Best way to find a singer?

[kasanovakarl]

In what ways have you guys found to find a new singer? Our current group is looking to replace our singer. We are basically a rock/dance bar band (covers only.) Our current singer is flakey. We don't practice too much with him because he doesn't come to practice. The other three of us do practice quite a big and have a fairly nice repertoire. His reasoning for not being able to practice was because of the price of gas - yet he moved for a better paying job... He has also joined another group up closer to where he lives (about 45 minutes away from us), but he keeps telling us our project is his top priority and he enjoys playing with us more. I don't think any of us actually believe him, if it was important he woudl make it work, plus I think he knows we are all very unhappy with him which could have skewed his answer.

We've posted an ad on craigslist and a couple of local sites but are not having good luck. We keep getting highschool emo kids or old school rockers who don't even want to play what we do. We tried a newspaper ad for a keyboardist a while ago and that was disasterous.

Our problem is that we already have some gigs booked and we have never backed out of a gig. We don't want to start now, however we'd be hard pressed to get anyone else in to cover if he up and quits. All of the singers that we know in other bands would be hard pressed to learn about 50 songs in a very short term.

Any thoughts or suggestions? What did you do when/if you were in this position?

[TrevorOfDoom]

check here.
that's where i found my last singer.

[guitfiddle0409]

Go to as may many Open Mics / Open Stages as possible. That way you can audition people without them knowing it. For what it's worth, however, we gave up looking for a singer when when most people who were interested in joining us couldn't sing any better than we could. But then again, how good do you have to be to sing blues/rock?

[corradoc]

Finding a quality singer is the toughest part of putting together a band (IMHO). We searched for close to a year until we found our guy...and I gotta tell ya, there are sooooo may people out there who have no idea how bad their voice is - I blame American Idol. Now every person in the US with little to no talen and less training thinks they can "be a star". Ugh.

[edit] eh, forgot to actually repond to PM. we used craigslist and adds up at local rehearsal studios....but in the end, met our singer by chance!

[kasanovakarl]

We have tried open mic nights, but we haven't had any luck. After putting an ad in the newspaper I doubt we'll ever do that again because we had all sorts of people who, like on the early AI shows, thought they were great singers...yet were terrible.

I guess I'm wondering if anyone has done anything out of the ordinary and had good luck. Any one else have any suggestions?

[Phalex]

I don't know if we did anything out of the ordinary, but our lead singer has deep roots in Karaoke. He used to work for a karaoke outfit and won lots of contests. He took a little bit of work to get him to be awesome with a live band, but I really can't complain at all.


A buddy of mine from Minneapolis has a band that did the "American Idol" thing. They needed a permanent drummer and singer and they held a competition to find them. They had a panel of judges who were guys from other bands and the audiance got to vote as well. The drummer I really liked ended up not getting the gig, and the singer they found was very talented, but just wasn't a very nice person. I'm not sure if they're still around. I haven't heard from them for a while.

[lowendgenerator]

I was going tosuggest karaoke bars as well. I once heard a girl sing so sweetly that I propositioned her for a band that didn't even exist...

[santucci218]

go to a local music store and wait outside the voice lesson room.

[mward69]

Another way is to hit the local restaurants that have someone playing acoustic stuff. We have been talking with a guy I met at a local mexican joint. He plays like Wen. nights.....

[Shishkbob]

i got lucky, my singer approached me and asked me to play bass for him. Never really played bass before, I was rock guitar player for years. Now i play bass in a reggae band and will never look back.

he is one hell of a singer.

Karaoke bars and coffee shops. check music shops that have singing lessons and drop ads.

[tycobb73]

One thing we didn't do but you could try is contact the vocal teachers about their students. We just placed ads all over. Apparently this place is loaded with talented female singers because I know of about 4 right now looking for bands. I would take any of them in a heartbeat if I didn't already have one.

[kasanovakarl]

Unfortunately most of the music shops around my area either don't give vocal lessons or it is mostly band instruments. That would be perfect if I was looking for a teenage (or younger) brass section!

I may have to try and hit up the local karaoke scene, though last time I went they were more into ballads.

[guitfiddle0409]

Originally Posted by lowendgenerator

I was going tosuggest karaoke bars as well. I once heard a girl sing so sweetly that I propositioned her for a band that didn't even exist...

Oh, you sneaky little devil....

[baba]

Originally Posted by corradoc

Finding a quality singer is the toughest part of putting together a band (IMHO).

So true. Good luck, it ain't easy.

All I can say is do not settle for a mediocre singer. A mediocre singer will stunt the band's growth and opportunities more than anything else. The truth hurts.

[lowendgenerator]

Originally Posted by guitfiddle0409

Oh, you sneaky little devil....

I was drunk and absolutely in love with her voice.


And her sweet bewbage!

[FrankDV]

just start kicking guys in the nads until one lets out some nice notes...then you will have found your singer