Music Masters

(courtesy of Tenacious D)

So, I am graduating in a few weeks. As I think over that, and all the totally awesome times I’ve had at BU, I’ve decided to see how I might share those experiences with you, the faithful reader. Now I don’t intend to do this with self-indulgent anecdotes that sound so cool to me but would ultimately bore you to tears, but instead, I hope to instruct you on how to do these things for yourself. First up? Wicked pissah music career. (Career is used loosely. I never made all that much money, but I played all over. It was fun. Here’s how you can do it, too.)

Step 1: Be Kind of Good

First step is to play some music people kind of want to hear. You have two choices here. You could actually be good, practice your instrument, get a proficient group of musicians around you, write some original-but-catchy tunes in your genre of choice and take over the city. Or, because this city is so saturated with Berklee and Boston Conservatory and New England Conservatory students, you can really suck. You can make music so bad and quirky that it’s really hip to like you. The only key here is you have to put on a really entertaining show. And if you suck that probably means breaking stuff. Choose wisely.

Step 2: Get Your Name Out There

There are a few ways to do this. There are a few ‘battle of the bands’ type competitions in Boston. I don’t want to name them because the only one I did was miserable. Just kidding, it was Emergenza. Basically you have to sell your own tickets, and you move on from round to round depending on how many people you can get to come see you. The bad part of this is you feel like you’re fleecing your friends every time you play a show. The good part is, it trains you for the real world, because club owners don’t care how good you are, just how many people you can bring out.

You can also play open mics. They’re all over the city in various forms, and there’s even one here at BU, at BU Central, from time to time.

Step 3: Move Up to the Clubs

Once  you can pull 50-200 people to each of your open mic appearances, you’re ready for the mid-sized clubs. By this time you want a SonicBids Electronic Press Kit (an online profile strictly for club promoters and record labels), you want to apply for South by South West (a huge music festival where you can play showcases where only the press and record label representatives are allowed to watch you) in Austin, Tex., and you want to start playing All Asia, T.T. the Bear’s and other comparable clubs. You probably won’t get South by South West (and don’t be a sucker and go down there to play a non-showcase show, they don’t really do anything for you) but these clubs will welcome you with open arms if you can guarantee crowd of 50 to 200 people. They also won’t have silly rules like “You can’t play anywhere in Boston a month before or after you play at your club,” like most bigger clubs have. For the smaller venues, it’s all about the Benjamins.

Step 4: Get Famous

Now that you’ve grown into a cult classic in this town, with an indie album on iTunes, a pitch out to Q Division records (a local record label who you can send your SonicBids EPK to), and well-attended shows at Harper’s Ferry and the Middle East under your belt, it’s time to get a booking agent and book a tour. Only play places you know you can attract people, and clubs where you know you’ll be playing a bill with comparable bands. This is difficult to guarantee, so it’ll be a full-time job for someone. Once you’re big in a few cities, you’ll start to be attractive to bigger record labels. Don’t be afraid to sign indie, though. Be careful not to get locked into something too long term, but let them help you record an album or two, because that gets expensive.

Step 5: Get Lucky

Pretty much everyone tries this and fails. Good luck.

So, that’s the long and short of it. You need to make some connections with the right people at the right time, but other than that, that’s pretty much all you can do. The good news is, Boston is a great local music city. The bad news is, pretty much everyone has a band. Be special, make a few bucks, and have some fun.