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Too many covers?

B

blahblahblake

Jan 16, 2010
21
0
Raleigh, NC
#1
I'm in need of some advice from fellow TBers. Our band is trying to get things in shape to begin gigging. A couple band members that have a bit of experience playing out insist that at least half of our set be familiar, more mainstream cover songs. In all honesty, I don't have much interest in playing covers but I'm willing to conform if it will benefit the band and the way we're received. Does anyone have any experience dealing with this issue? From a band management perspective, is the suggestion of half cover/half original a good one?

Thanks.
 
#3
I see you're in Raliegh where you have great original scene. so my question to you would be, do want to play in a cover band for money or go for something original? I also live in big songwriting community and always play in bands that do originals. I don't mind having a few covers for encores and such but the focus is always on originals. The only cover bands that draw around here are tribute bands that are damn good at it.
 
#4
I would go only 15% max originals. And don't announce ahead of time that it's an original, and no storytelling to set up the song! Thar's an instant dance-floor killer. Just give a quick nod to the guy in the band that wrote it when you finish and move on. If they want to hear any originals mention your MySpace site and have the waitresses give out buisness cards with your logo and url. Just my 2 cents.

X8

EDIT: I guess if you are in an "original scene" area as Mr-Wunderful said, that would change my percentage drastically!
 
#5
I appreciate the input from both sides. Mr-Wunderful is spot-on about the area in which I live. Lots of musicians around so I feel like it would be a good spot to do original material.

On the other hand, I've been told many times (as MNAirHead and Exploiter8 are suggesting) that covers are the way to go if we want to get paid gigs. Make no mistake, I have no illusions of grandeur and don't expect to make a ton of money, but I would love to get paid. I can just imagine how validated I'll feel bringing it home, showing it to my wife and saying "See honey, all of the time, effort, and money I've put into this are paying off......sort of." I do not want to play in a cover band, but if it means the difference between getting paid gigs and sitting at home dreaming about it, I'd be more than happy to pull out a few in a set.

Any thoughts as to the level of familiarity of the covers we should try? I don't know or listen to much mainstream music so everything I've suggested as a cover so far has drawn questioning looks.
 
#7
Exploiter8 said:
I would go only 15% max originals. And don't announce ahead of time that it's an original, and no storytelling to set up the song! Thar's an instant dance-floor killer. Just give a quick nod to the guy in the band that wrote it when you finish and move on. If they want to hear any originals mention your MySpace site and have the waitresses give out buisness cards with your logo and url. Just my 2 cents.

X8

EDIT: I guess if you are in an "original scene" area as Mr-Wunderful said, that would change my percentage drastically!
Click to expand...

+1
On all accounts.

The paying audience doesn't care that you spent 18 months in Tibet contemplating the meaning of life when the inspiration for the song hit you. They just want to get up and groove.
 
#8
Chicks wanna dance: Dudes wanna get laid.

The easiest route to this equation IMO is covers. If you can sell your originals, and the majority of your core audiance is attractive females, you have the keys to the castle my friend.
 
#9
It certainly is easier to get started, get gigs, and continue getting gigs with covers. However, if you don't want to do them, you don't have to. Keep in mind what is important to you. If I had to pick doing covers all my life or doing originals, I'd pick originals. But thankfully I can choose both. And thankfully I don't have to rely on my cover band to make money meanwhile pretending that I don't mind playing top40 hits that I hate. I would almost rather take a cubicle job than make my income playing top40 or something. Do what you want. If it's just a few covres here and there, and you get to pick them, and they aren't horrible, hey it's not so painful...
 
#11
blahblahblake said:
I'm in need of some advice from fellow TBers. Our band is trying to get things in shape to begin gigging. A couple band members that have a bit of experience playing out insist that at least half of our set be familiar, more mainstream cover songs. In all honesty, I don't have much interest in playing covers but I'm willing to conform if it will benefit the band and the way we're received. Does anyone have any experience dealing with this issue? From a band management perspective, is the suggestion of half cover/half original a good one?

Thanks.
Click to expand...

Depends. Covers ARE good! If no one knows your songs yet, 1 or 2 in a 45 min set @ an originals show is good.

A friend was on tour with his original hard rock band, they had a show in Calgary... supposed to be an hour long. The bar asked if they could TRIPLE their pay for 2.5hr set. NO BRAINER right there.



but when you're trying to get a single or two stuck in peoples' heads, there's a limit to the amount of covers you should do. Half and half's fine, but doing 80% covers might be too much.
 
#12
really depends on yours (and your bands) goals, doesn't it ?

You aren't gonna get paid a whole lot of money being a cover band, unless you are one of the top cover bands in your city, so why not have patience and take a stab at being an all-original band ?

