the gas was a certain price — and just in the last few weeks it's an incredible difference in what it costs to fill our van. Right now, we're touring as minimal[ly] as we can, and that includes three people and all our equipment and luggage — no trailer. But we're very lucky. A lot of other bands have to pull a trailer.

So from six months ago to now, the cost of touring is an incredible difference based on the gas alone and our budget is completely different. Our revenue has not changed, our other expenses have not changed, but the gas has, and that is hundreds of dollars every week. It makes a huge difference for us.

Are you thinking of changing what you do at all?

There are very few options, as Canadian musicians, that would allow us to change. The only thing that might change is our ability to take on a tour based on the economic cost-benefit analysis. It's so difficult as it is to turn a profit as a touring musician, and most bands are fortunate just to break even on tour and hope for profit somewhere else.

What it might do with rising gas costs is force musicians to be careful in examining what might be worth it in terms of driving across the country. When I'm not touring, I ride a bike all year round.

If fuel prices doubled in the coming months, what impact would it have on you?

It would be a devastating impact. It would force our band — I don't know — we don't really have any options …

We're the most minimalist kind of touring situation. We're not pulling a trailer and our vehicle is as small as it could possibly be, and we get very good mileage out of it relative to other vans.

It would actually prevent us from being able to make the same decisions we make right now as musicians - the shows we're able to play. We just flew from New York to London for a show and the cost was $400 - that's a couple times of filling up a gas tank right now. And flying is not a good option, either.

Is there any alternative to touring for your band to get recognized?

No. That's the thing. The way the industry is moving right now — CD sales are down and it forces you to be more active in a touring sense. Just the idea that you do reach out to people.

'There's no other way to tour but in a vehicle.'—Adrienne Lloyd

I think it's important as Canadians that we do travel outside major centres like Toronto, that we go to places like Grande Prairie, Alta. There's no other way to tour but in a vehicle. Canada is particularly difficult, because every major centre is so far apart. Musicians on a higher level that are touring have rental costs that are beyond our budget.

What about touring grants?

The main difference I've noticed is that [with] certain agencies that really support independent touring in Canada, we are able to apply for a grant and they give you mileage. In the past, that has really supported and enabled independent musicians to tour and that mileage has not changed so far. FACTOR [the Foundation Assisting Canadian Talent on Recordings] has been incredibly supportive and they really do make an incredible difference in a musician's ability to tour.

(Editor's note: FACTOR pays 36 cents a kilometre to help cover part of the cost of touring for independent bands who are supporting a recording, a lower rate than many government agencies and industries, which pay 42 to 48 cents. FACTOR president Heather Ostertag says the organization is looking into a change in its per-kilometre rate because of rising gas prices.)