Music Guidance. Thinking About... What You Do

This article originally appeared on the blog at Songeist.com

In this special weekly guidance series we're going to be exploring three key aspects of your band's existence and encouraging you to consider these elements of your act with as much thought and deliberation as you write your songs. Simply expecting the inertia of creativity to steer your ship into the right direction is rarely enough; your band's command of who you are, what you do and how you come across are all hugely important to consider. Across the series, Barney will use some real-world examples to illustrate how important these factors are and help you to apply these concepts to your own band.

READ PART 1: THINKING ABOUT... WHO YOU ARE HERE.

GREAT THINGS GROW UNDERGROUND

When many young bands see their idols headlining festivals it's natural to want to emulate them. Many emerging bands see, say, Foo Fighters up there and want to do the same, so they start a band that sounds like Foo Fighters. But it's vital to remember that Dave Grohl started out in a van in a cult hardcore band called Scream and built up his career from there. Queens of The Stone Age didn’t start as Reading-headlining rock titans; the seeds for the band grew from Kyuss and the stoner rock and desert music scenes. For Metallica it was the bay area thrash scene. For Green Day and Blink 182 there were scores of compilation appearances and toilet punk gigs. For every huge indie band like Foals, there are a hundred arty underground gigs played with like minded-bands put on by DIY promoters under their belt. For every 'overnight success' story like Royal Blood, there are always years of van mileage, local line-ups and band names in their wake. You can’t, and shouldn’t want to, skip this essential part of a band’s development.

For guitar bands, EDM acts, hip-hop artists and practically anyone other than the kids on Pop Idol, throwing yourself into the culture and activity of the underground scene of your chosen genre is essential. Not only does it provide a gigging circuit, an audience and that vital context for your act, it provides an opportunity to learn from a thriving culture that informs and influences the mainstream. Every successful band that I have ever seen live before they exploded, from the aforementioned Foals, to So Solid Crew, to You Me At Six, to Gallows, I saw in the context of an underground, grassroots show, showcasing similar acts as part of an underground scene. Many more of today's stars, from Dizzee Rascal and Chase and Status to Frank Turner and Enter Shikari began as big fishes in small musical ponds before making that coveted leap to the Main Stage.

Josh Homme: I Remember When All This Was Just Deserts...

GIGS

The wisdom of starting your band at the grassroots of your chosen style is not unique to one band or scene, these ideas can be extrapolated across all styles of music. Take any hugely successful rock or indie or dance act and the majority have a history within an underground gigging circuit. So your approach to gigs should be studied and specific and this is what so many emerging artists playing mixed bills, looking for A&R in their local venues, forget. The lifeblood of any underground scene is the gigs and this cannot be understated. Grassroots music scenes work through friendships, not strength of demos, and the difference between being shunned by a scene and being immersed and accepted into one is often about what you put in. Returning favours and being an active participant at live shows will reap rewards for an emerging band that your songwriting might not. Fundamentally, there is no point playing the kind of gigs where a promoter ropes together miscellaneous local bands with no thought about style or customer, just to open the bar at their venue. Ultimately, the crowds at those gigs are made up of friends and families of the bands, who leave as soon as their artists have finished their show. Even worse are the ghastly ‘pay to play’ shows put on by promoters who ‘showcase’ whomever they know will sell tickets to their circle of friends, at no financial risk to themselves. That’s not a promoter of music, that's a promoter of a bar. Those gigs are pointless and don’t attract A&R. For all the reasons I have already outlined, no matter what the promoter might promise, A&R don't randomly cruise around local shows looking for bands; they wait for bands to begin to make ripples in their own scene before they come to them. At best, local mixed bills are an opportunity to play live, but that can be done D.I.Y with just a little hard work.

When I started my band, one thing we got right due to previous bad experiences was our resolution to never, ever play a 'pay to play' show, a battle of the bands or a miscellaneous mixed-bill on a local band night. We didn’t look at Manchester any different from any other British city and we were not vaguely interested in being a ‘big’ local band. We decided we would forge the path ourselves to become part of our chosen scene and those other things would come on board as we went along. We identified the touring bands that we wanted to play with that were within our reach and then booked those that were affordable to play the venues ourselves. We then put our band and other like-minded and stylistically appropriate local bands in support. After putting on several gigs, favours were returned and we were invited to other cities to play and that lead to strong relationships with other bands. When the bands came back on tour, I let them stay at my house and we became friends and part of the circuit. Pretty soon, we were getting booked all over the country and once we had a record deal we were seasoned enough at playing live to go on tour. But we’d had to take the risk of putting on our own shows and all those steps to build relationships with our peers to make that happen. It sounds calculated, and it was, but we had great fun doing it and made some wonderful friends and I recommend that hands-on approach to gigs to all emerging acts.

Dizzee Rascal. Exploded with his debut album, but began in the grassroots pirate radio grime scene.

DEMOS

Any scene will have its own webzines, perhaps even print fanzines, and so it shouldn't be at all difficult to identify the other bands, promoters and movers and shakers and jump right in. With the blogosphere and online promotion as huge as it has become, there is an immediate networks of blogs and taste-maker sites for practically all styles that are easy to find if you just put in a little effort. I don't want to make it too easy for you, but the list of links on Andy Von Pip's excellent blog is a wonderful starting place. Hype Machine should make short work of figuring out the blogs that relate to your style and the music that's making waves right now. Exciting and thriving though this network is, remember, it's there to help your band along and support good music, not to build your career alone. Only concentrating on your online music listens isn't going to cut it if you can't play live or create a presence in your scene. I've seen bands with quarter of a million online listens that couldn't draw double-figures at gigs. Although MP3 downloads and online plays might have replaced the rigmarole of sending CDs to club nights, the concept of getting to know the people who represent your chosen style at the grassroots remains. So while it's tempting to grab that list of blogs and send your EPK to everyone on there, it's actually better to simply choose a few that you know cover, and have a history of supporting bands that sound like you, and push it to them personally.

The famous story goes that Bloc Party were signed after they gave their CD to Steve Lamacq at a Franz Ferdinand gig. That wasn't an accident, it was a result of knowing the players and playing the game correctly. For my own part, on a much smaller scale, my band's initial approach to sending out our recording was the same as it was playing live. We weren’t initially sending our demos out to the big managers, agents and major labels. We made a rough and ready three track demo before we’d even started playing live and sent that out to all the ska fanzines and nascent webzines we could find. Fortuitously, one of the tracks was chosen to appear on a compilation by the UK’s leading fanzine of our style, which got our name out there very early in our existence. At Reading Festival I was handed a flyer with the name of a club night in London which displayed a list of bands that were spun by the DJ that had a great deal of crossover with my band's music. I sent a demo over to the club, addressing it c/o the club night’s name. A few weeks later I got a phone-call from the promoter inviting us to support a US band doing their only UK show in London. The promoter went on to put us in the studio to produce a professional demo (which ultimately got us signed) and subsequently he also went on to manage us for a number of years. These things never would have happened if I hadn’t seized the opportunity to send the CD to that club with a decent covering letter, based on a list of bands and a wing and a prayer. Just like Bloc Party, I had identified where we fitted in and the places that were playing the kind of music we were playing and it all went from there.

Bloc Party. Good mates with Steve Lamacq.

THINKING ABOUT... HOW YOU LOOK
Next week, in the last blog of this series 'Thinking About... How You Look', I'll talk about another couple of things that you don't necessarily consider when you're getting your band together and those are image and interviews. For now, don't forget to let me know what you think of the blog and please share it! Thanks for reading.

Queens of the Stone Age shot courtesy NRK P3's Flickr used under Creative Commons License.
Dizzee Rascal shot courtesy michael dornbierer‘s Flickr used under Creative Commons License.
Reading Festival Bloc Party shot courtesy Mark Freeman's Flickr used under Creative Commons License.

From The Garage to The Stage Part 6: Set Times and the Sound Man

If you're just starting out as an artist, there are many hard lessons to be learned onstage that don't necessarily appear in the 'how to play' manuals or educational music books. To help you along, we've enlisted our very own Barney to impart his hard-earned gigging wisdom in this ongoing series of weekly blogs. If you're recently started playing live or even if you haven't yet done a gig yet, we at Songeist believe that these blogs will be a great asset to help you to consider all the aspects of your live show. We'll be posting a new entry every Wednesday around midday for the coming weeks so don't forget to visit!

READ PART 1: MAKING A SPLASH HERE.
READ PART 2: STRUCTURING YOUR SET HERE.
READ PART 3: SEGUES AND SPEECHES HERE.
READ PART 4: CONFIDENCE AND CONNECTION HERE.
READ PART 5: CAMARADERIE AND CONTROL HERE.

Remember to comment and let us know any live tips and tricks you have...

