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Stage Name

#21
Fugazibomb,
As an office professional i uNderstand. I am certain my musical sidelife is negatively frowned upon by upper mgt. the last few musicians in my dept have been canned, but mostly because of performance, and one guy was sleeping at his desk!
Im just a local band guy so of course i have no stage name. As someone else suggested i did use my first/middle as my youtube/soundcloud name. There always the porn star name joke: middle name hometown!
 
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#22
Have two facebook pages. One clean one with your name, and one with a nom-de-plume. It doesn't have to be a stage name, it just has to shield your clean page from the straights.

Why is playing music so frowned upon in our society? Frank Zappa once made the observation that in Spain being a guitarist is a noble and respected profession. Here, not so much. It's just not seen as "serious" for some reason, but in the end the music I make is actually much more serious, and important, than the code I write and test, which will all be obsolete within 10 to 20 years.
 
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#23
FugaziBomb said:
So recently my career level has made a huge jump, requiring me to maintain a professional face on social media. My last name is very unique and I can no longer have that associated with myself as an entertainer. The issue is that I have been an active part of my local music scene for a long time and am known by my given name. Does anyone have any advice as far as transitioning to a stage name? It also feels really silly making people call me by a different name, so if anyone has some advice on getting over that hurdle, that would be great as well.
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I also have a long, unconventional, somewhat odd last name. Pretty 'un-showbusy' for sure. When dealing with folks who don't already know me, or my last name, I just use my middle name as my last name. Works out great!
William(s), Warren, Stuart, Richard(s),.....
whatever.
Hope that works for you. And it's honest for the most part!
 
#24
FugaziBomb said:
My last name is close to that and I've never heard anyone else with the same last name, so it's a considerable challenge maintaining any kind of anonymity.
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So you're saying that your last name is Furgundy, or Hurgundy or something? Ha! Just kidding...We had joke stage names in a country band I played in. Danny Magz - bass, Dickie Silvers - drums, Billy Whitehorse - guitar, and Jack Connoly as Jack Connoly on lead vocals and rythm guitar. Sounds serious in your case though. You can just be billed as whatever your stage name is, but I don't think anyone who knows you should have to be forced to call you "John Legend" or anything. I assume that most people who know you will call you by your first name, and so anyone else who doesn't really know you, might come up and ask you if you are "so and so" with your stage name attached, and you can just say "yes" in the context of your musical endeavors. Just my 2 cents.
 
#25
Michael4bass said:
When I lived in Nashville, I knew a lot of players who went by the first and middle names.

Bassically, Michael
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This has worked well for a number of friends (one also in Nashville)--First name, Middle Name, or reverse the name order. Doug Roberts becomes Bob Douglas. The upside of this is that you'll never be caught off guard by someone using your stage name, as it'll be familiar to you.

Having said that, if your name is something like Jenscotchy Miramar Figurosa, you're going to have to get creative.
 
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#28
You're in a punk band and don't already have a stage name? Hmm, at this point you might need some props to help make the transition like a wig or glasses or a fake mustache. Make it seem like a character you're playing and then just keep the name. You could have the other band members do it too. Of course if your band becomes well known, your real name will still be out there, though maybe not as visible.
 
#30
@FugaziBomb I think it's time for some hard choices. If you're seeking anonymity because your music would threaten your job you have to realize they will eventually find out. If they think you've been lying to them it will probably not go well. You might want to be proactive and either give up the music to keep the job or give up the job for the music. There's probably lots of music you can play without threatening your current job. Also, lots of jobs that won't mind your current music.
 
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#36
Hey man, I understand where you're coming from. I have experienced this myself to some degree. Some pictures went around our company of me drinking a beer with my bandmates and me headbanging on stage. It was mostly annoying but a few people thought they could behave differently toward me professionally because i was a tattooed rock musician, and that was difficult to squash. But my experience pales in comparison to the singer in my last band. He was a physician and a partner in a very big deal practice. The, for lack of a better term, "rock-n-roll" image of the band could cost him his career. He had a very common last name, so he just went by a false first name when it came to the band. I realize you cant do this.
I presume that most people in the music scene know you and refer to you by your first name. I know I usually refer to others in the scene as "justin" from "band name here" because last names are hard to keep track of and people rarely know them anyway. You could just pick a generic (or cool) last name to use when it comes to band stuff. you don't have to actively go around and tell people you're going by a new last name, you can just introduce yourself to new people, promoters, etc., with you assumed last name and go from there. you can establish a "doing business as" bank account, where payments for your musical endeavors can be deposited.

interestingly, when i joined that last band, there was another doctor playing with them, also using an assumed name. The standard was set so they asked me to chose a stage name too: for years i was known as Mugger MacKaye.... thought you might enjoy that given your user name here.
 
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#38
Shouldnt be too hard to come up with a good stage name for a punk/reggae band. Get together w bandmates or a friend or two, and have a drink an a smoke and see what you can think up. Twist something off your real name. Some folks taking your choice super serious on here, people use stage names all the time, its not weird or dishonest or cheesy, just part of the act
 
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#39
FugaziBomb said:
So recently my career level has made a huge jump, requiring me to maintain a professional face on social media. My last name is very unique and I can no longer have that associated with myself as an entertainer. The issue is that I have been an active part of my local music scene for a long time and am known by my given name. Does anyone have any advice as far as transitioning to a stage name? It also feels really silly making people call me by a different name, so if anyone has some advice on getting over that hurdle, that would be great as well.
Click to expand...
Why do you 'have to' have a stage name?
 

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