Forming a successful Band Part 3

Now that we have had a look at the internal organization of a successful band, the importance of getting your goals right, and started to have a look at how to interface with the music business, lets look at the everyday jobs in more detail.

REHEARSALS

Its fairly important to hire a rehearsal room that is not only well equiped, but also has an atmosphere that suits the band. This sort of thing can make quite a big difference to the feel and moral of the band.

CHOOSING THE ROOM.

Obviously the more you spend, the better the gear generally speaking. If you are on a low budget (like most bands starting out), you can optimise your chances of getting a good room by following these suggestions.

When you walk into a room you are considering hiring, clap your hands, you shouldn't hear much of a reverberation. Even a very quick echo of its noticeably there, will cause the whole band to sound muddy. Good rehearsal rooms usually have carpets and sound absorbent walls.

Probably the most important piece of equipment in a rehearsal room is the vocal P.A.. If you have vocals in your band or you plan to run keyboards through the P.A., its very important that this P.A. is a good one. That means a good clean powerful amp, and good quality monitors (speakers). If the amp isn't powerful enough, by the time the vocals or keyboards are loud enough to compete with guitar and or drums, the sound will be muffled, distorted, vocals may feed back etc... If you are a synth/sample based band it is important that these sound big and clear, not muffled and overdriven (unintentionally).

This may sound like obvious advice, but I find it amazing how many bands make do with terrible rehearsal rooms, because they're a bit cheaper. In the end it has its affect! The music sounds bad, so the band ends up losing enthusiasm, rehearsals become a drudge.

FIRST DEMO

The next thing you want to do is to record a demo for the purpose of getting gigs. You only want three or four songs on there, the people you will be giving your tapes to are very unlikely to listen to more than that. Be sensible about which songs you record. Imagine what and how you want to play live. You're doing a demo in order to get a gig not your master work for world release. This is an important point since far too many bands spend far too much time making gig demos.

The Promoter at the venue will not be impressed by a state of the art production that took you weeks to record. They're looking for a band that will play well live, entertain their clientele. If your demo is a million miles away from anything they can imagine live, I'm not saying it will put them off, but it won't impress them. A promoter will be far more impressed by enthusiasm and persistence on your part, than a demo with incredible production.

Having said this, it is important that you come across as professional. A well known London promoter once told me; he was constantly amazed at how many bands approach him with a boring looking tape, scribble their number on the back of a packet of cigarettes and then expect he'll listen to the tape and give them a gig... What usually happens to such tapes is they get chucked into a bag with similarly presented tapes and never listened to. A well presented tape (a good cover), a biography of the band, photos and press cuttings if you have any, is essential. A promoter at a venue, a record company, management office, whoever, are far more likely to listen to your tape if it looks good on the outside and is accompanied by the appropriate biog, photos etc... This is what they get from the serious bands, so if you want to be taken seriously, do as they do!

RECORDING THE DEMO:

Unless you are a techno dance act, where much of it is sequenced, or you own your own studio, you should be very well rehearsed before you go in to record. I have seen so many bands turn up at the studio either unrehearsed, or with messy bits they haven't yet worked out. The result is almost always the same: too much studio time is wasted getting the basic backing tracks to sound right. So when it comes time to put on the vocals (if you do them separately - most people do) and work on the mix, they are terribly rushed for time.

Remember things always take longer than you think in the studio. Getting a good drum sound, if you use live drums, often takes the better part of a day for example. If you uses samples, make sure you go into the studio with your own samples all edited and ready. Yes a decent studio will have lots of samples, but trying to choose them during studio time is fatal, do it at home. Sequences should also be totally finished.

Its worth asking, because some studios will let you go in for free during down time (unbooked time) with a pair of headphones and quietly choose the samples for your session from their collection. However, don't expect this, most studios will say no, but a not too busy, friendly studio may let you do this, obviously they'll expect you to know how to use their sampler.

Best to bring your own amps. Again a good studio will have a selection of good amps, which you might end up using on the advice of the engineer or producer, but it will take time. So if you already have a decent sound, bring and set up your amp and effects as normal. The engineer will make any changes necessary in your set up. Things like reverb and echo might be removed from your set up and added later, unless you have good reason for objecting.

If you are really unhappy with your sound at home, you can ask the engineer to use the studio's gear to get you a better sound, but the result may not be what you are after, and if the sound of one of their amps or effects isn't quite right and you get into experimenting with their gear, studio time will be running away like water. You are much better off if you can, bringing and using your normal setup.

If you aren't experienced in studios don't know how they work, and haven't got a producer, its a good idea to bring someone with you who understands studios well. The engineer may or may not understand your music on the level you'd like. Its very helpful to have someone there who understands your music and also knows how a studio works. Eg: if you say "I wish the guitar sounded a little darker", its nice to have someone there who knows what you mean and can go to the the engineer and say "take out the mid and add a bit of flanger". Otherwise the house engineer might have quite different idea about what "dark" means.

