James Moore's Blog, page 83

Convincing Strangers To Let You Sleep On Their Floors: A Primer

There is an art to finding a place to sleep with your band for the night. It’s something I’ve been lucky enough to get really good at over the past week – to the point that the only hotel we are going to need in the first nine days of touring is tonight on our nineteen hour drive from Denver to Seattle. The struggle is real, every day you need to make a new friend and charm someone enough to let you into their lives even just for a night. A lot of people have never hosted bands before so it can be hard to try and persuade them. Yet if they are a big enough fan they will oftentimes crack and just want to hang out. Some cities scenes are so weak in a particular genre that the odds are you aren’t going to get anywhere with anyone. People just want to curate their scene. The point being: Finding places to stay is a key skill to learn on tour. Here’s what my time on the road have taught me about it.

I’d like to clarify this article is about going in blind. Oftentimes I can usually do a pretty good job of reaching out to some close friends in local scenes who would be down to put us up for a night. Sometimes though you’re in a city for the first time and you realize that merch is not pulling enough to hook you up with a hotel room. So you find yourself struggling, frustrated and tired with the knowledge that somehow you are going to need to sleep somewhere tonight, and if it’s the van or a Wal Mart parking lot again you might actually break down and cry. I’ve sen it happen, it’s not pretty. You quickly find out that finding good places to sleep is vital for group morale, and the longer you can maintain the better off you will be.

The first thing to realize is that most venues have ‘that guy’ who shows up at every show and takes care of all the bands. This is especially the case in underserviced markets where people want to watch out for their scene even more because it helps them to get better shows and encourages bands to come back. Oftentimes if you ask the local promoter he will know exactly who this person is or even better they may be this person. Underground music venues tend to be pretty ‘with it’ and know their clientele well. They see bands struggling to make a buck every day, and frequently they are too. They want to help artists because if they can get them saying positive things about heir venue, and consequently more bands coming around that it will only help.

Another frequent aid to touring band is openers. Frequently these openers want to hang out with the headliners anyway, just because they are curious about what the bands have to offer and if these bands will help to get them on bigger tours. It might sound stupid and self serving but you have to admire their willingness to fight for what they love. The beauty of this is that it creates a circle. So when those people head on tours of their own then you will be able to scratch their backs. If nothing else, opening bands tend to be pretty tapped into their own scene, for what should be fairly obvious reasons and they will almost always know who in town is down to help bands out.

Be aware though that it can be surprisingly easy to convince someone who has never done it before to host your band. I generally aim for single dudes who look like they work in the trades. They tend to have a certain honesty about them that I really admire. They often will have spare bedrooms for when their army buddies come down to visit or when hey have their kids for the weekend. I don’t mean to generalize, I actually love that idea of existence, and it leads to the kinds of dudes that you can trust. Other people who tend to be good to stay with a try hard yuppies who want to appear as liberals. If you can charm them enough and assure them that you aren’t a dangerous rock and roll band then they are going to be able to help you far more than anyone in a local band. That being said, they are among the hardest group of potential places to stay to score. If you get one though treat them well and try and come back again and again.

The most important thing to realize about finding places to sleep is that confidence is key. Be willing to ask anybody and then be extremely friendly and grateful. You are about to ask a stranger a huge favor, so you might as well do your best to charm them and make them love you before going through their front door. Don’t be afraid to ask though, what’s the worst that someone can do if they can’t host you, say no? You already had no place to sleep. Even if the person you ask can’t, as we’ve previously mentioned the odds are if they are a frequent showgoer they will know someone who can. That’s how scenes have to work.

As one guy I met while staying at his house put it, “We are musicians, we stick together, we trust each other” Which is ultimately what it boils down to. I’m staying in strangers homes every night, frequently with thousands of dollars on my person, because we have no other choice and we are devoted to fighting through he storm to create something greater. In a world where none of us expect to make money and most of the time all I really want is a back massage it seems fairly obvious why I find this whole damn thing so stressful. But ultimately, when you get to sleep on the couch of some dude who played in all your favorite bands, it all becomes worth it.

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How The Shrek Soundtrack Changed The Face Of Modern Music

The Shrek soundtrack might seem like a weird thing to write a think piece about, but trust me, it makes sense. Here’s what a lot of folks don’t realize – that soundtrack was for many folks between the age of 16 to 25’s first introduction to a wide variety of popular music. It was the album that helped propel the Baha Men to popularity and which rocketed Smash Mouth into superstardom. Nowadays we have thousands of dank memes floating around the internet based on the Shrek franchise. Despite being a childrens movie he series had surprisingly long staying power. This is one of those albums that in the early 2000’s was essential listening, it was the Frampton Comes Alive of the millennial generation.

