The Do It Yourself Band Kit.

[Mr. Broken]

So Im not the only band rat on the Watch, not the first , not the last, certainly not the most established, but Im curious about your experiences. How you deal with logistics, do you play in at clubs, parties, fundraisers? Are you strictly original, or do you cover? What is your opinion of bands that do? Do you have sponsorship, or are you hired guns? Just curious.

[Relayer]

What do you play? Over the years I've done both covers and originals... so I'm fine with the cover thing. There's a lot of great music and it's really cool to be able to play it for an audience. I know there are others who vehemently disagree

I've never been the promoter type so I've been lucky that most of my bands have had at least one other person who likes/is good at that type of thing. We've played all the above types of places, but haven't ever had any backing (probably because nobody really backs cover bands and my originals projects didn't get enough momentum to get that far).

I'm really glad there are a few other people in my current band doing the legwork. We're doing the clubs thing and are talking w/ some festivals around the area. Being a Grateful Dead tribute band helps w/ the festival thing

[Mr. Broken]

I dont play Im not that gifted, I sing lead (still not that gifted), occasionally I double as a stand up comedian ( just to cover up the fact that someone is tuning). I have also encountered those who dont appreciate a good cover band , but all I have to say is that it depends on your situation. If you hale from a well populated area, chances are there is some kind of market for original music, but I come from a small town in North West Pa, and although we have written and performed our original music (it has always been well received) at our gigs , we just dont have 4 hours of original material, so covers have always been neccessary. They serve as an excellent means of getting our originals out there by slipping them in between the covers. I also have alot of respect for any one who is able to perform for an entire 4 hour show, thats why the big well known original bands almost always have an opening act, and they do covers too.

[dANdeLION]

I've been in bands that do strictly originals (aTOMiC's band is one of those), some that were covers only, but most have done both. Here in Florida, there's a place for original music, but as tourism's our biggest enterprise, doing covers is usually what gets you paid. I also play in my church, which is also covers, and also pays. As a matter of fact, the only money I make now is off of playing.

[Mr. Broken]

We get paid, although its amazing how many club owners develop amnesia about how much it was they booked you for. Thats why I make them sign my book , right under the amount that they agreed to, but we dont make a living off of it. I have a wife, and a career outside of music so we only book twice a month, all 6 of us are in our early thirties , and since we're not tring to live off the proceeds so we spend most of our earnings on more equipment.

[SleeplessOne]

I play in a band, I write the songs (that make the whole world cringe) and sing and play the geetar, quite frankly we're smaller than Jesus' little known brother Al (yeah, I know, ya never heard of him, that's my point) but I love to play, nothing gives me more pleasure - we havent actually had any gigs since late last year as I've been training up a new bass player, but we rehearsed as a group for the first time in ages last week, and gigs should be about 4-5 weeks away - we play mainly originals, we never have any more than one cover per set, usually a Talking Heads tune as they've been a big influence on myself ..
we've had about %50 paid gigs and %50 non-paid gigs - I never expect to make a living from the band's tunes, but playing live is a passion for us and we'll continue to do it for as long as we can ... here's a link to the band's Myspace page; feel free to denigrate us as much as you see fit

profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseactio ... 0d704e8b25

of the band's members I'm the only one that's been playing for any length of time; the rest of the band are friends or relatives that I taught to play; I wouldnt feel comfortable playing with gifted strangers; and my ego dictates that I be the main man tip : be very careful mixing your creative pursuits with your love life, our former bass player was an ex of mine and things obviously went sour, I put a lot of effort into teaching her, she actually became very competent but it's been a bitch replacing her, fortunately the new guy is coming along pretty well after a lot of weekly practice sessions ...

[Mr. Broken]

Myself I would perform for free at the drop of a hat, but I need to get my guys paid, and I dont like the thought of other people making a profit off of our quite expensive addiction to music. We dont ask for alot but we've found that it is quite out of the question for us to come out of pocket to play a gig.

[Relayer]

Yea, I don't like going out of pocket any more either (unless it's for a good reason like a benefit show). I don't expect to make a living at it, but for example my band has some gigs lined up in Wilmington this summer which is a couple hours' drive. With gas, hotel, etc I expect to at least break even. You want us to drive down from Raleigh, make it worth it. Yes, I do it for the joy of playing, but it's also a lot of work and it's appropriate that others (ie bar owners) value our time and energy.

It amazes me how little bar managers try to get away with paying people. Or how little space they give you for a stage.

[Mr. Broken]

Anyone have any advice on selecting a manager?

[aTOMiC]

dANdeLION is correct.
I've never been one for doing covers. There is something in my brain that doesn't want to simply regurgitate what someone else has created. I really don't play for money so I've never had to struggle with the idea of me and my band just being used as a glorified Jukebox. Instead I focus my attention on creating new music, writing and recording. Don't get me wrong if you love playing music, need to make money doing something cool and don't have the time or interest in making stuff up from scratch then I think a cover band is the way to go. I myself have sometimes toyed with the idea of doing a CARS tribute band. I like the group, I sound a bit like Ric Ocasek and if I were frighteningly thin I'd bear more than a passing resemblance to Mr. Ocasek. However I've never taken the idea seriously because it would mean I'd have to trade what time I have for creating songs for learning someone else's.