FROM THE GARAGE TO THE STAGE PART 6: SET TIMES AND THE SOUND MAN

Over the past five weeks we have talked about everything that goes into the conceptual side of planning a set. We've discussed tricks and tips to deal with stage-fright, the right way to address the crowd and even strategies to relate to your other band members. I hope that I’ve imparted at least a little hard-earned wisdom! But for the last piece of the puzzle I’m going to extend some advice about dealing with the people outside your band and crowd that are nonetheless essential participants to make sure that your gig goes well. The sound engineers, crew and tour managers.

YOUR CONDUCT IS MORE IMPRESSIVE THAN YOUR SONGS
A crucial thing to understand about live music is that the majority of crew, sound engineers and tour managers don’t really care about your music. They've heard quite enough music, thank you very much. They simply care that you don’t make their life any harder than it already is. Yet crucially, they are very the people who often hold the key to that sweet support slot you want to grab. It isn’t always writing the killer tune that gets you the tour. It’s getting on and offstage quickly and efficiently, acting courteously and professionally to crew and being friendly and respectful to the headline band. As with each of these blogs, there are exceptions to the rule. I’ve certainly met massively popular bands out there that act like a bunch of school kids (and, appropriately, they often are the ones who achieve fame just out of school). But if you follow the guidelines below you shouldn’t go far wrong.

How much tech would a drum tech tech, if a drum tech could tech drums?
THE SOUND ENGINEER IS YOUR FRIEND, WHETHER YOU LIKE HIM OR NOT
Let’s get this out of the way. Being a local band isn’t fair. Often the venue will promise you a soundcheck and you get bumped because time is running late. Often there are sound issues onstage. Often you get no dressing room at all and have to pile your gear in a tiny, spider-infested corner. But these are simply things you need to accept and attempt to overcome. The first thing to relate this week is that it’s always advantageous to show courtesy and respect to all the crew, from the roadies to the tour manager to the promoter but especially to the sound engineer. He or she has the power to make or break your set. Learn their name, be polite, and be considerate of what they need.

The first place to get this right is during soundcheck. If the crew are setting up the stage, be aware of this and try not to get in their way too much. You’d be amazed at the bands I’ve seen jamming, blissfully ignorant, at full blast as a visibly seething sound engineer changes drum mics. Drummers are often the worst, thrashing the hell out of their kits or tuning their snare while the sound man changes the kick drum mic at a distance that makes it tantamount to assault. Until you have your own crew and plenty of allotted time, this really isn’t the time to jam that tune from rehearsal while everyone else waits around because you read that U2 wrote 'One' during a soundcheck. Listen to the sound engineer when he asks you to play and be reasonable and intelligent with what you do play. Drummers, play a repeated groove that covers the full kit, guitarists and bassists play a riff that's a solid loop and covers a reasonable range. Granted, no matter how well-behaved you are, some sound engineers will inevitably treat you like an irritating nuisance. Some will be nice and laugh along with your japes and learn your name. You never know. Just be aware that whatever their demeanor, their experience with you is naturally likely to affect the work they do for you when you’re up on stage.

The sound engineer is your friend, whether he likes it or not.

SPEAKING TO THE SOUND ENGINEERS DURING THE SET
Every now and then, dealing with sound issues while onstage during the set will be necessary, but remember, just as we covered last week, nine times out of ten the crowd aren't hearing that squeal that comes from your monitor every time you lean over, so don't draw attention to it. If you look like things are falling apart just because there's a hum coming from a guitar amp then, even if they can't hear the difference, people are going to assume that things are falling apart. If you need to communicate monitor directions by using hand signals (pointing at your guitar, then to the monitor, and then up in the air to denote that you need more in the monitor for instance) remember to be as calm and clear as you can and stay in control. Don't even bother mouthing words as it will draw the crowd's attention to the issue. I’ve watched sets where the drummer has spent over half his time on stage scowling and pointing in different directions at the hapless monitor engineer and, although I as a musician feel his pain, I also realize he’s oblivious to the energy of his screwed-up face and attitude spilling all over the stage. If the sound is that bad, it's better to stop the set between songs, get it sorted and then move on than be in a constant gushing leak of panic and anger, letting the crowd that there was something wrong during the set, though they had no idea what it was.

If hand signals aren’t going to cut it, there is an art to speaking to the sound engineer between songs. Never start making demands through the mic the very second that a song finishes and the crowd is still clapping. This will confuse the audience and kill the appreciative energy in the room dead. Instead, being sure to indicate to the rest of the band that you want them to wait, calmly thank the crowd as normal, maybe even add a little comment about how the gig is going, and then address the sound engineer with a polite ‘Mr Soundman, I need a little more of me in my monitor’. Thank the crowd, let the mood settle, then put your demands out there in a clear and friendly tone, owning the moment.

That's the face you get when you start copping a 'tude at a sound engineer.

GET ONSTAGE ON TIME
It seems strange to me that I even have to make a point of this, but I still go to gigs and at the stage time the support band are due onstage, someone from the venue is running around trying to find the band. That scenario is simply unacceptable to anyone involved in live music and, believe me, it’s absolutely abhorrent to the tour manager of the headline band. Unless otherwise clearly stated by the headline band’s TM or the promoter, the stage times are NOT a rough guideline of how they want the night to go. They are strict, absolute orders about where your slot is in the running of the night. Feckless local bands often break this rule because no one has ever really sat them down and pointed this out. It simply goes unspoken. You see it so often in live music, as a band or tour manager you sometimes can’t even be bothered saying anything until the band runs over by ten minutes. But here’s the rub, this isn’t school, you don’t get detention. YOU SIMPLY DON’T GET BOOKED AGAIN TO SUPPORT THE BAND. That ten minutes was ten minutes less time at the end of the night where the headline band could have sold their merch. You mess with their bottom line, and things get personal!

If you’re opening, you will have the luxury of leaving your gear set up, so in that instance there’s even less of a reason for lateness. Getting onstage when you're the second band on, with just a quarter-of-an-hour slot to do it in, is stressful so it’s absolutely essential you’ve planned in advance. Have your cables and gear ready and accessible so you can get straight on and give the band that preceded you space and time to get off. It’s totally acceptable to help them get their stuff off. Not only does it make things quicker, it asserts the point that you want them to move off the stage ASAP. There will be times when, through no fault of your own, the changeover overruns. Nine out of ten times in this situation, as long as the overrun wasn’t your fault, the tour manager or sound engineer will reimburse you an extra five minutes at the end of your set to compensate, especially at festivals. If this isn't forthcoming, there’s nothing wrong with asking if this is possible, but never assume. Overrunning is a bigger sin even than getting on late. In fact, it’s the most sure-fire way for you to never get booked as support to a professional band again.

There may be only two fans watching, but remember, the TM is ALWAYS WATCHING.

GETTING OFFSTAGE.
This is the most important rule in this whole series of blogs. If you follow every other point to a tee, but overrun your set by seven minutes at every show you’re going to be the greatest band in your local toilet venue for the next four decades. Get off on time. No ifs ands or buts. Drop a song if you need to. GET OFF ON TIME.

When you do get off, get off as quickly as possible. After the intensity of the set, you'll feel the world slow down. It's natural that getting off stage feels like it should be a stress-free, peaceful affair done with your face flushed with happiness, basking in the glory of your wonderful concert. But there's another band to get on! Getting offstage is a hurried, stressful and almost always slightly unpleasant chore and you must hustle as quickly as possible. Feel free to walk off stage to underline the end of your performance but then get straight back up there and work to get your gear off efficiently and into the designated zone. Help each other and be aware of the crew, who will almost always give you a hand. Get this job done, then go and chill. You've earned it!

The first time SB6 really experienced a hard lesson in getting offstage was touring with The Levellers in 2009. The Levellers are a big, cult band and their crew are professionals with no time for holding the hands of some punk band just because they can’t afford a crew. The change-over time was forty-five minutes, plenty of time we thought, seeing as though The Levellers were already set up. So on the first night we got off stage and afterwards we relaxed for a moment together, drinking water behind the curtains, ready to go back on and grab our gear. The crew proceeded to storm the stage, and, faced with our gear set-up, tore our guitar pedals off the floor and pretty much threw them at us. Suffice to say, we didn’t hang about after the set the next night and the lesson that we learned that day was a good one. There is simply no excuse. Get off stage on time and get off as quickly as humanly possible.

And, if you hadn’t already figured this out, if you are not the headlining band, never, ever, ever do an encore!

Follow all the rules, and this is how you'll feel.

FINAL THOUGHTS
There are ‘local band’ nights all over the country where venues simply want the friends and family of bands to come and drink at the bar to keep the business running. The venue and 'promoters' don't care about the bands, they care about the drinks being bought, and often the rules I've outlined above are not enforced or even laid out. At these nights, bands pick up bad habits. But you try pulling out those habits supporting a touring band with a tour manager and you simply aren’t going to get tours. And don't expect them to tell you why, because they don't have to.

