Rookie bands Archive

What is the biggest obstacle to a successful band?

By
Brett
 – November 26, 2009Posted in: Music Business, Rookie bands
What is the biggest obstacle to a successful band?
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image by Brad Folkens

After interviewing musicians, we at detone8.com ask for one piece of advice they would give a new band. Often, that advice is watching out for creative differences.

Creative differences is a nice way of saying, “we don’t like playing in this band anymore.” It can be a necessary tool in growing as a musician, but it can also destroy a promising band.

“If people don’t have a passion for the music it tears bands apart,” Steve Reter from Drop Out Year warned. “I have seen so many bands who have come and gone.”

Reter has been a part of Dropout Year for over five years. He started out as the bands personal manager, but as the band went through numerous lineups he added stability by becoming the singer.

According to Reter, success is a hard thing to keep up on, but it is the most rewarding things he has ever done. The way Dropout Year fights the never-ending battle against creative differences is by having a common thread that ties the band together. All of the members have individual influences, but they all have a similar style of punk rock they all listen to and want to play.

Even if a band of great musicians come together, there is no guarantee against the threat of creative differences. If the band loves the music, but no one else seems to care, the love can turn sour.

“Musicians play a crappy show and no one shows up,” Jesse Barnes from The Actress Adorable said. “They play 13 more shows and no one shows up and they quit.”

Barnes has seen talented musicians create great bands, but when they spend no time promoting and marketing their band the lack of interest becomes demoralizing. “They take shortcuts and it is a mistake,” Barnes said.

Creative differences will unravel a band without a solid foundation. Joe Bird, a founder of Quickstar Productions, has seen countless band come and go.

Quickstar Productions is a distribution company that helps unsigned bands get their music sold on iTunes or MySpace. But, even the bands with huge potential can fall to creative differences when the band members don’t have the same commitment.

At 17-years-old, Bird was in a band touring with and opening for major label bands. Bird has been in many other bands, but he said that he felt that band had a great chance of making it big. Yet, the band broke up after a short time.

“I didn’t take it seriously,” Bird said.

Bird warns to watch out for band members that consistently fail the band. If the band starts having issues and they don’t get fixed, start looking for new members.

Ways to avoid creative differences

  • Don’t write what’s popular now- For more than five years Dropout Year has built up a solid line up of punk songs based on a love for the music. Even with all the different styles of music the members listen to, every member is dedicated to punk rock. Is what you’re playing now what you will like playing in five years?
  • Work with a producer- Even if it is just a friend, another person’s honest opinions can bring stale music back to life. Jesse Barnes of the Actress Adorable suggests talking with local bands you like and see whom they are working with.
  • Remove bad elements- When one member of a band is less dedicated than the others, it will drag everyone else down. Joe Bird suggests giving the member a chance to change. If the person fails to deliver a second time it is time to find someone new.

Selling out your first show

By
Brett
 – November 10, 2009Posted in: Getting Shows, Interviews, Marketing, Rookie bands
Selling out your first show
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image by Rick Audet

When a pop rock band emerges out of metal stronghold Iowa it would be a miracle if anyone came to see it. Yet through a well-executed marketing plan, The Actress Adorable was able to sell out the first show they ever played.

By bringing in close to 300 people to their first show, The Actress Adorable has been able to get any show they want from hometown venues and have given their fans quality performances from day one.

It all started with metal guitarist, Jesse Barnes’, dream of starting his own band.

When Barnes wanted to start a pop rock band, he was going to do it the right way. He was not going to cut any corners, something he had learned from previous experiences.

Barnes had played in a professional touring metal band only months before starting The Actress Adorable. His time with the band left him with bad memories of how to run the business aspects of a band.

As the newest member of the band, Barnes was paid the least from touring. Often Barnes was paid as little as a $100 while at the same time the band’s roadie was getting paid $800.

“These guys ripped me,” Barnes said.

After this experience, Barnes considered giving up on his dream of being a professional musician.

Barnes decided to enrolled in college, and shortly after realized he could not give up on his dream to be a musician. On a trip to Michigan he heard some bands that he had never given much of a chance.  He started listing to Under Oath and Armor for Sleep and realized he wanted to start a band without a being tied to a specific genre.

