How would one start a band?

Message Bookmarked

Bookmark Removed

I'll check back for answers later. I'm in school, and the bell just rang.

― Nowell, Wednesday, 8 September 2004 19:20 (twenty-one years ago)

See, first thing you do is DISREGARD THE BELL.

― joseph cotten (joseph cotten), Wednesday, 8 September 2004 19:21 (twenty-one years ago)

This is a serious answer based on my starting a band in high school:
Convince a couple of your friends to buy instruments. Make them learn to play some covers of songs that you like (Nirvana is a good easy starting place). Try to have at least one friend who has some kind of musical ability (this step is not necessary). Write funny lyrics about teachers that you don't like (this worked really well for me). Write some angsty teenage lyrics with obvious suicidal symbolism. Play at the youth center, where they make you take all the curse words out of your songs. Record all your songs on a cheap tape deck. Listen to the tapes over and over again. Invite members of the opposite sex to your band practices, where they will sit around looking bored. Play at someone's birthday party, forget the words to your songs, get paid $10. Eventually realize that you aren't going to get "discovered" and become really famous, get bored and stop playing. Continue listening to your tapes of your practices for the next 10 years. Decide that you were "proto-noise" and ahead of your time. Be in like 5 other bands that are much more professional but nowhere near as fun or exciting or rewarding.

― n/a (Nick A.), Wednesday, 8 September 2004 19:28 (twenty-one years ago)

Continue listening to your tapes of your practices for the next 10 years. Decide that you were "proto-noise" and ahead of your time

made me laugh, anwyays-what you said about nirvana being an easy starting point. the only song i know how to play by them is an easy drop d tuning thing, i think 'somehting in the way'.
anyways, was it because kurt was left-handed that his chords looked difficult? or did people just find easy ways to play the songs.

just osmehting ive wondered from time to time

― kephm, Wednesday, 8 September 2004 19:34 (twenty-one years ago)

Continue listening to your tapes of your practices for the next 10 years.

Hahaha, oh it hurts.

― jaymc (jaymc), Wednesday, 8 September 2004 19:35 (twenty-one years ago)

Haha. Yep, getting together with someone and 'jamming' in high school usually consisted of a drummer and a guitar player figuring out which Nirvana and Smashing Pumpkins songs you both knew. The next step was convincing another guitarist to switch to bass.

― Jordan (Jordan), Wednesday, 8 September 2004 19:36 (twenty-one years ago)

I used to just put on "Incesticide" and play along to side one. You can do pretty much the whole thing with power chords.

Our bass player was actually the 'technically able' one, he was one of those whiz kids who could pick up any instrument and learn how to play it in like a week.

When I started learning how to play guitar, my job was to play the "CCCHHKKA! CCCCHHKKKA!" part of "Creep" by Radiohead.

― n/a (Nick A.), Wednesday, 8 September 2004 19:39 (twenty-one years ago)

In high school I had a guitar/bass/drums group that thought we were Jaco Pastorius's garage-jazz trio with Hiram Bullock and Kennwood Dennard. This meant that we would play Jimi Hendrix and Sly Stone tunes and jam for twenty minutes. When the jam-band thing got big a couple years later, I was all "Hey, we were doing that in high school."

I won't even mention the ska and goth-metal bands.

(x-post THAT'S THE MOST IMPORTANT PART OF THE SONG)

― Jordan (Jordan), Wednesday, 8 September 2004 19:40 (twenty-one years ago)

Actually, I never had these early band experiences, which sound like fun. But I have a half dozen tapes of myself on multiple keyboards, junk instruments, and computer-generated samples. Also, occasionally with a friend drumming with a pencil on a phone book. It was awesome.

― jaymc (jaymc), Wednesday, 8 September 2004 19:41 (twenty-one years ago)

my music is nothing but this

― kephm, Wednesday, 8 September 2004 19:45 (twenty-one years ago)

I suggest putting up a paper flyer advertisement, spelling out all of your influences and what you want in a bandmate. Those always work remarkably well.

― i hope you can tell exactly how sarcastic nickalicious is being here (nickalicio, Wednesday, 8 September 2004 19:54 (twenty-one years ago)

(Actually, that's how my current band found our drummer. But you're right, the success/failure ratio of that method is pretty depressing, and probably isn't a good idea for someone just starting out).