At the beginning, being in a band is very tough. In the UK, at local gigs, you get treated as the lowest of the low, often not getting a dressing room, food or drinks. You see the headline band swanning about with their grub and lager and passes in their dressing room, not watching the local bands, and tend to think they’re stuck-up idiots. But what you need to remember is that they have all been in the same place as you have. And you’ll find that when you’ve not been home for three weeks and have driven for 7 hours previously, a beer and a sit down without having music blaring in your face is not that much to ask. By all means, politely introduce yourselves and ask them to watch you, but be prepared for the fact that they might choose not to, and that's their prerogative.

Finally, remember that at this stage, for you, watching the other bands is important. Grassroots music scenes work through friendships, not strength of demos, and the difference between being shunned by a scene and being immersed and accepted into it really is about what you put in. People can smell a band that are only out for themselves, so returning favours and being an active participant at live shows at this point will reap rewards that your songwriting might not.

And that's that. It's time to get out there and rock.

Barney

Thanks for reading this blog series and all your support and feedback. I have a special case study blog coming up where I impart some more general rules and philosophies to being in a band but what I’d really love right now is to hear any questions you guys have about music as it pertains to emerging artists.

Please email me your thoughts, suggestions and questions to barney@songeist.com

Drum Tech photo courtesy Gareth Harfoot's Flickr used under Creative Commons License.
Sound Engineer photo courtesy Howard Stanbury's Flickr used under Creative Commons License.
Sound Engineer 2 photo courtesy Andrei Rusu's Flickr used under Creative Commons License.
Tour Manager Photo courtesy David Jones's Flickr used under Creative Commons License.
Onstage photo courtesy Annais Ferreira's Flickr used under Creative Commons License.

From The Garage to The Stage Part 5: Camaraderie and Control

This article originally appeared on the blog at Songeist.com.

If you're just starting out as an artist, there are many hard lessons to be learned onstage that don't necessarily appear in the 'how to play' manuals or educational music books. To help you along, we've enlisted our very own Barney to impart his hard-earned gigging wisdom in this ongoing series of weekly blogs. If you're recently started playing live or even if you haven't yet done a gig yet, we at Songeist believe that these blogs will be a great asset to help you to consider all the aspects of your live show. We'll be posting a new entry every Wednesday around midday for the coming weeks so don't forget to visit!

READ PART 1: MAKING A SPLASH HERE.
READ PART 2: STRUCTURING YOUR SET HERE.
READ PART 3: SEGUES AND SPEECHES HERE.
READ PART 4: CONFIDENCE AND CONNECTION HERE.
READ PART 6: SET TIMES AND THE SOUND MAN HERE.

Remember to comment and let us know any live tips and tricks you have...

FROM THE GARAGE TO THE STAGE PART 5: CAMARADERIE AND CONTROL

So far, we’ve covered how to write a setlist, how to structure your set, how to segue your songs and how to connect with a crowd. But what about the other connection that is happening onstage, the connection that many musicians don’t immediately consider but is the connection that is, above all, the most important part of being in a band? What about the connection with each other? You may have spent more hours in a garage and more miles on the road with these human beings than anyone else on earth but put you on stage together and you either pretend they don't exist or throw dirty looks at them every time they even look like they might mess up. Dealing with on-stage stress is a part of being in a band, especially for an emerging band, and the most natural thing in the world to do is to lean on your friends; your band-mates. One thing that you’ll have to accept as a band starting out and using in-house sound engineers is that sometimes, even often, onstage sound will be awful. That causes stress. The very task of performing in front of strangers causes stress. And these band-mates you call friends are going to make some musical mistakes that will cause you stress. Being onstage magnifies all these feelings of stress but, just as with last week’s blog, you need to focus those emotions to compose yourself and not sell an iota of that stress, let alone take it out on each other. We know we have to emote confidence, but we also need to emote a sense of camaraderie and control.

The Horrors, emerging from their spaceship, full of camaraderie yesterday.
CONTROL YOURSELF
Following on from last week’s talk of confidence and connection-building, nothing relaxes a crowd more than a band that appears at ease and in control of their environment. If you look like you know what you’re doing, they will believe you do. Nothing belies a band’s nervousness and sense of being at ill-at-ease more than negative body language towards each other. A band that appears united as a team and comfortable on stage with each other evokes that same energy to the crowd. That sense of camaraderie is key to a band and should be part of your overall philosophy and approach beyond the stage. Some of the best bands, think The Ramones, The Specials, The Horrors, actually look like they've emerged from a spaceship together to take over our world. A band that look uncomfortable with each other or even worse, visibly hostile, tutting and scowling at mistakes, are facing a huge uphill battle in winning over fans. Just as I relayed last week, the crowd WANTS to like you, just don’t give them reason not to. You might be the kind of player (I know I am) that can’t tune out the other band member’s performances and picks up on every fluffed note, every scuffed fill and every flat harmony. The vital thing to remember is that 99% of mistakes, no matter how bad they seem to you, the audience will either not pick up on, or not care about. A rock gig isn’t a piano recital. No rock gig has ever been ruined, or even badly affected, by a few rogue mistakes in a set. But you can ruin a gig by creating a tense, awkward atmosphere onstage between band members. A dirty look early in the set can have its negative energy increase exponentially across the performance, as the band member's become more reactive and angry at one another. No matter how well they think they're hiding it, this will sink the connection at a show even if the crowd can’t quite put their finger on what the problem is. You can feel a bad atmosphere, and feeling is more important at a gig than simply hearing.

Don’t get me wrong. Mistakes count. The fact that Steve went into the wrong part for the tenth gig on the row does matter, especially after you brought it up in rehearsal twenty times. It matters to you and so, ultimately, it matters to the performance and the band. But you’re kidding yourself if you think that if you turn around and shake your head at him onstage, anyone in the crowd is going to sympathise with your exasperation. You just look like a mean so-and-so and you’ve created a negative onstage vibe, all over a bass mistake in a room where the sound is so boomy not one single person noticed. To physically register it onstage does nothing but bring attention to it, increasing the tension and making the gig worse for everyone. Again, it’s a case of implosion, not explosion, and even thought that messed-up fill daftpot on the drum's has done for the whole tour feels like nails down your back, it’s your mistake if you let it throw your own performance off track.


I fully endorse the loving, positive, fully-in-control eye contact, if not the shorts, of this band.

CAMARADERIE
Being onstage is stressful and in stressful situations, friends are mean to each other, and that doesn’t always stop between songs. One faux pas I’ve seen many times – and have been guilty of - is taking the mickey out of other members of the band over the mic between songs. We’ve all seen this, if judged correctly, be a fun addition to a live set but, just like erupting into synchronised head-banging from the second you get on stage, more often than not it only serves to highlight how vulnerable the musician feels at that point. What you imagine in your head is charming repartee between two band members, lifting the curtain into the group's lovable real-life personalities, is actually just two incoherent human beings, tuning guitars and mumbling 'dick head' at each other, like a pair of three-year-old siblings lashing out at each other because they're tired after a day out at the zoo. Of course, the crowd may smile. They may even laugh. Just like the raising a fist on stage is often mirrored in a crowd, the audience will attempt to follow suit at the pantomime of witty conversation that they perceive to probably be happening before them. But that doesn't mean it's anything but slightly embarrassing for all involved.

Speaking of addressing the room, sometimes the crowd will speak back. As we outlined last week, standing and conversing with mates does nothing but create a cliquey atmosphere. But if you play enough gigs, someone in the crowd, at some point, is going to say something bad about you. Just like reacting to a fluffed note from a band member, you do not sell it because you are in control of the stage, not the crowd. Follow the same rules as you would someone posting comments on YouTube; do not feed the troll. Granted, if someone is heckling to the extent it’s affecting the rest of the crowd’s enjoyment of the show, then perhaps, being as assertive and emphatic as you can, you need to face that. The crowd will thank you for it and facing down an idiot spoiling other people's fun can really bond a band and crowd. But if there’s one guy shouting abuse and giving you the V-sign in a crowd of hundreds, do not give him the satisfaction of knowing you have even seen him, even worse he's got you rattled. Ignore him completely. Focus your energy to keep in control of your own performance and don’t let him gain any influence over you. Just think; if a human being is so odious and has a life so bereft of happiness that he or she must stand in front of a stage and make gestures to bands they don’t like, they really do not deserve any validation for their actions, let alone the attention they crave. Ignore these sadsacks. They will get bored and, quietly and sullenly, wait for the headliner they came to see. They don't get out much, to be fair.

You might not quite manage it, but this is the post-gig atmosphere to aim for.

WAIT UNTIL TOMORROW
The discipline of control and camaraderie should not stop the second you get off stage, you need to remain focused for at least a few hours afterwards. This is difficult because you've been affected emotionally and the music means a lot to you and once you come off stage, there's a temptation to let it all spill out. After internalising your chagrin towards the guitarist’s multiple musical indiscretions for half an hour, there's the desire to come off stage and immediately start rattling off a laundry list of his mistakes. But it's a bad idea. Emotions are so high that a post-gig conversation will be ferocious, overblown and erupt into something far more intense than is constructive when discussing specific drum fills or vocal harmonies. Not only will you be angry, the other band member will be defensive, especially after a disappointing performance, so a fight will inevitably erupt and, essentially, what you are saying and asking of them gets buried under a landslide of emo, feels and mardy-bum melodrama. Save it for the bedroom.

