Rock 'n Roll - Part Business and Part Art

[winston]

The road to success in the music business is littered with those who have fallen by the wayside. Many of these “fallen” artists are extremely talented. What was it that they lacked?

Did they miss out on acknowledging the inclusion of a vital key component that ultimately led to their downfall? Did they get bored of the pursuit of success and the process of playing endless gigs singing the same songs over and over. What caused them to lose hope and fall by the wayside?

In part, the answer to these questions is sometimes startling to musicians actively pursuing their dreams, because in reality the blueprint for success has been available right in plain view. It is a blueprint that has been repeated over and over and over again.

The Beatles and The Rolling Stones used a common known blueprint that worked to perfection in their day. The basic structural elements of that blueprint remain the same and can be applied to the probability of success in the music scene today, even if the artist is not attached to the mainstream but is an “Indie artist” by choice.

The fact is once well honed, your music will only open a door. Getting through that door and gaining entrance to the worlds most exclusive club takes the additional push that sound management and a focused business plan can provide.

The combination of a musical art form that is both topical and in demand, a great delivery and capture in the studio of your product and adherence to the business plan will not guarantee success. But it will get you noticed.

I want to solicit your experiences in the music business and add them to mine so we can gain and hopefully share a better understanding of what the blueprint should look like today.

[winston]

Part 1 of the somewhat standard blueprint mentioned in the above post:


This list is not in any particular order

Learn to play your instrument with your eyes closed. This is a lofty goal that takes years to achieve.

Pick a genre or two that suits you – most of all be yourself.

Form or join a band that plays music that you like. This is an important step unless you are determined to be a solo artist.

Make sure at least one musician in the band is accomplished. The Beatles and the Stones were all proficient musicians (the exception being Stu Sutcliffe).

Learn to play together as a unit

Learn about dynamics and incorporate them into your music.

Play at a consistent level and always strive to improve

Create a set list that audiences can relate to

Create an image for the band – one that you can live with 24 hours a day.

Take any opportunity to play to an audience, even if you end up playing for nothing.

Find ways to engage the audience.

Act professionally and be aware of your public image at all times.

Practice public speaking

Take a course on public relations

If you are prone to the following malaise, temper your temper. (unless playing in a punk band where it is considered bad form to be nice )

Be consistent in your answers to any enquiring minds, especially any form of media. Your musings can come back to haunt you many years later.

In the beginning a band member had better perform the full role of a manager. If your gig schedule is full and you can afford the expense, go ahead and hire a professional manager. Someone who has a small stable of bands would be my advice.

When your band has a strong following, secure the aid of a booking agent. This is harder to do than it sounds.

Publish and protect your own material before playing it in public.

Find a way to get your music professionally recorded and also an innovative way to get it into the mainstream to your target audience. Getting a record deal sounds great but traditional record companies can be very draining on the income stream. Nothing beats airplay.

Stay the course.

More to follow.

[sowhat]

If you are prone to the following malaise, temper your temper. (unless playing in a punk band where it is considered bad form to be nice)

Cannot completely agree. It's not only punks who follow the "nice-guys-finish-last-if-at-all" rule. It's easier to be noticed when you're bad, and when you're nice, many would say, "a nice guy, and so what?". Girls also like bad boys, bad boys get more attention. If we go way off topic... one may notice that in many books, baddies seem to be more consistent, more interesting and more attractive than goodies; partly because they seem to be more real, living and breathing. At the "real job", "goodies" are often liked by their colleagues and boss but they rarely get promoted or receive a "best worker" award.
All imho, of course.

[winston]

Hahahaha you took the bait Sheena............I was just checking to see if you were awake.

[sowhat]

Damn.

[sowhat]

On a serious note — have you read David Knopfler's "Bluffer's Guide to the Rock Business"?

[winston]

On a serious note — have you read David Knopfler's "Bluffer's Guide to the Rock Business"?

No I haven't. Who is the publisher? Is it a good read?

[sowhat]

Here's what i've found (and here's another link). Well, in my view, it's worth reading. Interesting and funny little book. Also mind that i read it in Russian translation, so part of the humour and the feel could've been lost. I mean, it may be even better in English. Types of musicians, managers, agents and all. Some funny stories as well. And the funniest glossary i've ever seen.

