Is there a market for a Kansas, Yes, Rush sounding band in the modern day?

[capnsandwich]

We just auditioned a singer this morning. So far he's been the best singer that has ever stepped foot into our studio. He nailed every tune, covers and originals with ease and has a voice and range much like Steve Perry of Journey. I think our music sounds much like Yes, Kansas, Genesis, Rush, Marillion, etc., but I'm wondering if this kind of music will appeal to the modern ear. There are a ton of bands out there and many of them sound a lot alike, however, we've decided to break the mold a little bit and go with a style that's a little more progressive and that has many of our influences in it. Check out our myspace page in my sig to see for yourself what I'm talking about, (turn up your speakers because everything's a little bit on the low side). We have no vocals on the tracks because at the time we recorded these practices we had no vocalist.

Bear in mind that these are just practices and not actual studio quality recordings so there will be some mistakes and things in them, but I think they'll give you a general idea of our sound.

So when we play, will we draw a crowd or just be an opening act? Give me your opinion. We've only played 3 shows in the last 3 years and all of them were churches.

[StyleOverShow]

Carry on my wayward son....

Personally I'm surprised that worship bands/Church gigs are so prevalent these days.

[Freddels]

If the music is good, there will be a market for it. There are lots of bands out there making a living that I have never even heard of. Somebody is buying their music and paying to see them live.

[capnsandwich]

Originally Posted by StyleOverShow

Carry on my wayward son....

Personally I'm surprised that worship bands/Church gigs are so prevalent these days.

We're actually a Christian band, which is another reason why we went this route. Listening to the Christian radio stations around here is like listening to the same 5 cd's over and over again. It's time for something different.

Originally Posted by Freddels

If the music is good, there will be a market for it. There are lots of bands out there making a living that I have never even heard of. Somebody is buying their music and paying to see them live.

I agree with you. I'm not bragging when I say this, but we are a good band. If you've ever heard us play live I think you'd say the same thing, at least musically. You may not like the style we play but everyone in the band seems to know what they're doing. I'm blessed to be in a band with such talented musicians. I'm the least of all of them.

[ErebusBass]

I wouldn't buy it. Not my cup of tea, but it sounds well written. If it's good, people will listen to it.

[Johno Dunn]

I like it. Keep doing what you're doing.


Johno!

[alapantera]

I really like what you guys are doing. Seems along the same lines as bands like The Flower Kings or IQ. As previously stated, there will always be a market for good music. Keep it up!

[mutedeity]

The way I see it, if whether there is a market for a certain type of music or not is your motivation for your band, I would tell you to forget about it and just make music you know will sell. That doesn't mean you will make it big or anything but at least you will know you are playing a marketable formula.

If you are concerned with making music you like and with the body of work you are producing, you are more likely to make material that is honest and of a reasonable quality, I believe. If the market is your concern then look at the market and take note of what sells. Do bands like Rush have a big percentage of market share these days? There is your answer.

[capnsandwich]

When I first joined this band they had lost their bassist/singer-song writer/mr.everything and also their lead guitarist. The keyboard player and I both joined at the same time and things were going well. Then the drummer, keyboard player, and I started playing stuff that was out of the guitarist's and singer's league so they both quit. We were a 3 piece for 2 years, barring the few months we had a guitarist but they usually quit because they couldn't keep up with our stuff, before we finally got our guitarist we have now and FINALLY got a singer who can sing what we're playing. I had no idea what we I was getting into when I joined this band. I thought we were just another Christian pop band and now we're this Christian prog rock group. I mean I love what we're doing. It challenges me and makes me a better musician overall. I just hope we can continue on this path and actually do some rocking shows. We've been in the studio forever it seems but now that we have all the pieces together I think we can start rocking out. I got tired of going through singers and guitar players, wondering if we would EVER find someone who could play with us.

I know we're not trying to be a radio friendly band or even trying to get on a label. That's not our goal. I'm just curious to know what others think about our music. Is it listenable or is it just a bunch of notes all over the place? I like it but musicians usually like music that the average listener wouldn't a lot of the time.

