Swedish Paul
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My lads band
Surprising the opportunities that can arise from playing music
Similar story - childhood friend who was in a very popular band in Taiwan in the 80s before he had to do a moon light flit as he was working (ie the pop career) without a visa when he should have been studying! Became a music technician, sound engineer and once looked after Stings guitar while on tour. Now does voice overs.Funny you should say that, a guy I kinda knew (friend of a friend) was the lead singer in a mates band, he was convinced he had what it took to become the next big thing.
He literally had it all, great voice, women were literally all over him and he could play the guitar and write songs.
He was approached after a gig by a bloke who did voice overs and asked him if he was interested.
Cut a long story short, I'll be watching something on the Discovery Channel and every now and again it'll be a guy narrating the fact that a bunch of Hyenas has just nicked a Leopards dinner and I'll think "that's Andy again....".
By all accounts he's made a very good living for himself, albeit not up on the stage.
My lad quite likes the idea of being a composer too. He’s done a couple of college films already.one of my brothers always wanted to make a success of being in a band but never made it, he did however manage a pop group who had a
#1 hit back in 1986 !
one of my other brothers in a film music orchestrator and arranger, has worked on some very famous film scores and with some very famous musician, his is a low profile role though, huge talent !
I think they are going to get a little more serious about the music. They’ve all decided to move 500km south to Stockholm in the new year and get a flat together and try and gig every week. They have all just left college and feel they need a few months work experience first so they can actually support themselves.Paul
Suggest they look at Leo Moracchioli and Mary Spender. Both are YouTubers as well as gigging musicians.
I'm not suggesting that either is the answer to the question of how your son's band makes it.
Only that they show different ways to leverage YouTube. A channel that nearly every unsigned band I know
is using to grow an audience etc. In particular, Mary is very open about the financials of her different channels
and that for now, she's aiming to follow her own path and not seek a deal with a label.
As to your son's band.
I think that some of the music that I heard in your post and elsewhere online wouldn't take much reworking to be quite commercial within the Indie space and even mainstream. Though UK / US mainstream right now is generally pretty risk averse elevator muzak.
A little rough is fine for gigs and B sides (showing my age) but it's semi-commercial songs that the A&R guys want to hear, so that they believe they can make early payback on their upfront costs.
I know a couple of guys in top labels who manage bands who are household names. But, as open as they are to hearing new music occasionally. It's not really their job and I think your son's band has some development to do, before approaching labels.
I don't think that you answered my question. Perhaps it's a conversation that you've not had. Whether the band wants commercial success and how committed they are to that goal. If this is a sideline for them and / or a part-time thing, then I'd say, enjoy it while it lasts.
And a sixties thing maybeCheers Paul. I'll check them out.
Might give the rock opera a miss though.
That's one of the few genres I struggle with
Yes. All good, energetic and reasonably produced. It's hard to tell what will sell these days, with so much choice across so many platforms. I wish them all the best with it.Anybody listen to this? Apparently a music critic in sweden rated them as one of the top 10 bands last year.