Back in June I saw the Foo Fighters live for the second time and had my love and motivation for music completely renewed and pumped up, so I decided to get my arse in gear and get a band together. I managed it! So I thought today I’d share my tips for finding other people to form a band with, since it’s not always as easy or cool as just grabbing a few mates.
Who do you know?
The easiest place to start is with the people you know, if you have friends that are musicians see if they’d be interested or know anyone who would be. Most musicians end up knowing a lot of other musicians, so if you mention to a few people that your looking to get a band going word will likely get around and someone who is interested will hear word about it.
The internet
It’s 2018, of course the internet is one of the easiest ways to get a band together. I personally managed to find most of my band through joinmyband.com but whenever I’ve used it in the past I didn’t find anyone so I think I just got really lucky to find both a great bassist and an amazing drummer on there. There’s a lot of Facebook groups for various areas so just try searching ‘join band (your area)’ and similar things to see what comes up, then get sending messages!
Music shops
Maybe more of a retro one, but I know all the guitar shops around Liverpool have huge boards where people can pin up whatever they fancy. A lot of it is advertising up coming gigs and bands, but there’s usually at least a couple of people trying to put together bands or find new members for a current band so it’s worth having a look, plus you never know who you might meet!
Go out
Jam nights, open mic nights and small local gigs are the best place to meet other musicians that live in your area and therefore the best place to try to find band members. Like with most professions music has a fair bit of ‘networking’ to it, except it’s a lot more fun because it means getting to go see live music and talk to other musicians and fingers crossed come away with a band member or two!
Be fussy, but not too fussy
I know when you want to be in a band it’s easy to just jump into one with the first people that seem interested, but if you want to seriously do music you need to be fussy. Can they play well? Do you get along with them? Do you like similar music? If any answer to any of those was ‘no’, carry on looking or you’re about to be in a band full of arguments that break up pretty sharpish. Don’t be so fussy that if they can’t play like Steve Vai they can’t be in the band, but you want someone who’s playing you genuinely like, who you can get along with and who is interested in writing or playing similar music to yourself.
They’re the things that have worked for me or people that I know so hopefully they work for anyone reading this and wanting to be in a band! If anyone had any extra tips don’t hesitate to leave them in the comments, and feel free to follow my band on Facebook!
-Dana
Carry on Beautiful! 