[Skel]

I'd have to hear the songs with the vocals, but right now, I don't hear any kind of song structure whatsoever. I hear several non-cohesive parts and pieces lumped together. The "dated" sound isn't really the biggest problem IMHO, it's the lack of structure and cohesiveness.

I personally don't think it's a good idea to show people your unfinished work with "there will be vocals". I don't mean to be harsh, but you're explaining that you want an evaluation on your material when only half of it is there to evaluate, and your asking if your going to be a headliner or an opening act. Please, put the completed songs up for evaluation.

The fact that you're writing your own material is great.

[Matt Till]

Originally Posted by Skel

I'd have to hear the songs with the vocals, but right now, I don't hear any kind of song structure whatsoever. I hear several non-cohesive parts and pieces lumped together. The "dated" sound isn't really the biggest problem IMHO, it's the lack of structure and cohesiveness.

Not a prog fan, eh? There is a structure, but it isn't very Verse, Chorus, Verse. At least I can hear a structure...


Prog bands of this nature have an appeal, but it will be a rather underground type appeal. You'll find an audience, but don't expect it to be huge.

[NKUSigEp]

I wouldn't rule it out but it's not something I could get into. Music scenes tend to recycle themselves quite frequently though so who knows?

[capnsandwich]

Originally Posted by Skel

I'd have to hear the songs with the vocals, but right now, I don't hear any kind of song structure whatsoever. I hear several non-cohesive parts and pieces lumped together. The "dated" sound isn't really the biggest problem IMHO, it's the lack of structure and cohesiveness.

I personally don't think it's a good idea to show people your unfinished work with "there will be vocals". I don't mean to be harsh, but you're explaining that you want an evaluation on your material when only half of it is there to evaluate, and your asking if your going to be a headliner or an opening act. Please, put the completed songs up for evaluation.

The fact that you're writing your own material is great.

Like Matt Till said, there is structure but you have to listen to the entire song, like you said, in order to fully understand it. This is all we have for now. We'll get some real stuff up in a few weeks but until now this is all we have.

We aren't trying to get radio air time on the big stations or anything. We're not that kind of band. If we were I wouldn't have started this thread because I already know there's a market for pop rock and stuff like that. We're headed in a different direction that the mainstream is. Even independent stuff is different than what we play. I think we're doing what we love, and even though that's what really matters to us, I'm still curious as to what people think about our overall sound. Like I said earlier, we just got our singer last Saturday and these clips have been up for almost 2 months so until we get settled in as a full band, this is all we have. There will be more to come, I promise.

[Thangfish]

You guys rock.
Every Christian band I have ever heard just suck.
(No offense, but musically I mean.)

Your time is here. Go for it!

[capnsandwich]

Originally Posted by Thangfish

You guys rock.
Every Christian band I have ever heard just suck.
(No offense, but musically I mean.)

Your time is here. Go for it!

I hear you, and agree with some exceptions, (Robert Randolph and the Family Band), and I appreciate the kind words. I'm hoping to get a little recording session going this weekend so I can get some mp3's of our practice on the page. I think our practices sometimes are actually more energetic than our performances. We seem to relax a bit and gamble a little more with our songs. I like to play around and play different stuff just to experiment and sometimes it sounds really good, and other times....eh, not so good.

[Skel]

Originally Posted by capnsandwich

Like Matt Till said, there is structure but you have to listen to the entire song, like you said, in order to fully understand it. This is all we have for now. We'll get some real stuff up in a few weeks but until now this is all we have.

We aren't trying to get radio air time on the big stations or anything. We're not that kind of band. If we were I wouldn't have started this thread because I already know there's a market for pop rock and stuff like that. We're headed in a different direction that the mainstream is. Even independent stuff is different than what we play. I think we're doing what we love, and even though that's what really matters to us, I'm still curious as to what people think about our overall sound. Like I said earlier, we just got our singer last Saturday and these clips have been up for almost 2 months so until we get settled in as a full band, this is all we have. There will be more to come, I promise.