I have always thought that the huge success of the Shrek soundtrack has been because of the depth and variety of the music presented. We get some legitimate punk with Joan Jett, some hyper polished modern rock with Smash Mouth and Self and then even some ballads and pop rockers. This was an album that ha something for just about every occasion, and the songs were perfectly cultivated to flow into each other such that there were thins that little kids of all stripes could connect with. In fact, I think it might be that very simplicity that drove the soundtrack to popularity.

All the songs on the Shrek soundtrack are fairly short and to the point. Few of them bother with bridges and many of the songs are silly. The ones that aren’t are serious in that ‘Oh I’m totally a grownup” way that defined other early 2000s superstars like Avril Lavigne and My Chemical Romance. It (Probably inadvertently) created an album that kids could put on at birthday parties (It certainly defined mine) There is a sense of youthful magic to this album, of the sort that defined many a suburban American childhood. It allowed kids to get lost in a world of epic romances and crazy nights. The kind of thing that ends up drawing people to music in the first place – it’s just that here it was all condensed.

Lyrically too the songs generally seem rather straightforward. I remember being a little kid and being excited about the Shrek soundtrack because it was the first album where I understood almost every lyric. It was one of the first I could sing along to, in large part because the musicians were singing about stuff I understood, rather than my dads favorite blues artists who chronicled their depression, or my moms country pop stars who sang about a Southern lifestyle that I knew even then that I would never know. Sure there were some girly songs about love, or girl power (I’m looking at you Ms. Jett) bu others were about rock stars and having a good time. This was music I could connect to for the first time in my life and my conversations with members of the forementioned 16-25 demographic seem to indicate something similar.

Going back and rewatching the classic first two Shrek films it is fascinating to me how they are both in many ways musicals. They emphasize montages and both end in big musical numbers. They play on something that is largely lost in American culture and make you nostalgic for what some might call a simpler time. They play off the idea of what a movie ‘should’ be and the interlaced music and potent cultural references are a crucial part of that. There is something undeniably fun about the franchise, and Shrek had a much greater emphasis on music than its peer franchises like Ice Age. It never felt too corny, but it incorporated the music to capture the listeners imagination and added a crucial layer to the film. So was Shrek the last great musical? Maybe.

It’s rare in this increasingly fragmented generation that you find a piece of content that we can all look back to. Songs like “Stacy’s Mom” are among the few that really make sense to a large majority of us. After all, if it didn’t, would we be blaring it as we roll through this Midwestern highway? I think that might be why this album holds a truly special place in the hearts of the millennial generation – we have nothing else to bond over so we choose Shrek. Maybe we are just like our caveman ancestors and want something to sing together, or maybe we just think that movie is super dank. We will never know, but we can say this – the Shrek soundtrack is the shit dawg.

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On Touring Underage

So as I write this I’m crossing some state – Illinois maybe? We just passed Aurora like in Waynes World, but I also think there is a small chance we are in Iowa. It’s weird how these things blend together. Enough drunken rambling though. What I wanted to talk about though was something important I discovered back in my youth, crossing the country as the underage manager of a very hot item on the metal market. These wide open vistas have called back ancient memories of times almost forgot. I’ve hesitated about writing on this topic in the past, but fuck it, I highly doubt I will get called out for an article I write semi-anonymously. So here it is, plain and simple: As long as you are smart and mature you can talk your way into any venue, and so being underage doesn’t matter.

I know a ton of kids who are hesitant to dive into the world of underground music because they feel certain that they are going to be tossed out the second folks find out they aren’t 21. Then a band like Noisem came along and proved that if you were good enough exceptions will be made. As I found out when I was running around with bands as a younger man, the rule of fake it till you make it also applies to legal drinking. There are a few things you can do to come off as older, and in the long run it will save you a lot of stress an allow you to kick off your career far earlier than any of those schmucks who decided to go to music school.

The people who run venues tend not to be the type of people who normally would be against underage drinking. In fact, it’s pretty rare to find one who isn’t at least a fairly heavy drinker. They probably started drinking in bars when they were underage too. That’s what happens when you work in a bar. Their real fear is that they will get a ticket – in which case they would be royally screwed. Most music venues can’t afford that kind of loss, and the ones that can tend to still run a very tight ship. In many ways you can’t fault them for being brutally strict, they are using a utilitarian approach, they can only do so much. So how do you get in as a young professional?