With great diplomacy and experience, it's possible to get your band's communication developed enough that you can manage to talk about the set quite sensibly within an hour or two after the show. It's not always mistakes that you want to discuss and important things do get forgotten if you set a cast-iron fatwa on talking in the dressing room about what went on on the stage for the last half an hour. But as a rule of thumb it’s generally better to simply wait until the next day. If the mistake or observation is important enough to comment on, it’s important enough for you to make it your responsibility to remember it for the following morning. You could even write it down or pop it in your phone notes, as I do. If you calmly and clearly express the problem the next day and the band member is still being a tart about it… well, that's their problem, not yours. But that’s the thing with band members, they’re human beings and part of being in a band is learning one-another’s limits, abilities and even short-comings and having the wisdom and will to work with them and around them.

Next week in From The Garage to The Stage we'll discuss the final details of being onstage, beyond the band and crowd. We'll explore speaking to sound engineers, the logistics of working with crews, getting on and offstage and all the subtle, unspoken stuff that's expected of you as a band at a gig that no one tells you beforehand.

Until next time...

Barney

Horrors photo courtesy Neil Klug's Flickr used under Creative Commons License.
Lucacookus photo courtesy Mark Scott Austin TX's Flickr used under Creative Commons License.
Backstage photo courtesy Chillhiro's Flickr used under Creative Commons License.

From The Garage to The Stage Part 4: Confidence and Connection

This article originally appeared on the blog at Songeist.com.

If you're just starting out as an artist, there are many hard lessons to be learned onstage that don't necessarily appear in the 'how to play' manuals or educational music books. To help you along, we've enlisted our very own Barney to impart his hard-earned gigging wisdom in this ongoing series of weekly blogs. If you're recently started playing live or even if you haven't yet done a gig yet, we at Songeist believe that these blogs will be a great asset to help you to consider all the aspects of your live show. We'll be posting a new entry every Wednesday around midday for the coming weeks so don't forget to visit!

READ PART 1: MAKING A SPLASH HERE.
READ PART 2: STRUCTURING YOUR SET HERE.
READ PART 3: SEGUES AND SPEECHES HERE.
READ PART 5: CAMARADERIE AND CONTROL HERE.
READ PART 6: SET TIMES AND THE SOUND MAN HERE.

Remember to comment and let us know any live tips and tricks you have...

FROM THE GARAGE TO THE STAGE PART 4: CONFIDENCE AND CONNECTION

During a live gig, especially a club show, the dynamic between the crowd and act is very different from one of simply Performer and Audience. The relationship is probably more analogous to that of a stand-up comedy show than to a classical pianist and a hall full of patrons, or a crowd watching a game at a sports event. There is very little separation between the parties and a huge deal of direct interaction, both explicit and subliminal. Emotions are high and the audience and band feed and react to them. Sometimes the crowd speaks back. Bluff and self-assurance are essential and, like with so much in life, confidence is the key.

PEOPLE LIKE CONFIDENCE
Consider this. A stand-up comedian can perform to a room with great material but if he stutters nervously through his set, avoids eye-contact with the room, or acts hostile and complains about the crowd’s sense of humour he will leave the stage to silence or boos. A comedian with poor material who projects confidence and a sense of ease, or simply a likeable presence, can create a bond with the crowd and leave the stage with polite applause or even cheers. It’s exactly the same with a band, especially in a support slot. A band's music is a smaller part of a live show than most music journalists get paid to tell you it is and certainly far less than most punters consciously realise when they watch a live show. The crowd wants to like you so don't give them a reason not to. If a band looks as if they’re enjoying their music and come across as confident and cocksure, that will convince a crowd as much as the songs. Conversely, bands that look shy and embarrassed will make the crowd feel awkward and that negative emotion becomes associated with their music. With this in mind, if, like me, you don’t have the kind of natural boundless confidence that lights up the room every time you walk in it, it could be time to put some strategies and concepts into action.

Matt Reynolds, ex-guitarist and singer of rock band Howard’s Alias and now fronting folk act Big Fin, played guitar for Sonic Boom Six for a few tours at the end of 2009. A veteran of live gigs, Matt conveyed a striking live music philosophy to me on stage in Europe that stopped me in my tracks. Its simplicity was its genius. He said ‘every second that you look away from the crowd during a live show is a moment that you are cheating from them’. Over time it's become clear to me that as a general mantra to follow, it's a tremendously effective motivator. Of course, it’s not advised to stand on the edge of the stage and stare dementedly at the crowd for the entirety of the set. And as musicians, it’s great to share eye-contact and moments with your fellow musicians during the performance. But it’s also important to bear in mind that if you look at each other for the whole set, you are depriving your attention from the very place it needs to go… into the audience. Matt’s philosophy is the perfect concept to keep pushing you to do that. And looking at the crowd and conveying your energy, passion and belief in your music is what creates connection.

Matt Reynolds, looking AT a crowd and not cheating them.

CREATING THE CONNECTION
The idea of connection is a great way to conceptualise it. We've all been to sold-out arena gigs where there is a lack of a bond between the band and the audience, yet we've seen half-empty club shows where every single thing the band does has an effect on the mood and causes a reaction in the crowd. Equally we've watched festival headliners electrify thousands but stood through bands in tiny venues getting no reaction in a cold room. It's not the size of the show, it's the connection that creates a truly exhilarating live performance. For those of us petrified of performing that find ourselves looking down and smiling nervously throughout a live set, we need to put some thought into ways of avoiding this behaviour because it inhibits our connection. A good trick to start with can simply be looking over the audience, choosing a spot on the back wall of the venue just above the crowd's eye line and literally performing to that. Initially, your main goal is simply to get the energy out there and not elsewhere on the stage and to get comfortable doing it.

Eye contact is difficult for many people and feeling exposed on stage can increase one's self-consciousness. You may have heard how, to keep eye contact in police interviews, hardened criminals look between the eyes or at the eyebrows of those giving them a grilling. Start by using this technique. Smile at people. Connect with people. You don’t want to give all your attention to the same group of people through the entire set; look to the spot in the back of the room, then to the mass of people in the centre of the room, then give some time to those at the front. There have been times on stage where I have consciously tested this, observing the visceral difference in the body language of the people before me when I look and emote to them as opposed to looking elsewhere. You really do have the power in your body language to convey the energy of your music and to will people to enjoy it the way that you enjoy it. But you have to work at it.

Look, a lovely bunch of foreheads to connect with.

CONTROLLING THE CONNECTION
The paradox of creating connection, is that it's an exercise in controlling energy rather than unleashing it. We've all seen bands that think the key to a great live performance is to leap around the stage and thrash about like maniacs. Rather than encouraging the crowd to get involved, this can have the opposite effect, serving only to underline the lack of excitement in the rest of the room. The contrast between the energy of an act trying so hard and the ambivalent atmosphere in a venue can seem absurd, pathetic even, and this breaks the connection. Onstage, you may feel like you want to leap out of your skin but you need to harness that nervousness and adrenaline and focus your energy to coax the crowd to get involved, not to compel them to.

At the risk of sounding a little 'New Age', the best live acts can adapt to the vibrations in a room, focus them and then amplify them. This goes right back to the 'turning of the screw' through the first part of the setlist that we discussed in Part 2. When you hit the right vibration and take a cold, still room to a heaving mass of sweaty bodies in the space of three songs, it's the greatest feeling in the world. The gigs we all live for are those when the crowd erupts and you no longer need to worry about any of these blog subjects and you can lose yourself completely. But it's important to remember that you and the crowd go through the process together, not separately. Physical reaction and dancing from the crowd is a goal that inexperienced bands often pursue above all else, yet movement is not always the indicator of the best show. A gig's overall connection can even be broken by over-enthusiastic pockets of fans being super-served, moshing violently or chanting louder than the rest of the crowd. The most powerful, memorable and life-affirming gigs are those where the connection across the room between crowd and band is strongest. And the trick to connecting is more often implosion than explosion. It's reaction rather than action.

A mic, between songs. Remember, you don't HAVE to use it.

KEEPING THE CONNECTION
If there's one place where even the best bands lose their confidence, let their guard down and break the spell of the connection, it's between songs. There’s always a certain amount of discomfort in the act of being on stage with a mic and talking to a crowd and it’s only natural that it feels odd. I don’t want to belabour the point, but to emote clearly and briefly is far preferable than mumbling. If what you do and say between songs is affecting the connection between you and the crowd, then just say very little. There's no rule saying you have to say anything. Don't ruin the mood with stupid jokes if you're not a natural comedian, or, as we covered in Part 3, don't say the same thing again and again for the sake of it. Don't create a cliquey atmosphere by sharing private conversations between you and your friends in the crowd. It's a tempting crutch to lean on but the people in the audience that aren't in your close circle of friends will not know about that mad thing that happened to Batshit Barry at Reading 2007, and frankly won't care, so don't bring it up.

