As soon as a musiciansteps out of school, he or she has the burning desire to form a band and jam in front of an audience.
It is a common phenomenon and every year, thousands of bands across the country retire from the scene as limited scope of cutting albums and cut-throat competition by mass appeal makes them take conventional career decisions. They might be music lovers, but the musician in them is lost for ever.
DNA asked Indian rockers Parikrama to share their 15-point plan with budding rockers. Here is what they had to say…
Get the right people. Make sure they are nice people first. An average player, but a nice person (is much better as) it’s all about longevity. Practice very hard; there are no shortcuts. n Focus on your goals.
Rules rule! It should be a mutual agreement, like punctuality for practices.
Respect each others views, capabilities and time.
Keep egos out of the practice room. Never let success get to your head. If it does, it’s the beginning of the end.
Innovate. Crowds need something new, always. Remember that where you’re playing.
Balance your original compositions and covers. If you don’t want to play covers, then don’t. If you are okay with playing both, know where to play what.
Never indulge in defending yourself, or the band, when people write stuff on internet sites.
If they are right, learn from it. If they are writing out of jealousy, ignore them.
Don’t care about what the critics have to say.
Have loads of fun together, throw parties, celebrate together!
Have band holidays, compromise on your band fee, if you need to get a great working holiday show, like Goa etc. Corporates spend millions on bonding exercises, nothing like a paid holiday for band-bonding.
Band management and marketing are also very important. Get a good agency to take care of your shows.
Media management is very important.
Discuss your stage behavior, clothes, image etc with band-mates, and always enjoy
yourself.
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