MUSIC

How to form a band

Bands. Everyone loves watching them and every musician wants to join or form a group at some point – especially young ones.

The Sunshine Coast is home to a large population of emerging young artists. There is an exceptional pool of talent with opportunities such as the Eumundi School of Music, Debby Parson’s Circle of Sound events and the Hastings Street Association’s Busking program providing platforms for talent to be showcased and encouraged.

So how does a young ‘muso’ who wants to form a band start this journey?

For three years I’ve been managing and gigging with Ampersand, working out the music industry on the fly. We started our journey with humble busking in 2021, to receiving grants and playing at the Caloundra Music Festival in 2023, to this year releasing music. This is a decent standard of success for a young band.

Upon reflection I’ve compiled a list of what has worked for Ampersand over the years in the hope fellow eager musicians may benefit.

Step 1: Finding your people

You might meet them at school, online or at an open mic event. The most important thing when looking for potential band members is building the bridges of friendship. This friendship should be founded on a mutual love of music, however it needs to be clearly established from the beginning. A positive rapport and great relationship between band members is far more important than the music. This friendship will ensure the teamwork is natural and everyone contributes their best efforts. If the band works as a team and are loyal to each other the music will automatically become spectacular. A band that has a great friendship is also far more engaging to audiences as they pick-up on the joy and fun you’re having. The band team bond comes before the music, talent, gigs, money, song choice and creative direction.

Step 2: Finding your sound

Flexibility is the key here. Never approach building a band with a hard and unshakeable image of what sound you want to create as you will always be disappointed.

It doesn’t matter if you primarily play jazz and your drummer plays rock – the fact you’ve built a team bond means you will be able to create your own new sound. To find your sound, practice the art of ‘jamming’. Choose songs that everyone likes and jam them together freely. Let every band member’s distinct style and influence flow.

Within a few rehearsal sessions this will begin to coalesce into a unique fusion of genres and techniques. Avoid limiting yourselves to specific genres at this stage and be willing to try any song a band member suggests and attempt to make it your own. The key is to try everything –and a lot of it! Before long the team will be able to anticipate each other musically and begin to form their own non-verbal communication methods.

100% responsible for their own plans, direction and decisions. Managing yourself is how you learn the most valuable lessons in teamwork and the music industry and actually understand how everything works.

Step 4: Avoiding competition

The Sunshine Coast music industry is a selfcontradictory beast. Everyone justifiably describes it as immensely competitive and for good reason, as we are home to the highest density of working musicians per-capita in Australia.

Step 3: Decision making and task division

Managing the different ideas and opinions of a diverse group can be challenging. One person may want to focus on covers, another on originals, and another may want to do festival gigs.

A band should work as a democracy with a defacto manager/leader as the ‘house speaker’ with every band member having equal decisionmaking power. Decisions should be put to a vote and gain clear consent from the entire team before being actioned. The art of compromise is obviously invaluable.

Divide responsibilities equally. Besides individual instruments, songwriting and stage roles, separate band members should fill the roles of manager, booking agent, marketing manager, social media manager, treasurer and researcher. For a young independent band starting out, having a manager or leader who isn’t a band member is a risky situation as a band should be

Falling prey to the easy trap of treating the industry as competitive and attempting to compete with other artists is a sure-fire way to handicap your growth. You’ve already built your team, found your sound and are the best at what ‘you’ do and tomorrow you will be even better as you learn and grow.

Choosing artists for a gig is the venue or booking agent’s responsibility, not the other artists. Everyone is going to apply for the same finite number of gigs.

Showing animosity or resentment towards bands that venues choose to hire will quickly sour 'musos' and 'bookers' views of you. The industry is large but word spreads quickly, so the best strategy is to befriend everyone. Talk to other 'musos', support them at their gigs, support venues and good karma will come back around.

It’s your job to work out the best way to appeal to the people hiring you and learn how to communicate with them. It also helps to find a niche of gigs that you specialise in.

Jarrod Tutbury