[winston]

Part 2 (still in no particular order)

Practice your chops at home and rehearse with the band. Try to rehearse without any friends or hangers on present. You will get along with your band mates much better over time, if you follow this simple advice.

When demand for your band and/or sales of CD’s increase consider hiring a press agent, but make sure the press agent is a professional and more importantly make sure he or she works well with your manager. Managers often get their nose out of joint when the press agent strikes off in a direction on their own initiative. That invariably happens and when it does it often causes strife.

Make friends with local DJ’s, radio and television personalities as well as newspaper column writers. There are a number of ways to accomplish this which I will explain later as time permits, but suffice it to say this is an important step in being able to promote your product for free.

When planning to do some recording in a recording studio do your best to make sure you have an industry recognized recording engineer and the very best producer (with credentials in your chosen genre) that you can afford. Having these people participate can open doors if you do your homework. Think Mutt Lang or Bob Rock if you are making a rock CD and work back to your budget with that sort of quality in mind. If you happen to be a rising Nashville star Mutt could do a good job there but you are probably safer going with someone who is part of the “in crowd”.

Producers call the shots. Understand that and don’t fight it. You can get back to your roots once you have made it big and can afford a few missed pay cheques. Seriously, if you pick the right one, they’ll produce a hit out of one or more of your songs, assuming the material is strong enough. The chances that the arrangement that you went into the studio with versus the finished product are practically zero. Face that possibility before you spend your money and again, don’t fight the changes, especially if you want to be able to control your own destiny in the long run.

Any questions or comments so far?

Part 3 to follow

[beacon]

I'll comment...this is a great new topic area and a great topic. I'm finding myself drawn here every day....

This stuff is good reading for amatures (like myself and my bandmates) as well as those who are more accomplished. Keep it up! Any insights on maximizing rehearsal time would be interesting.

[ozover50]

Maximizing rehearsal time........ now that can be a real issue!

We rehearse only our set list and do it from start to end - 2 or 3 times. No stopping for train wrecks and the like. You can't start again at a gig so why do it at rehearsals? Any new stuff that you've previously tried out at home or want to bounce of the other band members comes after that if there's time.

My 2 cents.............

[sowhat]

Questions... mmm. Let's try.
1. Any particular recommendation on age? What age is the best to start? What are the chances for those who start at, say, 30 (don't worry, i don't want to start a career in music, i'm too old, ugly and talentless for that)? Are there any differences in starting recommendations for teenagers and mature people?
2. Any tips on choosing the record company/producer/agent? How to understand whether the company is worth to work with or not?
3. What one should do in order not to become "star sick"?
4. What are tips on interviews? How to interact with media people?

[teb]

We always had daily rehersals on weekdays, starting about 10:00 AM and running until 1:00 PM or so. They weren't as structured as some might suggest, but were quite serious. If you're in the right band, they're also pretty enjoyable. We never worried about playing songs or sets all the way through. If something needed to be fixed, we stopped and fixed it. If a song had problems, we would play it over until they were worked out. If someone had an idea for a change or new part, we would usually stop and try it. The goal was to put out the best possible song, not just to learn to play it like a machine.

Age? I signed my first record contracts when I was 19. You wouldn't believe how many pieces of paper you have to sign. At that age, the best thing is probably to keep your mouth shut as you're still legally a minor and not old enough for some of the situations that will come up (or even old enough to get into most of the clubs you might be playing at). This can create some pretty touchy situations where you don't want to let the group down, but you also don't want to get the club owner in trouble for even letting you in the door. Behaving myself, keeping a low profile and not drinking in situations where the club owner could get busted for serving me was how I did it. There is no easy answer to some of these problems, so turning 21 ASAP is about your only hope (buy a calendar with missing pages???).

You may not be very worldly when you start young, but you're very durable, which is a plus (you also still have plenty of time to start a different career if things don't work out). Not to sound motherly, but....the best advice I can give you if you're playing professionally on the club circuit or out on the road living in motels is to watch your substance abuse - alcohol in particular. I've known far too many well-known or regionally well-known musicians who had pretty serious drinking problems by the time they were 25-30 years old. If you're good and your band is good, you won't even have to pay for most of this stuff, people -fans, club owners and folks at after-gig parties will give you all you want for free. You may be young and able to party every night at this point, but you won't always be and too much of this stuff can have a way of coming back to bite you later. I enjoyed partying as much as anybody else, but was lucky enough at the time to occasionally be around a few 40-50 year-old alcoholic folk singers who had been out traveling, playing and drinking for the past 15-20 years. Not a pretty picture.

