EXPERIMENT: BAND MANAGEMENT: BLOG 2: The Band
I read this somewhere – all an artist needs is a 1,000 fans who are willing to spend $100 a year on the art.
As part of the Holy Crap Records podcast and music magazine content, I am managing a band this year. As an experiment/investigation. “Band A.” The podcast and the magazine will not name the band or use our considerable media clout to promote the band. However, I will be interviewing other bands who are busting out of the underground, music magazines, radio stations, booking agents, publicity agents, and labels – and using their wisdom to promote this band. I will post of Wednesday and on Sunday. I will conduct one interview a week over SKYPE and record it – because I’m too lazy to edit the content it will be a short interview format: 4 questions in 5 minutes! (Gonna try to get Lowell to be my first interview. Lowell!!!) Then I will use all this wisdom to promote “Band A” – and you can use all this info to promote your band too.
The measurable targets are: 1) getting the band on a label, 2) playing at festivals, 3) audience of 100 people.
So who is this band? What are they like? (I’ll be using photos of my bands – so these aren’t clues. I’m sure Derek wouldn’t mind me using photos of him either.) What do they have going for them?
Um. Well they are not the most obvious bet for who will make it out of this scene. Do they have that look in their eyes? Are they hungry? Have they burned their ships? Actually, I’m not sure any of the members would be willing/able to hit the road and go on a sustained national tour, crashing on floors and living in a van. Two of the members have zero social media presence and the third just lingers around facebook to make snarky comments. Most of the members aren’t active in the local music scene, heading out to see live shows, hanging with other bands. (In a later post I will go into detail why being an active member of the local music scene is paramount to making it.) As a matter of fact most of the band has the insolence to believe that all they have to do is make music – and all the bookings and posters and social media is what naturally happens around them. This sounds like a knock, but artists need that self-belief and arrogance, that their art is so beautiful the world should welcome and treasure it.
So what do they have going for them? They have a decent live show. They have a following in a limited geographical area. If they play a hometown show then 20+ people show up every time. And, simply, they have songs. We would play them on Holy Crap Records Podcast. We listen to 50+ bands/songs a week, for five slots on the show, so if we play your song on our podcast we really believe in your song. “Band A” is catchy. They sound a bit like Blondie’s “Parallel Lines” album, that move away from garage and punk to a more pop sound. Blondie’s “Hanging on the Telephone” is the best pop song ever. And ultimately it all comes down to songs. If you have songs it doesn’t matter who you are, what you look like, what you’re doing. If you have songs you have art. Art is the most beautifully reciprocal and harmonious giving relationship in the universe. Thank you for writing that song – it moved my spirit. Thank you for listening to my song. Thank you.
“Band A” – they have a song.