Yeah I hear what your saying. Rush, Yes, and Kansas did write material that worked on the radio, so I guess that's what I was expecting. I listened to your first song again, I love the piano arpeggio thing, then I hear 4 bars that would precede where the vocals/lyrics would start. I hear a chord change, to begin the launch to what I would call a chorus or hook line, which is when you change chords the 2nd time. It's after that where I don't hear anything cohesive, so maybe it's just me - needing to hear the vocals so understand where your coming from. It would either make sense to me, or maybe you could consider making a few arrangement changes and having the best of both worlds, where it's progressive, but also satisfies people's need for resolution, the same way Rush, Yes, and Kansas did it.

Again, it's original, so it's already good.

[neurotictim]

I dig it.

Check out Coheed & Cambria. They probably rank as the most "radio-friendly" prog rock out there, and their following is pretty huge.

My best advice would be to keep doing what you're doing, but remember that "Verse/Chorus/Verse" type music can be good, too.

IME, if you hear any of Coheed's radio songs, you'd think they were a fairly unoriginal rock band - but listen to some of their off-radio stuff and you'll be blown away.

[capnsandwich]

Originally Posted by neurotictim

I dig it.

Check out Coheed & Cambria. They probably rank as the most "radio-friendly" prog rock out there, and their following is pretty huge.

My best advice would be to keep doing what you're doing, but remember that "Verse/Chorus/Verse" type music can be good, too.

IME, if you hear any of Coheed's radio songs, you'd think they were a fairly unoriginal rock band - but listen to some of their off-radio stuff and you'll be blown away.

I've actually heard some Coheed and Cambria stuff. Never owned any of their albums but I had some burned stuff from a mix cd my friend gave me. I really liked the song "Cassiopeia".

We do have some verse chorus verse stuff too but nothing on the page. We had to do some arrangement changes here recently because we realized that a majority of our songs were 8-12 minutes long. We're just going to have to get some of these tracks down and posted so you guys can hear what I'm talking about.

[capnsandwich]

Originally Posted by Skel

Yeah I hear what your saying. Rush, Yes, and Kansas did write material that worked on the radio, so I guess that's what I was expecting. I listened to your first song again, I love the piano arpeggio thing, then I hear 4 bars that would precede where the vocals/lyrics would start. I hear a chord change, to begin the launch to what I would call a chorus or hook line, which is when you change chords the 2nd time. It's after that where I don't hear anything cohesive, so maybe it's just me - needing to hear the vocals so understand where your coming from. It would either make sense to me, or maybe you could consider making a few arrangement changes and having the best of both worlds, where it's progressive, but also satisfies people's need for resolution, the same way Rush, Yes, and Kansas did it.

Again, it's original, so it's already good.

Another thing that would help, besides having vocals, is if my bass were a bit louder. That way you can hear the chord progression a little more clearly and wouldn't hear the guitar as much. It's a little loud IMO. My bass was down on that track for some reason.

[neuromancer]

Originally Posted by neurotictim

Check out Coheed & Cambria. They probably rank as the most "radio-friendly" prog rock out there, and their following is pretty huge.

My best advice would be to keep doing what you're doing, but remember that "Verse/Chorus/Verse" type music can be good, too.

IME, if you hear any of Coheed's radio songs, you'd think they were a fairly unoriginal rock band - but listen to some of their off-radio stuff and you'll be blown away.

+1
That's exactly what I was thinking. When I first heard them, I thought they were some college-radio band who got the odd late-night airplay now and then. If you were to tell me even just 5 years ago that a band of this style with their vocals (and some prominent bass, to boot!) could hit the top-10 of any Billboard chart, I would've laughed in your face.

I'm not laughing now.

So, to the OP - I say there's a market of some kind for just about anything. To quote Lemmy: "Run it up the flagpole..see who salutes it!"