Started my first band with some homemade lighting gels. Clear sheets of plastic colored with sharpies, taped over some desk lamps. The money wasn’t great, the music was non-existent, but we had a band.
Shortly after that we made a kick drum out of a plastic barrel and a snare from an ice cream pail. Getting some rhythm together. Not making any money, but our drum set was free.
Next we got lucky and scored an acoustic from the lost and found and then I washed dishes just long enough to buy the cheapest bass guitar from the local music shop. Still no money but at least everyone in the band now had something to play.
A few instrument upgrades later we played the talent show. There was an entry fee, and arguments about which song we should play in order to win. We lost.
Then we played a battle of the bands. That costed us money too but at least we got to play five songs instead of one. Still lost.
That first band went on to the heights of playing the Chili Cook Off, two different county fairs, a few school dances, throwing a New Year’s Eve party, and a few more middling finishes at battle of the bands.
But we were a band. And that’s what we wanted to be.
It turns out the main thing you need to have a band is people who want to be in a band.
