2-Stroke: IF YOU AREN’T BUILDING YOUR TRIBE, YOU HAVE NO CAREER AS AN ARTIST

by Nick Hardy on Dec 16^th, 2011

How do you break a band?  Every manager has an idea and their own twist to the daunting drawn out process. My opinion is that the secret relies in the tribe you unintentionally build.  Your hometown friends are the key to your success.   If they believe in your art and you all nurture the same thoughts and beliefs, when you ask them to speak loudly they will and that voice has the potential of being heard worldwide if done frequently and louder than the time before.

After spending some time with Seth Godin’s speech on “Tribes” (linked below) it seems to me the current indie bands that are constantly being mentioned in music blogs, tweeted about and having sold out shows are the ones that developed a tribe early on in their careers.  The beauty of it is that it was most likely unintentional and therefore an organic formation. I think a perfect example of this tribe mentality is Nashville’s Infinity Cat Recordings.

First you have a record label that is family owned and operated – father and sons – an inherent bond where they are able to communicate with each other in ways only family can.  I can’t help but think that, because of this, the vision of the record label is clearer and always defined.

Now look at the bands on the label.  JEFF the Brotherhood has been cultivating a “friend” base since they were 12 years old, playing every single show they could.  But that’s not the reason for their success.  JEFF played shows to be with their friends and to party.  Friendship bonds were tightened with each show played in a sweaty basement, each beer drunk and each head banged.  Soon enough this bond carried outside of Nashville as JEFF hit the road and replicated exactly what they were doing in Nashville in other cities.  New friends were made across America and the UK; another tour meant being reunited with friends in other cities. More beers were drunk, more jams were played, more antics were had and bonds were tightened.

After years of growing with their friends, old and new, JEFF’s name now covers the music blogs.  They’ve toured the US, Europe, Hawaii, Canada and Russia.  They have an upcoming U.S. tour with the Kills and their latest album has received great reviews.  Back home in Nashville, the whole underground music scene is completely behind the bands success.  Even after the news broke that JEFF and Infinity Cat would be partnering up with Warner Brothers Music to release We Are The Champions, no one called them sell-outs.  All their friends knew they deserved it and now speak louder than ever before.

As for the other bands on Infinity Cat, a lot of them are Nashville-based and each is growing the same tribe as JEFF. Most of the friends overlap thus creating an extremely tight bond and huge support for the art and the individuals.  On any given night you can catch a Nashville Infinity Cat band — or a side project of one — playing in town. It could be somewhere like the End or a last minute basement show.

Then you have the bands on the label that are not from Nashville.  Uncle Bad Touch, Hell Beach and Peach Kelli Pop all reside in Canada, hand-picked by JEFF themselves.  All were discovered from touring and each of them was building the same type of tribe as all the Infinity Cat artists – just outside of Nashville.

This is just one example and you can find success stories of bands “making it” all across the world.  Take the ones that had thousands and thousands of marketing dollars put behind them to expedite fame, take away those marketing budgets and see how long they’d be remembered. They’d be another passing fade.  The bands and labels that have slow organic growth in their tribe will have a much longer, more successful career and their names will carry on in popular music culture for decades to come.

Follow these links for more info and insight into Seth Goden’s “Tribe” concepts: