Photo credit: Britt Gilmer
When I was in grade 7, I started playing guitar, and my brother, who was in grade 6, started playing bass. As our ability with those musical instruments grew, we decided we wanted to start a band. There weren’t a lot of girls who would play in bands at the local concerts; instead they would just swoon over the male musicians. I wanted to change that.
I told my mom, “This band is going to be big.” My mom, once a jazz singer, laughed and said we had work to do before we became a professional band. It was true. I had no idea how much work I was getting into and most people have no idea what it takes to be in a band that regularly gets gigs.
The skills gained from playing in a band can cross over into other areas of work and show an entrepreneurial attitude, as most independent bands self-manage.
Once I was in grade ten, I really wanted to take it seriously. I recorded demo tapes in my house with my brother and got some other members on board. Then I networked.
Before I even started playing shows, I made friends with some people in the local scene so that they would know the name of our band, The Big Man Himself, including people who ran skazines in Toronto and Europe. I knew right away the way bands were hired to play shows in this community of musicians was through networking; the more bands who thought you were professional, the more shows you would get.
We recorded our first release, Packing the Heat in 2005. Earlier that year, I ran my first show. Along with merchandise, like the CDs, the T-shirts, patches, pins, zines and promoting shows came a new skill that is at the heart of many bands and spoken about the least: finances.
When forming a band, everything costs money. Merchandise, even if self-designed, like most of our merch was. Websites (both for the domain and to get designed), travel to shows, flyers to advertise. In order to be even a semi-successful band, you need to be able to have a proper turn-around financially. Otherwise, it just becomes too expensive.
At a certain point, bands need to know how much money to ask for per performance, when to ask for that money and how to negotiate properly. When a band first starts, like any business, it’s going to have to invest money into itself. This includes playing for free the first few times until they build up a following or shelling out money to make CDs without knowing how much they will get back. It’s a risk that every entrepreneur has to face.
The further a band goes and the longer they are together, the more they learn about promotion, networking, and management. I have been working with The Big Man Himself for almost five years and they are now working on their third release. As the primary manager for four of those years, I learned how to be a leader, work with a large group of people (there are now eight of us), design, balancing finances, web design, promotion and, more recently, copyrights, grants and legalities surrounding making music in Canada.
With this knowledge, my brother and I put together an independent label, Dead Tree Records. The best part is, all of these are transferable skills I can take to another job.
The Big Man Himself is touring across southern Ontario (and in Montreal) this summer. Check out the band’s MySpace profile to see if they’re playing near you.
One of my friends is going to be entering his fourth year of med school in the fall, and he has been the drummer in the same band (Holding.Sky) for over five years now, and they’ve been pretty successful. He credits his experiences with the band with helping him getting accepted into med school.
Jess, your story, like his illustrates that being in a band is NOT a waste of time!
I love this story soo much!
The things you’re doing in running your band and now your RECORD LABEL aren’t ‘like’ running a busines…they ARE running a business.
Shelling out for CDs before you’ve sold them is an inventory and supply issue, managing 8 people is HR, and you already identified all the rest.
Very cool…
PS i’m just listening to your music on myspace….it’s awesome!!!! are you doing any shows in Toronto anytime soon?
Probably, my brother is planning the comeback tour (we took a brief hiatus at the beginning of the school year), and it should have a Toronto show this summer. I will only be playing at a few of the shows now, however, since I am moving to Burlington this upcoming July. Instead I’m going to be focusing more on the business aspects, especially with the label and getting distribution.
Yeah, it is neat to look at playing in a band from another perspective because most people think being in a band is just about partying and making noise. Maybe it is for some bands, but when you are focused about either making a difference or making a career out of your music, it becomes something much different. There is definately a stigma still associated with playing in bands, though.
Playing benefit shows is one of the best ways a band can remove this stigma. Then, when putting that you’ve played in a band, it becomes something that seems much more community based… and it is community based! It gives kids something constructive to do and a place to go. It can help fundraise for important things. We fundraised for building a skatepark in Caledon through our shows, and this definately helped people in Bolton and Caledon see local concerts as a positive way to spend time.
Thanks for the comments!
*putting that you’ve played in a band on a resume
Wow, great story.
And Lauren is right, it isn’t like running a business, it is running a business.
Good Luck!