The big secret?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Nico Zottos
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Nico Zottos

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Hey guys...so recently I have been thinking about this question. I have a band and we play around the seacoast where I live (Portsmouth, New Hampshire), and we are doing pretty well. We have a reasonable amount of gigs, get paid for them, and seem to have a likable stage presence/sound (we've won several battle of the band competitions). However, I feel we are still behind where we should be. There are bands around us getting a lot more gigs than we are and I'm beginning to ask myself, what is the secret? What should my band be doing when we present ourselves to venues that we aren't currently doing? More often than not, emails I send out to venues are left without a response. What are the venues looking for?

By venues I mean clubs, bars, restaurants, music scenes, etc.

Thanks for the help guys, I really am hoping to learn something from this!

Nico
 
I played in a blues band for a little while and majority of the gigs we got were from someone who saw us at another gig.

How do you promote your band?

What kinda music do you play? (I don't know of many bars that like to have metal playing while customers are eating/drinking :))

Are you wanting to make a living off of it?
 
Thanks for the reply! A lot of our promotion is done through social media from the band and it's members plus word of mouth. We're releasing an album in May of this year which will hopefully give us another thing to catch the interest of new people. As for the type of music we play, it's very current and likable. We do a mix of our own stuff (indie folk, kinda like mumford and sons or the avett brothers), covers of current songs, and covers of older classics (mostly from the motown era, some classic rock). So, for the most part, we play "lighter" music. Like I said earlier, we seem to have a really good likability factor so I really feel the appeal is there....

And as for living off of it...no, definitely not. I love performing regardless if we get paid but I would definitely like to increase the amount of cash we're making.
 
Sounds like the first step is to think about what kind of band you are. I see "some covers", "some originals", "indie", "motown" and I think "there's a few old friends that just like getting together to jam". If you want to be a cover/gb band, you'll want to target bars and restaurants. Go watch a couple, figure out what the popular ones are playing, drill those songs, put together a professional package with a list of songs you guys can do and go from there. If you wanna really push yourself as an original band, take it easy with the covers. Write songs, work on a sound, define yourself, what kinda scene you want to be involved in, then MAKE FRIENDS WITH OTHER BANDS. That's important. Bands book shows together and ask their friends to play with them. Find out where the cool bands are playing and go blow smoke up their asses, not just 'like' them on facebook. Also, be comfortable knowing you'll never make any money off it. Just some pearls from someone who's never had success with any of that stuff.

"Battle of the Bands"? Was it at a high-school gymnasium by any chance?
 
We always got the most gigs with an agent. Worth the 15% commission. The venue depends on the agent to weed out the flakes and deliver quality entertainers. The agent will tell you whether you're worth booking.
 
Yep, we joined an agency and got more gigs than we could handle. We all had full time jobs so we had to turn down the mid-week out of towners. But we played every weekend for years.
Though it was fun and I improved as a musician, if I would have known there was no future in being in a bar band I would have put all my energy into originals.
So imho the big secret is great original songs.
 
Set emails and social media aside if you're having troubles.
Sure they can be useful but really this is a job interview, so go there in person.

Turn up and speak to the right people. If the right people aren't there, get a phone number.
If the venue isn't local, phone them up.
Offer to play for free.....Once!

Make it clear you're keen to play in their venue and keen to prove yourself, but worth something.
The free gig proves that you are.


Know everyone!!!!!
There shouldn't be a band gigging in your town that you aren't going to get a phone call from when the support act pulls out last minute.
Take those dregs. Why not?! It's last minute hassle but you'll get paid and be remembered as the guy who did turn up.
 
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