Best way to bust into the scene?

[iAmCam]

I'm goignto start a new band soon with a bunch of talented musicians from my school. What are some good ways to "bust out into the scene"? How do I go about getting lots of gigs? Any reccomendatio0sn are apreciated.

Thanks. :thumb:

[flyhalf]

play wherever and whenever you can...try to book gigs in front of audiences who like your genre. Battle of the bands are good to compete in if you're good.

Gigs at parties with mates or familiar faces (like a school party or a neighbourhood party) are really good too (and they're alot of fun) :thumb:

[himynameistweek]

network a lot. go to shows and meet the bands. at local shows you can just go start talking to one of the bands after their set, tell them your band need people to play shows with. give them a demo or something. that's probably the best way to do it because you can immediately play shows in front of good sized crowds if you're playing with a good band.

[neatobassman]

yea, my band is now trying to get shows after about being together for a year (well, year with singer) What I'm doing is everytime I hear someone say "I'm playing here" I say "if you ever need a second band to fill a night, tell me" Doing this got my band tied in with like 3 other bands that we plan on doing shows with alot. So just talk to people and tell them you want to play with them. And fill out forms, go to places and ask about shows. And if someone says no, ask again later.

[Merkaba]

If youre good you dont have to worry about it.

Thats it.

[KKKKKocaine]

Not to dishearten you, but breaking into the scene and establishing yourself takes along time! :)
Be prepared to take some crap from people, put up with some bad deals, work with complete tossers and have to play alot of venues you've never even heard of before.
But whilst you work your way through all the bad, a supply of good is building up, genuine fans, respect from your musical peers, pulling power with venues e.t.c.

You just have to remember and not get down about it when your first 6 or so shows don't have 50 people in a moshpit screaming your name.

Your first step in getting gigs will be riding on other people.
Make some friends in the scene, go to some gigs with similar styled bands, meet the members afterwards, introduce yourself, congratulate them on a great set, just mention you play their kinda stuff and your looking to get some support slots with bands for your first gig.
The chances of a local band saying, "Sorry, we won't give you a support slot", are hideously slim, you might not get them taking out a notebook and fitting you into next weeks show, but if you keep on letting them know they'll give you one. Just every week or so talk to them or email them and ask how gigs are going, if they need any support bands e.t.c.
You'd think they'd be annoyed, but really they're flattered to be put in that posistion.

Now once you've got your first gig, get as many friends as you can to come, basicly, you probably don't have any fans beyond friends who to be honest, feel obliged to say, "woah, you guys were the best band on that night".
But friends are supportive, get them all to the front, right to the front, don't have them far away otherwise where was the point?
If they come to the front and enjoy themselves just a bit, and you guys move around and look like your having fun, a few more people will come forwards, which in turn prompts more. (Basicly most people there are thinking, "Gee, I'd love to get in a pit but I don't want to get to the front by myself")
It's your first show so you need your friends up there, you'll be nervous enough as it is about getting your performance perfect.

Try and contact a few other bands and do the same support slot request.
I cannot emphasise how far networking goes in the music industry.
Our first gig, second gig and another two gigs we've played would have never happened if it wasn't for my current girlfriend, who I met by chance and only because she had a crush on me, as it happened, she was in a band and so was I, she set up two gigs for their first gigs and let my band open the first time and be support the second time to curry my favour and later on she told me about a contact in the local area that they'd gigged with.
So it just goes to show, knowing people can be very helpful indeed.

Chances are in your local area there will be a few venues that ride on local small bands and are easier to get gigs with then larger venues.
Usually getting a gig involves emailing them, sorting out a date and leaving contact details and them asking you to try and bring 10 people.
These are good venues, especially if you're trying to break into the scene, you can't just knock on a big venue door ask for a gig because they won't give it to you and no-one will come, by gigging in the smaller venues in an area you can form a following beforehand. The only disadvantage with these venues is you can't email them in may, and ask for a date in may. They book up quickly like everything else :) And be persistant once again, they get swamped with emails so if you don't get a reply, just send another :)

When you get to a level of wanting to play the bigger venues, go into a studio, get a 3 track demo done.
The advantages of this are,
1. You can put recordings on your site, now instead of saying "we're a post-punk/indie/grindcore band" which in all honesty means nothing nowadays :), people can actually check you out :)
2. You can send this with a presskit to the bigger venues to get gigs.

I hope that helped a bit :) If you want me to go into more detail in any sections just ask.

[airborne50caliber]

oh, and I met atreyu the other day, they gave us advice... and it's get your **** together, practice loads, play your nuts off, be willing to play any gig you can get, even in the smallest places for no money.

[Phototropic]

Have talent and a bit of charisma

[moaner]

I'm goignto start a new band soon with a bunch of talented musicians from my school. What are some good ways to "bust out into the scene"?

with an assault rifle under each arm, and a hand grenade in your teeth.

[you want romance?]

haha funny moaner :D

[uriasmetal.com]

i thought he was serious

[uriasmetal.com]

I hope that helped a bit :) If you want me to go into more detail in any sections just ask.

you should just go into more detail with everything, and do it as an issue in band 101. which by the way i am loving... great job :thumb:

[bighambino]

Keep at it for a long time. You have to remember that it takes a long time to establish yourself in a scene, no matter how good your band is.

[Vitriolic Rage]

i thought he was serious
Maybe if you live in the Middle East:lol:

I wonder if Bishop of Hexen did that?
:lol:

[Independent_CA]

Seeing that I'm currently trying to "break into the scene" with my band right now, let me give you a few things I have learned even though we haven't played what could be called an actual "show" yet.

1) Get a website of some kind. Myspace and/or Purevolume are great, plus there are other's. Have your friends, family, and everyone else visit this site, listen to your stuff, give you feed back and ask them to spread the word. In less than a week of having set-up a demo site on myspace for my band, I've had almost 90 views of our page and a little over 300 plays on the 4 demo songs I put on there.

2) Start talking to people who might have connections and other people in local bands if you know any. If you don't then find some at school or something. Even if they don't know you, you'd be surprised at how open and friendly other aspiring musicians and industry people can be when you talk to them about it, epsecially if you show interest. I am lucky enough to have a friend who has his own small video production company and another who is getting a loan to work on his DJ career. The latter is going to have his own home studio by the end of the month probably, and the former has plenty of connections with local aduio and video productions people. I also know the drummer of a local metal band that is starting to play regularly and know the guitarists brother. Having talked to the drummer a lot this past weekend, we traded a lot of stories about recording, practicing, and just being musicians in general. I never really met him before this past weekend and after talking to him for about an hour, he offered me support and some gigs whenever my band was ready, even though our styles of music are somewhat different.

Those are the two biggest things I've noticed in the past couple of weeks. I wouldn't say I've "broken us into the scene" but we are certainly further along than before. At least now, old friends and aquaintences are coming up to me and saying "I heard you're in a band, how's that goin?". Which means word is at least getting around.