Notes to a Band...

This month's feature is a letter to the bands out there who want to have a strategy to grow bigger, and play in more venues. Scott Mead offers this encouragement... 

As a band, your music could have very good potential for many markets. I often see band music in commercial use – new music is perfect for many service-related companies, for example. Whether radio or television, the song can be attached to a number of products. One of your songs may be great as a running theme for a movie … a thriller, or a romantic drama. These are very good sources of income, if you’re interested, but we will need to continue recording to offer a spectrum of material to those markets … and we will need the flexibility to alter the tunes to the specific needs of the application, which may involve different versions. You’ll have to be open and available for that process.

I’m confident you’ll see good response when you have enough material together to play some shows. You need to have a solid hour of tunes … right now your set is geared to parties, with appropriate covers for that arena. If you work more toward a “performance” set, I think you’ll be in a position to play clubs. That means getting more of your own tunes together AND developing very select covers that you can perform in your own style … don’t just play them the way the song has already been done. We hear enough of that. Don’t play a cover just for the sake of having material. Make it your own, with your own flair.

Of course, this is all dependent on whether or not you all are interested in moving forward along any of these lines. Keep in mind that it’s okay if you aren’t interested in doing the club thing … it takes lots of time and effort that you may not collectively have, as well as flexibility to take a gig on short notice. You could focus instead on recording and marketing your songs to some of the other directions mentioned above. I have a feeling, though, that you all love playing enough that you want to be on that stage … as long as it’s reasonably profitable. If you’re committed to that, it will happen.

It’s okay to not define the direction and let it take its own shape … but the results (if any) will come much slower that way, since your work does not have an objective. Maybe a good place to start is for each of you to determine your desires, musically speaking. What do you truly want to be doing in a year? Where are your hearts? Does your passion lie in writing and recording or being on the stage? Is this just something for fun, or do you want to see results from your efforts? And … equally important … what can each of you invest toward that goal? By investment, I’m referring to both TIME and MONEY. There is a cost to recording, website development, marketing, even making phone calls to clubs and radio stations … as well as keeping up on your equipment and supplies.

Those of you with families will need to determine what works in your environment. Nothing is more important than family, and if you don’t have their support, it won’t work. With your individual goals in mind, how do they align as a band? Are they the same? If not, then maybe it’s time to change the lineup … one person cannot finance or support the entire band. Resentment will ensue, I promise. If this band is important to you, I encourage you to get your goals together as a group and commit to taking an equal role. On another note … is your band domain name registered?

One final thought … ALL great music begins in the “garage”. The so-called “garage band” is a truly great American institution, one that I believe in very strongly. Don’t let ANYONE tell you it’s not important. There is more great music happening right now in basements and garages than we ever have or will hear in our lifetime. It is my goal to bring as much of that music out into the public arena as humanly possible … including yours. Music lasts forever … there is no better way to leave your mark than in a lasting impression of musical art. If you want to know what Grasshopper Talent is about, that’s it in a nutshell. I believe in you guys … just waiting for you to put yourselves together and decide where you want to go.

When you’re ready to move forward, let me know!!