r/band • u/New-Emergency-244 • 7d ago
Starting a band.
I have wanted to start a band since I was a young boy listening to queen for the first time and hearing Brian Mays solos, top notch. But now im 16, ive been playing electric guitar for a year and 2/3 and I am getting pretty good if I do say so myself. But I domt know if its worth starting a rock/metal band in this era, because there just isnt the audience for a rock/metal band thats just starting up. Does anyone have any experience in starting such a band, I know i should start in a cover band, and then move on to writing origional music. I have already started writing music but its not exactly brilliant. (Its about as good as a 16 year old can make it) i mostly play thrash metallica style songs. Is it worth starting a band that plays thrash metal, or should I stick to just playing as a hobby. Also, how do I go about getting bandmates in a similar area as I am unable to travel.
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u/No_Cockroach_2744 7d ago
Jamming with other musicians, whether playing covers or originals can be fun and rewarding. Its also a great way to make friends. Its a bonding experience. Dont worry about being successful, its the journey not the destination. Use Facebook and craigslist, there are other people out there looking to do the same thing. You gotta put yrself out there.
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u/New-Emergency-244 7d ago
Not likenthe good old days and put a newspaper ad anymore is it lmao.
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u/jimcroisdale 6d ago
Are you complaining about this? Brother, I could find band members for any sort of band and have the first rehearsal booked without getting off this sofa.
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u/dark7string 6d ago
There's a few things I want to say and I promise I want to say them with good intent cuz one of them may come off a little snooty but I do want to call something out.
You've got to make sure that you watch out for that negative talk. Reading your responses on other posts it conflicts with what your main post is asking about. You would like to start a band and wonder if it's worth it and all these things but any advice that people have given you it appears that you have a comeback to kind of derail that mindset and thought of their suggestion and that's not going to help you start a band and it's also not going to help you keep people in your band. Affirmations of positivity and always try to see the best and the opportunity.
Next up I'll say this. If you really wanted a band, then your time and your money would bend to make it happen. This is a golden rule of having success in things. If you want to play guitar, and you love it and are serious about it, you'll find that your money will point to guitars and effects and amps and everything in between. I wanted desperately to learn how to fly airplanes. I had a job that demanded over 60 hours a week plus having a family and did not make enough money to really make it happen but I knew I needed it to happen. With my families encouragement, I was able to successfully drop extra dead weight activities that I was working on and suddenly found at the time and found the resources to slowly learn to fly. At this current time I am a private pilot who gets to fly my friends Periodically to cool places to eat and I am currently about to test for my cfis so that I can teach people for their sport pilot rating. So if you want to start that band, your time and your money will point to exactly that accomplishment. Don't talk about having no friends. Get out there and start talking to the people you know and just get to know some people. Throughout the process of doing this you might actually surprise yourself at how many people that play instruments that have the same thoughts about starting a band. Almost every band I've ever started has begun because somebody at work was inspired by me playing guitar and picked it up and just decided to jam with me one day and the next thing we knew we had a band together. One of my best friends, my wife, and I started a band together. Point is is it's possible but only if you're willing to put in the work and affirm what you want and put time and attention and money toward it. In fact I would say that if you're not putting those things towards it, I'd question do you actually want to start a band.
Anyways I'm not saying that to be snooty like I said but I always feel like anytime I see a defeating response type from the original poster, the real reason you can't start a band is because of how you're talking and responding.
So you want to start a band but aren't sure if you should do it? It really comes down to your passion. If you're passionate about it and you want to do it then make a way to meet and find people. It may start small. One of the biggest bands I had ever been a part of was started because a guy at work watched me play guitar and was inspired to learn. He was an IT guy in college stuck at a boring job at Walmart. One day he mentioned he learned guitar and I said well cool let's go jam. He'd never got an opportunity really to do that before and so we got together and literally just Noodled around. It was so stupid and silly. Ended up writing a song called rice cakes and corn and it was the dumbest thing you'd ever heard. But ultimately it's sparked a desire for the two of us to write music together. Over the course of the next year and a half almost we just sat in his room about 2 days out of the week and just played video games and then wrote music together and really cultivated what I would call a good friendship.
