[00:00:00] Welcome to episode 117 of the Bandhive podcast. It is time for their episode of the Bandhive podcast. My name is James Cross and I help vans a tour smart today. I'm doing another solo episode. I'm not directly going to talk about touring, but we are going to talk about something that is extremely, extremely important to every artist, because it's something you need to understand.

And that is having an original and unique sound. I'm not saying you have to do something that no one's ever done before, but you do have to have a sound that people can attribute to you. That is one important factor in having a long lived career in music. Now, what inspired this is that every few years.

A sound that spreads like wildfire about five years ago is The Black Keys. Every DIY artist who didn't have their own sound sounded like a carbon copy of The Black Keys right now, especially in the pop punk scene, it's MGK or Machine Gun Kelly, [00:01:00] every new pop punk band who doesn't really have that confidence to go out and make their own sound.

And their own style is just taking what MGK did and doing the same thing, but not quite as. don't get me wrong. The Black Keys and MGK certainly have great music and I'm glad that their sound is popular, but a lot of artists are attempting to copy those sounds to a T without any originality. And this doesn't hold up to the original in any way.

So why would fans listen to it? For example, if somebody can listen to MGK who they like or a band that sounds like MGK, but isn't quite as. They're going to listen to MGK. There's no question there that there's just, there's no sense in that. However, if it's between MGK, who they like and another band who they also like, maybe they're not quite as good, but it's a different sound.

And then the only band who has that exact sound, then that fan might say, well, sometimes I'm going to listen to this band instead of MGK because they're different. And I like that their sound is [00:02:00] different.

Now that's just one reason. we're going to go into depth about why you shouldn't just be a cookie cutter copy have another artist. But before we do, I can see the logic here. People say, well, this is popular. So I'm going to do the same thing and I will be. The problem with that is that it's not only the sound that makes that artist popular.

It's also the songwriting and the production and their branding and marketing all of those tie together to form a cohesive whole. If that is not just the right combination, the band won't make it. There are so many factors that go into this. And I just want to say that most of the time, when I come across an artist who is creating a poor carbon copy of an established act, they fall short either in the song writing or production, or sometimes both as well as the marketing aspect.

regardless of songwriting production, where MGK probably has a team of songwriters working with him, I haven't [00:03:00] looked into it, but I would assume that he has a team of songwriters. He definitely has a team of producers and people he's working with who are amazing engineers and can help him record and producers who tweak the arrangement, just write and do all of the stuff that MGK can do because he has that budget.

It's still up to DIY artists to do the best that they can. and by trying to copy one of the biggest artists out there on a shoestring budget that doesn't work, you need to make music that you can create and still have it sound amazing. And copying the biggest sounds out there.

Typically isn't the way to do it. As far as songwriting goes, you know, you don't have a team that's right. But you can practice. You can become a better songwriter. Just two weeks ago, we talked with Connor frost on episode 115 about songwriting and the roadblocks that songwriters face. So if you want to go check that out, just go to Bandhive dot Rox slash 1, 1 5, and you can listen to that episode that all said the biggest issue is that these artists assume that [00:04:00] replicating this popular sound is their marketing plan. And they're not going to have to do anything else because after all, if MGK or The Black Keys did it and it's popular, why won't mine be popular?

And again, the answer is you need to have the perfect combination of songwriting production and ultimately your branding and marketing. And that includes your personality, how you interact with fans, how long you've been out there. There are so many times that an artist puts out something unique and new, and it's a new sound and everyone loves it.

And just to sort of guards that, that band has been working towards this for 10 to 15 years, building up their sound over time. They didn't just say, Hey, this is us. This is our totally brand new sound. We've never done anything before. No they've been working towards that, their entire careers.

Now let's say that even if you did start to gain traction with a style that you copied from somebody else, it wouldn't get very far because eventually people are going to just say, Hey, why don't I listen to the original art? Why should I listen to a rip off? Like I was saying earlier, if [00:05:00] the original artist is any better, even if it's just like 1%, they're going to listen to the original artist over you because they know that artists did at first.