[Mr. Broken]

The Cars Rule!

[Relayer]

I don't look at it as regurgitating. To me it's the chance to play some great music. But I really wouldn't enjoy playing music I didn't like (unless I was getting paid very well ). Then again, I wouldn't enjoy playing original music if I didn't like it either.

With the Dead, of course, every time is different because you're not just trying to play note-for-note (in fact, you're not supposed to). It's more like a jazz approach in that I'm going for the feel of the moment within the structure of a song, listening and responding to what other instruments are playing.

[aTOMiC]

I don't look at it as regurgitating. To me it's the chance to play some great music. But I really wouldn't enjoy playing music I didn't like (unless I was getting paid very well ). Then again, I wouldn't enjoy playing original music if I didn't like it either.

With the Dead, of course, every time is different because you're not just trying to play note-for-note (in fact, you're not supposed to). It's more like a jazz approach in that I'm going for the feel of the moment within the structure of a song, listening and responding to what other instruments are playing.

I understand, Relayer.
This sort of thing reminds me of how stage actors think of doing Shakespeare. Each actor relishes the chance to bring his or her particular talents to bear on such a celebrated story/play/role etc.
Well I'm not in it to bring my interpretation to Shakespeare I'm trying to BE a Shakespeare of sorts. Let bands fifty years from now perform MY songs if thats what the equivalent is.
How it breaks down for me is simply this: I think of myself as a songwriter first and a musician second. I play the music because I wrote the song not because I just like to play whatever. (Heh I sound like SRD talking about why he writes. )
I'm a different bird that way

[dANdeLION]

It's not just playing cool songs that drives me to learn covers. I love to take the song apart, study the elements of it; it helps me understand how and why certain songs work. Tom has benefitted from this curiousity of mine, too; he notices the things I put in songs, and when he asks my wher I came up with an idea, almost always I tell him "the bass player for so and so did it in such and such song".

[aTOMiC]

It's not just playing cool songs that drives me to learn covers. I love to take the song apart, study the elements of it; it helps me understand how and why certain songs work. Tom has benefitted from this curiousity of mine, too; he notices the things I put in songs, and when he asks my wher I came up with an idea, almost always I tell him "the bass player for so and so did it in such and such song".

On this point there can be no argument. The experiences and knowledge that come from the other members of our band are without question essential for what I'm trying to accomplish. There are an unlimited number of learned inovations and techniques that come from studying what and how other musicians create their art. I don't have that kind of interest or passion so I'm very grateful for what dAN, Jacques & Kim bring to the chemistry of our sound. It falls on me to create a foundation for those ideas to be applied. One without the other wouldn't produce the desired outcome. It seems we all have a useful role to play. Having said that I'd rather quit playing music all together if I had no other choice but to play other people's songs.

[Mr. Broken]

Covers and Originals, "Its Evolution Baby!" When we first started playing out we had 1 original song, now we have an entire set of originals, enough for an album, but not enough for a 9:00-1:30. So the covers serve as the means to get our originals heard.

[Relayer]

Tom, I totally hear what you're saying too. One of the cool things about being is a musician is that there are so many different ways to approach it. Heck, there are probably people who *love* to sing commercial jingles!

I've done some writing, but my primary skills are playing, arranging, and embellishing. So normally when I'm in an originals band someone else is the main writer and I'm the arranger. And like dAN said, much of what I bring to the table is something I learned from playing other music. Sometimes it's conscious, but more often it's (again, like SRD talks about) a subconscious process that shows up on my fretboard or keys. So something I learned playing the Dead might show up in an indie-rock song, or some alt-grunge guitar part might influence a jam session, etc.

And Mr. B, slipping an occasional original into the mix is a great way to start getting them noticed.

[Mr. Broken]

Any one care to comment on opening acts? Some people like opening, some people like to follow, but Ive seen disastrous circumstances arise from both. The several things that can go wrong usually do. Like when the opening band is actually better than the headliner, and it costs them the crowd. Maybe the opener is so bad that most of the crowd leaves before the headliners take the stage, or my favorite the opener's forget that they are the openers, and refuse to give up the stage to the headliner. Ive seen all three happen, the latter two in the same night. I find it to be a hassle , and do my best to get out of it if it is even brought up.

[dANdeLION]

I don't like any opening act unless I know them personally, or am in the opening act. I really don't like opening acts that think they have a divine right to use my gear, and then treat it like shit. I don't mind sharing, but there needs to be respect, because I worked hard to get my stuff. I had a guy last November do that very thing to my all tube Mesa head, and it upset me enough (along with a few other incidents) that I sold the head and got a solid state power amp, so I wouldn't fret about it so much.

[Mr. Broken]

I watched a lead singer from another band yank the cable out of my brand new Sure Beta 87 mic without disconnecting it , and drop it into a box full of mic's so that he could use the mic he was used to working with, what he wasnt considering was that my mic is phantom powered, his Sm58 was not , and as soon as his mouth touched it he got nailed. Ive tried at times to see if I could make it happen again, never successfully but the one time I needed it to happen it did.