You may be asking yourself, how to start a band and make it in the Music Industry? Creating something original with other musicians is one of the best experiences you can have in music. The conversation when good musicians play in a room together is an aural experience like none other. It’s a give-and-take between expressive hearts and exploring minds like the universe is opening up.
Literally, you can go anywhere or do anything. It is a chance as a creative to pull out all your tricks. Try to blow everyone’s mind. Push yourself and your creativity to the limit. With fantastic players I’m channeling knowledge/ideas/concepts from some other person or dimension. I’m always with the right people when I’m impressed with what I’ve spontaneously invented. A lot of times saying to myself “Wait, did I write that? Where the heck did that come from? I didn’t even know I knew that!” It’s that mixture of being scared you’ll look bad mixed with getting something out of reach. Like when you jump and can actually touch the rim. You wanted to but you didn’t realize that you could.
An even better experience is if you have a deep relationship with who you are creating with. With more trust the more comfortable you are with exploring and trying new things. And usually you’ll create better material . If everyone in the room is on the same page and interested in pursuing the same avenues. Then by all means: go for it and start a band!
So, How To Start A Band And Make It In the Music Industry?
There are several ways to go about this. The most important takeaway is to keep trying. Don’t let the rejection or flaky people stop you. I had a buddy try meeting people through Craigslist for a year before he got a group that stuck. When I was in high school, I just found someone who was a good player, had the same musical tastes as me, had a reputation for being serious and liked the music that I wrote. It was a simple conversation of “You want to start a band? Heck yeah buddy!” BAM! Two years later we were touring the country.
But when I was an adult just working a day job and also in music college, my conversations were more like “(Them) Hey, you wanna be in a band together? (Me) Sure, what are you doing Saturday at 2pm? (Them) Ummm…. let me get back to you….” 20 years later and I’m still waiting to hear back from them.
Don’t let it stop you: musicians can be very flaky, shady and non-committal. They can also be some of the most amazing people you’ll meet on Earth. Usually it’s one of these extremes.
Also, make sure you avoid fake people. Some people only make music because they think it gives them power/authority/money/control/celebrity/clout. These people are very draining and kill all the joy in the art. You can usually tell who they are because all they think about is the business-side of things. Surround yourself with good people and it will reflect in your art.
Where To Look For Musicians
So, how do I start a band?
My advice, it starts off with where you look. If you meet someone who is already actively playing in the music scene –whether that’s in another band, a public jam, an open mic, was just in something that broke up, etc– then odds are they have the dedication and experience to know what it takes to be in one. And be able to schedule their life around the practice / performance lifestyle.
It would be a faux pas to directly ask someone in another band to start a band with you. Band’s are like marriages: they take lots of time, serious commitment and focus. Very rarely does one that is successful want to open itself up to sharing its members. Especially with someone who doesn’t have proven experience.
But, bands can also be temperamental and temporary. You may meet someone who is actively in a band and then 3 months later the group is over. Depending on why the band broke up –like if the guitarist decided to marry their partner and move to another state– they may be a great person to form a band with. But if that person was the cause of the band breaking up –like they have an out of control drug problem– then they might not be the right person or it may not be the right time in their life.
Remember: musicians have a tendency to get messed up and then pull themselves together again. All creatives do, it’s just musicians seem to have a tendency to do it more often. Maybe it’s more glamorous? Maybe it’s just the lifestyle…. either way, just because someone falls doesn’t mean they’re lost.
So the first step: be proactive. Don’t ask “Hey, do you want to start a band?” That would be like walking up to a stranger and asking “Will you marry me?” Have a specific actionable request. It helps to give them a compliment. And/or let them know why you want to be in a band with them. Something like: “Hey, I really like your playing and I think you’re really good at <whatever>. What are you doing Saturday at 2p? You wanna come to my place and jam?” It also helps if you keep it light and causal. Maybe add something like “Let’s just see how we play together and maybe go grab a burger afterwards or something.”
Even if things don’t work out you can still have fun together/hang-out. Depending on how well they know you or how interested they are, they may respond “Yeah, I’m down to jam but I have to get going afterwards.” Ideally, you want to hang out with them (preferably after a good jam session) to feel what it would be like to work with them.
It’s not uncommon to have the music-making be really awesome but not clicking personality-wise afterwards. You kinda just stand around awkwardly with nothing in common with each other. That’s cool, it’s OK. But, hey: if you end up needing someone to fill-in for a tour or record some tracks on an album, you know a good musician who you groove well with. The opposite can also be true. You may get along great with them as a person but in the practice space nothing happens musically. That’s cool too: now you know someone with similar tastes you can bounce ideas or songs off of for their opinion.
Writing The Set
K, so now you have someone you enjoy playing with and they are fun to hang-out with. Now what? The first step is to write a complete set’s worth of music. This is so when you play a gig you can meet the venue’s requirement for the performance. You may want to start working towards an album (more on this in another post!). You could just consider it starting material to get gigs with the idea that you’ll write better stuff later.