Barnes and three of his friends started writing music, but is soon fell apart. One of the members did not like playing anything other than metal, forcing Barnes to rethink his strategy. He now realized to create a great band, he had to start by being great from day one.

Everything had to be done right 100% of the time.

“I wanted to find five rock stars…in it to win it,” Barnes said.

Barnes looked for not only talented musicians, but musicians willing to put in the time to making the band successful.

Once the band was created members got full time jobs with the intent of paying for a high quality recording and professional marketing. The members would pay whatever the band needed until the day the band could pay them to be full-time musicians.

The Actress Adorable wrote enough songs to get a professional recording with a producer. They hired a web designer to create a high quality MySpace page with photos they got from a professional photographer. All before they set up their first show.

Barnes even made connections with a national distributor, Quickstar Productions, to have their music available on iTunes.

The launch of the MySpace page and the announcement of The Actress Adorable’s first show was released to the public the same weekend. Then, promoting the show began.

Until the day of the show, every weekend the band took off work and spent two 12-hour days out on the streets talking with people. They lived close to several colleges and spent much of their days going from dorm room to dorm room.

The band also found a way to get the local media to write articles about the show. Two local newspapers ran page-one stories about the show.

The members of the band had a friend who needed medical assistance, so some of the proceeds from the show was going to help their friend’s bills. Once the local media got information that the show was also a benefit event it became local news.

“I put 100% of my effort into promotion,” Barnes said.

When the band finally played the sell out show it was a new experience for many the members. Some had never played for that may people before.

The club owner said that if they could sell out shows that The Actress Adorable could set up any kind of show they wanted.

Right from the start the band was getting a lot of respect from clubs and other bands that were more than happy to play with them. The Actress Adorable became the only local, non-cover band to play the largest venue in their hometown.

The sell out show also had a big effect on the work ethic of the band. They wanted to have this kind of audience for every show they played.

One of the biggest marketing tools they learned from that show was putting in the long weekends of hitting the streets pays off, and they have continued this practice for every show to date.

Working the streets with the full band has had great success to bring people to shows. It does a lot to help connect with the audience. First, it allows the band to talk to a lot of people in an area at once. Second, it allows different members strengths to come out whether it’s talking with girls or talking tech with music fans. Last, it helps to keep the band a tight group, something touring bands deal with every day.

Even as The Actress Adorable grows, the lessons they learned from their first show are still helping them succeed today.

Here are some of the tips for selling out your first show like The Actress Adorable:

Be prepared with marketing- When the band started promoting the show they already had a MySpace page with music for people to check out and follow. They followed this by making the music available on iTunes where fans were able to buy their music.

Meet people offline – Connecting with fans face-to-face is the fastest way to make die-hard fans and friends who can help your career.

Make the event more than just about you – The Actress Adorable’s first time on stage was also a benefit show. Give people more than one reason to come out and see you.

Don’t cut corners – Put away real money towards making the band better. Great recordings and good producers will cost money. A band is a business, and businesses need investments to get off the ground.

Don’t be satisfied – Congrats if you sell out your first show, but the job is not over. Promoting shows is a constant battle. Don’t assume that if you sold out your last show you will sell out the next one.

5 Things you need to start a Band

By
Brett
 – November 9, 2009Posted in: Music Business, Rookie bands
5 Things you need to start a Band
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Musicians always stress that quality music is the most important thing to a great band. Yet many things can derail a great band before it even gets started, and small problems grow as a band grows.

Detone8.com has collected a starting band checklist from up-and-coming artists in the music industry, so you can concern yourself with what is most important: making great music.

1. Get the right people for the right band.

Everyone should know, and believe in, the goals of the band. If every member’s goal is to only play local clubs, that’s fine. But, if three members want to tour full-time and one member joined the band to hit on girls, there is a problem.

2. View the band as a business.

Everyone in the music industry is there to make money. Some people may love what they do, but they also need to feed themselves. A band must make the industry a profit before the band members can expect to make any money. Band members do not need to be business majors, but they should think like business majors..

Just like a new business a new band will require a lot of money to succeed.