― n/a (Nick A.), Wednesday, 8 September 2004 19:58 (twenty-one years ago)

A fond memory: my first band, which was called Viscid Lemon, didn't have a mic stand, so when I started playing guitar and singing, we fashioned a crude mic holder out of a wire coathanger by bending the hook around the microphone and putting the large part over my head.

― n/a (Nick A.), Wednesday, 8 September 2004 20:02 (twenty-one years ago)

OMG

I googled my high school band. Here's a review of one of our demo tapes:

WAITING FOR DAWN Shadowbox
This is a new promo tape of Waiting For Dawn, who were previously known as Carpe Noctem and changed the name due to legal issues. There are two songs: "Shadowbox" (a new one) and "This Day" (taken from Carpe Noctem demo (see review)). The main difference between them is that the new one is heavier, more powerful, and, overall, shows the band in a more self-confident form. It contains female backing vocals and stylistically falls near heavy/doom metal with shades into gothic and atmospheric metal. The debut album is in the works. (GS)

And here's somebody with a demo tape on their 'for sale' list. Fabulous. I might have to buy it, since I haven't heard it for years.

http://medusa.tutka.fi/~make/php/FD-secondhand.php

― Jordan (Jordan), Wednesday, 8 September 2004 20:05 (twenty-one years ago)

Nowell is going to be disgusted by the old fogeys reminiscing on this thread.

― n/a (Nick A.), Wednesday, 8 September 2004 20:06 (twenty-one years ago)

Here's another review, with top-notch writing:

"Shadowbox is a 2-track demo, tracks are 'Shadowbox' and 'This Day'

The first track 'Shadowbox' is a fairly slow paced metal track reminiscent of early Black Sabbath. There's a good heavy guitar riff. The drums and bass have a good solid sound to them. Ben vocals are good and fit in well with the music. Towards the end of the track the whole thing gather's pace and there's an excellent guitar solo.

The second track is 'This Day', starting with a good heavy riff, good vocals from Ben. There's nice changes in direction and tempo, with some great guitar work and another excellent guitar solo.

After listening to these two tracks, all I can say is I wanted more...."

― Jordan (Jordan), Wednesday, 8 September 2004 20:07 (twenty-one years ago)

Jordan -- why does someone in Finland have yr demo tape?!

― jaymc (jaymc), Wednesday, 8 September 2004 20:07 (twenty-one years ago)

Dude, we were huge in Finland, it was a total Euro-metal band.

― Jordan (Jordan), Wednesday, 8 September 2004 20:09 (twenty-one years ago)

(huge = we got a few website hits, a couple of Finnish reviews that I never got translated, and mailed a few tapes there)

― Jordan (Jordan), Wednesday, 8 September 2004 20:18 (twenty-one years ago)

So, I take it this "Ben" was a good vocalist, no?

― righteousmaelstrom, Wednesday, 8 September 2004 20:34 (twenty-one years ago)

My apologies for being snarky, Jordan ;-)

― righteousmaelstrom, Wednesday, 8 September 2004 20:35 (twenty-one years ago)

Haha, actually he sounded a bit pre-pubescent back then. Now he's in the excellent punk band the Modern Machines.

― Jordan (Jordan), Wednesday, 8 September 2004 20:38 (twenty-one years ago)

You're all so snarky!
I don't think I could ever really start a band, though.

― Nowell, Wednesday, 8 September 2004 20:45 (twenty-one years ago)

"Try to have at least one friend who has some kind of musical ability (this step is not necessary)."

Ha ha ha

― 57 7th (calstars), Wednesday, 8 September 2004 20:46 (twenty-one years ago)

That was kind of serious.

― n/a (Nick A.), Wednesday, 8 September 2004 20:48 (twenty-one years ago)

I have no musicial ability. Actually, I've never tried to play any instruments, other than some shitty ukulele. I banged on a guitar once, and I've played on a piano before (hasn't everybody?).

Uh, I think my brother can play part of Black Sabbath's "Iron Man" on bass. But he doesn't even play the damn thing anymore.

― Nowell, Wednesday, 8 September 2004 20:52 (twenty-one years ago)

Steal your brother's bass. It's probably the easiest thing to play, unless you have small hands or stubby fingers.