At a typical club / venue in America an opening set is 60 minutes. Sometimes it’s only 30 minutes. This also includes time to load your gear on and off the stage. So, aim to have 30-45 minutes worth of music written, with 15 minutes for load-in and load-out. This is considered respectful to the other bands, venue and promoter as everything is running on a tight schedule. No one likes it (and it’s considered unprofessional) when a band goes over their allotted time or is waaay too short.
Sometimes, this will make the venue/promoter/bands/audience mad at you because they feel like you’re ripping them off. It’s a lot of work/hassle to book a band and then only have them play for 15 minutes. Especially if they are an hour late for their time-slot. That might turn into the last gig you ever play in public. Don’t be that guy!
Start Practicing Three Times A Week
Now that you have enough music written, serious bands practice at least 3 times a week for at least an hour each session. Multiple practices (like Monday, Wednesday, Friday for 2 hours) are better than longer practices because that gives everyone time to recover. It also helps you to memorize the songs.
Professional session players are known to just walk in and read the music or have it memorized before hand. If you are booking professional musicians for a gig, expect only 2 practices (and a performance) with most of them showing up polished and ready to perform.
Novice musicians / bands have a tendency to practice much more, that’s why it’s important to play with people who you enjoy hanging out with. If a few weeks/months go by, everyone is making it to practice on time and prepared, then you’re ready to start playing gigs.
This is an important next step in your development as a musician and also everyone’s level of commitment. I have been in situations where everyone felt like a rock-star and loved to practice three times a week. But completely flaked out when it was time to perform in public and get on a stage. Some people are just really shy and don’t even realize how much the idea will freak them out.
There is also something to be said about a room full of strangers glowering at your closely-held art. This is where you start to develop a thicker skin or the whole thing implodes. If it helps, remind yourself that these strangers don’t know you, they just came to see the band. It’s like being an actor: you’re just playing the part of the guitar player/vocalist/drummer in <band name here>. It’s not really you up there.
Think About What Direction Is Your Music Going And Make Sure Everyone Agrees
Now that you’ve got your players together. You’ve got a set worth of music written. You’re practicing regularly. And you’ve started to play your first shows. Now it’s time to start thinking/talking about where you want your sound to go and what your goals are for the project. Sure, you could do this before hand, but some things make more sense once you’ve tried them in front of strangers. Ideas that seem cool in the practice space may seem ridiculous when you play them at the local coffee-shop.
Also, with so many chances for things to fall apart, if you get to this step you know that your people are committed and willing to move their lives around to accommodate the music. So they are more likely to be flexible and communicative.
It’s important that everyone knows where you want to go and everyone is in agreement. Because to keep going takes more sacrifice and commitment. And if you break up at this point, at least you have accomplished enough to have the experience to do it again and find what you’re actually looking for. And you’ll also have a better idea of what you want and what works for you when it comes to playing music with other people.
Usually this is when you would consider putting everything you say/agree-to in writing and have everyone sign it before things get more serious. This way everyone is happy but there’s not really anything to get possessive over.
Play Some Shows
Now it’s time to find your first gig. Think of this like a “soft-opening” for a restaurant. You want a no-pressure situation where if anything goes wrong no one you know will see it.
A band I performed in had our first show at (well, really crashed) an open mic night. The gig was a quiet, acoustic affair and we showed up with half-stacks and a loud drummer whacking the heck out of his drum-set. We blew everyone out of the room: they ran fleeing through the door with their hands over their ears. But apparently someone was walking by who liked what they heard and they offered us a chance to play the college’s upcoming music festival. We were consistently booked after that and didn’t have to ask for a gig for about 4 months. You never know what will happen: that’s part of the fun of being in a band.
But when you need to ask for a gig, it is customary is to create a press-kit / EPK (Electronic Press Kit) so that you can present yourself to the venue (more on this in another post!). This usually involves recording some demos of your music (more on this in another post!). Whether that’s professionally or even just some simple YouTube videos. Most people who work at a venue are musical and can judge whether or not you’d be a good fit for their stage. Plus, if you play Street Punk, you probably wouldn’t fit in with the crowd at a Reggae club. Maybe. You never know.
But again: it’s a business and the venue wants to make money. Even if you’re just doing it for the “love of the game”, they have bills to pay and need to keep the lights on, the amps loud and the drinks cold. Depending on who you know or how well your first gig goes, you will probably get offered more gigs. Take anything and everything you think is worth it. The point is to get as much experience as you can at this stage. This is called “paying your dues”.
Play A Lot More Shows Or “Paying Your Dues”
In my opinion, this point is where things become the most frustrating. Because you need to play shows. Lots of shows. This is when it turns from being a fun hobby into feeling like a grind. Stay strong: you get use to it the more you do it. You should aim at playing a gig every weekend. But only play your hometown/regular market once a month. This is a lot easier to do on the East Coast where everything is close-by.
