Ahead of Breaking The Band music industry panel this Thu (17 Nov), panelist Chris Stanley, former drummer of Manchester based indie outfit, Fear of Music and current live music event promoter for Grey Lantern shares his essential tips to surviving a band’s highs and lows!
Top 5 tips for a band in the making:
- Don’t try and make music you think will be commercial. Write what is natural – your music’s personality will be the drawing/selling point.
- Practice as much as you can.
- Don’t over gig. Playing is great and it’s how you become a tighter band and a more exciting live act. However most scenes can be fickle and get bored easily.
- Never do ‘pay to play’ gigs. No A&R guys go to these type of gigs.
- Enjoy it – if you don’t enjoy it then don’t do it.
Top 5 tips for a band in the breaking:
- Believe only a quarter of what is said to you by the industry. They will tell you all sorts of things about what they can do for you but will more than likely deliver a small percentage.
- Do some research about the industry. Whether this is about the label, publisher itself or the personnel etc… There are plenty of great books about the industry out there so read up on the royalty splits, structures etc. Then you will avoid nasty surprises.
- Communicate with your band mates. Over the course of becoming signed you may have to make difficult decisions and this needs to be done together – so talk to each other.
- Don’t work with a company just because you like the personnel, especially with A&R guys as it’s more than likely they won’t be there in a couple of months and their replacement may be less enthusiastic.
- Stick to your guns wherever possible – which is not always easy, but some battles within the industry can be won.
Want to know more, join the Breaking The Band panel as they aim to uncover the myth behind nasty band break ups, band dynamics and the notion of success.