There appear to be a lot of people on here that are in bands. How'd you manage? Did you get together with friends who played instruments and see what kind of music you could make together? Or did you have a set idea in mind of what you wanted to do and seek people based on that?

I don't play any instruments right now. I just write a lot of lyrics and have song ideas in my head. I'm willing to learn something, though. My friend Brian plays guitar but he doesn't enjoy writing material. He'd much rather be a rhythm guitarist or something. The problem is I want to start an indie/twee pop kind of band. He wants to start some kind of anti-folk band. I'm up for either. But the only people we know who play instruments want to play Nirvana and Sonic Youth type rock. Which is fine and all but we really want to write music based around melodies and lyrics, not just buzzing guitars and noise and feedback. That seems like the easy way out.

So I got the idea to advertise. We printed up a bunch of flyers saying we were two singer/songwriters looking for musicians to start a band. We said we were looking for anything from guitar to drum to violin to trumpet to keyboards. We listed a bunch of influences running the gamut from Elvis to Eels to De La Soul to Spice Girls. And we posted his cell number and my e-mail. We pasted these up on streetlight poles around the two main music venues downtown and near the guitar stores. This was a few weeks ago and we've had absolutely zero response.

Is it possible that, in a city of 500,000, there's not a single person in their twenties who can play music and would like to play something other than metal and punk? It seems like that.



So, question to people in successful bands, how did you do it? Do we need to go to a major city, like Toronto, and try to find people there? Or do we just talk to people and see if they know people?

I'm not a musician nor in a band, but I had a couple friends (one a musician, one not) who used to work in a music store in a town of 20,000 people. Whenever I would drop in to bullshit with them, there would almost always be 3-5 guys from area bands just hanging out, fiddling with equipment or shooting the shit.

Advertising was a good idea, but it's often more involved than your flyer plan. At this point, work on generating word of mouth. Chat up the guys in the music stores and venues. Hang out in the music shop and with the other musicians that you know, even if they are interested in playing SY or Nirvana. Everybody knows a bunch of people, and they will spread the word. It just takes a little time, that's all.

Start working as a two-piece for now by growing your songwriting and playing while also building a network. That way, someone does show up at your door, they know you are taking it seriously, not just goofing around. Also, don't write off those who don't quite fit into your team, for they might also know someone now or in the future that can fit the bill.

Patience.

I answered an ad in the Musician's Classifieds in the Chicago Reader which led me to getting hooked up with my current bandmates (back in 1996, in an other incarnation). The drummer was a friend of a friend that I recruited and he turned out to be both an amazing musician and an amazing person.

Matt I recruited for HoP because I met him after he showed interest in releasing my record. Then I learned he played keys... so I asked him to join us.

In other words, I got lucky.



And that's damn good advice.

You are going to have trouble.

If I read your ad (as you described it), as a guitar-player, I would think that you are looking for someone to play your songs (you identified yourselves as singer-songwriters). But I have my own ideas about what I want to play. I think I speak for a lot of indie-leaning folks when I say that I like collaborating, but I don't just want to be a hired-gun. Especially for no money.

You might be better off just asking for musicians to start a band and listing a few influences you really do want to sound like. I'm guessing that you don't really want your sound to be an Elvis/Spice Girls/twee pop mix. Or maybe you do. Hard to imagine what that would be like.

Best idea - learn to play a few chords on piano or guitar. Most good pop songs are based around the same 6 or 7 chords, at most. Then you are bringing something to the table, and will have a better idea of who you need to fill in the holes in your sound.

yeah, classifieds in the papers are a good idea. I still read those, and I 'm not even looking to start up anything. Just to see what's out there.

Your best bet is to look for people who are "on the same page" -- I.E. don't know nuthin', looking to do something, but won't commit suicide if all goes awry.

And I disagree about the "hired gun" thing. I love playing. I can write riffs out the wazoo, and I can arrange. But I have a lot of trouble contracting my jamming into a "song", and I have a terrible time with lyrics. So I, for example, would probably be a good match with a singer/songwriter type (already found mine, though, and yes, we are on the same page in terms of ambition).

Howzabout this?

http://www.jambuddy.net/

I am looking to form/join a band as well. Try craigslist, there seems to be some variety (at least here in Denver)

Go where musicians are.

1. shows of bands you like/are influenced by
2. open mics
3. music stores