Start an Indie Band
This is a simple guide to starting your own Indie rock band. Note: If you don't like listening to Indie music, you should probably steer clear of trying to form an Indie band.
Contents
Steps
- Learn how to play guitar well. This is very helpful. Any good Indie song can be written on acoustic guitar, transferred to a full-band composition and still sound good.
- If you don't already, start listening to Indie Rock bands. Some good ones to start with are of Fun., Montreal, Jaguar Love, Neutral Milk Hotel, The Ropes, Death Cab For Cutie, Pinback, Merrick, Radiohead, Someone Still Loves You Boris Yeltsin, The Wombats, and Ashley Hopkins.
- Keep in mind, however, that good and popular are most definitely not the same thing. They're completely different! Don't let whether a band is popular (or unpopular) influence your perception of their music; that goes directly against common indie credo.
- Write some songs. The music and lyrics should put people in the mood to relax, go on a long road trip, or go look for love.
- After you have some presentable songs written, look for a bassist, a drummer, a second guitarist (optional), and a piano player (optional).
- Play your songs for your band, and have them lay down some parts to them. You may want to direct them to do something different. Don't be pushy about it, just suggest it.
- After you're sure that your line-up is going to work out, come up with a name for your band.
- Practice... a LOT.
- Find local venues, like clubs or bars or coffee shops to play at. If you're in high school, you may just want to wait until a talent show comes around.
- Find a recording studio and record a 3 or 4 song CD. Burn some copies and sell them at your gigs. You may even want to send them to some Indie record labels.
- HAVE FUN WITH IT. If you take anything too seriously, then it can become a drag. With Indie rock, it's all about the music. Just remember that.
Tips
- In order to make sure that people will like the song before performing at a gig, test it out in advance. Put it on Youtube, then waiting about a week to see how it went.
Warnings
- Indie artists don't make as much money as bands on major labels. They make very little money, actually. It's all about the brotherhood/sisterhood and the music and the shared experiences and the road trips and the torn road maps and having to spend the night in a town you've never heard of. These experiences make for great stories later on.
- If you're trying to get internationally famous, don't start an Indie band, because it probably won't happen.
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