{"id":9229,"date":"2014-01-16T06:50:42","date_gmt":"2014-01-16T14:50:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/michaelbrandvold.com\/blog\/?p=9229"},"modified":"2015-09-30T18:50:25","modified_gmt":"2015-09-30T18:50:25","slug":"ar-advice-for-rock-bands-how-to-be-unique-and-avoid-cliches","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/michaelbrandvold.com\/blog\/2014\/01\/ar-advice-for-rock-bands-how-to-be-unique-and-avoid-cliches\/","title":{"rendered":"A&R Advice for Rock Bands, How to Be Unique and Avoid Cliches"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"A&R<\/a>Andrew McNeice from MelodicRock.com<\/a> graciously provided this list of random thoughts and tips for any rock band or artist out there to use or take advice from if you are looking to make an impact in the highly competitive hard rock world. How to be unique and avoid the cliches and already well used in the annals of rock n roll history.<\/p>\n

1. It’s 2014. Your audience is smaller. Don’t piss them off.<\/b><\/p>\n

2. Play to your strengths. No body wanted their favorite hard rock bands delivering grunge styled albums in 1995 and they sure as hell don’t want one in 2014.<\/b><\/p>\n

3. Modernize without abandoning your roots. Don’t repeat yourself, but stay familiar. Don’t lose the essence of why people started listening to you in the first place.<\/b><\/p>\n

4. Don’t be afraid to have fun. But don’t cross the cheese line!No one wants songs about your love of heavy metal; banging chicks or Harley’s…You aren’t 20 anymore and nor are your fans.<\/b><\/p>\n

5. If you don’t have one, hire a damn drummer.<\/b><\/p>\n

6. Get a great mix engineer. You can ‘produce’ the next Hysteria, but it won’t count for squat without a good mixer who knows how to balance an album.<\/b><\/p>\n

7. Write, write and then write some more. Great songs are what counts in the end.<\/b><\/p>\n

8. Hooks. They come in many forms, but every song must have a hook to bring listeners back for more.This doesn’t mean every song has to be a singalong anthem. Hooks can be obvious or subtle, but they must be there.<\/b><\/p>\n

9. Don’t be afraid to break out a great solo….for any instrument.<\/b><\/p>\n

10. Think ahead. A poor quality release this time around will kill sales of the next release. You only get one chance to impress.10b. Novelty albums are the quickest way to obscurity. Avoid cover albums and duet\/with friends\/holiday compilations. Save the self-indulgence for your indie pseudo retirement project.<\/b><\/p>\n

11. Don’t pick a stupid band name. Any band with the words “Dick, Dikk, Cock etc”, is not going to last the distance.11a. Learn to spell. Rox, Boyz, Toyz, Badd, Wykked, Wylde….all no longer as cool as once was…in 1986.<\/b><\/p>\n

12. N.O.D.O.T.S. – unless you are super cool (H.E.A.T.), or it’s a genuine abbreviations (W.E.T., L.R.S.)<\/b><\/p>\n

13. If English is not your native tongue, hire some who’s first language is English to write that all important press release.<\/b><\/p>\n

14. Don’t design the album cover yourself. Unless you are a qualified graphic artist. Spend more than $12 on the design.<\/b><\/p>\n

15. Avoid using images already in use by other artists – avoid crows, eagles, scarabs, pyramids, sun, moon, planets, dragons, castles, space, flying guitars.<\/b><\/p>\n

16. Don’t re-recorded old material\/songs.<\/b><\/p>\n

17. If you really have to – make absolute sure it’s better or at least different than the original.<\/b><\/p>\n

18. Just because a CD fits 80 minutes of music, doesn’t mean you have to fill it.40-45 minutes of killer songs is ideal. Any longer and you had better make sure the songs work.<\/b><\/p>\n

19. Believe in the art of the album. Take listeners on a journey over the course of a dozen songs.<\/b><\/p>\n

20. No spin, no spam. Engage social media, but spare us the over the top rhetoric and never spam your fans.<\/b><\/p>\n

21. Be honest. If you screw up, let’s hear the truth. Nothing worse than a bullshit filled press release everyone sees right through.<\/b><\/p>\n

22. If you really have to do a cover song, pick something cool and obscure.There must never, under any circumstances, ever be any versions recorded of Sunshine Of Your Love, Don’t Stop Believin’, Sweet Home Alabama, Rock On, Smoke On The Water or Stairway To Heaven.<\/b><\/p>\n

23. Rock damn it! However, if you are too old to rock, then make damn sure the songs are the best you’ve ever written.<\/b><\/p>\n

24. You are not Led Zeppelin, Journey, The Who, Bad Company, Queen nor Van Halen, Thin Lizzy or Deep Purple. Be original and be proud of it.<\/b><\/p>\n

25. No use of microphones, guitars or any other instrument to represent a cheeky pseudo phallus on album cover artwork.<\/b><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Andrew McNeice from MelodicRock.com graciously provided this list of random thoughts and tips for any rock band or artist out there to use or take advice from if you are looking to make an impact in the highly competitive hard rock world. How to be unique and avoid the cliches and already well used in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":9231,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[2363,2364,2365,2366,25,2362,2367],"class_list":["post-9229","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-music-marketing-2","tag-ar-advice","tag-andrew-mcneice","tag-cliches-to-avoid","tag-melodicrock-com","tag-music-marketing","tag-music-marketing-consultant","tag-tips-for-rock-bands"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/michaelbrandvold.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9229","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/michaelbrandvold.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/michaelbrandvold.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michaelbrandvold.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michaelbrandvold.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9229"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/michaelbrandvold.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9229\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11311,"href":"https:\/\/michaelbrandvold.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9229\/revisions\/11311"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michaelbrandvold.com\/blog\/wp-json\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/michaelbrandvold.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9229"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michaelbrandvold.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9229"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michaelbrandvold.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9229"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}