Record or gig first?

[azraelswings]

My current project will be both my first serious band. In about 3-4 songs time, I'll be throwing D.I.Y. shows together. (speaking of which, anyone interested in playing southern CT during the summer, or northeast CT during the school year, get in touch ) The drummer mentioned that in his last large project, they were always interested in recording first. He thought that in strengthened the live show. I think that doing songs live first will help me get to know them, and sharpen the recording. Of course, having a demo for people to take home at our first show would be a good idea. Thoughts?

 

[Tim Brown]

Sean,

There are positives and negatives to both. Having a quality demo to give out (Heck give them away! Burn a bunch of 2 song or 3 song CDR's and just give them away. Get everybody in the band to pitch in and buy one of those $300 printers that prints graphics right on the face of the Silver CDR's. It looks pro, and you guys can just burn them yourselves as you need them. Since blank CDR's are so cheap that it isn't funny, I'm for selling them just for the cost, or even giving them away. The more people hear you and get used to hearing your band's name, the better off you are!)

Personally, I think playing out needs to always be the goal, but the demo giveaway or for sale that early in the game never hurts. Once you have a logo made, get shirts done up in L, XL, and a few XXLs (Don't even bother with mediums - everybody buys them one size bigger thinking that they will shrink anyway.)

Just be sure to let people at your shows know that you have merchandise for sale.


Tim

 

[azraelswings]

Sean,

There are positives and negatives to both.

Agreed.

Having a quality demo to give out (Heck give them away! Burn a bunch of 2 song or 3 song CDR's and just give them away. Get everybody in the band to pitch in and buy one of those $300 printers that prints graphics right on the face of the Silver CDR's. It looks pro, and you guys can just burn them yourselves as you need them. Since blank CDR's are so cheap that it isn't funny, I'm for selling them just for the cost, or even giving them away. The more people hear you and get used to hearing your band's name, the better off you are!)

Personally, I think playing out needs to always be the goal, but the demo giveaway or for sale that early in the game never hurts. Once you have a logo made, get shirts done up in L, XL, and a few XXLs (Don't even bother with mediums - everybody buys them one size bigger thinking that they will shrink anyway.)

Just be sure to let people at your shows know that you have merchandise for sale.


Tim

Also agreed. I think that what our end result may be cheap made giveaways of 1-2 tracks, and full demos on sale. My primary goal is of course exposure rather than immediate cash flow, but I'd rather not have to keep paying out of pocket to rent the halls we play.

Googling "CD printer" resulted in models even cheaper than $300. I'll certainly keep that idea in mind. Trouble is, that at this point in the game the only guaranteed band members are myself and the drummer. We'll gig after securing a bassist, although we'd like to enlist a "woodwind superman," in other words a sax player, any other talents a supreme plus.

I'm rather excited about the project, and the challenges its going to bring to me. In addition to providing great motivation to write, I'm picking up hand percussion as we go. I think that once everything comes together we'll have a very exciting sound on our hands.

Especially if I pick up the cello again.