Well, the easiest thing to do is to show up with the band. Sometimes they come around to card you anyway though. This is where you have a choice, which quite frankly lies on deception. If you say something like, ‘Oh we normally leave our ID’s in the car you can normally expect to get no shit after all. You showed up with the band. Why would a band have someone under 21 selling their merch? Especially you – you have played by all the other rules of this blog and built up a healthy network and proven that you are a ‘good dude’ You have to keep playing this character if you want to keep contributing at a young age. One thing that I found useful was to try and pass for 30. You probably won’t get people thinking you’re that old, but it doesn’t hurt to try and project that age. A lot of people in their late teens want to pass for their early 20s so they can get into bars, but those who shoot for 30 tend to be the most successful.

If you do get carded anyway try and act mature and calm. Remember being friendly and compassionate will only help you. Allow your hands to be X’ed and just play along. The nicer you are and the more professional you act the less shit you are going to get. You need to realize though that there is going to be a much higher standard placed on you than on your peers. That being said – if you can continue to impress people and then when you finally turn 21 lay that knowledge on people they will freak out. Some might be pissed off, but most will just be impressed that you were able to behave that shrewdly with that many people. It speaks to a level of dedication that people ware going to want to see from their industry saviours.

That’s what this whole thing boils down to really, a willingness to be shrewd and to fight for what you deserve. There is a screwed up world out there in front of us and one we all are going to need to deal with as we fight ever forward in the music industry. This is obviously an industry of passion and if you want to make a serious go at it while still very young then you are going to need to be willing to be the most passionate and most serious. Doing shitty basement shows where no one would care anyway can only get you so far. It requires real professionalism and kindness to move forward effectively if you want to change the world.

Independent Music Promotions’ (www.independentmusicpromotions.com) revolutionary music PR campaigns are the most effective in the industry. Submit your music to us today.

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Tour Diaries: The People Of The Midwest

So as I trek about the country on tour I’m learning a lot about the geography of this great country of ours. So as I delve deeper into this nation I want to right a little bit about what you can expect to find in different regions of the country. Today I m on my way to Chicago from beautiful Indianapolis and I’ve learned a lot about the Midwest (And the weird charm of vaguely trashy Midwestern belles) I want to share the beauty of my travels in an effort to help everyone get a better sense for what to expect when it comes time for them to to journey forth and discover the very human beauty of the all-American heartland.

The most important thing to be aware of with regards to the Midwest s that the people are idiculosly nice. There is a different rhythm of life out here ascompard to my usualEastern peers. Land is a lot cheaper so people tend to have bigger houses and can ut you up in some pretty nice places.People want to help you, everyone we have met in the Midwest has been incredibly kind, helpful and extremely willing to talk. They understand that they can be a bit isolated from the rest o the world (Some of the drives around the region are insane) but things feel homey. It’s like we’ve tapped into a more fundamental side of American life.

This doesn’t mean you should be taking advantage of Midwesterners natural kindness though. These guys seem to be turned on to a different reality. They are a lot more sensitive and will notice if you try and call them out. People out here seem to be a lot more aware, they are careful about how these things go down and have cultivated something special with their attitude. You need to embrace this as you move forward, simply because it means that there is a lot more to enjoy in the Midwest than might initially meet the eye.

The issue of course is that most folks on the coasts view the Midwest as something of a hellhole. The guarantees at shows tends to be less than ideal because attendance is usually lower, after all people are spread out, and in a lot of these places, poor as dirt. It’s a place that most people seem to be striving to get out of, but can’t because even though their minimum wage job might take care of them here it can’t really give them the flexibility to move elsewhere. The venues tend to be bigger but that’s because there are so few, and thus seem smaller when your band only gets to play to forty odd people. Then of coure there’s all the anti-abortion ads and the giant billboards that say “JESUS IS REAL.” Suffice to say – the Midwest isn’t going to always be a super appealing place to play.

That being said – as a whole the Midwest has really impressed me. Despite a bleak Monday night in West Virginia this leg of the tour seems to be going incredibly well. Just look at how our merch sales have done! It’s common to have people come up and dump a hundred dollars on merch just because “You’re in a touring band, I have a good job, but you need the money” It ties into the no-nonsense attitude that folks seem to have out here about just about everything. People in the Midwest have proven to be really ‘with it’ and excited to see you band come ou because they have been skipped over time and time again.

Suffice to say – the hospitality that we have seen has made me excited to come back here. The people here genuinely want to help, they have none of the pretentious delusions that folks on the coasts seem to be so often tied into. The Midwest started out as a place I was dreading touring through since I didn’t have a lot of friends and didn’t think I would find a lot of places to stay, yet we have found no end of kind folks who wanted to hook us up, help us out and create a better tomorrow for a scene that is several underserviced. What I’m trying to say is that even though this place can be brutal it is somehow worth it.

