Starting a Band

A

Absolutepower

New member
I've been trying to start a rock band for years now, but I've come to the conclusion that its next to impossible. Its like spending months building a house of cards that can fall apart at any time. One day the lead guitarist decides he'd rather go to law school and and leaves everybody hanging. Or someone decides its too much trouble taking the subway to rehearsal so they just cut off all contact and not return anyone's calls or emails leaving everyone wondering.
Then comes the long process of finding a new guy sifting through all manner of types you meet in the music world, and then learning the songs and building the relationship. Sometimes months later it doesn't work out, you find out the guy is really more interested in drugs and watching tv than being in a band or something, and that's 6 months more down the tubes and you have to start all over.

For now I've decided to go the singer-songwriter route where I don't have to depend on coordinating a bunch of people's schedule and all that stuff, just so I can get out and perform more. However this is a major compromise for me because the bands that truly inspire me are all bands, not a guy strumming guitar alone.

Does anyone have any tips on getting a band together fast? Or any ideas on the best way to do it in general? Sorry if all this is coming across as negative. I just felt the need to rant and get my frustrations out somewhere. :eek::D:drunk:
 
All I can say is "good luck." You are attempting to do one of the hardest things ever attempted by mankind. :D
 
I've been in tons of bands. The best bands I've had were the bands that started out as friends or at least as some kind of acquaintance. Throughout history, I think the most successful bands were started by people that already knew each other. If you're assembling a band from classified ads, good luck. It's probably gonna be a revolving door of retards. All the good players with good personalities and good work ethics are already happily in bands.

Also, being the leader or boss of a band is shit. It sucks. It can zap all of the fun out of the project. If you just wanna play, find a group that needs your skill set and just be a worker-bee. It's way more enjoyable that way. If you're good and dependable, they'll value your creative input but you won't have to do any of the legwork.
 
Well, thanks for the advice guys, I'm grateful and kind of surprised anyone bothered to reply to this, because from all I can tell not many people are actually interested in being in bands these days. All the enthusiasm has gone out the window or something. When I try to look at "successful" bands who seem to actually work I find that there are 2 main types out there.
1. The one main guy band who plays lead guitar, sings, writes all the music, everyone else is just a secondary afterthought only there to boost the main guy's ego.
2. The chick lead singer band. An at least somewhat pretty chick lead singer with very little musical ability surrounded by a band of dudes. What keeps this band together is that all the guys are in love with her and hoping being in the band will give them a better chance of sleeping with her.
 
Having spent many years in bands that always seem to crash and burn just as they're about to take off, I feel your frustration. I've recently decided to try to get more serious about recording my original material on my own because of any group's volatility.

But it is possible to put a band together. Unless it's for a pickup type gig, though, there's no fast way that I've discovered. It's very difficult, and finding the right people is a process that can take a long time...years, in some cases.

The best advice I can offer is to keep putting out ads, answering other ads, jamming with people in your area, etc. When you find someone you click with, stick with them, and keep an eye out for the next piece of the puzzle. You might have some revolving spots in the group until you find the right person; don't let that get you down.

Right now I'm playing bass and singing with a trio I put together after finding a guitarist who seems to be a good fit with my musical tastes; though he's played for over 10 years, this is his first band. Our drummer is not so compatible musically, but he's energetic and a great time-keeper, and I've played with him for a few years in various outlets, so we know one another well. Not an ideal situation, but at least I get to rock out weekly with a couple good people.

Being the bandleader can definitely fray the nerves. Scheduling rehearsals, getting gigs, finalizing set lists, etc. are all tiring. Sometimes I do just want to play with no further responsibility...but then I remember all the frustration I've had in the past playing in groups where I didn't have much of a say in anything.

Just remember to keep your ultimate goals (musically speaking; never bank on fame or even a constant income stream until you're known) in mind the whole time, though you also have to keep everyone else happy at the same time....
 
If you're patient, it'll happen with the right people. I moved to NY to play music with my brother, we became friends with the best bassist we've ever known after my brother and he had been introduced at the hospital while my brother was in X-Ray school. The bassist then introduced us to the best drummer we've ever known who he had became friends with in college. It took probably half a year of me being here in NY with a dead end job before we finally had a band. We're now getting ready to record our first album and everything is going flawlessly. We're all now great friends on top of it all, which is the most important part. A band is not something you can force to happen. It'll work out better in the end if it just comes together itself.
 
Greg_L said:
I've been in tons of bands. The best bands I've had were the bands that started out as friends or at least as some kind of acquaintance. Throughout history, I think the most successful bands were started by people that already knew each other. If you're assembling a band from classified ads, good luck. It's probably gonna be a revolving door of retards. All the good players with good personalities and good work ethics are already happily in bands.

Also, being the leader or boss of a band is shit. It sucks. It can zap all of the fun out of the project. If you just wanna play, find a group that needs your skill set and just be a worker-bee. It's way more enjoyable that way. If you're good and dependable, they'll value your creative input but you won't have to do any of the legwork.
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Lots of truth passed along so far in this thread, but Greg's 1st paragraph hit the nail on the head. Allow me to elaborate.

It does in fact require friendship to make the thing work. And so that's why trying to start a band from scratch never works. If you do not think about these things that you imagine will make a good band, you will go through the revolving door forever. These things:

1) You hope that everybody is excited about the same songs. Almost never happens. Even if you agree on the same decade of music, still almost never happens. Or you find a person who is talented and likes you, but he likes country and you like rap. Bummer.

