How To Make Your Band Successful - Part 4

Welcome to part 5. Media

Step 10
People saying nice things about you
Get as many reviews as you can! Good or bad they are useful forms of feedback. Even if there from the old crusty scene veteran who doesn't have any swing, there good to keep hold of. Save them in a file or something. Not only can they be useful for press-packs but also make you feel happy and good inside.



Step 11
Gettin' on the airwaves man!
Getting major radio airplay is hard and not always that impressive. We got played on Radio 1 a number of times, usually between 2-4 in the morning, but on occasions at more sociable hours. We rarely got any feedback from it but radio DJ's are handy connections, especially if they vibe of you. Bethan Elfyn was our main source and got us in to record a session for BBC Introducing. This can lead to gigs, festivals and high profile exposure for your band. However, to start with it might be more realistic to go for more realistic targets.

There are literally thousands of podcasts and live radio shows online, each of whom have a regular listener-ship so getting on there radio waves is do-able as well. iTunes has a huge list of online radio stations worth checking out and sending your stuff to. Get on it.

University radio can be useful too, especially if they have a large venue which plays host to larger acts. We recorded a live interview with Manchester Met Uni, they interviewed us between New Found Glory and Four Year Strong just to give you some scope. Even if they can't get you a gig it might be worth just leaving a few cd's about in case someone good picks them up.

Local radio can also work and we were played on their frequencies and asked to do an interview for Coastfm. It's nothing huge but you never know who's listening!



Step 12
Video killed the radio star
Maybe if you're ugly fuckers but now it seems a good video can be half the battle. Filming a video can be VERY expensive but use contacts. If you're in school/college/university chances are they'll have a media suite where you can borrow some cameras. Better still, you might know someone on the course and maybe filming a music video will get them a sick grade meaning they might do it for free and do a fucking good job too! I'd advise to think up some kind of storyline for your vid though, otherwise it can get a bit boring at times.

We kept video diaries in Leucine and while no-one watched them they were fun to do and makes it look like you're having a good time in your band! I've had loads of laughs watching live snippets of bands like Blink-182, A Day To Remember and Parkway Drives DVD's.



Check back tomorrow for the final piece!
Safe

How To Make Your Band Successful - Part 3

In Part 3, we're going to talk about gigging. Simple stuff really!

Step 6
Book some shows
Live music is the most important way of getting your name out there. Not everyone can be arsed listening to your music online, it's highly doubtful that even your mates will spend their hard earned cash buying a CD from you. Playing live gives you the chance to impress on audience even if they only popped in for a pint. A good place to start gigging is probably your hometown. Hopefully you'll have hyped up the gig via the internet (and maybe taken advantage of your free texts and bombarded your phone book getting them to come), word of mouth and maybe even a very small local newspaper column and you should have a healthy audience. Our first gig gave me false expectations as we played in front of a really big crowd I got a few delusions of grandeur and was always really let down after when playing to six people. I had a bit of a bad attitude here and really saw my arse in these situations, even though the 6 people might be really digging us. Don't be like me, a prick! Some of the better gigs we played in the end were to small crowds. It's worrying really, I've seen well established bands such as Sonic Boom 6, iSpyStrangers and more play to crowds of less than 20. You should be grateful that anyone has come out to see you!

It might be worth getting some kind of vibe for your band when you play live. I don't mean a gimmick as such but if everyone is on the same page creatively, it really helps. The same can be said with onstage energy, but use some common sense. If you're in a chilled out soul/dub group don't turn donning Slipknotesque masks and jump around like you've downed ten pills (Actually that might work! I've started a niche). Conversely, if you're in a highly energetic post-hardcore band like Leucine, don't just stand around looking bored onstage (the guilty party in question knows who I mean). Sometimes a good stage presence can be as important as a good sound and at the end of the day, how can you expect the audience to get into your music when you don't even look like your into it yourselves? Have no fear about looking like a bellend, people who don't know you probably think you are anyway.