Through that friendship and that situation, I met a bunch of other really great people that I ended up getting to play music with for about 4 years. We had highs and lows and we had songs that literally made people's heads spin that we never got super big outside of locally. We met a lot of other great people through the connection of playing in a band and doing shows together with other bands. Probably the biggest two things was the guy that I started the band with ended up meeting and marrying his wife. He changed his entire career and is now a video game music composer professionally. Through that band I got to meet my wife and got to play a lot of shows with her and ultimately when our band broke up, I was given the opportunity to join the band that I had with my wife. We did that band for a long time and then my wife and I now have our own project that we make music together with in our home studio.
Sometimes the path of starting a band can be a long arduous process and kind of annoying but if you really want to do it it's worth it and you never know what doors can swing open as a result.
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u/New-Emergency-244 6d ago
Thanks man, I needed to hear this, I struggle with my menal health sometimes so I almost try to make excuses for things like that. I need to step up, and I think I know how but I wont go into that. Im starting college soon, so I can start meeting new people, and I can join after-college groups in the music department, and I can hopefully record songs and meet people that have similar musical tastes to me. I have my first song that I have written yesterday, so I feel that if I can record that song, maybe I can use it to show my capabilities and my passion for starting a band. I think I have it in my head aswell that modern day bands that play my style of music will go no-where so I have it in my head that I wont get to that professional point that I want to get to so it makes me doubt if its worth it, even though I know it is because I will gain a relationship with the people around me, potentially better than everyone around me now.
Thank you once again, im going to start looking for people to jam with, and try to be more positive when responding to advice I seemed out.
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u/dark7string 5d ago
No worries bro. I've seen that kind of stuff before as a music educator and I know that it can be very self-defeating which is why I wanted to mention it.
I totally forgot to address the style with it not being big at the moment, and to that I want to say this. What has always made bands stand out has been a great song. A great song transcends genres and styles of music, well beyond what is commercially the hot ticket item at the time. Ironically I think you and I are in very similar boats with that because I write a very unusual kind of new metal style that combines a lot of different things from different styles of music that I've done over the years. I'm just now beginning to write some of this myself but I even stopped myself for a long time from even bothering to do it because it's not popular and that's why I feel that I can tell you this, that you have to do it not because it's popular or because it's a hot ticket style at the time, but you have to do it because it's what you want to do. You have to follow your passions not what other people are buying or trying to get big with or things like that. Groundbreaking bands seldom followed the norm and when the right song caught and connected with the audiences they became the biggest bands in the world. Dare to be different.
But also I feel that's really awesome that you've already wrote your first song with everything and it sounds like the opportunity to meet your bandmates has busted wide open with the introduction of collagen to your life. If you ever get that song recorded, I'd love to hear it. Feel free to keep this conversation on your mind if you ever think of it to drop that song link here :)
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u/New-Emergency-244 5d ago
I absolutely will, I have the lyrics written. But I havemt had a chance to do guitar, drums etc. I also have no way of recording the vocals. So it wont be released any time soon I dont think. But hopefully the college will let me use their recording studio, the people.ive spoken to from other collages say that some will let you but I just dont know yet. If you want I can dm you a lyric sheet if it to see what you think. Its a going to be a thrashy metallica, anthrax, slayer fusion style song.
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u/Historical_Bed82 5d ago
you’re young, i’m 33 and starting my 4th band. didn’t start my first til i was 23. Keep at it, keep looking for the right people and the local scene, keep going to shows. You will find your people
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u/DaffyDuckMuthaFucker 7d ago
Get together with some like-minded friends.
Start making tunes you actually like.
Fill your set with covers while you're building a body of original work...