OK, So I Do Originals now........

[Phalex]

I just got a weird E-mail from my guitar player. Seems that somebody saw us at a gig we had down town a few weeks ago, and wants to "Record Our Band". It sounds like there's a decent type studio involved (not some guys basement).

My only real issue is that we're a cover band. Who the hell spontaneously wants to record a cover band??

Recording a bunch of covers sounds kind of stupid, so now we're going to write a bunch of original type material.

I guess I'm just having a bit of an identity crisis. I've done the original thing before, and while I do enjoy the act of composition, and the recording aspects of it, I never really found it to be a viable format. Are we going to sell CD's at shows, or just go back to the status quo of coverdom?

It should be fun anyway........

[JTE]

Sounds funny to me as well. I've spent most of my life in cover bands, and the idea that any of our covers were interesting and/or original enough to warrant recording them was laughable. My last band DID do a CD, but we just took songs from the CD's we burned off the board mix. The gutiarist invested a lot of bread into putting studio gear into his basement and building it to be a studio. Then after they spent two hours trying to get a good kick drum sound recorded, our sound guy mentioned that the board mixes sounded pretty good. So we just picked a group of stuff that people liked, dumped those to CD and made copies to sell at gigs.

But then, the problem with most originals is that they're not good enough to be recorded either! But I'm betting your band might actually have some decent originals. My experience with "original" bands is that they're too derivative, and they don't know enough songs by other people to know the difference between a great song and a mediocre one. Plus most of them confuse "song" with "performance", "arrangement" and "record".

So, I'd say just enjoy the journey!

John

[Phalex]

That's just the thing man! We do one original tune on a regular basis. I think it's an amusing song, but I wouldn't call it great.

Basically, we're going to cram and come up with several original tunes in a rather short period of time. We have five or six tunes we've kinda messed around with, but we're going to spit polish the half finished stuff, and come up with a few more. Presto! From covers to originals in record time!

I think it'll be fun, but I have no idea what kind of band we are. Will it be Rock? Blues? Folk? I have no idea what kind of original stuff we'll be doing. Totally winging it!

It's going to be fun! (I just hope it's good.)

[ggunn]

Originally Posted by Phalex

I just got a weird E-mail from my guitar player. Seems that somebody saw us at a gig we had down town a few weeks ago, and wants to "Record Our Band". It sounds like there's a decent type studio involved (not some guys basement).

My only real issue is that we're a cover band. Who the hell spontaneously wants to record a cover band??

Recording a bunch of covers sounds kind of stupid, so now we're going to write a bunch of original type material.

I guess I'm just having a bit of an identity crisis. I've done the original thing before, and while I do enjoy the act of composition, and the recording aspects of it, I never really found it to be a viable format. Are we going to sell CD's at shows, or just go back to the status quo of coverdom?

It should be fun anyway........

It can't be that they are interested in producing your original material, seeing as you virtually don't have any.

Have they asked you for any money? Watch out for that; they may be approaching every band they see, hoping to sell studio time. Some unscrupulous studio guys will even tell you it's for free until they get you involved, and then it's "that's all we do for free; it's gonna cost you $2000 for us to finish the project". Be careful out there.

It could be a new studio that wants someone to help them ring out their gear; that could be a good deal for you. You might get a good demo out of it for free.

[Phalex]

Thanks ggunn! That's good advice and something i hadn't considered. I'll let my suspicious nature run free when dealing with this situation. I'm broke, and therefore can't cough up a bunch of money, but the singer......... Well........

I'll keep an eye on him!

[RAM]

Ggunn makes an interesting point, one I certainly wouldn't have thought about. Good thing we've got people on here who actually think!

Before I read his post, one thing that kept coming back to me, though, was, "why???"

I mean, why would they want to record you? It sounds like you've been asking that same question. I think it's a good question to ask them, dontchya think?

[Phalex]

As soon as I figure out who "they" are, I do intend to ask that very question. I think I'll start with the singer and ask him what the guy said to him at the bar.