Independent Music Promotions’ (www.independentmusicpromotions.com) revolutionary music PR campaigns are the most effective in the industry. Submit your music to us today.

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So, I’ve Been On Tour For A Day…

So, the open road is long and winding, and not going insane along the trail is a key part of survival in this semicharmed existence that we call tour life. Obviously none of us have had a lot of sleep, though the bands frontman, Nature seems to be taking advantage of a long drive to knock out a few hours of sleep. Meanwhile our driver has never actually handled a fifteen passenger before so we’re hoping that he doesn’t die and accidentally kill us all. The copilot seems to maybe be a murderer and is extremely tired, and he might pass out, leaving us without a real navigator which might end up being a problem. Suffice to say, we are loving it.

The main thing we’ve learned from tour thus far is that focusing on packing stuff into your van is crucial. We ended up on a street in South Philly desperately trying to figure out how to fit all of our stuff into the back of our fifteen passenger. The problem was that people packed to much and didn’t realize how little space we would have. Somehow though we managed to pull through. Sure – not all of us have quite as much leg room as we would like, but it looks like we are going to be able to survive. We have 19 more days of this madness and morale is high, as are rations. Here we are now young men preparing to cross the country and find ourselves.

And that is where things really start to become interesting. There is a zen of touring, a sense of male bonding and self discovery that you really need to get into if you want to have a good time. You are going to be stuck in a car with the same people for hours on end – you need to get used to these people and have a lot to talk about. Sure there is a far amount of weirdness early on, but eventually you just become super comfortable with each other. Even now, a mere 48 hours in, we are laughing, joking and bonding in a way that we never have before. In other words – the way forward is simple, it comes through kindness and peace. Self control above self indulgence, and a willingness to take one for the team.

A lot of these lessons can be hard to learn. We haven’t been out for too long and the guys still aren’t necessarily used to the early mornings and long hours in the car. Things are going to be a lot more trying a week or two down the line. As for now though it seems like we have a sense of forward momentum that is going to keep us fresh and excited for a few days. I think one of the keys in any tour is to have easy days set up every so often such that you can find a piece of peace for yourselves. A day off in a friends wooded hippie commune is going to be a lot more helpful for your sanity than a thousand dollar gig. After a certain point you need to consider the merits of resting over hard work. Tour is grueling and finding a path is crucial.

One thing the guys have found really fun though is the beauty of the landscapes. The world is a beautiful place and it’s crushing how much we are destroying it. Yet you can lose yourself for hours just staring out, looking at the people you see when you pass through those small American towns and watching the farms flash by your eyes. There is a lot of interesting stuff to see as you cross the country with a group of your friends, and figuring this out, and embracing the inherent value of these things is going to keep you excited and interested in the world of heavy touring. Maybe the appeal of this goes away after a while, but if you can embrace it for the first few times, then you are doing something right.

So now we beat on, lost in a storm of guitar solos, half drunk tour managers whining about a lack of country music and extremely sore butts. Ultimately that’s what tour is about, finding a weird way through a world that only gets more bizarre as you advance. Here we are, trying to pull of eight hours straight in the car, a group of dudes who until yesterday probably had never spent more than eight hours around each other consecutively ever before. And some how we are finding out how to do it, because like the open road, we are infinite.

Independent Music Promotions’ (www.independentmusicpromotions.com) revolutionary music PR campaigns are the most effective in the industry. Submit your music to us today.

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Scheduling, Struggles and Your Indie Band

I think we’ve pretty firmly established on this blog that the main thing that allows for the romance of the road to occur is a bunch of boring stuff that will make you want to kill yourself. In today’s article I want to talk about another one of those boring things – scheduling. Being able to adhere to a strict schedule is vital for any band, and it stands as a greater metaphor for how your band should be conducting yourselves. The fact of the matter is that these things fall into line simultaneously, bands very quickly realize that there is no room for this kind of crap and so they tend to learn everything simultaneously. So if you can get your guys to be operating on a good schedule – then you know that everything else should start to organically come into place.

Scheduling of course takes place on both a macro and a micro level. Picking both apart is going to be crucial because understanding them both will help your band on a macro and micro level respectively. Ultimately, everything depends on the schedule, be it an album release where you need to start looking at release dates months out or simply a night at a show that you want to move with the minimum possible amount of stress. This is the kind of thing that people will nod and agree to when you bring it up at practice, but in most cases you are going to need these kinds of lessons (Sometimes literally) beaten into you by the brutality of the music industry.

