Sharing the Pain
Many times in a band, there is one band member who ends up shouldering the majority of the workload when it comes to booking, promotions, songwriting, etc. Having been a front man in many bands, I have found myself in this predicament and find it to be very stressful and a dangerous recipe for burning out. And if the guy (or gal) who’s taking care of everything gets burned out, the band as a whole will find itself greatly affected.
Each member in a band should (ideally) share the same goals, visions, and aspirations, so the variation in motivation from one band member to another should be minimal to none. As a “team”, bands need to recognize the strengths of each individual member and farm out responsibilities accordingly. Your guitar player may have the gift of gab while your drummer is very business-minded and financially stable. Your singer may have a lot of connections with venues in different areas. Your bassist may have a nice computer with some graphic design software. Determining your band’s needs versus the strengths of the members will greatly increase your chance for success in a competitive industry.
Only you can generate your success; don’t expect it to be handed to you. You might have the greatest album in the world that is capable of bringing peace around the globe. You might have the coolest t-shirts that have built-in wireless plasma screens and loop concert footage from your last show. But if your band isn’t out there making a name for itself and doing all the things that have been proven to accomplish success in this industry, you won’t go farther than your practice space and local dives.
Make a list of your band’s goals and what needs done to reach those goals. Next, condense your list into categories. Ideally, you should have at least as many categories as you have band members. This way, each band member will end up being assigned at least one category. Each category can encompass multiple tasks that are either one-time jobs or recurring tasks. For example, online presence management (i.e., YellYo.com, MySpace, your website, etc.), flyer design, logo work, etc. could all fall under the category of “Multimedia”. Here are some suggested categories: Booking, Multimedia, Promotions, Banking, Admin, Sales. The most important part in this process is making sure that the tasks in the categories are relevant (i.e., promotions are needed for booked shows, but this doesn’t mean that promotions should fall under the category of Booking because promoting involves much more beyond just show promotion).
Make job tickets. This can be as easy as handwriting the categories on a piece of paper, ripping them off and handing them out. The tickets should show the category name and offer a brief description of the tasks included within the category. That way there’s no question or confusion about who should be handling what. Tickets should not be “distributed” to the band members because then you may have members that end up with a job they feel uncomfortable with (i.e., the shy guy in your band shouldn’t end up with the promotions ticket and the broke guy in your band shouldn’t end up with the banking ticket). Let your bandmates know what tickets are available and what is expected from each ticket. Let them pick a category (or categories, if applicable) so they aren’t stuck with something they’ll hate. If there are multiple band members vying for the same ticket, use the judgment of the entire band to determine which band member would be best suited for the task. Remember: the key is to get everyone involved. No band member should walk away empty-handed. It’s unfair to the rest of the group and will eventually lead to tension and resentment from those who are breaking their backs to better the band.
It is important to set deadlines and make sure each member not only understands his/her job, but the job expectations of the other band members as well. In addition, collaboration between ticket-holding band members is important at times. For example, if the guy with the booking ticket wants to book a gig in a different city but wants to get the band’s song played on a radio station in that area the week before the show, he will need to communicate this with the bandmate holding the promotions ticket.
Finally – and most important – every band member must be held accountable for the tickets. We’ve all had the big band meetings where goals were set and spirits were high and motivation was bursting. Then, two weeks later, nothing got accomplished and everyone’s back to being ho-hum. If there was a deadline that wasn’t met, ask why. If collaboration was needed for tasks to be accomplished properly, find out where the breakdown in communication occurred and discuss how it can be avoided in the future. Without accountability, too many tasks will get left unfinished and possibly never even started or attempted.
This system may or may not work for your band. But if you’ve made it this far in the article, chances are that either not enough is getting done in your band or you are the one who is single-handedly handling the entire workload. As a band and a team, you should carry the burden of responsibility together and make sure that whatever size mountain you choose to climb, you do your best to get there together knowing that the weight was shared with every step. Group hug.
