Fantastic topic. If I was Murray Deaker I would give you the gift basket compliments of Regency.

Hope someone has a better repsonse than me.

am totally in the same boat, been studying for three years and now i'm finally finished i've decided to take the plunge next year...move closer to auckland (cant quite comprehend living there yet) no more working for people (just myself) play many gigs, write many songs, do much traveling in aid of spreading music...and if it dosn't work out in a year's time i'll move back to provincial NZ, get a real job, wife and start working on babies...

Totally admire anyone that is willing to give it a shot. However, it's a matter of finding the right people who share your "vision". I know a mate of mine that's just released a CD, totally self funded, good reviews, but he knows that he ain't going to make money in NZ and everyone in the band work 9-5. They don't want to tour NZ and shift to Oz in search of fame and glory, it's just not where they are at. However, if you have no ties or responsibilities, totally believe you can do this, and are willing to "starve" somewhat for what you want to do definately go for it. One word of advice - you definately need to get the right people into your band (if you intend to start a band that is) otherwise it's going to turn to shit. Have just quit a band because we all had different priorities and were going nowhere.

yeah i agree- I could be a lot worse off, but believe me, I've been worse off (hotel porter, gas station attendant, labouring etc), so I definately dont have any gripes about my job, just continually feel that i should be somewhere else...

I spend enough time on the net, keeping tabs on local nz bands, where they're at & what they're up to-- to see who the major bands are in the local scene, even those that arent signed yet.
Stardrunk is one NZ band that just blows me away- they're fantastic, and I know for a fact that the last two times they've come to Akl to play, they ended up losing out a few hundred bucks for their efforts... but I'd rather be broke as hell, travelling and playing music, than working a job, making money, seeing things not go anywhere

I play in three bands that are all in quite early stages and spend *all* my free time working on these bands. My frustration just comes from wanting to get them to the stage that blindspott etc are now, cause I believe the music's way better than a lot of local stuff that gets played on the radio.. I just cant afford to sit round much longer- I gotta go for it soon

It all comes down to how much you want it. Blindspott have proved that- they all worked their arses off to get where they are.. and you can tell that every member of that band is as passionate and committed to it as the others- that's what makes the difference. I know I've got what it takes to do the same thing- it's all a question of where to start...

For anyone thinking of moving to Auckland, just remember that rent prices up here are bordering on ridiculous, so if you want to live somewhere, you're going to be spending most of your time working to pay the rent...

sorry, long post.. I'm venting, waiting for 5:30 to hurry the *(%! up

I believe if you leave yourself "something to fall back on" (my parents, teachers, grandparents, uncles etc....advice) you will inevitably take that option. Being a musician trying to make it doesn't mean starving. You won't be driving a bmw, but you get by. I play a couple of covers gigs a week to pay my rent, playing acoustic and singing, and thats all I need to do, while my friends work their asses off in jobs they hate for a little more money. The rest of the time, I work on my songs, practice playing guitar, singing or lyrics. I am currently putting a band together, so I haven't started gigging my originals yet, but I should be doing this by March 2004. (Watch This Space)

I believe, and have always believed, that the reason an admittedly excellent band like Stardrunk are not making bigger waves is marketing. For a relatively low price, you can get t-shirt designs made up by design students or artist friends, have them screen printed and sell them to your friends and people who come to your shows (even if you only play to ten people). Use the profits to make more t shirts, and maybe do an EP (For three songs, and mastering, this would probably cost $600)

Send the EP, along with a good press kit (photos, bio) to everyone you can think who might gave a shit : Rip It Up, Nz Musician, Real Groove, Amplifier.co.nz, bands.co.nz, every university magazine in NZ, every B-net station, Channel Z, Soundcheck at the Rock, etc etc. Check out www.dunedinmusic - go to the articles section and download all the articles by Cath Andersen (these first appeared in NZ Musician mag a while ago) about touring.

After all this is said and done, save up some money from your dole, busking, gigs, selling shit, whatever, and get a few hundred bucks together to make a video. It doesn't need to be anything flash - again, find some film and tv students who like music and get them to film a couple of your gigs with two cameras at once. Get them to sync up the audio from the EP over the edited video (more or less -it doesn't need to be perfect) and there you go. This might be another $500. Send it into the appropriate person at C4, TV2, Flipside - the list goes on and on. Send it to every NZ band you can think of that are not too far away from your band in genre, with your contact details, telling them that you would love to support them when they are in your town. Be creative.

No matter how good your music is, if you aren't out in people's faces, no one knows about it. Any other ideas people have would be greatly appreciated - I'm sure I missed lots of great ones.

The Deputy makes some good points. Marketing is a huge part of the success or otherwise of any enterprise. And that is how you need to look at this if you intend to take the plunge. This will be your livelihood ... what you do to survive. Basically, depending how you structure things, you will be a business. And no business succeeds without a detailed plan ... short term, mid term and long term ... And this is where I must part company with The Deputy. Any halfway decent business plan had a very important part called the contingency plan ... what are you gonna do when something stuffs up ... hopefully you never need it but it is essential. Accept that there are gonna be times when the gigs dry up ... but hey ... there is always session work ... ads ... all sorts of other things that you can do to pay the rent and keep tucker in your belly ... but if you fail to plan you might as well plan to fail ...

I don't know how you intend to go about this but if you are serious about this I suggest that you set up a company structure .... properly done this can protect your personal assets from creditors in the event that things don't pan out. Setting up a company is quite straight forward and the basic costs are small.

I know is sounds boring, but I have seen too many people watch their dreams evaporate into thin air because they didn't have a proper laid out plan. Surround yourself with people you can trust; family are a good start. Build up your contacts ... if you are gonna do this in a business like manner you will need to find a legal advisor at some stage and an accountant perhaps ...

I'm not actually trying to put you or anybody off ... just trying to point out that it is easier to get it right at the start rather than trying to put it right after the fact.

My final thoughts on the matter ... Go for it ... you don't wanna be sitting round in 5, 10, 20, 30 years time thinking ... "Man, I could've been a star ... if only ... "

I thought that was a bit of a sad finish to an otherwise excellent thread (my sympathies Disasteradio...I too am doing a music degree, and feel your pain) so maybe we could toss around a few ideas about keeping motivated and keeping things moving along.

I am in Auckland for a bit, but not for long enough to get a band together or anything, so instead, I'm making the osngs I'm working on into midi files in Reason. The guitars sound like arse for sure, but the drums are good enough and a decent bass can be achieved with the synth. It takes a while to painstakingly put everything down this way, but once I'm done, I find it much easier to write lyrics as I listen to the song (or just a verse on loop, or a chorus). You can get the vibe of the music. It will never be as good as real musicians, but I find it opens my eyes to what is going to work and what isn't, without wasting real band practice time.