Let’s look at scheduling first on a macro level – this is for things like tours and album releases. The further in advance you plan, the better obviously, and most writing cycles should start at least 9 months before release, sometimes more due to increasingly long vinyl production times than anything else. Remember , in this day and age you aren’t going to get a vinyl wait period below six or seven months. Factor in time to record and y’know, WRITE the album and you can see why these things take so goddamn long. Simultaneously, there is the question of press cycles which should probably start 3 months before release – that’s not including setup time etc. You want as long a lead as possible in order to make sure that your work can get covered in the physical magazines. Of course there is also the time that needs to be taken searching for a label if you don’t already have one – further delaying your album release. Suffice to say, I think it’s rapidly becoming clear why waiting a year between recording and release is so common.

As for tours you are going to want t be planning at least six months out, and start booking four or five months in advance, if not more. This might sound extreme, but it guarantees that you will have more availabilities and get a good hold on the venue. It also means that your routing will be a lot easier. The struggle of course comes when you don’t have a booking agent and venues don’t want to book you only to have you break up a few days before the show. This is part of why having a professional image is so important, it helps to guarantee that you will get to play the cool venues even without professional representation. What I’m trying to say is that scheduling for a macro event in your bands history is going to be the main focus of your bands career.

Now for the micro side of things. Having specific time schedules for even the small things can be incredibly helpful. It can help make sure you get down to business in an efficient manner and not dick around in practice. It can also help to make sure that on any given gig night you know that everyone can have a reasonable knowledge of where they need to be and when. Obviously things come up all the time when you are trying to play a show, but you should be looking to minimize these issues in any way possible. That’s what so much of doing this is about, not so much finding exciting solutions or changing the game forever, but rather being able to minimize issues and trust the professionalism of your peers.

With the bands I manage I tend to have them get there about an hour and a half before doors. This guarantees more than enough time to load in and if you’re lucky also time to sound check. It means that your merch guy isn’t going to be to stressed out and should hopefully give you a chance for some much needed rest. In other words, you want to maimize downtime and minimize stress time. It will allow you a chance to find you way forward and fight through the general trauma that comes through tour. An ime you can remove a stressful factor you know that you are helping move toward a happier band and tour experience.

So yeah, scheduling matters a lot and hopefully this article helped to give you no just a more concrete idea as to why, but also a way to move forward to implement it with your band. I know it’s not always fun and in fact can be a bit of a pain in the ass, but that’s how it has to be if you want to be able to move forward in a way that is beneficial to the collective. Realize that even though it sucks now, you are helping yourself out in a big way in the long run, and ultimately, figuring this out, and finding a sustainable path forward is going to be hard . No one likes the harsh parts of the industry, but it’s the nights we remember, not the nightmares.

Independent Music Promotions’ (www.independentmusicpromotions.com) revolutionary music PR campaigns are the most effective in the industry. Submit your music to us today.

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I Dropped Out Of College To Work In The Music Industry A Year Ago

So yeah, I guess I did the impossible, and I feel like I deserve something of a victory lap. A year ago I dropped out of college and hopped on a plane to California for a doom metal festival. Now I’m getting ready to go on tour with one of the hippest metal bands in the world (Tengger Cavalry) who I happen to manage. I’m making more money than ever before. I have no debt. I have a group of friends who I treasure. I have ambitions that seem like they are falling into place. It looks like this summer is going to be my busiest, most successful and fun yet. In other words – I think I might have made it in the music industry after dropping out. This isn’t due to me being great but rather the network of people out there supporting me. So in doing the impossible, here’s what I learned.

The main thing that I learned was that you may be down, but you are only out when you decide to be. I won’t lie and say that this last year was a piece of cake. There were times when I was living under the poverty line and really had to tighten the belt in order to survive. A very wise man said to me though, “If you can keep figuring it out, well then maybe that’s a sign that you should keep doing it.” So somho I’ve always been able to scratch forward. Sure it isn’t always self evident, and a lot of times actually left me in despair, but as a rule I’ve always been able to grind forward and keep doing it, somehow the opportunity was always there for me to keep moving and expanding. You need to capitalize on your network of contacts in order to build up these ideals and create a safety net.

That’s really been the struggle of my last year – establishing a safety net. What I’ve learned is that there is no such thing as a sure thing in the music industry and every time that you think you have started to find a path to victory, you find yourself drowning under a more existential struggle. You need to keep on pounding the pavement and driving forward if you don’t want to completely screw yourself over in music. I’ve learned that you need to have dozens of contingency plans and strong relationships with those who currently do pay you in order to make sure that even if they have to let you go you can cultivate future partnerships.

