-We all know it’s tough to be in the music business. Sometimes you can’t get people together just to jam let alone form a unit. And what if you’ve been in your scene for a long time, gone thru most of the players there, and can’t get into a band for whatever reason? What do you do? Many people just sit on their butts & just complain-turning bitter in the process. Many others quit. But there is another way. While you can-and should-keep working on improving your skills, you can also be a 1 person band-so to speak.

-What does that mean? Basically, you know how to play more than 1 instrument-and not just enough to get by either. This is the 1st step in not being chained to the notion that you have to have a unit of different people to be a band. There are many examples of 1 person bands. Nine Inch Nails is one of the most famous examples. Lenny Kravitz plays all the instruments when he records new CDs (save for some guests he invites-but he basically does it all himself), and there are more…

-Now, before I go any further-yes, there are limitations to this. The most obvious one is live performance. Unless you are doing a solo acoustic guitar act, it is hard to perform as just 1 person. Not impossible though-there are people out there who are doing it. Just Google it to find out. But my main point with all this is that you don’t have to sit around waiting to be in a unit again before doing something productive.

-Case in point:CAROLINE BLUE-my band-has had only 1 permanent member since April 2010-and that’s me. If other people are needed for live performance, I enlist from the pool of musicians that I know. While not as busy as a full band would/should be, CB has released new music & videos since 4/2010. And I still promote the band too-exposing new people to the music I even manage-from time to time-to get CB into the movie projects I’m involved in. When it comes to recording, my close friend Mike Merrifield (Joey Belladonna Solo Band) usually records the drums. I do the rest. I might also bring in some guest musicians for stuff like backing vocals but it’s mainly me.Videos I either use musicians or sometimes even actors that I know. Sometimes I don’t even need to show a “band” in them at all-such as in our video “Stay” (Paid The Electric Bill Mix). I’m not saying all this to brag about what I do, but to prove the point that just cause you can’t find a band to be in doesn’t mean that you can’t still be productive in some way. While it’s great to be able to just focus on one instrument & have a steady band-things change. It’s better to be prepared for those changes then to be caught blind sided (like I was years ago) when you find yourself without a band.

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