Does your band have good original songs ?
Would you be happier playing your originals to 10 people (at first) who really dug your music or playing pop / rock cover tunes to a possible bigger crowd who could give a crap who you were and what your band can do.

(while every city might be different) I disagree with those who say a percent split is possible. Either...

1. You play covers or
2. You play originals

sure you can sneak a cover in (or an original in) once in a while, but I think any percent split is a bad idea......it makes it harder to focus a marketing plan for your band.
 
#13
What I've always liked to do is start with mostly covers. Mix a couple originals in each set and slowly add more as we built our following. This way you can start off getting people moving and grooving to the covers and as they get familiar with the originals They will start moving and grooving to them just like the covers.

We play an old UFO song that most people have never heard and many people think it is an original.
 
#14
If you want to be known as a cover band, then do a high percentage of covers. If you want to be known as an original band, do a high percentage of originals.

Doing covers in and of itself in an original situation isn't bad. I will be doing a 30 minute set this weekend in Asbury Park where it will be an even 50-50 split, which is unusual for me. I am tailoring my set to fit the space, time and potential audience, so this situation is unique. I have always thrown two to four covers in my sets, but I NEVER do them like the artist or how people would expect.

This weekend I'm opening with Farmer's Daughter (I'm sure the Beach Boys fans out there won't even know it was that song), I am covering My Back Pages (super punked out and has become a requested favorite-hope Bob Dylan or Roger McGuinn don't ever hear it) and also throwing in Morrissey's Your Gonna Need Someone By Your Side. All are different arrangements and guitar parts and as you can see to a large degree they are not popular or normal covers. I have always ended my shows with my version of Secret Agent Man.

The Lemonheads second biggest hit was a cover of Mrs. Robinson. A lot of alternative and indie bands throw in a few covers done in their way.

So, the choice is yours. You just have to make sure which you want to be (cover band or original band). There is a very popular cover band in NJ called the Benjamins who cut their own CD of original songs. From all accounts, no one cared and no one bought because they became used to the Benjamins as a cover band.
 
#15
The scene is just really tough right now, for a whole ton of reasons.

You know, when I started playing, bands didn't really get too uptight about the cover vs originals thing. They just covered stuff and tossed their own material in between things. We had all the big name Detroit acts for high school dances, and they covered tons of material. That USED TO BE the way things were done.

Now, it seems like we have so many more bands competing for fewer gigs with many less club goers looking for live music. Here in Phoenix, the "original" scene is made up of a bunch of bars that are bringing in 5 acts per night to play for free (hey at least they don't have to pay to play). The cover scene is a big challenge to figure out current material to cover - anyone checked out any listings of top "hits" from the 00's? I can hardly find anything there. A little Maroon5 maybe, but its really sifting through a bunch of industry generated chicken$#!^ for the most part, IMO.

Maybe we are just re-aligning with the internet, I don't know. The thing that really worries me is that we seem to have somewhat severed the chain of life in the musical legacy.

Anyhow, back on topic, to the OP: my 2c is to not be afraid to mix it up a bit. Covers can and should be done with your own spin and a certain amount of creativity. You can have your own thing going on and still play stuff people recognize. Then toss in your own tunes. That's the way its been done for years, and there's nothing wrong with it, IMO. Utter rejection of all previous influences may be in vogue, but it is simply ignorance masquerading as showtime, IMHO.
 
#16
I can only speak about my area, but there are a couple of all-original acts that do pretty well. However, they are a cut above the rest. They could easily be on the national level if the right people backed them and they were willing to go all of the way. I know a lot of people aren't going to want to hear this, but majority of the original stuff out there sucks. For every really good original band, there are ten bands that can't write well, can't play well, and usually aren't very original.

The botton line, however, is to do what you enjoy and try and meet your goals. Perhaps you and your bandmates have two totally different ideas about what the band should be.
 
#18
You do not need to do covers if the material is good. If you do do covers don't do Mustang Sally and Wonderwall (unless that fits with what you're doing) do something that no one else will touch.

My band plays 21st century schizoid man by King Crimson and Tom Sayer from Rush. That's it. No one else in our area does these tunes.We like it like that. Everyone told us we NEED to do covers. Yea to do 4 hours-sure..We do 2 and a half hours of solid music with long breaks and an Ipod to fill a night. We get paid slightly less than cover bands around but we're ok with that..Exposure is all we're after now. But we still make some.

There are bands in my area that do covers and originals...People ONLY know them for their great covers!!! Stick with ur heart and creativity!!! It's almost easier to just write more material than to learn other peoples riffs.

Please don't let 'em fool ya...be different..It was scary for us too..luckily we have a headstrong guitard that refused to do what everyone else does. It worked for us..It can work for you!!!
 

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