I’ve also learned that being your own boss is far more rewarding than having someone tell you what to do. This is not an indictment of anyone who might have been labeled my boss in the past, but I have realized that thinking of people I work with as ‘clients’ rather than ‘bosses’ has helped me a lot. Changing the power dynamic in your head, if nowhere else allows you a lot more freedom and opens you up to new things. It feels a lot less intimidating when you know to put yourself in the position of power. The added responsibility is certainly a struggle, but finding that balance is always going to be a problem in an industry that is so largely freelance. Ultimately what thinking of people I work with as clients rather than bosses has given me is a better sense of self worth.

Perhaps, more than anything else, that is what this entire year has been about – self worth. It made me realize that even when I was down I could find a way forward. It made me realize that there was a place for me in this world – even though I so often felt alienated .That might come across as some emo kid whining, but it really isn’t meant to be. Rather it’s my way of saying that I have found freedom and peace, a way forward even though it seemed for so long that everything would be a struggle. It made me realize that anyone can do this. A lot of the music industry is just being diligent and having the courage and tenacity to carry on. Nothing is particularly challenging if you can trust people and move to face a new day.

It gets easier. No matter how hard it might seem at anyone particular moment, it gets better. Every project you engage in you learn something from, even if you don’t think you did. It allows you to grow your network and be more capable of helping move the world of music forward. I’m doing stuff now that I would have failed at as recently as a few months ago. I have long term plans, tactics set up that are going to change the world and a sense of forward momentum that I think will keep me moving for years to come. In other words – years of hard work do pay off – just sometimes not in the way you expect.

In short – maybe dropping out of school to pursue a career in music isn’t an option for everybody, but know that it IS something you can do if you want it bad enough. There are going to be a lot of hard times – in fact there will be more hard times than good times, but that doesn’t change the fact that you can be a part of something greater than yourself. You are part of a neverending struggle to fight against larger entities and save the world. I know that sounds romantic and silly, but I’m starting to genuinely believe it. We need people who are willing to give it all up for rock and roll. The impetus thus moves over to you. Are you ready for it? I needed to drop out because I need my personal autonomy. This isn’t a life for everyone,but it might be the one for you.

Independent Music Promotions’ (www.independentmusicpromotions.com) revolutionary music PR campaigns are the most effective in the industry. Submit your music to us today.

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It’s All About The Music – But Is It All Music?

Sometimes all the most important skills that you can hold to benefit your band are the ones that aren’t at all related to music. That’s a weird thought, now isn’t it? However – in my experience that’s just the way things are. People far too often believe that being a great musician is going to take them far. Little do they realize that it’s everything else that actually matters. There are tons of great musicians out there, we call it ‘playing’ an instrument because that is exactly what it is – play. Obviously there is a ton of practice and hard work that goes into truly mastering an instrument, but in all honesty, that’s something most people do in their teens and early twenties. In most cases and in most bands you are replaceable as a musician. The people who want to take this whole music thing to a career level though realize they need to go above and beyond.

In all of the most successful independent bands that I have worked with, different people in the band held different jobs. The stress of running in a band can overwhelm any one individual, that’s why it’s great to have bands made up of invested individuals. Even if you have a manager or a label, they are going to expect a lot of personal commitment. There are always going to be people who are more ‘into it’ than their peers, but still. The bands who tend to succeed the most have people who are not only deeply invested in the music industry and who have a strong understanding of business, but also those who engage in graphic design work, study social media, and construct a brand around their band.

I’m not trying to dive back into the standard ideas of hard work and kindness that define this blog with this post though. No. I am trying to emphasize that even though it’s all about the music, it should not be all music. In fact I would argue that the minority is music. One could argue that certain people are in fairly major bands simply because in the early days they knew how to properly handle the business side of things. Just look at someone like John Paul Jones in Led Zeppelin, after a while he became a de facto member of the bands management team and ended up being one of the most successful members of the band post Bonhams death.

If you’re seriously trying to make a go at this whole being a musician thing, you are going to need at least one other thing hat you are really good at that you can tie into the music industry somehow. Graphic design or something else artistic is obviously one way to go about it, as is mixing and production. That being said – there is also a lot to be said for things in the more business oriented side of the profession. Being able to read and judge your own contracts before having to get a lawyer look at them is going to help you a lot .That is not to say you shouldn’t hire a lawyer, but knowing how to make those kinds of decisions and being sufficiently aware of their import is going to impress people if nothing else.