[winston]

Maximizing rehearsal time........ now that can be a real issue!

We rehearse only our set list and do it from start to end - 2 or 3 times. No stopping for train wrecks and the like. You can't start again at a gig so why do it at rehearsals? Any new stuff that you've previously tried out at home or want to bounce of the other band members comes after that if there's time.

My 2 cents.............

Thanks Mark for the great comment and asking one of the toughest questions of all time. Also thanks Howard for your answer it will help focus us on a couple of key areas that many of us can improve on.

I think many of have had at least one rehearsal where everything you do sounds blah and lifeless. Where the drummer becomes bored and decides to adjust his snare or his tune his toms and the bass player figures that this might be a good opportunity to see if he can get more headroom out of his amp and get that special sound that he has been seeking all of his life. The rhythm or keyboard player discovers something that approximates "the lost chord" after noodling for 30 minutes and the lead player tries to play to every sound and rhythm that he is hearing. Meanwhile if you have a singer he is usually being a proverbial idiot in some way because everybody else is preoccupied and he is definitely not going to sing and waste his precious vocal chords for no good reason.

Sound familiar in some way? The question is how did the band get to this state in the first place?

The sort of rehearsal described above is often symptomatic of a larger problem. Let's break it down and analyze how a band might get into that sort of "funk".

If everything sounds off or blah and lifeless there's a good chance that you are not in tune with each other. It may not be obvious that you are slightly out of tune but the best thing you can do after you realize that the band sounds lifeless is to insist that you each tune up using a good quality tuner.

It has been my experience that guitar and bass players will live with poor intonation until they come to the realization that even their instrument can be made to sound like a million dollars if is intonated properly. Do yourself a favor if you suspect that your instrument is not intonated properly then either take it to a good guitar tech or do what I did and learn how to be your own techie. It makes all the difference in the world to have an instrument that responds well to your every whim.

On that note. No pun intended. Do your repairs at home. To be more specific: During rehearsal time, guitar and bass players - do not change strings unless you break one and you don't have a back-up instrument, don't change batteries or fix patch cords, drummers - please do not tune up your drums or change skins, (unless you break one) and to all - try out your new toys at home before you get to rehearsal. Do all these types of things either well before rehearsal or at home.

Come prepared to play. In fact come prepared to have fun and play well. Don't show up at rehearsal tired or hung over. That will create animosity. You may think your band mates won't notice but trust me they do.

Being in a band is an experience that is very much like being married (to your band mates). It takes hard work, dedication, commitment and most of all it take perseverance and a high level of tolerance of the flaws of your friends in the band. If your band mates are not your friends - you are in the wrong band. It's that simple.

If you have a lot of "baggage" or issues that consume your attention and you find that you arrive at the rehearsal uptight, chances are your mind will wander and you will make all sorts of blunders. Try to empty your mind of any worldly distractions that you may have in your life and focus on the task at hand. Playing music well, can soothe the spirit as noted by William Congreve, English dramatist (1670 - 1729) in his play The Mourning Bride, Act 1 Scene 1 and I quote “Music has charms to soothe the savage breast to soften rocks, or bend a knotted oak. " That's a fact IMO.

This next point is very important. Show respect for your band mates at all times. You need them and they need you to make your collective music. More importantly the members almost invariably create music together in such a way that it can never be repeated precisely by others. Understand that notion well and particularly if you have created something that sounds very special be very careful to preserve your relationship with one another above all and at any cost.

I have tried to be brief but this topic is very important to the well being of any band, so please forgive me for being verbose.

[winston]

Thanks Todd,

For the very sage advice. You have obviously experienced the treadmill of the circuit and I would hazard a guess that you have probably played every type of venue known to man. I welcome your input. Your contribution is greatly valued and I encourage you to continue to participate. I look forward to hearing about your experiences and reading any advice that you feel comfortable sharing.

Thanks Sheena for your great questions. I believe that they each deserve an answer of their own. I plan to focus on them next.