Also don't go in thinking: the guitar sounds a bit crap, so does the bass, but the studio will be able to fix it up. Yes they may be able to, but it will take a lot of studio time, and the result may still not be what you want.

READ THIS - Producers

If you have an experienced producer, and that's neither likely nor necessary for your first demo, they will take care of everything and you should trust them. More likely, you either won't have one, or you'll be produced by yourselves or a friend.

It is very important that you have a fair amount of studio experience if you or a friend are going to produce you. Unless you really know your way around a studio and have clocked up a fair bit of studio time previously, I would strongly advise you NOT to produce yourself. The engineer, if its a decent studio, will do a perfectly adequate job of producing you, if you haven't got one, just leave it up to them. Think of yourself as the recording session organizer, rather than the producer.

A NOTE ABOUT PRODUCTION:

Producing a good, well mixed recording, is all about knowing how to compromise and select. As you have no doubt already found out, if you have much home studio experience (particularly with a band), you can't please everyone. Its just not possible, or at least very unlikely. If, for example, you listen to the drums on their own, and get what seems the best possible sound, then do the same with the bass: then put them together, you are unlikely to have the best COMBINED sound - this is what the listener hears.

It goes beyond the scope of this article to go into any detail, but for example: the bass drum on its own might sound nice and full, powerful etc... but when you add the bass guitar, the result might well be a boomy mess. To get a nice sounding bass drum and bass guitar TOGETHER, means you have to choose or alter the sounds very carefully. In short, a good sounding mix is like a jigsaw puzzle in terms of frequencies. Unless you really know what you are doing when you choose the sounds and mix the track, you'll end up with an amateur sounding result.

A good production is as much to do with engineering and production skill as it is good equipment. That's why it IS possible (though difficult) to get a decent professional sounding production in even a home studio, but you really do have to know what you're doing.

DISASTER:

The band 'produces itself'. Unless you all have plenty of studio experience, don't do it! Compromises in sounds will HAVE to be made if you want a professional result. Someone; you, someone else or the engineer will have to make these decisions.

Having said all this, for your first demo, for the purpose of getting your first set of gigs, you don't need to have a state of the art quality demo. As long as it sounds reasonably well done, reasonably professional, it will be fine.

PHOTOS

You'll need some band photos as part of the package (yes I hate that word too but I couldn't resist) you give to the promoter at the venue etc...

Basically, what holds true for the recording of the demo holds true for doing the photos. ie: you should probably get someone (even a friend) who is a serious photographer to do your photos. Unless you have access to a professional lighting setup, you're probably better off doing your photos outside.

Choose what your wear and the background carefully. This is obvious advice I know, but people often seem to spend half the day getting dressed up, then with only so many hours of day light left, they go out and look for somewhere 'interesting' to do the photos. About half an hour before the light starts to go, they settle on the least bad place they can find!

However you do your photos, I urge you, let someone else choose which photo to actually use when you get them developed. In my opinion, you should never choose your own photos!

THE BIOGRAPHY

Basically make it short, no more than one page. Make it punchy, hit them with everything you've got in the first few lines (reviews, quotes, recordings if you have any). Then give a brief history of the band and current band members. Perhaps a brief description of the music, but this isn't entirely necessary. A band logo at the top of the page is quite a good idea.

THE TAPE COVER

The more noticeable the better. Remember, your tape has to stand out at a glance from a pile of others, and it has to make the person want to put it on and see what the music is like. One quick cheap way to make a fairly slick looking cover, is to take a colour photo of the band a painting, whatever, trim it, fold it and put it in as the cassette cover. It looks good to have the tracks listed inside the cover, and the name of the band showing on the binder of the tape cover (in case its in a stack of other tapes).

Very importantly, you must put the band name and contact number on everything you give out, since the bits: tape cover and tape, photos, biog are not unknown to get separated in disorganized promoter's offices. Above all make sure the name of the band and number are on the tape itself, no just on the cover.

GETTING THE TAPE TO THE PROMOTER

You need to choose a venue which puts on the sort of music you do. Go down to the venue about an hour before the gig and see if you can find the promoter. Promoters often disappear once the gig has started and if you arrive half an hour before they may be too busy to talk to you. Once you get hold of them, be prepared for them to tell you they haven't got their booking diary with them. What you may get is another day and time to come back, but this is normal procedure.

Once you find the promoter, give them your stuff and be as chaty and enthusiastic as possible. If you attempt to be too cool and demure in an attempt to show them what an important potential rock star you are going to be, they won't be impressed. Enthusiasm and a certain degree of deference is a better approach. Remember, like record companies, promoters have absolutely no reason to put you on, apart from whether or not they like you. If you have a massive following turning up to every gig, of course its different, but we're talking about your first few gigs here. There is always an endless supply of bands who want to play there, if they don't like you personally, if they feel taken for granted, they won't put you on.