For some reason, unless your a well established band, crowds in the UK just don't seem to vibe off you unless they're smashed off their tits. It doesn't inspire confidence either when the one guy enthusiastically getting down to your shit is ridiculed or started on because he's pushing someone and spilled their drink. Seriously, you're at a gig, get over yourself you twat! Sometimes people come gigs with absolutely no intention of listening to any music. They'll go for a fag or stand round the corner. It's your job as a band to suck these people in and change their opinions.

Always have a backup plan. Maybe a guitar string breaks, or a drum skin tears. Make sure you can bust out something that can keep the shows going. There's no stoppage time, the promoters not going to stop his watch while you fiddle about tuning up. Maybe you have an acoustic song you can start, or maybe you have some terrible jokes to keep the audience entertained. There's nothing worse than building the crowd up only to lose them before your dramatic ending because of some technical issues.

Dont' be late for gigs and always keep an eye on your shit. Bands are the biggest bunch of thieving little c*nts I know. Make sure you mark everything with your bands name on it. Bastions spraypainted their logo onto all of their hardcases and not only does it help with security, it looks bad ass.

Finally, don't expect too much support from your hometown. People are jealous, especially once they see you start enjoying some success. People in bands can also be this way, there's too much willywaving between bands and 'We're better than you' approach is tiresome so you just need to ignore it. Or start fighting. I remember Der Bomber more for their 'take no shit' attitude than for their music. Sometimes publicity like this works. Don't try it if your a bunch of weedy boys like Leucine, the finest fighting styles in our arsenal include Chinese burns and nipple cripples.



Step 7
Getting grown ups involved
You've nailed your first gig, got a few more over the next few months and things are going really well with your band. Maybe you're finding it hard to keep on top of your social networking, maybe you haven't got time to do all the business stuff with the band or maybe you're ready to go to the next level. So let's talk about Managers, Labels and Agents.

Managers
First things first, don't get your dad to be your manager. Surely, you out of all people can recognize how uncool your dad is. Then why would you trust him to arrange your gigs and speak on your behalf? Leucine never had a manager, while we toyed with the idea there wasn't really a manager could do that we couldn't do ourselves. A band manager is the person who takes on the BUSINESS of your band. If you know someone who's business savvy, is pretty good with money and has an idea of where you want to take the band then it might be worth thinking about. But if he's an ageing metalhead (like your dad) who gets you gigs in working men's social clubs where you play to old men, nursing a pint of bitter for an afternoon before going home and watching casualty, you might want to think again. Ultimately, you should let your manager source out the cheapest costs for merch, trying to get you in touch with media and handling any PR for your band. Personally, I'd still leave booking gigs to the band or alternatively...

Agents
Agents can be very useful and there are a lot out there. Often agents won't touch unsigned bands as there's not enough money to be made, but if you think you're ready for them it might be helpful, especially if you have a tour in mind. A lot of promoters use agents exclusively, especially for larger venues and sometimes you can only get to play these shows with agency help. Be warned, agents can be expensive and often demand a percentage of the takings of your gig as well.

Labels
Getting signed is the dream, right? Not really. We were approached numerous times with the opportunity to be signed but never by anyone good. Signing to a label is like a contract so never agree to anything if the label doesn't have the bands interests in mind and NEVER sign anything without letting some who knows about law have a look over it first. There have been countless examples of bands who have rushed into labels without reading the fine print and find themselves giving their songs away for free.



Step 9
Touring
I personally think touring is the best part about being in a band. When we did it we toured with This Years Winner Is and had fuck loads of fun. But I cannot stress enough, practice TO FUCK. Within 3 days of gigs my voice was almost clean out. We'd never done anything like it before and your body (especially my voice) suffers. For vocalists, steer clear of alcohol and dairy products as they constrict the vocal passage and try and get throat clearing stuff from the chemist. I used Vocazone, like Snoop Dogg uses!

But without TYWI on our tour, we would have been absolutely fucked . Loads of sites would suggest waiting a bit but if you have equipment that spills over onto two or more cars then you need a van. You end up paying so much in petrol that the price of a dirty old van becomes insignificant. The problem is that you need to be over 21 to get insurance on a van and it's very expensive. If you can afford it though, you're set. I would also suggest putting some decent money into as the last thing you want is your van to break down halfway to a show or the police pulling you over to find half your band scurrying between guitars like Romanian immigrants on the side of the M6.

