Paranoids Psychedelic / Rock
http://www.myspace.com/paranoids
Planning, yes, hmmm … planning is good … depending on what your goals are as a band. In fact, that’s probably the first step you should take with regard to planning—collectively deciding what the band intends to be and how far it wants to go. Do people want to tour relentlessly? Be in a prolific studio recording project? Get famous as fast as possible no matter the cost? Just hang out in the garage and smoke dope? (In the latter case, I’d recommend no planning. Planning is a total buzzkill.) If various members have wildly differing goals, it’s good to get that established up front, so people don’t find themselves wasting their time in the wrong project. So, the first step is getting together early on and deciding on some group intentions. Once everybody is basically on board and the band is rolling, cohesive, and at least somewhat stable, I’d recommend the band get together outside of rehearsal, maybe once or twice a month, to do some planning and keep things moving in the direction everybody wants to go. This is the time to fuck the abstract and get some specific shit done—for example, get Joey to make a flier, Mikey to call up some clubs and book a couple shows, and Davy to replace his crappy old guitar with a fresh new axe. Then come back in a couple weeks to make sure everybody did their stuff, and come up with some more specific stuff for everybody to do. This may sound like a pain in the ass, but if everybody in the band has the same goals, everybody should be able to pitch in somehow. In an idea world, this will help bands avoid stagnation and aimlessness, and hopefully keep everybody interested. I’ve been in too many projects in which hours are spent theorizing, pontificating, and generally bullshitting about the future, but nothing ever gets done. Much of the time, you’ll find out it takes less time to do something than it does to talk about doing it. Hmm, maybe I should actually try this out myself!? Damon
034 PLAN - STEP 1