― n/a (Nick A.), Wednesday, 8 September 2004 20:54 (twenty-one years ago)

He doesn't even live with me! But I probably could steal it.
But then he'd find out and then he wouldn't give me any more money.

― Nowell, Wednesday, 8 September 2004 20:55 (twenty-one years ago)

I think critical mass of bands on earth has been reached.

You better wait until the Rolling Stones die.

So, er, don't quit your day job. Or rather, in a few years, once you get one, don't quit it.

Ye ken?

― Sasha (sgh), Thursday, 9 September 2004 02:01 (twenty-one years ago)

Get a cheap banged-up guitar with a real (fat) sound, learn a few chords and see what transpires. This is not difficult. Your fingers will surely get sore at first, but you will develop callouses. Your mind will do the rest.

― jim wentworth (wench), Thursday, 9 September 2004 02:28 (twenty-one years ago)

so no one except me thinks that if you have to ask, then you probably shouldn't bother trying to start one?

― joseph pot (STINKOR™), Thursday, 9 September 2004 03:08 (twenty-one years ago)

not to be mean or discouraging, but it's sort of self-explanatory in a way (which is not to say it's easy), at least in my experience.

― joseph pot (STINKOR™), Thursday, 9 September 2004 03:14 (twenty-one years ago)

There's probably lots of folks that could use a little assurance and advice. Can't hurt to ask in a place like this. I don't know what Nowell's life has been like up until now.

And I understand where you're coming from, jo.

― jim wentworth (wench), Thursday, 9 September 2004 03:27 (twenty-one years ago)

sasha OTM re: no hope lay back down

― autovac (autovac), Thursday, 9 September 2004 07:01 (twenty-one years ago)

no!
yu can du it!

get some stuff, do the frckn thing, shit, you got tools now, when I was a kid macs were 4tracks.

― autovac (autovac), Thursday, 9 September 2004 07:03 (twenty-one years ago)

I suggest putting up a paper flyer advertisement, spelling out all of your influences and what you want in a bandmate. Those always work remarkably well.

In my experience this practically guarantees dissapointment

"I don't know who Fugazi are but I like Robbie Williams and Del Amitri"

If all else fails: One of your mates must have a keyboard, so put on one of the preset rhythms and sing/shout/scream fiery rhetoric/whimsy over the top. This way you can a) avoid the expense of rehearsal rooms and b) write an entire albums worth of material in an afternoon.

If you then proceed to step c) you can record it all onto a boombox d) put the tape in an envelope and post it to Brighton, UK and e) Everett True will think that you're the best thing evah!

― Ben Dot (1977), Thursday, 9 September 2004 13:46 (twenty-one years ago)

Get a PC, get broadband, download a ripped off version of Fruityloops and Soundforge from Suprnova write some nice melodies using VST synths (also get these from Suprnova) and put them over some generic drum and bass beats cut up with a slicer (using samples downloaded from some filesharing hub) use another synth for the bass line (try 2 oscillators slightly out of pitch), learn what a compressor is and how it works. Get some webhosting and create a website, put some MP3s up there.

― Jarlr'mai (jarlrmai), Thursday, 9 September 2004 14:19 (twenty-one years ago)

One of the guys from the Butthole Surfers said that ya don't need ta be talented or good-looking to start a band, using themselves as an example of that reality.

― Nowell, Thursday, 9 September 2004 18:48 (twenty-one years ago)

I mean, to have a SUCCESSFUL band.

― Nowell, Thursday, 9 September 2004 18:49 (twenty-one years ago)

They also said that art is just the last three letters of fart.

― n/a (Nick A.), Thursday, 9 September 2004 18:49 (twenty-one years ago)

They are one of the wisest of all bands.

― nickalicious (nickalicious), Thursday, 9 September 2004 19:16 (twenty-one years ago)

They are!
And a lot of art is boring.
One of the guys from Interpol said that credible music is overrated.
He might be right.
But only maybe.

― Nowell, Thursday, 9 September 2004 20:31 (twenty-one years ago)

That was almost a haiku.

― Wooden (Wooden), Friday, 10 September 2004 00:11 (twenty-one years ago)

You must be logged in to post. Please either login here, or if you are not registered, you may register here.