So for instance if you decide to move to Austin TX, then you need to spend the other weekends playing Dallas, Houston, San Antonio, etc. If you live in St Louis, you should play Columbia Mo, Lawrence KS, Chicago IL, Champaign IL, etc. Any place that’s cheap and easy to get to but not in the same market. If your fans know they can wait a few weeks to see you again, they won’t come out. Which is why most venues do not smile kindly on you appearing locally that frequently.
This is an important step that should not be skipped! I can’t emphasize this enough, because most bands refuse to do this. In essence what you are doing is practicing performing. You are also spreading your music to other markets. There is something about showing-off your musical ideas to different and complete strangers in foreign markets that exposes them for how good they really are. It makes them have to stand up to the “bright light of day”. Then you’ll really see if the idea is as cool as you think it is.
Book Your First Week Of Shows Or Your First Tour
So you should be performing regularly. You have your music recorded (preferably as a professional album or EP). And you are getting use to playing out of town –this is important because finding a way to support yourself while you do this is tough. Now It’s time to start booking a tour. The idea is that you want to book a string of shows back-to-back within one week ( 7 days, give or take ). This is to leverage all your hard work with the markets/venues/places that you have been performing at each weekend. This is also a chance to push new material/a new release and make sales. Then take a break for a while.
This is an important step because professional touring musicians play show-after-show, night-after-night. Part of what you are practicing is endurance. The other part is arranging your life in a way that accommodates this lifestyle. Work to get as any dates booked back-to-back as your can. At first, just aim for 7 dates/a week. It’s ok if you put a day-off in between ( 4 on, 1 day off, 3 on ), especially to give singers a break ( singing takes a lot out of your body ). You can even add more, but usually it’s harder to get all that time off of work and other commitments.
With one week of touring under your belt, now you want to start working on adding more dates / weeks. One week should become two. Two weeks becomes three. Three weeks becomes four. This is where you have to start really juggling commitments because most jobs will not want you taking a month off every other month. You’ll be lucky if you can take a month off every quarter (3 months) And if you are in school, you’re pretty much regulated to holiday breaks. Most bands I knew back in the day would tour most of the summer when their members were off.
Book A Longer Tour
Now that you are touring for several weeks at a time ( more than 4 weeks, but less than 3 months ) it’s time to find allies you can align your efforts with. At this point, it helps to make friends with other touring bands who have the same aspirations as you and want to spend most of their time on the road.
The way this works is when you are booking your tour, you get the venues to also book your friends as openers –or headliners depending on who draws the largest audience. In the industry this is called a “packaged tour”. It’s important that your friends/the other bands are good and generating interest as well. Because this will motivate the venues to book your shows/all the bands together.
Usually this leads to also having at least one or two local opening bands per gig. If this is through a local promoter those bands may join you for that leg of the tour. Then, the other bands add everyone else to their shows they are booking. This way, you end up getting a 3-5 month tour overall but each band only books 4-6 weeks ( which you were already doing anyway! ).
A good bargaining chip to have at this point is if you can guarantee a certain turnout at each show. So for instance: if you know you can guarantee 300 kids will come out to each of your shows, you can promote that to bigger national bands to entice them to book a tour with you. This is called “Show Swapping”.
Tour A Lot
Congratulations! Now you are a professional touring musician! At this point in the game you book more and more tours as a way to get your name out there. There is something to be said about the industry and music audiences in general taking you more seriously if they see your name popping up more and more places. This makes you appear more serious / a national figure that people will start to take notice of. Music festivals are also a great way to make connections and reach a larger audience.
Now You’re A Professional Musician Or You’ve Made It In The Music Industry
At this point, this is usually when you “make it”. Depending on what that means to you and your fellow musicians. You should be getting national exposure of some kind, like on MTV/media and television. And getting paid the big bucks (millions) for your art. Just like Picasso. Sometimes, being on the road all year-round is the goal (we call these folks “Road Dogs”). Other times, it’s getting signed to a major label (do those even exist anymore?) who fund your art (and take the profits). Others, just do it for the money (I read that Ed Sheeran just made $150 million off his last world tour. Not to say that he’s only doing it for the money, just that he’s making a lot of money from touring).
Either way, at this point in the game you usually get into a 3-year “release cycle” where you spent 1 year recording music, 1.5 years touring, then maybe 6 months off. Rinse repeat as often as you like! Sometimes bands have longer cycles, but 3 years is usually the industry standard: just enough time to maximize your profits before the industry has forgotten about you. Then to come back right as everyone is like “Oh yeah! Remember them?” Any more time and you risk being forgotten / irrelevant in the industry’s eyes. If you stay true to yourself, your fans will love you forever and fund your art for the rest of your life. Good luck out there! With hard work and a bit of luck, if you stay at it long enough you will find success in the music industry.