I have been in bands for about 30 years!!!!... damm that makes me old. lol
Well I am 38 and had my first band when I was 8 and luckily I had a father who use to play in country bands so he got involved right from the beginning helping to guide my bands always in my favor of course lol. My father died when I was pretty young but he was one cool old dude ...imagine a 66 year old man sitting through rock rehearsals.
Here is some advice:
First you have to establish your goals ( do you want to be a rock star or a guy having fun with the boys on Saturday nite? What type of music do you really want to play? Are you the kind of person who really stick with things etc.
Once you have established who you are and what you would like to achieve you have a chance of finding others who have the same goals and then you can put together a band that may stick and be successful.
Finding musicians: First rule is character comes before talent: if you find an amazing musician who has problems like: Drug or Alcohol Addiction, girlfriends issues, a serious attitude, or a history of jumping from band to band or any other major flaw then right him off .......you are far better off with a guy who has potential and very few problems then a guy who is amazing but a pain in the ass and lacks sticktoitiveness. Building a band is like building a house you need a strong foundation and any member who leaves will weaken your foundation and over time your house will likely fall unless you make great choices to start off with. Its also important to note that you will probably go through many players before finding the right combination and to find a
magical combination like a
Led Zeppelin or a Beatles goes beyond any logical steps anyone of us can suggest and gets into the extremely good luck department.
Like alot of the others here have mentioned you all have to want similar things. For example what is your definition of success? Most beginners think that you get together "right some originals" get a record deal and hit the big time! Well I hate to be the one to break the news to you but that is about as likely as finding a winning lottery ticket. There are a million labels out there but they are usually not real labels. I get really sick of hearing every local bands story of how they are now signed and when I ask them the name of the label and its always some non label label I eagerly wait to hear the rediculous name they are about to tell me and its usually something like "FlintstoneRecords" haha. There are three major labels left and then
their subsiduaries and it is important to know who they are so do your research and it is also important to know that very few actual deals get given out.... sometimes only one or two real deals are given out in a year (development deals and so forth are more probable). Almost all of the independent labels are a joke and will not be able to do a thing for you with the exception of the ones who have a proven track record of course. When you walk into there office you should see atleast one gold record on their wall or just turn around and walk right back out.
Alot of people believe that with the internet indie bands have a much better chance of being heard. Its very important to realize that there are 10000000 times as many bands as there were ten years ago and a rediculous amount of my spaces and websites and all sorts of other net stuff that not many people will look at besides your mother and your best friend. So you have to find away to make yourself stand out..think outside of the box. Just using the net
will likely get you no where!
Once you have a band and a rehearsal space (remember who ever has the rehearsal space and the practise PA etc tends to have the most power) you have to rehearse continuously. Back in the 80's and 90's you had to really be able to play covers amazingly to be able to get your first gigs. It is sad
that the old rules are changed and some 2 week old band in diapers can gig because learning to play other peoples music is crutial and you cannot do that in two weeks or even two years! If you decided to become a home builder you will apprentice for many years before you will be able to go
out and start your own business because you have to learn your trade. Same thing applies to song writing, playing an instrument or singing and preforming. YOU HAVE TOO learn the good stuff that has come before and alot of it with alot of variation in order to be able to right great songs that are actually ORIGINAL and not just a rehash of some Nirvana tune. Even Mozzart had to take this step and none of us are above a Mozzart.
If you are young, you have a huge advantage when starting your first band because you can take the time to get really good at what you do. And when someone quits and they will, don't give up just keep pounding the pavement until you get the band of your dreams and this will likely take years. And when you are young you have the years and the parents to back you...so go for it!
Personally I started playing at 8 and played my first gig at 10 with a two piece band. After that I went through countless changes while sticking with the same drummer. We had small success stages at various ages like at 16 before it fell apart then 19 before that combo fell apart then at the age of 21 we made the mistake of revisiting our best combination of players from the past which included a flawed singer (character wise). We then developed a big following and had the attention of major labels, radio, television and great paying gigs. Just when it really felt like we were getting somewhere the flawed singer walked (over a girl) (A quick point about youth the younger
you are the less likely a girl will effect a band member the older you get the more likely this will happen and girls often ruin bands!) After this happened I felt like totally giving up but I decided to find a solution. There was another local band that had achieved similar success but was of a more heavey style then we were and frankly were a little more with the times (at the time lol). So I went on a hunting expedition to find the singer and bass player from this band and it was quite a task because they were living without much of anything in a hotel in another city without a phone. After a few days of research I located them and they were very excited to join are band. We wrote and rehearsed our first record for about three weeks....then went into a local studio and tracked it...we had a small time manufactering and Canadian distribution deal within a month of its indie release (and there was a very tiny indie scene in 92 when we did this so it took alot of persistance)...we then went out and toured with some fairly serious success. We were on all the Canadian radio stations, sponsered by Labats Blue and touring all of Canada's best venues as well as some of the Major cities in the
United States best venues...this all happened in a matter of 6 months. I am telling this story for two reasons. First it demonstrates that sticking to a band can really work out even when it seems like there is no hope and it also demonstrates that the foundations of professionalism and musicianship we had all built in our seperate bands, through hard work and sticktoitivness paid off very quickly with that last combination of players.
