Forming a successful Band Part 4

How to go about getting noticed by a Record Company

Stage one is getting your band organised and running smoothly, stage two is getting gigs, press, and a demo together. We've looked at these in the past three articles. Stage three is going for a record contract or asking for some money.

You need to have several things sorted out before you approach and companies. I have seen many bands put in all that time and effort getting to the stage where companies where taking notice, only to discover that they were unprepared in one area or another. This leads to awkward questions being asked by A&R people. This is not a good start. You want to arrive at their attention fully formed and well sorted out, otherwise like a lot of bands do, you'll find yourself having to go back three spaces and miss a turn. This is something that isn't necessarily disastrous, it can take several attempts to get it right.

However every failed attempt can put stress on the band: disagreements on what to do, resentment for wasted time and money etc... A potentially great band can, if too much time and disappointment go by, split up. So be prepared with all the basics (which we'll cover here) BEFORE you actually approach the companies.

So here we go with the list of things you need. You can talk yourself out of thinking you need one or more of these things, pointing out that this band or that band got a deal without X or Y in the list. But remember this: Unless you're actually personally involved in what ever band you read about getting a contract, you can't really know the circumstances that surrounded them at the time. They may have had advantages and luck, which you'd be foolish to count on.

We are assuming here that your band has not got a following of thousands, has not been on TV because your best friend's dad is a producer at ITV. We assume that your band does not have a member who is a journalist for a large music magazine, nor that the head of A&R at your record label just happens to play football with you, nor that you have a powerfully connected manager.

These kinds things are often an important factor in why some bands seem to just "get a record contract over night" without having all the ingredients normally associated with a band on the verge of a deal. Assuming you haven't got one or more of the above, there are a number of things you need to have together to get noticed and once you are noticed, there are things you need to have sorted out in order to be taken seriously.

So what are these things? We'll list them all. The more of them you have sorted out, the less you'll have to rely on luck (never a good idea).

The first thing that we must establish is this: How good you are as a band or as musicians, is almost never a deciding factor for a record company. You might feel your band has some of the best lyrics, songs and originality around. Maybe, but don't get to thinking that any of this is important to record companies. You can argue against this if you like, but five years from now when you're still looking in vain for a record deal, and filled with resentment that record companies just don't recognise talent, and only sign up crap bands; perhaps you'll remember this bit of advice.

Its not true that record companies only sign up talentless crap bands. Yes they sign up plenty of the fore-mentioned, but talented original bands do get signed up as well. The main thing to see is that to a record company, this is all but irrelevant.

So what are they interested in?

First: are you good live? Have you got any kind of following?

Why, many bands ask, should a record company be interested in this? Surely they say, its the finished recording they're interested in. Surely if they want to make us famous they can, by simply launching a massive publicity campaign, and organising a tour for us in big venues across the country. What's the point in us slogging around little clubs etc...just get a token following?

The point is; your live performance says an awful lot to a record company. They know full well that with today's studio techniques, anyone can sound good on a recording. However, not everyone sounds and looks good on stage. From the point of view of an A&R person, they are as interested in this as anything else. Why?

1) Because if they get you a TV spot, they want you to look and sound great (even if that means looking bad on purpose).

2) They also know that a band who sound good live will walk into a studio and put everything down in a few takes. Where as a studio band, can be used to spending months in their home studio constructing demo masterpieces. Record companies don't want to spend vast sums on studio time.

3) Finally and very importantly, you must realise, that from a record company's point of view, music fashions are changing all the time, they can never predict what will sell and what won't. They know as well as you do, that crap sometimes sells and that good original music isn't necessarily appreciated by the general public. So, how do they know that people will like what you do?

Remember: there's no accounting for taste when you look at the music buying public. So if the A&R person sees that you have a following, or at least that there is a good sized audience at your gig, and they are going mad over you, this inspires a lot of confidence. They think: "well there were 150 young people out there and they seemed to love this band, that's a good sign...".

If you do a showcase gig with little or no audience, you are expecting the A&R person to judge your performance totally by their own taste. They may be over 40, may personally like a style of music that is quite different from what you do. Its their job to find new bands who look like they'll catch the attention of the quickly changing fashions of young listeners, not to find bands that satisfy their own tastes. How can they judge you in this respect? They know this is their weakest area, and also one of the most risky. Whether they personally like or dislike your music has little baring on whether the record buying public will. This is something they are acutely aware of. So anything they see, that is any kind of indication, that any audience wild over your performance, means a lot to the A&R person - its all they have to go on. Its one of your most powerful tools. It is possible to get a company interested with out gigging, but its MUCH, I'll say that again, MUCH harder.

If you are a techno dance band, and purely a studio phenomenon, then getting your tracks played regularly at the right clubs, is equivalent to gigging.

