Lot’s of great (!) advice (!) here from the Worm who fronts The Finkelsteins. Here’s an extract:

Now that you’ve reinstated your position as the vulnerable, tortured artist, suggested that the band has a go at a cover song. Playing a cover is a good way to measure everyone’s musical competence, as well as pretending you’re in another band. Try covering Mean Mr Mustard’s ‘Buttercup’, or The Parlotones’ ‘Here Comes A Man’ to get you started. You could even have a good laugh by changing the words to “Here comes a clam/ Holds out his pram/ He’s looking strangely at me”. Heheh. Gets me every time.

You now officially have one song. Yes, it’s a cover. Of a cover. But it’s something!! Play it over and over, until you never ever want to hear it again. A good way to ease yourself into an original composition is to initiate a jam session, where the guitarist and bassist play the same chords over and over to a drumbeat, and you say, “Yeah, I’m totally feeling this.” Or, “Try to juxtapose the fourth quadrant with something a little more melodious.” When they tell you that they have no idea what you’re talking about, call them ‘obniferous’, and tell them that they’re just your backing band anyway. This should set the tone nicely for the terrible relationships that we spoke about earlier, which will make your band even bigger than you thought possible.

You can read the full article (?) at http://www.powerzone.co.za/scripts/power.dll?subrt=pzfndnews&news=85442

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