Secrets of a Great Band: Have a Vision!
Secrets of a Great Band: Have a Vision!
This is part of a series of short posts from my own experiences on what it takes to get a band off the ground and into the habit of playing out regularly. These tips may not work for everyone, but they're based on how we did it in World Racketeering Squad.
To accomplish anything as a band, you must have a vision for where you are going. Prioritize your ideal gigs, fanbase, venues and recordings for the next year, 6 months, 3 months, down to the next few weeks and days.
No matter where you are, where are you going?
Nothing in life happens by accident, and just writing songs and playing shows aren't always going to get you where you want to be with a roadmap. Having a vision for your band is essential.
When we started World Racketeering Squad, we were just two guys and one guitar who had written three songs. We didn't have a fanbase or a repertoire but we knew that to be a great band, you've got to play.
We knew that even though we were just getting started, we wanted big things. So we wrote down what we wanted to be:
March, 2008:
Main Outcome: Reliably fill the venues we play by putting on stellar performances, promoting them dynamically, and writing an ever-growing collection of kick-ass songs. Build a movement around us of like-minded people through our creativity and vision.
We then went into more detail about what kind of shows we wanted to be playing, to how many people, and what we wanted the experience to be like.
Make it specific!
Your outcomes must be specific, ambitious, and concrete, to really have any effect. If you say something simple like “I want to play in front of people”, then you could walk out your front door with your guitar and strum it a few times on the street, and your wish would have come true!
Here some examples:
- “I want to play in a club in front of 50 people”
- “I want to put out a CD which I sell at my shows”
- “I want to play at Emo’s”
Give it a deadline
Even more powerful is when you have a timeline for what your vision says. To say “I want _____ to happen by _____ date” has two effects:
- It turns something on in your brain that makes you aware of ways to accomplish your outcome,
- It gives you a way to know if you succeeded or not.
If you don’t have a deadline, and your goal is “I want to play at a club in front of 50 people”, then when do you know if what you’re doing is working? You could play for a year and not reach that goal, or for ten years--without a deadline it’s tougher to say “Ok, I need to change my approach to get more people to come to my shows.”
Here are some improved versions of the earlier examples:
- “I want to play in a club in front of 50 people for six months in a row by this time next year.”
- “I want to put out a CD which I sell at my shows by this date six months from now.”
- “I want to play at Emo’s by November 2010.”
Believe it’s already happened
The other best way to make your brain believe you can accomplish something is to think about it as if it’s already happened.
If you have doubts about whether you can do it, your brain can help you make those doubts come true--and you can find ways to avoid doing what you need to do. If you can really believe, and see, hear or feel the sights and sounds you’d experience at the club, looking at the CD, whatever you want to accomplish--your brain will find ways to make it happen.
Here are some ways to phrase your outcomes as if they’ve already happened:
- “It’s August of 2011, and I’ve been playing at clubs in front of at least 50 people for the last six months”
- “Now, in March of 2011, I’m at a show selling my brand new CD full of my songs”
- “It’s November 2010, I’m on stage at Emo’s, playing to a rocking crowd”
It’s about aiming high
The point of making specific goals is not to make yourself wrong if you fail to achieve them. If you didn’t reach your objective by the specified date, take some time and look at what you were doing to accomplish it.
- What did you try?
- What didn’t you try?
- What can you do differently?
- Are there resources you didn’t draw on to help you? Friends, books, websites, that could give you some advice?
If a year goes by and you haven’t had a gig for a crowd of 50 people, think about why that might be.
- Are your songs good enough?
- Are your performances good enough?
- How have you been promoting your shows?
- What are some other ways you could spread the word about your band?
Don’t beat yourself up if you miss a deadline on an outcome, simply figure out what you can do differently. Often just having an ambitious goal can move you forward, regardless of whether you hit the target.
If your aim is to have 50 people at your shows, and you’ve been averaging 30 people--it’s clear you got those 30 people to come by your efforts! Now you can try some new tactics and continue to improve.
Write and review
The last two, important aspects of having a vision and setting outcomes are this:
- write them down,
- review them.
When you’re getting started, I recommend setting goals monthly or even weekly or daily. At the end of each week, you can sit down with your bandmate and say “what did we do this week? What was great? What could be improved?” and make your outcomes for the next week.
They must be written down where you can see exactly what objectives you set for yourself, and you should be able to read them or look at them every day.
Keep your visions and outcomes in your mind, and they will be the star that guides you in your travels.
Previously:
Secrets of a Great Band: Have a Leader!
Secrets of a Great Band: You've Got to Play!
Isaac Priestley is a founding member of World Racketeering Squad, the world's greatest nerdwave band. Imagine Devo jamming with the Rolling Stones in the cargo hold of Serenity with Doctor Who playing bass.
Their first album, What is Nerdwave?, will be released on September 18. Pre-orders are available now.
WRS has appeared on another podcast today--this one called "
