Changing my bands name, bad/good idea?

T

The Crystal King

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I'm considering changing the name of my band. We released a demo a few years ago as Dark Crystal (my forum name is based on a character from one of the stories around the songs), but I'm afraid of difficulties down the line in using that name. As well as the fact that a lot of people using the net to search for us will come across the film, etc.

There is also the fact that everyone who hears about the band asks me about the movie, and wonders did I name the band after it, and why we used it, and so on hehe... the truth is, at the time I had forgotten the movie (obviously it was still in the subconscious from my childhood).

It would be nice to have a name that hasn't been used before and doesn't have any direct connotations. We are thinking of changing the name to Karuna..

any opinions on band name changing in general, or is it best to stick with the original name?

The style of music is Heavy/power Metal with some progressive elements. Similar to Iron Maiden, Priest, King Diamond, Magnum, Firewind, Gamma Ray, Threshold, Freedom Call.
 
depends on how long your playing with that name and how much success you had. take hatesphere for example. except for their guitar player Pepe, everyone else from the original line up left. They still have the same name.
 
It's all in the PR. It's easier to do when you don't have much exposure yet. But then again, once you have enough fans, the word will spread better. I've renamed my band twice, but it's still quite a small one. The original name was quickly changed when we found out (after getting internet access) that there are tens of bands with the same name, and once again 5 years later after there were big changes in the band: slightly different style and the other founding member left.
 
Thanks for the advice guys.

Yeah, we don't really have much recognition, other than getting to 2nd place in the mp3.com power metal chart in 2003 (after promoting the demo on tons of websites!)... that's our only claim to fame!

I think we will mention on the site that the band is "formerly Dark Crystal" and will include the old demo in our discography, so people who might have downloaded the old demo years ago can make the connection.

I think the name Karuna has a nice sound to it, so I'm 95% sure I will go with it unless the other guys object...

But I have done everything in the band from the start, so I guess it's up to me.
 
maybe there's a character or word from the Dark Crystal that is a little more subtle? Kinda like how Atreyu went with their name instead of The Never Ending Story, but making the mistake of not using the mighty Rock Biter instead of that annoying kid on the horse.
 
I really like Karuna, and Dark Crystal reeks of cheese to me, so I 100% support it for that reason alone!
 
I've mulled over this same idea...

My band is River Runs Red. I named it after seeing the ending of a movie called "All The Kings Men" with Sean Penn (watch it if you havn't, maybe you'll get what I'm talking about). I knew before I even mentioned the name to the rest of the band that I would get people bugging me about a Life Of Agony reference, and it still happens. Now that we kicked our bassist & drummer out, people from within our circle of acquaintance bug us about changing the name since it's going to be a new band. We've thought of it, but one mainstay is that those two weren't a mainstay in the band and in the end it should be decided by me and our other guitarist, since we are the heart and soul of the band anyway.

On this same subject, you can always go anti-theme towards what is known/expected. In our case, we will focus on NOT having anything to do with rivers and will eventually slim down on the use of the color red...as well as not referencing anything to Life Of Agony. You could not do anything synonymous with anything Dark, crystals, or the movie/books/etc. Just a thought...
 
i personally think both of those names are lame. come on. you can do better! oh and don't even try pulling "oh you don't like the name cause its not br00tal enough etc. etc." i just think its kind of bland. but if it came down to the end karuna is good enough
 
an objective way to approach it is look at is as a business decision, which it truly is. do a pro's and con's (which you've already started) and make sure its more than just a whimsical, i dont like it, lets try something else. because in the end, it has its con's.

Becuase youre not so big yet, i would say now more than ever is the time to do it. the con's being the cost of doing this (domain name changes, website and logo redesign, rebranding yourself online and to all your fans, etc).

I think you have the right idea of using short tagline temporarily (formerly...) because it will help the transition (think "Cingular is now AT&T" and all that jazz). But i think that should be temporary and down the road you should drop it to complete the transition. for the long term attachment, i would put the former band name in your bio, enabling new fans to explore your origins and more imptly, your early discography.

but the point is... ifyou have good reasons to change, the sooner the better. good luck :headbang:
 
I think that you will always come across issues because of the film connection..........so change it. The Google thing would bug the hell out of me. I don't like Karuna, sounds like a Car or Mountain bike. The Ford Karuna, the Kona Karuna etc. Karuna sounds like a product not a creative entity. JMHO though.
 
jrt12 said:
an objective way to approach it is look at is as a business decision, which it truly is. do a pro's and con's (which you've already started) and make sure its more than just a whimsical, i dont like it, lets try something else. because in the end, it has its con's.

Becuase youre not so big yet, i would say now more than ever is the time to do it. the con's being the cost of doing this (domain name changes, website and logo redesign, rebranding yourself online and to all your fans, etc).

I think you have the right idea of using short tagline temporarily (formerly...) because it will help the transition (think "Cingular is now AT&T" and all that jazz). But i think that should be temporary and down the road you should drop it to complete the transition. for the long term attachment, i would put the former band name in your bio, enabling new fans to explore your origins and more imptly, your early discography.

but the point is... ifyou have good reasons to change, the sooner the better. good luck :headbang:
Click to expand...

Thats pretty much what i said here:

AudioPhile777 said:
DOOOO it!
Click to expand...

:lol:
 
Thanks for all the opinions, some very interesting responses there...

Yeah metaltastic, I hear ya.. we don't want to be seen as another cheesy metal band! There are lots of them about, and imo our music is quite original so we don't want to be labelled as a cheesy band along with dragonforce, hammerfall, etc.

As for sticking with the DC theme.. how about the name ScrollKeeper ? :lol: Or Gelfling . 100% cheese!

I take the point about product vs. creative entity. Still, it's hard to get away from that no matter what name you choose, unless your name has a direct connotation, or is an object or a thing. I mean, any non-associated word could be a car name right?

Most people like the ring of Karuna though, and it beats Dark Crystal or ScrollKeeper (only a matter of time before someone uses that!) :D
 
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