A good way to look at it is that if you get the feeling that you might possibly, maybe, perhaps, just a little bit, be mumbling rubbish into a mic between songs then you definitely are. Next week we'll continue these ideas about projecting a good positive atmosphere onstage and communicating with each other, and others, with efficiency and wisdom before, during and after the show.

Until next time...

Barney

Crowd shot courtesy Cabaret Voltaire's Flickr used under Creative Commons License.
Mic shot courtesty Ashley Collins' Flickr used under Creative Commons License.

From The Garage to the Stage Part 3: Segues and Speeches

This article originally appeared on the blog at Songeist.com.

If you're just starting out as an artist, there are many hard lessons to be learned onstage that don't necessarily appear in the 'how to play' manuals or educational music books. To help you along, we've enlisted our very own Barney to impart his hard-earned gigging wisdom in this ongoing series of weekly blogs. If you're recently started playing live or even if you haven't yet done a gig yet, we at Songeist believe that these blogs will be a great asset to help you to consider all the aspects of your live show. We'll be posting a new entry every Wednesday around midday for the coming weeks so don't forget to visit!

READ PART 1: MAKING A SPLASH HERE.
READ PART 2: STRUCTURING YOUR SET HERE.
READ PART 4: CONFIDENCE AND CONNECTION HERE.
READ PART 5: CAMARADERIE AND CONTROL HERE.
READ PART 6: SET TIMES AND THE SOUND MAN HERE.

Remember to comment and let us know any live tips and tricks you have...

FROM THE GARAGE TO THE STAGE PART 3: SEGUES AND SPEECHES

Last week we discussed the concept of writing a killer setlist and my advice was to break the set into three sections. While this is a technique that works perfectly just to get the songs down into an effective order on paper, this structure can exist within the show itself, creating a set that comes across as a half-hour performance rather than a 'stop-start' affair.

STICK WITH THE SECTIONS
You only have a limited amount of time in the set so stopping for a chat and a tune-up after every song is not an efficient use of anyone's time. Without planning beforehand, bands tend to meander between songs. It’s not engaging as an audience member to look at a group of musicians whose heads are scanning each other from left to right with the singer mouthing ‘are you ready?’ This doesn’t have the same sense of performance as you can achieve if you have your transitions organised. In my experience, a crowd can enjoy two or three songs played back-to-back quite comfortably so the perfect time for a chat or a breather is between the setlist sections outlined last week. So, for that half-an-hour-length, seven-song support set, leaving a gap between songs three and four, then between five and six, and finally saying a goodbye during a breakdown in the last song is a great way to lay the set out in terms of 'breaks' (you can revise your understanding of this standard support-set structure in my last blog HERE).

On SB6 setlists, our we denote the section breaks by drawing a line between the songs. Between the songs that have no line on the setlist, there is no break in the set. We may drag out the last note of the song before and start the next song immediately. We may have a backing track bubbling underneath and just say a few words over that to introduce the next song. The important thing is that the flow keeps going until we see the line on the setlist. Only where there is a line do we know that we’re free to relax, have a drink of water and address the crowd in a free-form way. It’s worth noting that having these gaps after playing three songs or so back-to-back is as important for the crowd as it is for the band. They need to catch their breath too and it’s amazing how the atmosphere of the room can change from exhausted to expectant in something as small as a thirty-second breather.


See how Muse structure their sets with sections divided by breaks.

BANTER IN THE BREAKS
Some bands are natural comedians and turn their bluff and banter between songs into a charming feature of the set. Most of us aren’t, or at least have to work very hard at it, so it’s great to have some tricks up our sleeves. If you’re a little shy with the crowd, that’s a perfect reason to define where in the set you are going to chat and what your subject is. It's a good idea to write a subject down next to the section-break line on your setlist to denote what to speak about. The main thing that this avoids (and I see it all the time) is bands repeating themselves. A way you could do it could be cheat-sheet style notes such as ‘thank previous band’, ‘chat to crowd’ or ‘mention merch / website’. You could even leave the notes as just a word to inspire or remind you of your subject and let yourself wax lyrical from there. This might feel contrived to some but I’m not suggesting you script anything, in fact it's best to avoid over-scripting. Not only does scripting sound unnatural in execution, but scripted setlists grabbed by members of the crowd may end up the source of much amusement and ridicule if the fan posts them on the internet, which genuinely happened to some friends in a leading UK punk band some years ago (but, to be fair, even for a control freak like me, having 'spray beer' on the setlist was too much information!)

When playing a support slot, as a rule of thumb, the less breaks the better, but remember that every break doesn't need to taken after three songs or more, particularly on a longer set. You can see on the example below that SB6 choose to break after song six, then again after song seven. The point is that we all know where we are going to break, and Laila has a subject to chat about, because it's laid out for her on the setlist.


Laila's SB6 setlist, complete with break lines and banter notes.

HAPPY TALK
There are several common errors to avoid when talking to crowds. Saying the exact same thing after every other song is the most usual mistake that inexperienced bands make. It conveys nerves and a lack of sincerity. The most glaring example I can give that many support bands fall back on (I’m sure we all have) is to continuously thank the main band. During the breakdown of the last song is a great place to thank or ‘big up’ the main act. It’s so tempting to do it throughout, because the fans are waiting for them and you’ll get a cheap cheer, but to most people in the room it comes across as fawning and amateurish, almost as if you can barely believe you’re getting to play with your heroes. That’s not how your potential fans want to see you. Once, or twice at most, (once at the start, once at the end if you absolutely must) is more than enough.

Much more of a cardinal sin of onstage banter is the behaviour of bands who attempt to scold the crowd for not reacting to them the way that they want them to. I’ve seen support bands call crowds ‘lazy’ for not dancing to them, I’ve seen hardcore bands call crowds ‘p*****s’ for not moshing. This is not the way to deal with these situations. As far as playing a support set goes, you really are on an emotional knife-edge with a room full of strangers; they want to like you, but you shouldn’t give them reason not to.

Hands up who is ready to see the MAIN BAND! WOOOOO!

EXPECTING TOO MUCH
Also in the ‘expecting too much from a support crowd' category is a peculiar no-no I used to see a lot, especially among punk bands. Bands would attempt to guilt-trip the audience into buying their CD based on the simple fact that they had made the effort to play a gig. Politely suggesting that the crowd might want to buy a CD or support the scene is one thing but saying ‘we’ve driven 500 miles to get here and we have no money and the only way that bands like us and the ones you will see later tonight can keep going is for you to buy our merch’ is just a downer. No one twisted your arm to join a band. We paid our money to get in. Entertain us! There is a more positive way to get that notion across than to come out and say it in those terms. Rock the crowd as hard as you can, come across as affable and positive, tell them about your merch and let them work it out for themselves.

If the room does turn against you, it’s far better to come across as blissfully ignorant of a contemptuous venue, lost in the joy of your own music, than it is to discuss that elephant in the room. Those fans paid for their ticket. It’s not the crowd’s duty to dance to you, to shout your name, or to like you. This isn’t just a one way conversation. Often the crowd will answer back… but that’s a story for next week where we will discuss the subliminal discourse that goes on between crowd and audience at every gig. That might sound a little like psychobabble but I'm simply talking about the unspoken contract between performer and onlooker that goes on in every kind of performance.

Until next time…

Barney

Cheers to Theo Araby Kirkpatrick for the SB6 setlist shot.
Crowd shot courtesy Chad Cooper's Flickr used under Creative Commons License.

From The Garage to The Stage Part 2: Structuring Your Set

This article originally appeared on the blog at Songeist.com.

If you're just starting out as an artist, there are many hard lessons to be learned onstage that don't necessarily appear in the 'how to play' manuals or educational music books. To help you along, we've enlisted our very own Barney to impart his hard-earned gigging wisdom in this ongoing series of weekly blogs. If you're recently started playing live or even if you haven't yet done a gig yet, we at Songeist believe that these blogs will be a great asset to help you to consider all the aspects of your live show. We'll be posting a new entry every Wednesday around midday for the coming weeks so don't forget to visit!

READ PART 1: MAKING A SPLASH HERE.
READ PART 3: SEGUES AND SPEECHES HERE.
READ PART 4: CONFIDENCE AND CONNECTION HERE.
READ PART 5: CAMARADERIE AND CONTROL HERE.
READ PART 6: SET TIMES AND THE SOUND MAN HERE.

Remember to comment and let us know any live tips and tricks you have...

FROM THE GARAGE TO THE STAGE PART 2: STRUCTURING YOUR SET


Your songs are ready to go. You have rehearsed every detail of each composition so many times you’ve lost count. You’re absolutely confident that you won’t miss that cheeky bar of 2/4 or that weird bridge part that Bob made up when he was high. All that remains is to put your seven or eight songs down on a list and to play them from beginning to end, tuning up, drinking beer and thanking the crowd in between them, right?

