Break Away II

You need to set yourself apart in some way from the thousands of other bands out there. Here are some ideas to getting people to know about you.

• Artwork -One idea is to take what is already being done, and try to do something alittle different, or at least an original take about what is going on. When metal band Cannibal Corpse starting releasing gory album covers, pretty soon every other band was trying to follow their lead. Making your artwokr alittle different from the other bands of a similar sound will help you to stand out.
• Use the internet.  The web has been a godsend for bands -alot of what can be done for band can be done at a cheap price of by yourselves if someone has the knowledge. gigs can be promoting on social networking profiles and forums, you can have a website for the band, contact fans and music industry contacts via email.
• Image. While a majority of the bands believe it is mainly about the music than your haircut, unfortunetly its a 50/50 split between the two things. The image angle has worked in the past -Slipknot wear masks to concel their faces, Kiss wear makeup -so it does work -but remember: the music also has to be good.
• Promotion of gigs. The more people who are aware of your bands and your gigs the more chance there will be a bigger crowd at the gig. Do everything you can, on and offline to try and get people out there -develop a mailing list to let people know, print flyers and posters and go to town and stick them out, hand them out. Because if know one knows about the gig no-one is gonna come down.

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We’ve all got our favourite album covers and sleeves, that mean something to us, or reflect perfectly what the album is about -or sometimes its just looks that damn awesome that we had to buy this album that ended up changing us forever. Im gonna write about two men who had an impact on the atrwork of album covers in metal.

• Any Cannibal Corpse album cover done by Vince Locke. There’s no denying Locke’s artwork has contributed towards the success of Cannibal Corpse. The gruesome artwork has basically helped ‘the corpse’ stand out from the legions of other death metal bands over the years and has even been banned in some countries -causing alternate covers to be created. The artwork goes hand in hand with the music, you know exactly what your getting with a Cannibal corpse album. The latest album ‘Evisceration plague’ isnt as gruesome as usual, but there was uproar when the album ‘kill’ didnt have his artwork on.

• Derek riggs: Number of the beast. The classic Iron Maiden album was the first to feature then new vocalist Bruce Dickinson and it propelled Maiden onto a whole other level. But you cant help thinking the Derek Rigg’s cover of a puppet Eddie being controlled by the devil, who in turn, is being controlled by Eddie, didnt help to shift those albums. Just who is manipulating who in that artwork? The artwork was supposed to be used for the single ‘Run to the hills’, but was so good they decided to use it for the album. Riggs has also put Eddie into space, thrown him into a mental institution for labotomising and even turned him into a mummy. He hasnt done a Maiden studio album since ‘no prayer for the dying’, which is a shame. Maiden fans will rejoice over a new one. Please?

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Promoting your first few gigs as an unsigned band is tough. In the beginning no-one outside of your circle of friends will really be interested in your gigs, so you’ve gotta try and get more people down the venue. Here are some of the ways to get people down to your gigs.

• Sticking up posters. A proven way to promote your gig. This will require you to run around town putting posters up to spread the word of your gigs wherever you can stick one up. Pubs, other venues, rehearsal studios, newsagents, colleges and music shops are always good for this. But make sure you check with the manager/ bar staff before putting anything up, some places can be very funny about people putting up posters. With putting up posters around the town on the streets remember to check what the local council status is: Some consider it littering and will charge the venue. Trust me, this doesnt go down to well with the people who own the venue.
• Flyering. Printing up tons of flyers and standing in the street tying to hand them out may not be glamorous, but it needs to be done. Now not everyone is going to take a flyer or give it more than a second glance before it goes into the bin, but you gotta promote the gig.
• The internet. {The power of the Internet has helped smaller bands greatly, advertise your gigs on many different related forums, Myspace, Facebook groups}{The internet has been a godsend to bands, so advertise on different forums, Myspace, Facebook and anywhere else you can think of}The internet has given bands access to their fans and the means to keep in contact with them. Forums and social networks are good places to promote you gig. Getting friendly with these people to will help get them down to, and maybe even helping out your band. Social websites will allow you to create events and invite people down for them. Not everyone is going to come down, the but more people who know about it the more chance there is that they will come down to the gig. Be aware people may say they are turning up only for them not to, so dont take it too personally if people who say there turning up dont.
• Getting your gig into the local gig listings. Magazines and papers with gig listings? Somebody must read them,so getting the details out there is more exposure for you.

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