The Devil's Bartender

3. How to Start a Band - The Stage

So, you've got at least 5 songs, or 20 minutes of music, and it's so tight that you can play it all twice in a row without making that many mistakes. You're ready for a world tour!! Well, maybe not yet. But you're probably ready to open for a local band that you know and take the plunge of getting on a stage and strutting your stuff.

2. How To Start A Band

80% of what a band does is hang out together. So the most important thing is to find a good bunch of people that you enjoy hanging out with. Get a space to play in, rent one by the hour if necessary (check the phone book for the one nearest you. In Toronto, Cherry Beach is my favorite) and then get ready to RocK!

1. Why start a band?

Reason number one: Because rock n' roll feels fuckin great!

Reason number two: As Joey 'Shithead' Kiethley of D.O.A. put it (on the left here, also see 'RocKtivism!' and the pdf below) Ronald Reagan did more for punk than any band or artist. So many people were pissed off with him that they started bands as an outlet, as a means of informing others, and as a form of protest. All good reasons to start a band.

Over the course of the next few posts i'm going to outline how to start a band from the bottom up (up to as far as i've gotten anyway). The focus will be on rock bands but a lot of it can be applied to most other types of music and other art forms in general.

Punk.pdf