2. Hire Members to Play This is not as common, since it involves a significant financial investment, but it can work for the right kind of project. Maybe a band-starter can't find people to play the type of music he or she wants to, or is a huge asshole with piles of cash to spend and an ego that requires calling all the shots.
Those types of hopeful bandleaders can simply hire a bunch of musicians to play the material they want them to. This method ensures the best musicians the person can afford, people who will consider it a job and check their own egos at the door. The downside is unless their music is truly amazing, people may eventually start to question why these people had to pay to get people to play with them.
If their ego is at a proper David Lee Roth level of inflation, these criticisms probably won't matter, so maybe it's a moot point.
1. Poach Someone From Another Band This is a surprisingly common approach. It involves going to see other bands play, and when a player appears that the poacher wants, he or she tries to convince the quarry to jump ship. I've had this strategy tried on me several times over the years, and seen it done many times. I guess it just depends on how comfortable you are with being completely cutthroat -- and whether or not making enemies in the local music scene is important to you.
Of course, any bandmate who dumped his or her old band to join another might be just as mercenary when another poacher comes sniffing around. Like most things in life, there are cooler ways of of doing this than others. It's hard to fault someone for extending the offer if that member has become a friend and is already unhappy in the band he or she is in. But walking up to a stranger the moment after he or she leaves the stage and asking them to jump ship for an awesome new Clown Sex Metal band in the works might not come off very well.
If any of these strategies pan out, a newly minted band will undoubtedly move up the local scene's ladder in no time, and that drummer might even be able to trade in his minivan home for sweeter lodgings in the storage closet of his new band's practice room. A word of warning, though: that guy sometimes pees himself when he's drunk, and the carpet in there already smells horrible.
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