While there's a lot of paperwork there are some charities who can financially support bands on tour. The includes allowances for food, petrol and accommodation. We never used it but there are some allowances out there for bands (especially young ones).

Keep it cheap. Chances are you know someone in the city your playing in or maybe they know someone. There are some genuinely kind souls who let sweaty boys in bands sleep on their floor, eat all their doritos and take terrible, awful shits in their toilets (thank you!). So definitely take advantage of these suckers as often as possible! I wouldn't suggest sleeping in the van either as it is always freezing and a bit cramped.



Tomorrow I will talk about how best to expose your band to the media! I hope you're still with me!

How To Make Your Band Successful - Part 2

Here we are again! Part 2, welcome back! So, now you have your band, a kick-ass name and you've decided what you're going to play! Good job, I'm proud of you! So what next?

Step 4
Find a place to make the magic happen
Finding good practise space is hard! Try in your bedroom and have the neighbours complain to the council (But ASBOS are so rock'n'roll). We started practising in Rhyl but if you know the area, then you'll know it wasn't long before we had chavs trying to brick the windows of our space and keying your cars because they heard 'some moshers' making 'goff music.' The place just wasn't right and not at all secure meaning we couldn't leave our equipment behind. When it takes 45 minutes at either end of your session to unpack and pack away, then it doesn't take a mathematician to realise how much time your wasting. This starts to become even more difficult when someones car is in the shop and you have enormous Marshall stacks and a full size drum-kit and have to take it all home in shuttle runs (I'll talk about a van later). We eventually found somewhere we could just turn up, plug in and play and it made everything much less of a hassle so if you can find somewhere that lets you do that, you're laughing. Otherwise, you might have to pay for recording space which has its ups-and-downs such as having to share with other bands and using their gash equipment.



Step 5
Write some killer choonz!
Pretty straight forward really, write some songs! I think it's really important to demo songs early on, even if you go onto change them later. Demoing means you really get to know how your songs sound and when you later come to record them properly you won't be fannying about as you'll know what to expect. In Leucine we'd often demo our songs before hitting the studio and I'd say it helped as we knew exactly what we wanted them to sound and we knew the structure of the songs. There's nothing worse than turning up to the studio with an unfinished, unrehearsed song. The band and the producer will hate you for it!

We spent around £400-500 on our home studio and eventually recorded our final two songs ourselves at home, sending them away to be mastered and I think it's definitely worth investing in home recording equipment. Not only will you be prepared for the studio instrumentally, you will also be ready mentally and begin to learn the recording process. I hated recording, I found it boring so it is good to get a taste when the pressure is off and you're not wasting everybody's time and money.

I also suggest copywriting all of your songs, it's pretty cheap and will save you money and hassle in the long run (especially is some sneaky Uzbek swines start trying to sell your music on the internet).



Step 6
The Internet (it's not just for porn)
At this point, you'll wanna start promoting yourselves. There are literally millions of websites out there to host your band info on and it becomes too difficult to keep track of if you put up info on all of them, especially is something big happens like band member changes or something. I suggest sticking to 5 core sites. Handily, you can wangle the 'big 3' social networking sites to all sync up, so information you post on Twitter shows up on MySpace and Facebook as well.

1. MySpace - Yes, it's had its day but I still consider this to be a 'shop window' for bands. Just keep it up to date with a pictures, tracks and dates and just leave it.

2. Twitter - It's what all the new cool people do. Easiest way to talk to fans directly and it doesn't need managing.

3. Facebook - Good for inviting people to shows (on a small scale) and putting out information without being a slave to 140 characters. I would be really careful to limit how often you use Facebook though, how many invites and updates do receive a day and just think 'fuck off and leave me alone?!?' Use it sparingly or watch your fans drop.

4. LastFm/PureVolume - Both of these sites are good to keep up an appearance on and require minimum attention.

5. Website - Leucine registered www.weareleucine.co.uk but redirected it straight back to our MySpace with the intention to one day fix it up. While a domain isn't expensive a website is a lot of work, needs to look professional and stay up-to-date and building a website can be very expensive. It might be worth registering your domain early on and saving it for another day.



