Why Starting a Band Is Trickier Than It Looks

The band I am a part of was started by our singer Joey and our bassist Luke in an empty room of Fazakerley High School. They then wandered their way into the common room where I was sat, probably staring at a wall, and asked me to join. We played a disastrous gig and then decided we needed a drummer. We hired Billy. Since then we haven't had a break. Either from playing shows all over the country, in the city or simply writing. Now, when we started we were simply amazed by how easily everything seemed to come together. We were getting gigs, writing songs, everything was going great.

You wonder how bands in the past could have managed to get anywhere without social media. Facebook, MySpace and Twitter were our main lines of contact with each other, fans and booking agents. How on earth did the Stooges get noticed without even having a MySpace? Surely if we embrace this amazing technology, we HAVE to get somewhere. Surely. Surely.

After a while of embracing the great electric mother you realise why you haven't been on the cover of any magazines yet. Imagine yourself as a record label scout in the past. You scour your city, your area, your country looking for amazing bands. You manage to get yourself to three gigs a week, you find The Stooges or Nick Cave in an unpolished form, you take a chance and you're set. Now imagine yourself as a record label scout today. It's your email address on the labels website. You get 200 emails a day from every band in the country advertising their MySpace to you.

The chances are pretty slim, whether you're Nick Cave 2 or not, that you'll be noticed by these people. They are simply over-fed with requests. It is understandable why record labels like to put their own bands together, a sure thing that they know will sell, rather than search for years trying to find a band to take a risk on.

This is why DIY has become far more popular than ever in the past few years. Record labels don't seem to care for the bands any more. The bands have to care for themselves. Holding out hope, of course, that a scout from Parlophone or EMI will be in the mass of 7 people at their gig. Maybe David Geffen works on the bar, part-time.

While this may sound like some kind of rant at the music industry, it really isn't. By forcing bands to take care of themselves, bands have now been given complete power. They can truly express themselves exactly how they want to. No more money-minded executives breathing down their neck. They also now have a direct line to their audience, the only people the band need to impress. Although financially this is probably not the best thing to happen to bands, artistically and creatively it really is.

Starting a band is one of the easiest things you can do. All you need is a couple of willing participants and some instruments. Keeping a band together and keeping hope is far trickier.