Not really. You need to put a great deal of thought into the order of your tracks. This could be the difference between a good set and a great set. When you put together an album, you think of the entirety of the recording and structure the songs accordingly, right? Why should a live set be any different?

A BEGINNING, MIDDLE AND END
As we’ve already discussed, we must give a great deal of consideration to the opening of the set but we should approach all of the set with that same attention to detail. Of course, as with all of my blogs, there are exceptions to the rule. There are bands that can go on with no planning at all and stumble through a set and blow the room away. But for the vast majority of us, it benefits to use some strategy. The way I approach a set is like a good book or film; with a beginning, a middle and an end. For a thirty-minute set I think of three sets of ten minutes. For a forty-five minute set, I break it down into three sets of fifteen minutes. Of course, this isn’t an exact science. It won’t necessarily be the same amount of songs per section but the concept remains, even if the section lengths vary.

To illustrate, I will use a thirty-minute, seven-song support set as the example. This set-length will probably be where you start and gradually your sets will get longer as you get bigger as a band. We can extrapolate these concepts across longer sets, simply by extending the sections by adding songs into them. Once you get towards an hour, you might want to actually repeat a full middle section or two, creating different waves of energy moving up and down through songs during the middle section of the set.


A vintage SB6 support set that follows all the rules outlined in the blog. A 3-2-2 section structure, most abrasive track third, reggae track fifth and fan favourites to close.

DON'T PEAK TOO EARLY
The first section of the set, from your moment coming onstage to impact of song three, should build. While you should hit the stage with purpose and focus (as we discussed on the last blog) you don’t want to peak too early in terms of impact. People may still be shuffling in from the bar at the point you go on. Opening the set at full-blast in terms of attack and energy is tempting because it seems logical and the nervous energy is easy to get swept away in, but it can actually create a disconnect between the band and the crowd. If you’re supporting a bigger band and you're new to a crowd, the floor often needs easing into a set as opposed to dragging into it. The people in the crowd are jostling and jockeying for their positions during the start of a set. Open with a song that’s secure and solid to play, so that you can iron out any potential sound issues and get comfortable in the room. You don’t even need to necessarily play a full tune, maybe up to the middle 8 is enough. The first three songs are not the time for extended breakdowns or banter. These songs need to gain, not grab, the crowd's attention and ‘turn the screw’ on the room’s atmosphere. For song two, up the ante, turn the screw, move that energy forward but keep in mind that song two is not your destination. You and the crowd should feel locked-in by this point so that when you drop song three the set ignites. When you get this right and the cork on the bottle of the room's energy pops, it's one of the most exhilarating feelings a musician can have.

Our old booking agent Ian Armstrong of Hidden Talent Booking imparted to me long ago that you should always play your best song third. Over the years, I’ve seen the wisdom in this. If you’re strangers to an audience, it will take a couple of songs for people to make up their mind about you. The difference between someone leaping into the pit and cheering at the top of their lungs as opposed to standing at the back and politely applauding could be to deploy a killer third tune. Even for a big band with an established crowd, the third song is a sweet spot to really ignite the party. Just ask AC/DC.


AC/DC, dropping the big gun 'Back in Black' third. (Photo courtesy of The Revenge of Riff-Raff)

THE CREAMY MIDDLE
Next up is the middle section. You have their attention, now you have to do something with it. Choose something solid for song four that 'turns the gas down' slightly and can surf on the inertia of energy that song three has created in the room. In a thirty-minute set, it’s probably a bad idea to go too far off into experimental territory but if you want to do something left-of-centre during the set then choose song five to do it. If you have a ballad or some excursion into a different tempo, such a reggae tune, then this part of the set is ideal. If your material is all the same pace and style, you could still use track five to extend a middle eight and get the crowd clapping. Just adding something into the set at this point that’s a little out of the box can work really well to piqué the crowd's interest beyond the first few songs.

Track 5. Made for clapping along to.

THE TRIUMPHANT ENDING
The last section is the right place for another couple of your best songs or fan favourites. You’d hope that across the set you’ve built up some momentum and established a rapport with the crowd. By this point they understand what the band is all about and are ready for you to make your final impression. The very last song is another great one to stretch out. Maybe settle on the middle-eight groove of the song and get the crowd involved again, whether it’s getting them to clap or to repeat a word or lyric you shout out. You could even try some more creative crowd interaction. The old Iron Maiden ‘Scream for me London!’ always works wonders but there are lots of ways that you can get people involved. You could part the crowd down the middle and get them to sing alternate lines. You could get them to sit down (or maybe set up a wall of death or circle pit if you're a heavier act) as you vamp on a breakdown and then jump up when you drop the big riff. Push yourself to try something interesting and memorable and use your imagination to relate whatever it is you do back to the music. People remember a band that does something original with the crowd, and the last song is the time to do it.

Finally, always remember to end the set on a bang, not a whimper. The rock n roll clichés are clichés because they work. It isn't rocket science to do the old ‘crescendo drum roll with guitar noise followed by synchronised stabs’ routine but it works. If you raise your guitars slowly together as you strum those discordant chords and the drummer thrashes about on the cymbals like Animal behind you, the crowd is naturally, inexplicably compelled to cheer and holler and clap louder, no matter what has preceded it. No one knows exactly why this is, but it would be unwise to blow against the wind of this piece of tried and tested musical science. Rock n Roll clichés are your friend. As Keith Richards said, Rock n Roll is music for the neck down.

To end this blog, a very simple lesson. When writing that setlist, don’t be tempted to squeeze in an extra song just because you might be able to manage it. It will stress out the band having to watch the clock and it will cause you to rush. Running over set time during a support slot is NOT an option (gig etiquette is another blog for the coming weeks). Instead, simply use the remaining minutes to stretch out your last song and communicate with the crowd. You want to leave them wanting more, not wanting you to get off stage, and even a support band that’s being received very well shouldn’t push their luck when the crowd’s favourite band are coming on in half an hour.

Now we've got our setlist written, next week in 'From The Garage to the Stage' we'll deal with applying the structure of your set into your performance, dealing with the gaps between songs and when, and when not, to chat to the crowd.

Until next time…

Barney

Credit to Revenge of Riff Raff for the AC/DC Setlist.

From The Garage to The Stage Part 1: Making a Splash

This article originally appeared on the blog at Songeist.com.

If you're just starting out as an artist, there are many hard lessons to be learned onstage that don't necessarily appear in the 'how to play' manuals or educational music books. To help you along, we've enlisted our very own Barney to impart his hard-earned gigging wisdom in this ongoing series of weekly blogs. If you're recently started playing live or even if you haven't yet done a gig yet, we at Songeist believe that these blogs will be a great asset to help you to consider all the aspects of your live show. We'll be posting a new entry every Wednesday around midday for the coming months so don't forget to visit!

READ PART 2: STRUCTURING YOUR SET HERE.
READ PART 3: SEGUES AND SPEECHES HERE.
READ PART 4: CONFIDENCE AND CONNECTION HERE.
READ PART 5: CAMARADERIE AND CONTROL HERE.
READ PART 6: SET TIMES AND THE SOUND MAN HERE.

Remember to comment and let us know any live tips and tricks you have...

FROM THE GARAGE TO THE STAGE PART 1: MAKING A SPLASH

You’ve got your songs written. You’ve memorised your lyrics. You’ve rehearsed every verse, chorus and bridge so many times that you’ve got blisters on your fingertips. You’ve got your guitar, leads, spare strings and you’ve borrowed Uncle Barry’s van.

You’re ready to do a gig.

For the purposes of getting better as a band, there is no alternative to doing gigs. As soon as you are able, get out there and do it. Chances are, you’ll learn more in one gig than ten rehearsals. But the lessons learned during a live performance are subtle. Many of them are personal. You won’t find these lessons in a ‘100 Hot Guitar Licks’ book but they are just as important as nailing that gnarly bend during your extended solo. There are no hard-and-fast-rules to playing live, but across this series of blogs I’m going to attempt to impart some live music advice that I have picked up which, if nothing else, should stimulate a few thoughts about your approach to your live show.

OPENING THE SHOW
What better place to start than… the start! I can’t tell you the amount of times that I’ve witnessed this scene. The crowd stands in the venue, waiting for the next band to play after the opener has finished. The band is busy swapping around their equipment, tuning up, testing mics. The guitarist idly plays the riff from ‘Layla’. The drummer sits behind the kit and last-minute tunes his toms. BONG, BONG, PLOP. The crowd is murmuring, some watching this going on, some not watching. The band gradually settles into their places, still nervously playing little riffs and tapping away. At some point the singer mouths ‘you guys ready?’ to the rest of the band. They nod and the singer shuffles to the front and says ‘hello, er, we are The Ferrets and we hope you like us’. 1, 2, 3, 4 and it’s into the set. Half the crowd aren’t even watching. The performance fizzles into existence, rather than explodes.