And that's why they liked that sound. So have that original sound for yourself and you will be in a position of power,

but, so what do you do if you truly love the style? A band like MGK, or I should say an act like MGK or The Black Keys. You can take inspiration from it. There is nothing wrong with. Say, yeah, I like this. I enjoy this. I'm not going to copy it, but I'm going to let it influence the music that I make. Put your own twist on that sound and create your own original music.

That's similar, but not identical to the original artist who inspired you. All music has influences without influences. We wouldn't become musicians. You know, I don't know a single artist who said I'm going to become a musician because I hate music. People say, oh, I love this album. I want to learn how to play it.

And then they learn how to [00:06:00] play that album. And guess what? Then they say, oh, I love this other album. I'm going to learn how to play that. That was really cool. Well, now what if I tried writing my own stuff and that is the progression of becoming a musician is something inspires you to pick up that instrument.

And from there you start creating music of your own. There's a vast difference between being. By an artist and creating a poor copy of that artist's work. So by creating your own sound, based on what inspires you, you have a chance to be that next black keys or MGK. And if you just copy their sound or anyone else's sound, you're not going to have that chance.

You're not standing out. And the market is so crowded, especially with the MGK sound. I've heard hundreds of bands who sound exactly like cheap MGK. Rip-offs they are not unique. I can't tell them apart. And no one is going to listen to those artists, at least on a large scale.

But you know what, if you create an original sound, like I've said a few times over. And you go [00:07:00] out there and you express yourself in a genuine manner. You're more likely to grow a dedicated fan base with unique music than when you're just trying to fit in to a mainstream mold. Now think about this, even at the biggest levels, pop stars like Justin Bieber, Billie Eilish, and yes, even K-pop stars BTS.

They started out with something unique going on. They didn't try to rip off other pop stars. They made their music, their music now obviously pop all kinds of blends together that happens. And now Justin Bieber stuff doesn't really stand out from the crowd. But when he first started, yeah, that stood out.

Now that he's established, he doesn't have to worry about that so much. You know, I haven't listened to anything recent from Billie Eilish. I probably shouldn't admit that, but her first couple of albums and her first single is an EPS and all that stuff. The first thing she put out Nobody had ever heard that kind of sound on a major level. Now maybe some DIY artists were doing sounds like that. I don't know. But as far as the [00:08:00] mainstream market was concerned, this was a new style of pop that Billy and her team revolutionized props to them. And yeah, again, BTS did that as well. Now they're more of generic pop group and they're just trying to keep up with what's.

But when they got their foot in the door, they did. So by being original and unique, and that is what you need to do as well. If in 10 or 15 years, you're established and you have a large fan base and you want to say, you know what, we're just going to do what everyone else is doing. That's fine at that point.

But when you are getting started, you need to be original. So please. When you're creating music, don't go out there and try to copy established artists. Instead, don't make amazing music that comes from the heart.

that does it for this episode of the Bandhive podcast. Thank you so much for tuning in listening. I really appreciate it. And I hope that this episode was insightful to you. I know a lot of you already have a sound for your band and that's great. Please keep doing that. But next time you sit [00:09:00] down to write a song, keep this in mind because it's not only the times that you sit down and start a new band that you have to consciously create.

Copying somebody else. It's also, when you are sitting down to write a single song, you have to remind yourself, Hey, this is who we are and I'm going to write what comes to me naturally. Now, if that means taking influences by these major acts, that's absolutely fine. Please do that. But at every step along the way, check yourself and say, Hey, does this sound too similar to someone else?

I hope you'll take this advice to heart. And I also welcome you to join our Facebook community. You can search for it on Facebook by searching for Bandhive, or you can go to Bandhive.rocks/group to automatically be redirected into our group. I look forward to seeing you there. And of course, we'll be back with another new episode next Tuesday at 6:00 AM in your favorite podcasting app until then I hope you have a great week stay safe. And of course, as always keep rockin'