On Press Kits
Classy guys need no introduction!
A dude from a local band recently asked me what should go into a press kit. I spent a bit of time answering, so I thought I'd share. If you're not a musician, you'll probably find this boring.
I like press kits that consist of nothing more than a finished CD and a one-sheet folded around it, stuffed into a small, padded envelope. I've just found that the best stuff comes that way. Don't use a folder -- only crappy losers trying to look professional (and a few major-label releases) use folders. Trying to look “fancy” or "professional" when you don't have the means is a sign of amateurism. I’m talking handmade CD case art: decals stuck onto plastic instead of a real case with real inserts, that kind of thing. I'm not hating on the notion of the DIY band; it's just that most DIY-level bands, statistically speaking, are forced to be that way because they aren't good, or so the media think.
I'm more likely to pay attention to something that comes through a respectable publicity house or label (only when it comes to nonlocal bands, of course). If you don't have that, then I think you should at least have a CD that looks like a CD and not a dolled-up CDR in a makeshift case. Even a simple professionally printed CD sleeve works.
A couple of local bands that didn’t have any of that have done cool things with press kits, though. Drakkar Sauna and the Legendary Terrordactyls have both sent, along with cheaply made CDs, artwork that’s cool enough to hang on the wall. In both cases, they sent several cool-looking prints with harmonious artwork on them as well as info. I guess they were kind of like gig posters, now that I think of it. Gig posters are always cool.
Or you could go for the unusual and memorable -- say, wrapping your CD in pages from a '70s Playboy magazine. I’ve never seen anyone do that. With gimmicks like that, you risk pissing people off, but it’s a way to get noticed.
For the one-sheet, reamember that music editors hardly ever read them unless they’ve already made up their mind to cover the band and need info. I wish more one-sheets would just begin with the sentence “(band name) is a (genre) band from (city).” (And then tell where and when the band is playing, if that’s the reason for sending the kit.) The worst are the pages that start with a bunch of attempted high-fallutin’ artistic bullshit. “Picture a rainy meadow” … or whatever. Once you get the pertinent facts out of the way, tell the band’s story and talk about things that regular people (not just musicians) would find interesting. The one-sheet is like a bio-slash-resume. Press blurbs are good, but not from sources that are too obscure. I also like it when bands have one or two quotes from random people who hate them: “This is probably the stupidest band I’ve ever seen.” John, Peoria, IL
As far as lead time for advancing a show, three to four weeks is good for a weekly.
Any other questions?
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