Now, don’t get me wrong, there are a lot of amazing bands that, without even thinking about it, can storm the stage and say ‘hello, we are The Ferrets’ and kick into a deafening roar of rock that can knock the socks off everyone in the venue. But for most of us, we need to put a little thought behind how we can start the set with a bang.

"BONG, BONG, PLOP."

DEALING WITH DRUMMERS (AND NOODLERS)
Once the preceding band’s gear is off the stage and your amp or drums are line-tested and set up and you have a few minutes to spare there is NO REASON to stay on the stage. Granted, in small venues there are times that a drummer may have a difficult route to negotiate so may need to stay on the stage. But there is no excuse for sitting there tuning drums and tapping unless absolutely necessary. A drummer will not understand why this is, so we may have to explain this to them. It is a truth of live music that the atmosphere of anticipation of a good, hard rocking is much more palpable and dramatic without the backdrop of BONG, BONG, PLOP reverberating across the venue.

Once your gear is set-up, get off the stage. Get into a group. Maybe even a little football-team huddle. Focus on what you’re about to do. When the time is right, storm the stage, with purpose, wave to the crowd, together. Would you believe that an experienced band can get a round of cheers to a room of complete strangers by doing this before even playing a note? They can, we can and YOU CAN just by looking the part and acting the part. Even if the venue is so small it has no backstage, or even stage, to speak of, a band can still get to the side and then, at the right time, descend on their gear together. This will still get a reaction.

Simply put, an empty stage is a metaphor. It symbolises the potential of the new band about to fill it. Stormed by a band with purpose and swagger at the right moment it fills with excitement. Then ‘Hello, we are The Ferret’s’ is performed, rather than just happening.

Wave your hands in the air like you mean it... and they will too. It's science.

CREATE SOME IMPACT

Another question is, is the ‘Hello, we are The Ferret’s’ really what you want to do? As I said, many bands can pull this generic entrance off but there are so many alternatives to this that are way more effective. A great trick to grab the crowd's attention is to simply crash down as loud and hard as you can together on crash cymbals and open strings repeatedly to really create some impact before kicking into the first song. Another way to approach it is opening with a short instrumental piece, perhaps simply an extended intro of your first song. I enjoy an instrumental set-opener because it allows you to get used to the sound of the room and the feel of your instrument before starting to sing or go into a song for real. The right piece of music can really build up an atmosphere before the songs start. A way that we will often approach an intro is to come on stage together, without the vocalist, and play a short instrumental before pausing and letting the vocalist walk on, which really ramps up the drama and aura around the singer.

A final option you might well want to think about is if your intro could be complimented by theme music? The intro music of a good TV show, film or such can work wonders to set the scene for the carnage you are about to unleash. Most sound guys will be totally happy to whack a CD on for you if you sort it in advance.

The right theme music can get them moving before you even come on...

So there we are. Remember, it’s not my intention to say one way is right and one is wrong. It’s my intention to get you asking yourself which of these options is right for you, rather than not thinking about it until you’ve already started the gig.

Next week in 'From The Garage to the Stage' we'll deal with the dark art of writing a setlist. Not just throwing a few songs on a list, but putting together a flow of music that will maximise the impact and impression you make with that thirty minutes you have up there. See you next Wednesday!

Until then...

Barney

Barney is a founder member of Manchester’s Sonic Boom Six. Sonic Boom Six has released 4 studio albums and two full-length compilations with countless singles, EPs and compilation appearances. 'The Boom' has performed headline tours of Europe, America and Japan as well as slots at festivals including Glastonbury, Download, Sonisphere and the main stage at Reading and Leeds Festival. SB6 has written and performed songs that have appeared on BBC Radio 1, Channel 4, BBC 2 (TV), Rock Band and Sims 3 video games.

Backing Tracks, Cabinet Backs and kicking the facts about REAL MUSIC.

One of the more bemusing recent internet scandals was over a controversial photograph of Black Veil Brides on the Warped Tour taken from behind their guitar amps. Instead of having the standard black hardwood casing on the back of the cabinet, the cab was open, revealing that there was - gasp - nothing inside. Judging by the response online, the Oz-like unveiling that the amplification onstage isn’t really what’s pumping the music out into the great beyond evidently came to the surprise of many. Like Dorothy’s lament of ‘oh, you’re a very bad man!’, The Brides (as I’m sure they’re known) were inundated by a social legion of latent audio experts with cries of ‘sell outs’, ‘poseurs’ and ‘that’s not how you credibly amplify a guitar signal through a festival PA across a 40,000 cap site’. But unlike Oz, BVB didn’t reply with ‘I’m a Humbug’, instead opting for a pithy Twitter retort that likened their onstage set to the singer’s tattoos… something obviously a part of a show. The truth of the matter is that the revelation that those cabs weren’t being used to do very much at all surprised a grand total of no one who has ever played music on a stage bigger than that of a pub. So far, so internet.

Yesterday a character called J Willgoose Esq of dance-rock duo Public Service Broadcasting was upheld by The Independent newspaper’s online service to, seemingly unwillingly, represent the ‘keep music live’ guard and challenge the use of backing tracks in live music. You can read the article HERE. Maybe the accompanying photograph of him behind a sequencer should ring alarm bells that his technological broadside is being taken way out of context but in the article he decries acts that rely on hidden laptops, stating that 'live music should have an element of risk and an element of danger'. Well, on the subject of risk and danger, he’s presumably never tried running a laptop on a keyboard stand onstage at some of the dives we’ve played. The article proceeds to wildly scrawl big, thick, clumsy lines from his statements, (originally quoted in Q magazine) across to Deadmau5's DJing and then over to Coldplay’s use of sequenced strings. From there the article has been copied and pasted by various internet music sites as a kick-off for discussion about backing tracks in live sets and it’s off to the races for everyone who has ever wanted to bloody the noses of us cheating, no-good laptop-using BASTARDS.

Of course, in reality the difference between enhancing your line-up with the advantages of new technology and ‘playing to backing tracks’ is infinite in its scope. But on the internet, we don’t bother ourselves with such pesky notions as perspective. It’s a lot easier, and more fun, to stick your thumb up or down at the subject, like some cyber-Caesar staring at a gladiator who’s just used a futuristic laser gun to kill a lion. A fairly recent thread on the UK’s leading punk forum about backing tracks uncovered an overwhelmingly negative response to the concept. The trouble with all this discussion it it is indeed the concept that is met with mistrust, rather than the result. In my experience, at a gig most of the audience don’t know, and don’t care, how either an amp or laptop is specifically used in the live context. And yet when confronted with the question ‘do you approve of backing tracks?’, or presented with a funny photo of a hollow cab, the response is to suddenly appropriate the staunch Rock n Roll purism of a 1974 Led Zeppelin roadie. And yes, we’ve all seen the amazing live performances and, true, those lads didn’t need bloody backing tracks or fake amps. But they didn’t need cut scenes where Jimmy Page stopped shagging a 14 year-old long enough to dress as a wizard and climb mountains either but we had to put up with them didn’t we?

Like The Independent's liberal associations around J Willgoose Esq’s original interview, I may be drawing broad lines between these two stories. But while the specifics are different, much of the reactions are not. Underneath Facebook re-productions of the articles in question are a litany of comments decrying ‘cheating’, ‘fake musicians’ and the lack of this, that and the blinking other in music today. While the hankering for the straight-up spirit of Rock n Roll is charming, it’s all slightly misguided. And more often it shows internet commentary at its frothy-mouthed worst, passing absolute, Sword of Damocles judgments over intensely multifaceted topics while on the toilet at work. In 140 characters or less.

There are a number of reasons why the spat dummies over ‘that’ photo are ridiculous. It may well just capture an unorthodox onstage amping set-up that the guitarist or the sound engineer have devised, with all the guitar going through onstage wedges and in-ear monitors. For a whole host of very sensible audio reasons, their amps could be at the side of the stage. In that, frankly very likely, case, I don’t think it’s in anyone’s interest to have a guitarist standing in front of nothing like a kid with a tennis racquet. On the other side of the coin, perhaps the guy from BVB is miming and he can’t play guitar at all. Maybe he prefers to survey the crowd with a cold, steely glare and pick out the bevy of hot rock tottie he’s going to denigrate just seconds after his final fake chord rings silently out from his empty cab. Who knows? Unless everyone’s been keeping their profound expertise in the art of onstage festival audio design from me, there’s no way to conclude the specifics of that guitarist’s set-up from that photo alone. But it’s a perfect photo for anyone with no knowledge of this subject to confirm a prejudice they already had about a particular band being 'fakes'.

Jimmy Page, yesterday

The cabs are up there to create a strong onstage visual. And there’s nothing wrong with that at all. Rock n Roll is about that. And if that’s not punk, tell The Ramones to stop dressing like each other. It’s just part of the show. You can argue it’s giving the crowd value for money. From the coolest indie band to the grandest metal band through the whole spectrum of Rock n Roll, there’s more dummy Marshall cabs onstage than there are MySpace Band Profiles gathering dust in cyberspace. Hell, we’ve done it ourselves. It’s only because these particular cabs have no back on them that anyone on the outside is let into that little secret. If the issue is that every cab in the vicinity of a band has to be projecting live, pure, old-fashioned MUSIC then what about those bands playing in front of their silent amps in their videos hey?! Like every band ever! Fakes!!! WHO ARE WE TRYING TO KID!?!?