Once you have all of these elements sorted then you can promote yourself as a band. You can either record first and gig later, that's what Leucine did and I found we were able to create a buzz with songs and information before we started gigging and our first show was in front of 200+ people. We waited as long as we could get away with before we played to make sure we were as tight as we could possibly be at that point. No one wants to see a band fresh out of the garage, unrehearsed and out of time.

Tomorrow, we can get started on booking shows!
PEACE!

How To Make Your Band Successful - Part 1

Ok, so this blog isn't actually quite 'How to make your band successful,' I simply called it that because it will be more favorably viewed on search engines. This is more about how to manage your band most effectively. There are millions of blogs out there about this kind of thing but they're often written by stuffy middle aged men who think they know the music industry inside out. At the same time some of them have good stuff to offer and if you have time, join The Surface Festival's mailing list as well as checking out Jen Long, from BBC Introducing's podcasts. I used to be in a band called Leucine (Here is the MySpace) and while that was not only a glorious plug, I think it also lets you know the kind of music we played and where we were as a band. So let an ageing rocker, sitting on his comfy sofa, devouring a packet of Caramel Nibbles, help those aspiring bands out there.



So, the big question: How do you make it as a band? Obviously, I don't know the answer to that, looking at Leucine's track record, while we did ok, we were nowhere near 'making it.' However, what I can tell you are some tips to avoid if you want to be successful as well as a few personal insights that I have to offer.

First and most important step:
Be in a band with some decent flers
When we started Leucine, I was quite lucky to come into a band infrastructure that was already well established as all the lads had been in Ninehourdrive. When Jay left and Russ joined the band he fitted right in, shared the same music taste, sense of humor and was a good lad. This is important in a band, don't think just because someone is shit hot at guitar they are an ideal fit for your band. It's good to be in a band with your mates. It's easier to compromise on issues, you can tell them when they are being a twat and most of all and you get to hang around with your mates all day. Also, if you get the egotistical, shredding God in your band he might start thinking he's bigger than the band, and fair enough can you imagine Leo Messi in a team full of Emile Heskeys? It's only natural that they might want to move on if the opportunity presents itself.



Step two:
Give your band a bad-ass name
This is very important, giving your band a name. This will cause major bitching sessions between you and your members and make sure only to settle with something everyone feels ok with. We had loads of ideas before settling on Leucine and in retrospect, we made the wrong choice. We had constant issues of pronunciation and spelling difficulties at nearly every turn. Imagine, hearing your band belting out the speakers on Radio 1, only for the DJ to sign off saying, 'That was the new song by Looshun, from North Wales,' or all 1,000 of your tour flyers coming back spelled Luecine. People would always ask what it meant (it didn't mean anything, it just sounded cool) and it was altogether a bit of a letdown. I also personally think that a consistent logo is a good thing, that way it's instantly recognizable. Silverstein have had the same logo on every CD and piece of literature they produce.



NOFX stuck with the same logo for years as well and I think it looks good when a band sticks with it's logo.



(I will talk more about graphics etc later)

Step 3:
Be whatever band you want to be
Ok, so you have your members, you have a name. Now it's time to decide what kind of music you're going to play. Just because you all really dig Metallica doesn't mean you have to play heavy metal, this is your band, you can play whatever music you want. It has to be something that everyone agrees on but you could start an acid jazz/industrial band if you wanted, it's entirely your choice. If you're thinking, 'nah, we'll just play it safe' then there's really no point in being in a band. You don't get noticed by 'playing it safe.' Think how many bands have decided to completely move the goalposts and how it has worked for them, look at Refused or Enter Shikari. 'Enter Shikari?' you say mockingly, 'that band is gash!' Fair point, but unless your names' Bono, they're selling more albums, merch etc than you. You could argue that Shikari were in the right place at the right time as the emo kids turned into nu ravers, or it could be argued that it was because of bands like Shikari that made this turn happen. Shikari did it first, after them came bands like Hadouken, Crystal Castles and more. Now those other bands are holding onto the limelight and even though I feel Shikari haven't released anything good since Take To The Skies, they are selling out tours whenever they play. Most importantly, while they started experimenting with dance they are now moving into playing what they want to play, even though it's not my taste you can tell it's honest and they enjoy what they do. For another band who are changing the field go and check out TRC at their MySpace here



In Part 2 I will talk about the next steps to take as a band.
Ciao!

