Getting Into A Band

I have played in a few bands.... I have only been in one that has really meant the world to me. Four Minute Affair (The name of my band). And we have had a little bit of YouTube success which has helped build us a fanbase over in Australia.

So, when you first decide to get into a band, what sort of band do you want to be? Do you want to be a covers band? or an original band?

My advice for either band type, is start with an easy cover, my bands first two songs were Holiday - GreenDay and Dammit - Blink 182, these songs are basic songs, easy on all instruments (Dammit is just exceptionally fast for the drummer) but they are songs that people know as well, so you are instantly "building a fan base" even if that does start with your fans being your mum, and some friends (they still count)

So, to find band members.... This is the hard part, to start with, make sure you know what direction you want to go in, a covers band will be easier for amateur musicians, and originals band is for more accomplished musicians as you need some experience and creativity.

I know that in New Zealand we have a website called the RockShop. They have a classifieds page in which you can find band members! I highly recommend starting with basic covers (Greenday is always good for rock bands) and then deciding on what it is you want to do!

The Power Of YouTube.

YouTube can be an extremely powerful tool for bands, as an extremely famous artist called Justin Bieber has found out. Future Idiots, a more appropriate example of using YouTube to their advantage have been doing pop to pop/punk sounding covers and they are starting to get 1000's of views on each of their video's and I believe that a large amount of their success is from good covers on YouTube, sticking to their specific genre (in this case their genre is Pop/Punk), finding a target audience and doing something that nobody else has either done or nobody does on a regular basis.

For Future Idiots creating pop to pop/punk covers, they have built a large fanbase all around the world, and therefore they have got a large audience that will listen to any of their originals.

Basically, what I am trying to say is that, if your in a new band and you want to create a name for yourself, do covers! lets say you are a heavy metal band but you still have some punk influences, do a ramones cover.... into your genre! It will create new fans, as well as strike up a discussion weather its good or bad (because it is an old song put into a new genre, there will be old fans that hate it, and new fans that like it) Discussion in this case is very very good!!

:)