In a recent episode of the 100 Words or Less podcast, guest Tom Mullen (of Washed Up Emo) bring up a great point about “making it.”
11:54 “If you don’t know where the basement show is, you’re disconnected, because that’s what’s next or what’s really happening. So if you’re out there and you’re in a band, find a basement show… don’t aspire to get on the Ernie Ball Stage.”
Yes, your name at the bottom of the list of 100 other bands in next year’s Warped Tour announcement will look cool, but if that’s what you’re shooting for you’re toast.
Here are a few better places to focus your efforts.
1. Be the band that people want to help and hook up all around your local community. Show up for their shows, even when you’re not playing. Not everyone in every local band will be your best friend, but be a good member of the local music community. Buy other band’s records, travel to their shows, talk them up. Don’t do this so when of those bands “break” they’ll hook you up, but do it to be a good human being.
2.Get out there and book some shows in other states. Playing in front of new crowds won’t win you 100s of fans per show, but it might land you one or two, and you never know – they might become your new best friends.
3. Just as you shouldn’t yell “we got shirts for sale in the back” in between every song when you’re playing out, you shouldn’t make every message on social media about you. Before you post anything, reply to 10 fans. Don’t RT them: reply to them. After you’re done with that, talk about a new album you love, or a good band you saw at your last show. Do this for months, and on occasion, sure – announce a show, or a pre-order. At that point you won’t have numbed your online audience to a never ending barrage of “LOOK AT ME” messaging (like every other band out there).
4. Help other bands. Again, it’s better when we do it together. Element 101 took an unknown band out for their first out-of-state show many years ago. Who was the band? My Chemical Romance. When one band succeeds, we all benefit.
5. Make your own thing. Spotify sucks. No one buys albums. So and so band is dumb. That one promoter won’t book your band. Save your breath, time, and energy.
I got talking to Joe from Flintface recently, who is around my age and filled with much wisdom, and his words echoed in my soul: make your own thing. Make your own luck, your own tour, your own show. If you have a social media audience of 10,000 and an email list of 500 people from all the shows you’ve played in the past two years, you won’t need to rely on “getting signed" or being picked for a shitty side stage to “make it.”
6. Don’t talk shit with people you don’t know. If you’re trying to break into the industry, don’t speak negatively about any band, label, or outlet – you just never know who might work with who! I’ve seen this too many times. Someone says, “X band is the worst,” and then someone in the group says, “oh, really? My partner manages them.” GULP.
So don’t be disconnected. Be a part of something good, and if nothing is there, MAKE IT. Above all, work on being an awesome person that people want to work with and you won’t even need to grovel to play some sponsored side-stage.
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Seth Werkheiser is the quiz master of metal trivia at Skulltoaster. He’s also the founder of some music sites you may have heard of, including Noise Creep (2009) + Buzzgrinder (2001). He’s anti-Facebook, anti-clickbait, and anti-growth hacking. You should most definitely follow him on Twitter. Yes, right now.
