Members strangewings Posted August 8, 2014 Members Share Posted August 8, 2014 I am new the forum. I am a budding vocalist/composer who writes, records and engineers all of my own music. I have completed my first album and am ready to start performing it. Although I do plan to hire players after recently moving to LA, I know this will take some time and I want to begin performing now. I have really good stage presence, I am fearless and I can cover the whole thing alone, I connect with the audience well and make eye contact well. I have a solid marketable look. I don't care to play guitar or piano when I perform, though I might a little during solos and such, I'd rather focus on vocal performance as I have carpel tunnel and experience a lot of pain when I play fully on more than 2 songs at a time. My question is, how well will this go off in LA? I have seen vocalists perform to backing tracks here, but their music was a bit lighter than my style. I play a fusion of hard rock/progressive metal with a touch of melodic power metal influence. I am a female. I'm kind of like Evanescence but with heavier guitar, orchestration, and less dark/emotional sounding than Amy, a bit like a female Geoff Tate. A few years ago I played 3 of my songs solo when I was invited to open for a friends band and it went over well. Thing is I knew a lot of the audience at this small venue in my home town in the Midwest, and now I'm definitely not in Kansas anymore, so I'm unsure if it will work in LA. Have you seen or been a solo rock/hard rock/metal vocalists performing to backing tracks in this capacity? If so can you please share your experience and thoughts? And tell me also please, should I throw caution to the wind and set up a gig at a small club and try it and see how I am received? If so, any words of caution/wisdom? Thanks for reading and your comments \m/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moderators daddymack Posted August 8, 2014 Moderators Share Posted August 8, 2014 There are tons of 'karaoke singers' working in this town. But for original material [that no one has heard before], and just singing to trax...I'm not sure where you would find a venue open to that method. Add to that the limited number of hard rock venues, I think you need to put your band together or expand your repertoire. Then again, LA is huge, and there may be some venues that will book you in for tips or p2p. We had a forumite, 8string, who was doing some metal and hard rock covers with tracks, but I think we lost him in the last changeover...he was very eclectic, though and not limiting himself to any one genre, as well as playing topnotch 8 string guitar and an outstanding vocal...sadly, I never did get to go see him live, but I did catch a few podcasts. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members STM86 Posted August 8, 2014 Members Share Posted August 8, 2014 The changeovers have not been kind. Even one instrument live would be enough where I think I'd say to go for it. Like Daddymack said, LA could be a different beast with opportunities that don't exist here in my pocket of the Midwest. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Shaster Posted August 8, 2014 Members Share Posted August 8, 2014 I would advise against doing a karaoke singer thing, unless that's where you want to stay, or unless you've already got a band, and just want to have a few more opportunities to play. If you plan on getting a band together than just do it. It's not like there's any money in original music (at first anyway), so assuming your material is decent, you should be able to find like minded people that will understand that the music comes before money. If you can't or don't want to get a band together, at least consider a duo instead of solo. That would help make it somewhat semi legit. It would be a shame to be known as just "that guy that sings to tracks" - especially if you want to take it to the next level at some point. My two cents... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moderators daddymack Posted August 9, 2014 Moderators Share Posted August 9, 2014 It would be a shame to be known as just "that guy that sings to tracks" - especially if you want to take it to the next level at some point. My two cents... That would be 'that lady that sings to tracks...' There are a limited number of metal oriented venues. That will definitely inform your decisions on how to proceed. A big issue is where in LA you are going to be, because this place is so spread out. As a solo, I have limited my acceptable geographic area intentionally. My band, on the other hand will play from Santa Barbara, San Diego, Kern, Riverside, San Bernadino Counties...if the money's worth it, we'll haul to Vegas or Laughlin, Nevada. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members STM86 Posted August 11, 2014 Members Share Posted August 11, 2014 From personal experience, it's really difficult to get anywhere performing hard rock/heavy metal vocals with a full (and really good) band. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Vito Corleone Posted August 11, 2014 Members Share Posted August 11, 2014 From personal experience, it's really difficult to get anywhere performing hard rock/heavy metal vocals with a full (and really good) band. It's a dated genre, that's for sure. Not that there aren't small niche markets to be found playing most anything if you work hard enough and look hard enough, but "heavy metal vocals" pretty much went out of fashion a couple of decades ago. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moderators daddymack Posted August 11, 2014 Moderators Share Posted August 11, 2014 well, the whole 'cookie monster' thing is long past dead, yes, thankfully ...but someone who could do a Dio style or Steve Perry-ish, eve nSteve Tyler... will be fine. For a female vocalist, this is going to be a very strange course, since the bulk of heavy metal/hard rock fans are 15-17 year old boys still confused about their sexuality Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Bob Dey Posted August 11, 2014 Members Share Posted August 11, 2014 I'm thinking, change your format for the solo gigs, and play an instrument along with the tracks, even if you're not doing much. I remember a guy/girl duo where the girl had a pad patch on her synth and just held down the chords. It worked out well. It might be better (time wise) to concentrate on getting the right musicians together. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Stephen Quinn Posted August 12, 2014 Members Share Posted August 12, 2014 I've seen videos of Instrumental guitar virtuosos playing at events using backing tracks, so its not exactly unheard of. It doesn't have the same dynamics as playing with a full band but it is a possibility. Its a matter of opinion but I feel it is better than letting a lack of a band slow down your progress. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members STM86 Posted August 12, 2014 Members Share Posted August 12, 2014 well, the whole 'cookie monster' thing is long past dead, yes, thankfully ...but someone who could do a Dio style or Steve Perry-ish, eve nSteve Tyler... will be fine. For a female vocalist, this is going to be a very strange course, since the bulk of heavy metal/hard rock fans are 15-17 year old boys still confused about their sexuality There's still plenty of cookie monster vocals, just that the pioneers have pretty much all ditched them. There's still some really phenomenal bands doing it though. Insomnium and Swallow the Sun come to mind. A step into Hot Topic will reveal that genres ending in"Core" are still obnoxiously alive and well. Rock & Roll, as we know it, is essentially dead. There's just seemingly nowhere left for it to go, you know? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Vito Corleone Posted August 12, 2014 Members Share Posted August 12, 2014 There's still plenty of cookie monster vocals, just that the pioneers have pretty much all ditched them. There's still some really phenomenal bands doing it though. Insomnium and Swallow the Sun come to mind. A step into Hot Topic will reveal that genres ending in"Core" are still obnoxiously alive and well. It's a very small niche though. Even the newer "phenomenal" bands are all from Europe and have been at it for years. It's not exactly a fresh sound that is going to have much cache with the LA crowd. Especially as a solo/duo thing I wouldn't think. But who knows. Maybe that's the fresh take the genre needs?? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members STM86 Posted August 12, 2014 Members Share Posted August 12, 2014 It's a very small niche though. Even the newer "phenomenal" bands are all from Europe and have been at it for years. It's not exactly a fresh sound that is going to have much cache with the LA crowd. Especially as a solo/duo thing I wouldn't think. But who knows. Maybe that's the fresh take the genre needs?? Oh yeah, you're right. That was just a tangent about cookie monster vocals in general. I don't think death metal ever hasn't been a niche thing. The metalcore thing though is a niche that sells, albeit to an extremely limited demographic. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moderators daddymack Posted August 13, 2014 Moderators Share Posted August 13, 2014 A step into Hot Topic... Which I have not had to do since my youngest got her BS degree, thanks... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moderators daddymack Posted August 13, 2014 Moderators Share Posted August 13, 2014 I've seen videos of Instrumental guitar virtuosos playing at events using backing tracks, so its not exactly unheard of. It doesn't have the same dynamics as playing with a full band but it is a possibility. Its a matter of opinion but I feel it is better than letting a lack of a band slow down your progress. But as a vocalist, it comes off as karaoke, even if it is original music. I agree if she played keys or guitar on at least some of the originals, it would come across much better. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members pogo97 Posted August 13, 2014 Members Share Posted August 13, 2014 What about a conga or something? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members STM86 Posted August 13, 2014 Members Share Posted August 13, 2014 Which I have not had to do since my youngest got her BS degree, thanks... But some day you'll get a gift card and scour the clearance rack for wrestling tees. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moderators daddymack Posted August 14, 2014 Moderators Share Posted August 14, 2014 But some day you'll get a gift card and scour the clearance rack for wrestling tees. yeah, like, not... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.