The upshot of this whole thing is that the photo struck a nerve with people and sums up a lot of feelings about that band’s reliance on image over music. The photo was taken by the drummer from The Bronx, a tremendous band and one with a lot of credibility. He took this image and used it to illustrate that he didn’t have a lot of respect for BVB, and possibly to make a statement about the booking of that particular tour, for reasons we can probably guess. Fair enough. But, judging by the resultant online uproar, I didn’t perceive that many of the commentators fully understood the context of what was being said with the image. And I disagree with that in principle because it’s a tabloid tactic to twist an image into something else because that’s what you want it to represent. Ultimately, I’m uneasy with the fallout of that photo, as straight-forward as the intentions may have been behind it.

To put it another way, if you want to rag on that band, don’t rag on their dummy amps, rag on the fact that the shameless painted buggers charge their daft fans for the pleasure of meeting their greedy arses. But that’s another blog.

I cry foul of the reaction to this photo because it feeds into this naïve and, frankly silly, notion that the only way to be credible as a band is to go up there, stripped down and ‘do it live’. It’s a lazy exercise in limiting the parameters of what you appreciate in a live performance so that anything that falls outside that becomes somehow substandard. It’s exactly the same mentality as people that call out DJs for ‘playing other people’s records’ because they’ve never considered the fact that the art form is ‘playing other people’s records’ in a way that connects with people and works a dancefloor into a frenzy and the myriad of other intangibles that goes into the art of being a DJ. And further down the spiral, it’s the same mentality as people that decry all electronica, pop, dance music, or whatever isn’t played by white people with guitars, as ‘not real music’. It’s a limited way of looking at music that begins and ends with what you can be bothered to understand. And that leads me neatly into my issues with the inferences thrown up by The Independent via the comments of J Willgoose Esq.

Of course, from the article we don’t know to what exact extent J Willgoose Esq is knocking backing tracks. He might very well hear Sonic Boom Six play live and go ‘oh no, THAT’s OK, I was talking about those OTHER backing tracks’. But that’s the problem with where the article takes his discourse. The resultant broad discussion about the subject means that without calling specific bands out, it’s akin to saying that all bands with double-bass pedals are cheats because they should be able to do it with one foot. And it makes bands like mine feel slightly ‘got at’ for using loops and samples as part of our live show. And with articles like this, that perception is only going to get worse. With the sum of the article being ‘guitar good, laptop bad’ we fall upon the ire of the internet musical commentators who turn off their Cream albums long enough to scream that using backing tracks over their pure, white, unpolluted live music is, and I quote, ‘boring and cowardly’, before moving on to the next round of Candy Crush Saga.

J Willgoose Esq, about to kick a sequencer off the stage.

That's not to say that there aren't bands who use backing tracks to prop up a bad performance. But they're just bad bands, like there have always been bad bands, with an iPod running in the background. And the crowd will pick up on that, whether they know why or not. An obvious backing track is just another symptom of an overall lack of quality rather than the cause of the problem. And it's the band's job to make the tracks work. Last year I saw a show by the pop side-project of a leading post-hardcore band's singer, whose set came across as uninspired and insipid and was panned by the magazines and punters alike. The set was shackled to glaring, pre-produced tracks. The reliance on the tracks was just one aspect of the larger problem of a badly-conceived live show that lacked any onstage spark and utilised a skeleton crew of a band that looked like they didn't want to be there in the first place. Meticulously-produced audio pumping out into the room or not, listening to the grumbling fans leaving Sound Control in Manchester with disappointed faces, the fact that the band had misused backing tracks was just one of the complaints about an overall lacklustre product.

J Willgoose Esq rightly posits that 'there should also be room for improvisation, even if only in small measures. How else are you supposed to be able to tell a good performance from a bad one?' The thing is, the aforementioned pop band were the exception that proves the rule. I’ve rarely seen a band so dominated by backing tracks that there isn’t room for improvisation, in small measures or not. Certainly the mammoth productions and tremendously talented backing bands of most leading pop acts don’t fall into that category. And for any act out there simply miming to pre-recorded backings - maybe some Pop Idol also-ran that’s playing a few shopping centres - I’d credit the crowd with enough intelligence to be completely turned off, without even necessarily knowing, or caring, why. Conversely, if a band like The Streets or Enter Shikari or Hadouken! or Skindred even Sonic Boom Sodding Six, use backing tracks in a way that’s fun and inventive and enhances the show then the crowd forget all about all the ‘cheating’ going on and enjoy the show. As long as we don’t talk about it. It’s kind of like an audio Fight Club.

The most galling facet of the anti-backing tracks mentality is that it misses out a whole aspect of music that has come into play with the availability of software like Ableton Live which allows synched backing tracks to be accessible to all bands, not just those with elaborate stage sets and multitudes of expensive equipment, as was the case not too many years ago. This technology allows bands to be creative, adventurous and integrated with their use of backing tracks from day one. Lest we forget, when acoustic guitars were first amplified, members of the music community saw that amplification itself as cheating. Yes, there were Luddites that would see me climbing onto the stage with anything less than a double bass projecting out notes with my bare, swollen digits as fraudulent. Absurd, but no more absurd than the notion that all use of backing tracks onstage is dragging the music away from a position of honesty. Seeing backing tracks as ‘cheating’ robs one of the opportunity to appreciate backing tracks, samples, loops and electronic elements being used in a way that is as interesting and inspired as any guitar solo. Listening to James talk to Skindred for hours on end about the specifics of their set-up is enough to convince even the most ardent skeptic that this is a very involved process indeed. Fucking ragga-metal FRAUDS that they are.

Ask yourself where the music on the backing tracks comes from. You don’t walk out of the studio and get presented with a burnt disc with 'cheat mode' written on it in Sharpie and hand it to the soundman. Integrating tracks into your set takes time and skill. We work for hours in rehearsals on our arrangements like any band, but for us, the instrument of the laptop is another layer in that process. Making the performance emulate what is there on record, but still allowing for the 'live band' sound to come through, is a major factor of that development. Playing along with the drums to a click is no mean feat in itself but creating triggered loop points within songs which allow for improvisation and formulating segues is every bit as demanding as it is having a bass, guitar and drums vamp on a blues riff for a few bars while the vocalist talks. In fact, I’ll go there. It’s WAY more demanding than that. That’s well easy! And that’s the total and utter Billy Bollocks of the whole debate. For any band using backing tracks in the way we do, it is more involved, demanding, and dare I say it, difficult than it was when we didn’t use them. And the bottom line is that our current music, and lots of other music that dares to deviate from the bass, drums, guitar archetype, wasn’t written to be heard ‘stripped down’. Far from running scared from that exposure, we were thinking bigger. As big as technology allows.

Sonic Boom Six, today, in their magic backing tracks factory, preparing to cheat the music world.

As a final case in point, Coldplay is a band named in the article as a band who have come under fire for their use of backing tracks. Like them or not, Coldplay is a band that can play. And SING. No matter what’s added, you’re going to be able to hear the performances of the incredibly talented principle four musicians, without a great deal of trouble, which Chris never meant to cause you, of course. And I for one would rather hear that accompanied by all the grandeur that the live arena and technology allows, and all the creative elbow-room that entails. If I wanted to hear them, or us, or any decent band stripped down and ‘real’, then there are always the acoustic performances. If the crowd are singing along at the show I think most of them agree. But attack them for using backing tracks on a blog and a lot of that same crowd might grit their teeth and bang out things like ‘cheating’, ‘boring’ and ‘cowardly’ before watching Charlie Bit My Finger.

People talk about backing tracks, and dummy amps, and equate them with ‘faking it’. People harp on about technology reducing the art of live pop and rock music. I think the opposite is true. Music technology is increasing the scope of live music performance. Music technology can enhance production of the live experience in the largest arena and the smallest toilet venue, as long as artists and sound engineers are willing to be inventive and creative with it. I give the crowd credit. If the music is stifled by the technology, they’re gonna hear it. If it adds to the music, they’re gonna cheer it beyond all the lip service we give what we consider ‘real’. That’s the bottom line. That’s the art. Bear in mind that The Beatles apparently stopped playing live because they could no longer emulate the sounds that they could create in the studio. It's hard to picture them making that argument today. The scope that this technology presents us with is only as limited as our imaginations and this should be celebrated and embraced. It should be appreciated at the very least. Keith Richards said ‘Rock n Roll is music for the neck down’ and that’s certainly the philosophy I endorse. Appreciate a band on the basis of what’s presented to you out in the crowd, not from a stolen photo behind the curtain. And, whatever you do, don’t read the comments section.

Until The Sunlight Comes...

Barney x