Sic Semper Tyrannis

On Forming a High School Band

I was never in a high school garage band. The guys that were in bands in high school kind of scared me. They didn’t do well in school and didn’t seem to care about what they looked like. Most of all, I think they drank and went to parties.

So, I can’t speak authoritatively about the aesthetic concerns when forming a band when I was in high school. But I have been kind of amused when I talk to high school age people today about their bands. It seems that all artistic decisions when you’re that age come down to one important choice: does the lead vocalist sing or scream?

Like I said, I don’t know if that was the case when I was in high school over ten years ago. Today, a lot of your choices are made for you when forming a high school band: you will play some sort of hybrid between punk or emo, the balance in either direction being how you identify your “sound,” and you will play with distorted guitar sounds at all times. Clean guitar is for wusses and Coldplay.

posted by Mike @ 12:32 PM