3. Make someone the manager.

Every business needs a leader, and every band is a business. A band’s personal manager does not need to control every aspect of the band, but a single person acting as the head of the business will help avoid confusion. This should be decided from the start, so if there are any problems later the band will have to decide together if a change is needed.

4. Make lots of contacts.

No one in the music industry works alone, so remember to make good impressions and to not burn bridges. This also applies to anyone that meets the band.  One can never know if the kid asking for an autograph, your hair stylist or mother’s friend may know someone in the industry that can help you. And, it never hurts to ask.

5. Read “All You Need to Know About the Music Industry,” by Donald S. Passman.

For any band that has a goal of making a living as a musician this is a necessary read. It gives basic information about every major aspect in the music industry and goes into detail without becoming confusing. It is a handy reference guide for each stage of a band’s life.

Book Review, “All You Need to Know About the Music Industry”

For those that have learned things from being in a successful band, or learned lessons from past bands share your experiences.

image by Made Underground

Contact the writer of this article at brett@detone8.com.

The band’s first photo shoot

By
Brett
 – October 25, 2009Posted in: Marketing, Music Business, Rookie bands
The band’s first photo shoot
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Great band photos can be taken in the studio, on location or at a live event, but someone has to take them. Cost, quality and relevance are the three factors that every band must weigh for any photo shoot.

Professional photographer Nick Schnelle’s has had great photo shoots with both professional bands like Fall Out Boy and his hometown bands. It’s not about the popularity of a band that makes great shots but showing what makes a band unique.

Getting the right photos

The first thing a band needs to decide is where to take photos.

“A lot of the bands they see in AP [Alternative Press Magazine, Inc.] are redundant,” Schnelle said. “It doesn’t have anything to do with the band.”

Having a photographer take pictures of your band playing Warped Tour will make for great photos for a scrapbook, but it might not yield the best photos.

Schnelle suggests driving around town scouting out ideal locations for photos and ideas for what the theme of the photos might be.

“I don’t look in AP for ideas,” Schnelle said. “I get my ideas from other sources like photojournalism, portraits or even weddings.”

Sources Schnelle recommends getting ideas from non-music photography like cityscapes and street photography.

When bands do decide to take photos of a live event, they need to be aware of the limitations. Live concerts can show what musicians are best at, but the drawbacks can include bad lighting, little time to shoot and uncontrolled factors like fan presence.

Finding a cheap photographer

Schnelle charges less than $30 an hour for band promo shots when he is working for himself.

For the band The Actress Adorable their first photographer was a woman they knew who took senior pictures for the local high school. The band got licenses to use any photos they wanted for just $15 each.

Jesse Barnes, guitar player for The Actress Adorable, said he has found all of the band’s photographers from connections the band has made. And, this has helped keep the cost down.

Schnelle prefers photos shoots he gets from word-of-mouth because he can charge much less money than if he was working for a recording studio.

DIY

When bands do not have enough money for a good photographer they could try to do it themselves.

According to Schnelle any budding photographer needs to learn whatever camera they are using inside and out. Even if it is a point and click digital camera, decent pictures can be taken.

Online the resolution of photos is very low so even five megapixel cameras can take decent pictures. A 6.1 mega-pixels camera is capable of taking 3000 x 2000 pixel photos.

“Don’t get sucked into megapixels,” Schnelle said. “Try a camera out, and go for ease of use.”

It also valuable to not just learn about good photography but to steal great ideas. Atlanta based photographer Zack Arias has a large portfolio of band photos on his site and his Flicker.com account.

Learning the very basics of photography to specifics on almost anytime can be found all over the web like digital-photography-school.com and photojojo.com.

After the photos have been taken they need to be edited. Photoshop is the worlds most used photo editing program for white balancing, cropping, sharpening and whatever else one could need to do to a photo. Unfortunately the listed price of Photoshop CS4 is around $700.

For bands short on cash the lighter version Photoshop Elements can be found for less than $100 at Amazon.com. It is easy to use and has all the basic functions for photo editing.

There is also free software like GIMP or Picasa, but bands need to make sure that they will put in more time when they spend less money.

Contact the writer of this article at brett@detone8.com.


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