The King Blues - Punk And Poetry - Review

WHAT. AN. ALBUM.

It’s been a difficult year for The King Blues after the very public departures of band members Fruitbag and Johnny Rich (if you’re like me and love a bit of band slating then go here and read Fruitbag’s very public dissing of Itch, and then Itch’s response, here). Loves a bit of gossip, me.

And despite this I’d say this is one of the best albums I’ve heard for ages, and definitely the best release of 2011 thus far. Apparently, they had an album written as early as January but after negative responses to singles like Holiday and then the protests of tuition fee rises and cuts put in places by the coalition government, The King Blues tore up the album and wrote new material.

The album opens with the anthemic, The Last Of Dreamers bridging epically into We Are Fucking Angry. Angry would be an understatement, they sound fucking furious and the track is filled with ferocious riffs and obvious political overtones and it is here you can see where the response to the coalition government most clearly. Itch really belts out the vocals as opposed to his normal relaxed spoken word style. Next up comes the single Set The World On Fire with a chorus catchier than chlamydia and a message that the media is making our lives boring and repetitive. Anyone who knows me can tell you that I’m a cynical bastard who can definitely relate to this kind of message.

My only criticism at this point, and it is also repeated over a fiar few of the tracks on the album is Itch’s insistence to overdub a lot of his own vocals, giving it a kind of reload affect. I really don’t feel it needs it and find it really irritating when I listen to it.
I don’t really get Dancehall, it’s more of an interlude than a song and it gives me images of old school black white films with no dialogue or the music that would accompany a freaks sideshow exhibition. The same is with Shooting Fascists not really sure what it brings to album as a whole but whatever.

Back on track, after Dancehall comes my favourite track on the album, The Future’s Not What It Used To Be. It opens eerily and breaks down into a kind of reggae/dub sound that you might have found of their debut release Under The Fog and old school fans will enjoy this nod back to their old style. The songs reaches its crescendo with a kind of dubstep vibe that drives the song to its climax and which I think sounds sick.

Next comes the bouncy, pop-punk sound of I Want You and I predict this to be a surprise mainstream summer anthem (you heard it here first). Clever lyrics about Robson Green’s sexual preference and a dancey rhythm. Loves it! 5 Different Bottles Of Shampoo has been used in The King Blues live set for quite a while and shares the same spine tingling feeling that What If Punk Never Happened gave me when I first listened to Save The World, Get The Girl. It talks about the empowerment of women and gives some of the best lyrics from the album in my opinion.

Despite its chirpy feel, Sex Education contains a dark message about young people learning about sex from watching pornography and both this and Shampoo have a story to tell. After Shooting Fascists which I mentioned above comes Headbutt which I think is awesome, I just want to repeat what I said earlier about Itch overdubbing every single rhyme on this track. I personally think the mix on the single was far better and think the chorus is weaker with only Itch’s vocals rather than the gang affect that was used previously. It has a Jamie T type rhythm that I think works really well.

Next up comes the only track I don’t really like on the album in Does Anyone Care About Us? I just find it a bit of filler that is really weak compared to the rest of the album. It probably has more impact live and I can imagine the crowd really getting behind the chorus but think it shies away from the rest of the album.

Punk And Poetry ends with Everything Happens For A Reason, a touching song about love and parenthood. I love this track and think that it’s a great way to sign off. Overall, I’d say this a very slick album and hope it propels The King Blues into the stardom they deserve.

Oddly though, while I feel that Save The World, Get The Girl was much more mainstream friendly than this album, I feel that they will get more commercial success with this as they experiment with different genres and styles.

I'm giving this album
5 out of 5

If you like The King Blues you should also check out these bands:
Sonic Boom Six, Random Hand, Crazy Arm