u/twotreebeers

I started a band and all of its members (including me) are already full-time working musicians. None of us have day jobs, all of our incomes are earned playing music already.

I write all the material and the guys eat it up and play it full-assed. Our stuff is legit or at least i believe it is!

I'm having a hard time getting the band off the ground. This is the first time i've ever lead a real regular band and the music side of things is crushing but the business side is totally lacking. We've played a few shows since our inception last year. But i'm having a hard time selling the band (i don't know how to describe the band without using 'jazz' and that word is a death-knell to talent buyers), and i'm having difficulty with booking shows at all. Striking a balance between playing enough and getting paid enough is hard. It feels like the band is already stuck in limbo between newbie performers playing for exposure and established big names that have already been doing it.

We have decent video and audio, we have a bandcamp and ig, but i don't really know what to do next (i know we need to record, we are working on it). My peers seem to have no real understanding of why their projects get traction in this way, so it's hard to get good faith advice from the scene itself.

I'm just looking for some light guidance/ideas from people with some more experience/understanding with these situations.

If your only advice is to build a following on social media then kindly keep it to yourself. I understand why that's suggested all the time. I'm not interested in doing that with this band.

Open to discussion! Thanks for your time 🤘

Mine:

Joakim Noah and Luol Deng would be considered all-time elite-tier defensive players, often casually compared to Hakeem/Russell/Duncan and Pippen/Kawhi respectively

I'd regularly refer to mid-2000s Bears defense as having had four or five hall of famers at once (they had one)

I would just never address the Lebron vs Jordan debate (because I secretly take Lebron's side). When guests bring it up i get squirrelly and move on quickly

Talk like I was invested in the Blackhawks dynasty run (I never followed any hockey until playoffs)

2016 World Series game 7 is unequivocally the greatest baseball game ever played and I'd bring it up in any discussion of great games

I could really go all day with this. What are yours?