If you’re in a band now with people who you love and get along with well, then that’s an awesome step forward. You need to make sure that everyone is delivering though if you want to move to the next level. If members are not contributing to the future of your band then their role needs to be brought into question. This is not because they are bad people or are lacking musically, but because they aren’t helping you move your career forward. The band is the beginning of the team that needs to find its way to success. And if the very foundation has people who want to loaf around and not take what could be their careers seriously then you need to re-evaluate your bands priorities.

Keep in mind that it is TOTALLY fine if you want to be a hobby band. Different people like different aspects of the musical experience, and if your whole goal is to go out, play a few shows with your buddies now and then and maybe impress a few girls then you don’t need to expect this level of commitment. The advice I’m giving in this article purely applies to bands who want to make it ‘big’. That being said – if you want you hobby band to get out and do some exciting stuff, then you still are going to need a decent level of commitment (And possibly a little insanity) coming from all sides of the band.

Ultimately what it boils down to is asking what you bring to the team. Sure it can be hard to find band members, but if you want a band made up of people who are truly going to succeed then it becomes a need for so much more than just good players. Some bands do have a main dude who handles everything, but if you can’t even handle the side things that are going to come as being part of a band (Insurance for vans, interviews, etc) then you are going to have a hard time breaking into that next level act who is going to tour the country and do a lot of cool stuff. Maybe you will get lucky and break in, but most people these days are going to need you to be a great player and something else.

Independent Music Promotions’ (www.independentmusicpromotions.com) revolutionary music PR campaigns are the most effective in the industry. Submit your music to us today.

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Why Getting A Second Opinion Is Always A Good Idea

Sometimes the most important thing that people pay me for is a second opinion. I know that sounds weird. After all – why not ask a friend to do it? If you can’t trust your friends to be honest with you then who can you trust? Well – music is a different thing, especially since it can be so subjective. Ultimately that’s why we get producers and managers and all that fun stuff. Sure they can provide services that we would have a really hard time doing ourselves, but on of their most vital functions is to give you a second opinion from outside of the bubble of your friends, bandmates, and the input of random strangers who hear your music. Paying for a second opinion might sound weird – but getting that sort of advice is endlessly valuable and can change your whole world.

Think about it this way – you don’t want your producer to let you walk out of the studio with a crappy sounding product right? Well they can only do so much just by mixing and mastering, or even periodically telling them to do another take. At some point a good producer is going to have to get in there and tell you ‘Well you’re going to need another chorus here’ or “Maybe that should only be a half verse” If you’re a band of merit and foresight then you will have a producer who you can trust to help you with your songwriting in this way. By the same token, you should have other folks, like PR and managers who can help you to make sure that the way you are presenting yourself is appropriate, and that the deals you are signing are going to help you in the long run.

The simple fact of the matter is that no one can know everything, and even if they did, they probably wouldn’t have sufficient distance from the project at hand. If you have a member of your band or the team around your band claiming as much and who is unwilling to ask for help then you should think about replacing them, or at least talking to them such that they eventually start to listen to others opinions. There is a reason that not only you should hire experts, but you should hire experts for specific functions. That’s how it works in any other business, and the music industry is just as complicated as any other industry. The reason that you often can get so far without hiring anyone is that the scale of income tends to be much smaller than in other businesses, so for a long time you can generally figure stuff out on your own. The issue comes when you want to go up a level as a band, you need more opinions around you, because odds are this is your first time working with a big band, and you can pay for the advice of people who have done this dozens of times.

To be DIY doesn’t mean that you can’t ask for help. In some ways that is the most DIY thing you can do because then you are emphasizing the importance of the community. DIY is no longer about you and your two buddies busting ass to do a bunch of stuff for no money. Nowadays it’s about establishing a team that will do grassroots campaigns to guide you forward from the ground up. DIY is about tapping into a community of experts who have dedicated their lives to this weird rock and roll thing and who want to construct a better tomorrow. To be able and willing to work with these kinds of people only proves that you are serious and are contributing to the canon of great modern art that we are all benefiting from in 2016.

Always be willing to get a second opinion, because that might be what protects you from putting out something awful that’s going to hurt you in the long run. Whenever I work on a project I obviously have my mentors who I consult, but I also try to have experts at every turn ready to work with me. Sure this costs a bit more, but guess what? It saves me time and energy and it means that in the long run I’m establishing solid ground to start on. I know this isn’t always an option and your team at first is going to have to be a lot smaller, but that’s fine, you build up to these things – I certainly wouldn’t recommend hiring people before you’re ready, but don’t be afraid to farm work out to folks and appreciate all that they have to contribute.