2) Your hope that the bandmates will hang out together, go to diners and have a blast before & after a gig, is simply another way of saying "We're friends." But friendships never happen by answering a classified.

3) You're hoping that this group of strangers will also have good personalities, and no scheduling conflicts, and probably hope for all single people. As you go from a duo, to trio, quad, the difficulties rise exponentially.

4) Then, let's say some miracle happens and all the above fell into place. Well you still hope that everybody wants to play out as often as you do, or not as often? You may want to make a living at it, while another only wants, or has time, for playing a couple times a month.

5) Don't even get me started when it comes to original music and any ambitions to go around the country with your work.

So just keep that in the front of your mind - you're really, actually trying to find a friend who is also musically inclined the same way you are. 1 in a 45.3 million chance.


I could add a ton of narrative that agrees with all these other posts about people I know who not once got out to play for all the reasons mentioned already.
 
Toddskins said:
2) Your hope that the bandmates will hang out together, go to diners and have a blast before & after a gig, is simply another way of saying "We're friends." But friendships never happen by answering a classified.
.
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Exactly. Face it, it's very, very, very unlikely that your band will enjoy any success whatsoever. Even minimal local success is a long shot. So you might as well really enjoy what you're doing for the pure love of making music, and you can't enjoy your band if you hate your bandmates or can't get along with them. I go to band practice to hang with my bros as much as I go to play music. It makes the gigs all the more fun.
 
actuallee said:
Yes you did. At one point you said true banned me and you had nothing to do with it.

and failed

People like you don't stop being a mod then have to sit there and get made a fool off because they want to because banning is all you had...
Stupid is stupid does.
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'

WTF?? Obviously an alias- but, beyond whatever his former HR user name was, WHO THE **K IS THIS GUY???

Ahem. My friend, Tim Foley (Tim's up in Vermont, now, haven't talked to him in months, maybe a year or more. I really gotta give him a call,) who's got some great bad-bandmate stories, says:

"Bands are for idiots."
 
I'm going to get my album done with my drummer. We been friends and co-workers for over 5 years so it makes it easy to play cause he comes to my house 5 days a week already :D Once the album is done, if we happen to decide we want to play live, I will just hire a bass player and a guitarist for gigs...

This is my plan anyway - most probably will not work out...
 
stevieb said:
'
"Bands are for idiots."
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yup....and if you wanna get serious about it, you have to tour, at which point you will lose thousands of $$$ that you'll never make back. you'll have 983 CD's, 435 T-Shirts, and countless stickers that you didn't sell. you may have a beat up van/camper that will forever smell like B.O. and feet that you can't even give away. you'll come back broke and jobless and very possibly homeless.

...but you'll make some great memories, FWIW
 
theD1CKENS said:
yup....and if you wanna get serious about it, you have to tour, at which point you will lose thousands of $$$ that you'll never make back. you'll have 983 CD's, 435 T-Shirts, and countless stickers that you didn't sell. you may have a beat up van/camper that will forever smell like B.O. and feet that you can't even give away. you'll come back broke and jobless and very possibly homeless.

...but you'll make some great memories, FWIW
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Touring is more for bands that are already very successful in this day and age. A band starting out should just play should in whatever major city they're in and build a local following. Right now I'm in talks with one band who describes themself as "power-pop" to join them as the singer. I'm not sure I even want that to work out. I'm also communicating with another guy about starting up a more hard rock GnR style band. After reading this thread, I am going to keep trying, because it doesn't hurt to just try jamming with new people, having a good time and seeing what happens. At the same time I'm completely unattached, and going to still pursue my own solo stuff.

I say just because things are difficult don't become a hermit and quit playing music with others. Just be cognizant of the reality of the whole startup band situation, and don't get attached or try too hard to force anything.

I have a theory that the reason things are more frustrating these days is that there isn't the same enthusiasm there used to be. I could be wrong but it seems to me that musicians used to want to be in a band at all costs, but I guess maybe that's when labels were signing a lot more bands, so you had a much better chance of getting somewhere.
 
Absolutepower said:
I have a theory that the reason things are more frustrating these days is that there isn't the same enthusiasm there used to be. I could be wrong but it seems to me that musicians used to want to be in a band at all costs, but I guess maybe that's when labels were signing a lot more bands, so you had a much better chance of getting somewhere.
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No, you got it backwards. Things are more frustrating these days because there are way too many bands. Every jackass with a Squier and a Crate combo amp wants to be a rock star. The talent pool is very, very watered down. Original material bands have faded away into cheesy cover/tribute bands and that's all club owners want. Gigs used to be easy to get. Clubs and bars used to beg bands to play. Now with the overwhelming saturation of shitty bands, often times bands have to pay to play. WTF kind of backwards world are we living in now? Pay the bar to play? that's fucking insane. I'd never in a million years do that. Touring is a joke. Only an true idiot would go on tour these days without serious financial backing from a corporate sponsor or a label. I'm telling you, playing live music or being in a band is a fools endeavor unless you simply do it for the joy of playing music. If you can't scratch your itch by just jamming in the garage with some like minded fellas, you're in for a frustrating and dissatisfying ride.
 
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