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[pg666]

i'd like to know if anyone here gets hired to play on other peoples' records (or for live shows even). i've been payed (not much) to play on a few friends' records, but other than that i have no idea how one gets into this line of work.

i'd be curious to hear experiences of how you started, how you advertise, what your workload is like, etc. pretty much whatever you'd like to add is welcome. thanks!

[j.hall]

i work with a session guitar player that does a lot of writing, arranging and singing for hire.

let me see if he'll swing by here and give you some thoughts.

[compasspnt]

Where do you live?

What do you play?

What is your experience?

What is your rig?



And most importantly, who do you know?

[The Octopus]

Hi.

I play for some pop artists and on a handful of jazz records.

I hate this answer, but it really is being in the right place at the right time.

I've been working in and around studios for quite a while so I was in the environment already. For the pop stuff, a friend of mine is the bassist for everything on this one particular label. When they needed a drummer, he called me and that was about it.

My only advice is to be extremely flexible, learn things quickly, and don't make stuff up about yourself. As retarded as that sounds, one thing that gets players in trouble a lot is giving the impression that you are something you are not to insure your place on the record.


Jeremy

[pg666]

Quote:

And most importantly, who do you know?

yeah, this is the tricky part. in my world, bands are self-contained and don't really need (or want to pay for) studio players. i guess there's always the craigslist/myspace route for getting the word out, although that opens the window for flakey people.

[j.hall]

take a deposit if you think they will flake out.

there is a drummer here in KC that has a modest studio setup in his basement with a good sounding kit mic'd up and ready to go.  he makes his living playing drums in his basement.

[The Octopus]

j.hall wrote on Fri, 13 July 2007 16:22

take a deposit if you think they will flake out. there is a drummer here in KC that has a modest studio setup in his basement with a good sounding kit mic'd up and ready to go.  he makes his living playing drums in his basement.

I know a couple people who do this.

As an engineer, I enjoy going to different studios and seeing other engineers set everything up and hearing their rooms, etc.

usually, session work cascades - once you've played for someone, it puts you in a place where people looking for players hear you and find you.


Jeremy

[Greg Dixon]

That's right. The hardest part is getting your foot in the door in the first place. All the session guys I know and work with regularly, started because they knew people who were recording and were asked to play. It grew from there. They also get asked to recommend other players. So who you know really is the key to getting a start.

I quite often get people asking to be considered for session work. I've even had guys offer to work for free or give me a percentage of their fee to get their start. The catch is always that I won't recommend or suggest someone, until you know how good they are and equally or more importantly, what they're like to work with.

[J-Texas]

There are just a handful of guys that we use here in town (Dallas). I'm sure that there are other cats to use, but I don't know 'em. I've actually asked a client to wait a couple of weeks until this one drummer got off tour with a country act.

Let me add this. It's who you know? Yes. There are only a limited amount of places to work in a city. We have an 'A' guy and a 'B' guy. A goto man. There's usually no need to go further than that because that's what these guys do for a living. They're usually the best in town at it... or make you feel that they are. These people are pro. Cartage people set up for them and break down. They come in and play and then they leave. Nothing less than professional and proficient at their instrument. Time is money.

[j.hall]

my two friends here have a pretty unique setup.  at least for this area of the world.

they both have studios in their houses setup specifically for what they do.  one guy's room is just a drum room.  his kit there is setup and mic'd all the time.  he's got enough drum heads to be a dealer.  he has two or three other kits that move around town for his live gigs, or other studio work.  but for the most part, he gets tracks sent to him, he plays on them by himself and sends them back.

the guitar player has the same setup but more geared for guitar work.  he also does a lot of arranging and singing, so he's got a lot of keyboards and such.

these guys do a lot of work out of their homes, but also do a lot of moving around.

the guitar player said he would register an account and chat about his business and how he got into it.

[pg666]

Quote:

the guitar player said he would register an account and chat about his business and how he got into it.

great!

the home studio thing is a neat idea, but i'm not sure i could pull it off in Chicago. there's no shortage of affordable studios to cut drums here though.

[J-Texas]

pg666 wrote on Sat, 14 July 2007 18:01

... i'm not sure i could pull it off in Chicago. there's no shortage of affordable studios to cut drums here though.

Man if you had a rig like these guys that J. is talking about... and you're good enough... between the net and ISDN, you could cut tracks for people in other countries, much less other cities and states. The goto guy for people everywhere! Now that's making a living the easy way.  

[compasspnt]

Sorta like Branson.

[j.hall]

J-Texas wrote on Sat, 14 July 2007 22:20

pg666 wrote on Sat, 14 July 2007 18:01 ... i'm not sure i could pull it off in Chicago. there's no shortage of affordable studios to cut drums here though. Man if you had a rig like these guys that J. is talking about... and you're good enough... between the net and ISDN, you could cut tracks for people in other countries, much less other cities and states. The goto guy for people everywhere! Now that's making a living the easy way.

i'm pretty sure that's the entire motivation behind my two friends' studios.  the more people they met and further their contacts got, they needed to cut tracks for out of town clients that were not going to attend the session.

a wireless mouse and keyboard works well behind a drum kit or next to a guitar amp.

[BigMetal]

j.hall wrote on Sun, 15 July 2007 17:14

a wireless mouse and keyboard works well behind a drum kit or next to a guitar amp.

i feel incredibly stupid for not thinking of this before... recording my own drums is always such a comedic adventure (hit spacebar, run to kit, get headphones on, and hope i don't knock anything over in the process before the scratch track starts). then if you botch a take the whole process starts again.

j., your wisdom knows no bounds.