The issue with a lot of these second opinion things is that to give on is a soft skill and you really need to trust peoples opinions. They often can’t FORCE you to act on those opinions. Ultimately though, you are going to NEED to trust people. If you continue to believe that you know best then you are only going to hurt yourself. Second opinions are the crucial secret thing that drives the industry forward. This is a community that we are working from and that’s why you should love it. Use that community to your advantage and then you will have the whole world at your fingertips.

Independent Music Promotions’ (www.independentmusicpromotions.com) revolutionary music PR campaigns are the most effective in the industry. Submit your music to us today.

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Nitpicking And Your Bands Team

Nobody likes a nitpicker – but it needs to be done, perhaps more in the music industry than anywhere else. In a world where the margins are so small and the margin of error is consequently so frikkin’ tiny you need to have people on your side who are going to nitpick. The advantage is that nitpicking, while frustrating and strenuous can also be a fairly easy thing to do if you are willing to commit the time and energy to it. What does this mean for you? Simply that you can go far in this world if you are able to pour over documents, take notes and make sure that every single part of the industry that you work in and are partially responsible for cultivating moves forward gracefully. In some ways there is no greater calling.

“Why do you need to nitpick?” You might be asking, “My band is a DIY punk act, we can just do whatever.” Unfortunately this is never the case. No matter how well you think that things are lined up you have to realize that it will never properly work out until you confirm, re-confirm and then re-reconfirm, preferably all via phone call. The reason that so many DIY acts have such a hard time is that they are willing to trust people and not follow up, of course this is going to lead to a ton of problems down the line. As my mother put it “Do it right the first time” that way you don’t need to worry about things when the going gets tough.

Of course – there is a way to do it, and you need to realize how and when to draw the line on nitpicking. It can be easy to regularly rip apart people who are supposed to be doing stuff for you, but you need to be executing in a way that is graceful and to the point. If you become too much of a perfectionist people aren’t going to want to work with you. Rather than being annoyed – realize when nitpicking becomes too much and at what point things go too far beyond the pale. The hard truth is, if we can accept that nobody cares about what you do, then little things can also be glossed over. Determining what this is can be a struggle though, since obviously things like grammar are super important. Figuring out your phrasing and structuring of press releases is a delicate process, but the further we go, the more able we are to make it all work out.

So who should be your nitpicker? This is an unenviable position and one that can put a lot of pressure o any individual. I have found that the best methods to have multiple people going over every document, ideally people with different backgrounds and roles in the band/record company/etc such that they can attack every problem from separate angles. What seems important to one will not necessarily be important to another and figuring out who cares about what can help move the entire thing forward. Ultimately though, in its most stripped down form you are going to want at least one or two people proofreading anything you do – if only to make sure that you have all your bases covered and have a unified approach to the narrative you are seeking to construct.

It’s one of those weird things where if you don’t nitpick enough then you are just going to get written off as a shitty band. If you nitpick to much, people won’t really notice – but it’s better to not have people notice you than notice you for being that band with awful and unprofessional press releases and an inability to properly communicate their message. The people who have everything together move forward subtly and powerfully – but those in power are gradually going to start noticing them and teir work ethic. Being able to communicate and present yourself in a manner that shows you spent the time to cultivate your image is only going to pay off in the long run, and though it might be painful now, know that it will help one day.

Of course – I might be crazy. There are a lot of major record labels and PR companies who regularly submit to me with all sorts of syntax and grammar errors. They go off the assumption that people are only going to skim over their releases and thus won’t be called out on it. I’d imagine that being in charge of the hippest bands is only going to help with that as well. People are often afraid to properly call those in power out on their subpar writing. It makes me wonder how those people got into power in the first place (Presumably longevity and being damn good at their jobs otherwise) but it’s important to realize that even those at the top fail to nitpick, and if you can move forward with precision then their jobs are yours for the taking.

There is a theory that OCD evolved not as something that would benefit an individual but rather a collective. Think about it in terms of pre-agrarian societies. It makes sense to have someone who insists on everything being super clean or cooked. Similarly, it is valuable to have someone who has an almost annoying attention to detail on your side because they are going to be able to hammer down every last bloody detail and make sure that you have your entire trajectory lined up such that it can lead to a better tomorrow. Find these people and use them as a part of your team, a narrative with a bunch of spelling mistakes is not much of a narrative at all.

Independent Music Promotions’ (www.independentmusicpromotions.com) revolutionary music PR campaigns are the most effective in the industry. Submit your music to us today.

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