Two Questions for the big SDG

[Bassbarata]

Hey Steve,how you doin'?
I have two questions for you my friend.
First one:
When you are making bass lines,what method do you use? I mean,do you just sit there improvising a line or maybe you just follow a primary idea and work on it?

Second Question:
man,im just starting in my thrash metal band and i want an advice,i want to know if you can give me an advice about promoting my band,I'm new in this kind of stuff,im just a musician,i don't know how to handle that things


Greetings from BraSil!
P.SLEASE BRING SADUS TO RIO DE JANEIRO!
See ya.

 

[HippieOfDoom]

What's up!
The first question is not easy to answer because every bass line is unique to the part, unique to the instrumentation involved, unique to the feel of the song, etc...
For me, there is a lot of improvising with a lot of bass lines. And that is a reason sometimes that I can never replicate what was originaly recorded, and moreover also the reason why I can hardly remember bass lines that I recorded under in-and-out quick session recordings.
But obviously within the guidelines of creating bass lines, there are boundries that are clear. The notes of the melody - mostly played by a guitar part - are the road on which you drive, and the beats of the drum parts are the speed limits.
I believe the bass line is already there, it's just up to the bass player to hear it, and feel it, and interpret it their own unique way.

As far as promoting your band. I mean these days all the record companies find new bands online, music magazines, fanzines, and even the future fans of your band are all looking and listening online. Myspace has been a great tool to learn everything about a band. And lots of other places to upload your songs and direct people's attention to your band's own website.

I've been getting into my new iPod lately and have been (albiet a bit late to arrive on the new-tech scene) pretty amazed with the iTunes and the ability to purchase an album or even down to one song that you choose. No more packaging, no more physical material of a band's offering. Digital booklets, downloaded lyrics and photos accompany the songs now. I see it keeping the cost down perhaps, but also is making the roll of the record company less and less. One can easily see the trend and anticipate that printing and pressing a cd now is not as important as it was. Now we are just to create the music and make everything available digitally on the web and move on from there.

SDG

 

[gonzoguri]

Now we are just to create the music and make everything available digitally on the web and move on from there.

+1000

 

[Bassbarata]

thanks master!

 

[Travis]

I know these question were aimed at Steve, but if you don't mind a second opinion...

When it comes to promoting your band - considering every band in the world is on myspace now, the likelyhood of someone randomly finding out about and becoming a fan of your music online is pretty low, especially if you're just starting out. Personally I still see it as pretty important to get your cd's pressed and shirts made, because having these things to not only sell at your shows, but randomly give out to people at other shows (especially when bigger bands tour your area), is a much more surefire way of getting people to know about you. There's also lots of underground distributions all over the world that you can send your merch to. Plus if you're going to do the myspace thing, be willing to spend a good chunk of time adding people to your page. I know it sounds wicked lame, but once again...in this day and age, fans aren't going to simply come to you. Go on bigger band's pages that have lots of friends (this death page has like 800 something pages of friends), view their friend lists and start sending requests. One page of friends contains 40 people, so if you do like two or three pages a night, that's a decent amount of requests. 50% of the people are going to deny your requests, 40% of people are going to accept without even bothering to listen to your music, but for the 10% that might listen and actually dig it - it's probably a good idea to have your merch available on your page for order via paypal or whatever.

This might sound like pretty bleak advice, and I'm definitely no expert; I'm only going from experience - and the music scene in New York state is pretty bleak...!

 

[gonzoguri]

love your band, travis

 

[Travis]

haha, thanks dude