But in the end we still failed lol. Partly because I quit the band to take care of my sick parents and partly because the grunge seen had taken over. I got back into the live scene a few years later and did even better
in some ways but those stories have nothing to do with starting a band so I will not mention them.
So how do we all define success. Did I have it? By my definition yes because I had the rock star experience.......the same one Zep or the Crue or Nickleback YUKKK!!! has had or has but on a very small scale in comparison. Remember you can only sleep with so many girls sign so many autographs
and play to so many people before it all becomes the same. But you can never make to much money and although we did well I am not rich for it so that could be defined as a failure.
I hope that story is of some help as part of my how to start and stick with a band explanation and hopefully it will help you define what success is for you.
Throughout my career I have had the opportunity of working with and for the largest managment and booking agencies in Canada and a few of the mini major labels......while doing this I learned a few things about the industry.
For example alot of the famous bands that we think of as rich are actually in huge dept with their labels and have very short lived careers. I was shocked to hear the tales of failures for bands that we all think of as being successful and unaproachable. Alot of them are now driving cabs etc.
Personally I got into the studio scene (engineering, producing and doing session guitar work and small tours as a sub guitarist for bands that are not mine and I now enjoy that alot more than touring in my own bands. This is because I am older now and do not have the drive to start a new band and go through all the painful steps all over again. So if you are young do it now because you will not have the same type of drive when you are older and you will not be able to tolerate not having a nice car, house etc. Do it well it suits you! I consider myself very fortunate because unlike alot of my colleges I found my neech in music and I am able to carry on making a living doing what I love. So another good thing to remember is keep your eyes and ears open during your band years and try and learn as many things as possible so that when your touring days are over you have something in music to fall back on.
Success as a musician can be defined in various ways. I define it as being able to make a living working with or playing music that you enjoy, like many of the older guys out here on guitars 101 are doing. That includes everything from playing disco to being a guitar luthier. Its all one in the same.
Sorry for seemingly getting off topic but I believe the info, opinions and experiences I have given here will help the beginners while giving the veterans some comradery.
In conclusion and in point form I am going to list some do's and dont's:
Treat your band like a business in every way keeping records and being organized
Read the book "Everything you need to know about the music industry"
Never ever bring girlfriends to a band practise!
Do not bring friends to practise unless you are doing a final rehearsal for a gig and you have the okay from the other members a head of time
Set goals for yourselves and right them down and keep track of how well you are achieving them
Advertize yourself in every way possible
Get an image
Be original and remember you cannot be original until you have learned alot of other peoples music and try and learn the old stuff ignoring the over produced rehashed garbage of today
Always be writing music and making demos even if its on a boom box!
Be hard on yourselves yet supportive of yourselves
Avoid playing in the battle of the bands type gigs (because they are money makers for others and you are letting yourself be judged by people who often do not know what they are talking about and if you get placed as a number 3 you will always be thought of as the guys who lost.
If you are going to get in a battle of the bands or radio competition make sure that it is very legit and that the prize is worth the risk!
Avoid having girls in your band they are often trouble unless you have found a very special one ( think of how many bands with girls there are that have made it compared to all guy bands. And the ones that do like No Doubt end up losing there success so that there singer can become a deva) (I am not a male chauvinist...but girls and guys are very different as we all know and if you choose to have a girl in your band it changes the dynamics immensely and also effects the the girl fan base that you will have)
Be a band that attracks girls as much as possible because where there are girls the guys will go and that adds up to a big crowd!
Get your name out there any chance you get on T shirts, on the net, do it yourself Graffiti, stickers or any way that you can think of
Remember a name is something that has credibility so you do not want to
have to change it because after 2 years you find out that someone else
has already had it for 10. Also if you cannot get the .com pick another
name! Do not forget to renew it. Own it as a business name in your
country as well. Mostly make sure that you and others love your name
because it could be with you for years. And if your band is not a democratic
one get it in your own name! If your band is democratic find out away to
ensure that the name stays with the core of the band!
Remember a band is like a relationship so have meetings and communicate and make sure that the quite guy gets heard or he will harber ill will and miseriously quit one day!
Best of luck to all of you beginners and veterans and I hope that this very very long post will be helpful. Ron Horton (Golden Ears)
My amp goes to 11!Nigel Tufnel
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