Hi. So.... what do i do???!!! I need to play drums for Led Zep or some huge arena rock band. I need help. Please help me. I am not John Bonham's son, therefore I have a disadvantage. Thanks, Jake



Dear Jake,



There are a few different ways to go about this. Think of Judas
Priest and Ripper Owens, who took over when Rob Halford left to form
Fight. Owens was in a J.Priest tribute band and tried out for the
part. On the other hand, there is the Iron Maiden route. Get a
really tight band together and send your demo out to different bands
until one of them picks you up to open for them on tour. If you are
as good or better than the headlining band, you are pretty sure to
succeed.



There are some other methods of fame out there. David Grohl seems
like a good example of rising from the bottom. He plays huge bands
now but started out playing for Scream, a pretty unknown band. But he
made some good connections and opened his mind to different things,
and Nirvana was formed. He wasn't the spectacle of that band, but the
band as a whole caught a very big wave that pushed Grohl to the top,
and when Nirvana was over, Grohl was in a place to become pretty
infamous with whatever next project he started, so long as he played
his cards right.



Do you have a band already? Do you have a manager? A demo? It seems
that the mistake that a lot of smaller rock bands make is that they
come out with a demo too soon, so people hear them before they are
ripe. Many of the best bands in history have waited. If you wait
until what you are producing is really, really, good and tight, then
when you send it out to radio stations and distributors, you will get
better feedback and a bigger turnout.



It seems, also, that speed helps. I am not sure why, I think it is
the crazy sparkle it puts on your eye that makes the girls go wild.
Think of the Beatles. They were on all kinds of uppers when they
played the pubs and clubs in England when they were starting out, and
that wild head bopping and grinning, set behind the innocence of their
young faces, really drove fans mad. As a drummer, you have the most
potential to just sit back, but you will need an incredibly
charismatic frontman or frontwoman to rise the band up.



As far as starting from the bottom and immediately joining a larger
band, you should probably refer to the first suggestion of really
learning someone else's tone and quality, memorizing their every move,
and then replacing that person when the time is right. As a drummer,
though, you should probably first become satisfied with playing music
for the love of music, and creating really innovative beats and a new
fresh sound, and from there, there will be long-term success that will
bring you up to fame over the years. Good luck and keep practicing!



-CM