When is a record label like a bank?

Its also worth noting at this point, that there is no such thing as a standard record contract anymore. No two are exactly alike. But one thing that is extremely common these days, is that many record contracts turn the record company into a sort of bank. They LEND you the money to record, tour, publicise, press the CD. All this money is expected back from record sales. So you can't expect to make any money yourself until the profit from your sales pays back all of your advance.

Some companies will give you little bits of money to go away and do a demo with one of their producers, this is not the same as a record contract, and the money is normally only expected back if they do end up offering you a contract. This sort of "here's some money, go away and record a demo with a producer" is an important first step for many bands who end up with a contract. What the record company wants to see is not always what you might think. Yes they want to see if a producer can refine your sound a bit, give it a definite sound that fits squarely into a market etc... They also want to see how well you perform in the studio with someone else involved and limited studio time. Equally importantly, and this is often why they give you one of their own producers, they want to see how easy you are to work with. If you turn up stoned or drunk (even slightly), that's going to get back to the record company. If the band has rows or tantrums in the studio, or if the singer keeps getting nerves, is an ego-maniac, or needs inordinate amounts of cajoling to do a decent performance, or if getting your average track down involves 8 takes to get it right: these are all things the record company wants to know about before they risk their money.

Don't think that the producer is a sort of spy for the record company, he or she wants you to do well, because if you get a contract its potentially very good for them too. But they are risking their reputation too. If they see a lot of bad signs when you're in the studio and they don't report it to the the A&R person, they are taking a hell of a risk. Remember, a lot of producers and A&R people have been burned by bands who talk big, but turn out to be coke heads on the verge of a crisis as soon as the pressure is on, or singers who go all funny and take months to come up with new songs, while the project falls down around the A&R persons ears.

They are not all just a load of bastards or idiots, who can't see talent when its pushed under their noses . Yes there are a lot who do fit the fore-mentioned description. But many of those who are reasonable human beings (and many are) have either been burned by untogether bands or have heard the horror stories. Also they know that their budget is only so big, and that if they spend money on you and you blow it, they could have given some other deserving hopeful the chance.

If they lend you a load of money as part of a record deal, and you use it all up, but still haven't finished the LP, let alone financed a tour, they are not going to be pleased. You are unlikely to be given more money, and very likely to be put on the shelf. Remember a record company of large or medium size, almost always has several bands that they are toying with, giving a little bit of money to, to see what happens. They only expect to seriously take on, one or two of the several bands they are dealing with on this preliminary level. So if you show yourself to be a bit of a risk in some way, but one of the other bands finishes their demo on time, in budget, worked well with the producer, and produced a damn good demo, who do you think the record company will choose?

Back to the point

So its clear that having a good live performance and if at all possible (and its REALLY worth putting some work into this) a decent sized following.

The other things you need before approaching record labels are listed below. How to get these together has, at least in part, been covered in our previous articles. They are:

A fair sized list of gig dates spanning at least a year in decent known (if small) venues.

A set of press cuttings ie: reviews of gigs in the popular music press (eg: in the U.K. Melody Maker or NME)

A decently recorded and very well presented demo tape with photos and band biography etc...

Once you have all this together (and with a bit of hard work you can do it in a year or certainly in two), you are ready to actually start ringing up record labels and sending off tapes. NOT BEFORE!

I can't stress enough how important it is to go through all these stages methodically. If you miss some of them out, you are going to make it harder for a company to take your seriously. Don't fall into the trap that I've seen countless bands fall into. Please consider these 'case studies':

Band A) Lots of work and enthusiasm goes into getting a great demo tape together, and good gigs lined up, but because they haven't taken the time to get press reviews, they can't get past the secretary at the record label. By the time they get their reviews, the demo is out of date etc... etc...

Band B) They spend lots of time gigging, even have a couple of reviews, but they haven't got a decent demo or good photos. On the phone they get past the secretary at the record label and get the all important name of the right A&R person (once you have this, you can bypass the secretary and you know who to send your tape to). But the demo and photos they send are badly presented and uninspiring so they get the old "try us again in a years time" from the A&R.

Band C) They get an excellent demo and photos together, even get their demo reviewed in the press, but they haven't got their live thing going. They through lots of determination get an A&R person to come down to a gig they set up especially for the purpose. Unfortunately, there is only an audience of a few friends, they are effectively in an empty hall with the A&R. Hence, they are tense, the performance is good but stilted and there is no following to inspire the confidence of the A&R. So the result is the same: "we'll call you". In other words, the A&R writes them off.

If you get everything together we've been talking about BEFORE you put in all effort of approaching record labels, you'll have all the important angles covered, and you'll be in a realistic position for negotiating a deal.