Should Bands Have a Leader?

One of the big decisions bands should make early on is who’s the artistic visionary?

Will everybody have an equal say or one will one person be the creative force driving the music?

It’s a safer bet to let one bandmate lead.

But only if the leader knows, without a doubt, when they like something or not. They have to have be confident in their taste. Because how their taste will determine how their band’s sound.

You don’t need to play an instrument to have good taste. You don’t even need to be in a band to lead it, but that’s a story for another day. 

Groups benefit from having a leader. Without a leader, the band’s music is likely to come off as a muddled mess of competing ideas.

That’s why I encourage bands to pick someone and let them lead. 

A good leader will listen to ideas from other bandmates. Good bandmates will trust their leader.

The logical next question is who should the leader be? Assuming the band has a singer…

It’s a safer bet to let the singer lead.

The singer gets more people looking at them and listening to them than any other member of the band. Their vibe has massive repercussions so you want to make sure they’re comfortable.

They have to believe in what they’re singing or everyone will feel their hesitance. And that hesitance will create a negative feedback loop for everyone involved. 

The singer is nothing without the band, but the band is there to support the singer.

If your band doesn’t have a leader, you will constantly be compromising.

Nothing is more beautiful than multiple people’s visions blending together to create something greater than the sum of its parts, but most of the time, that doesn’t happen. Most of the time, compromises result in no one being completely satisfied.

Take the U.S. for example. It’s the result of a compromise between yeoman aristrocrats who wanted to live in Catan and neoliberal aristocrats who wanted to compete in the international money system. They settled on something in between and after they all died, half the country immediately starting killing the other half. And 150 years later, we’re led by Drumpf. 

Compromises aren’t as inspiring or effective as we make them out to be. 

They might feel right in the moment, (it’s always easier to agree to disagree), but that’s just kicking the can down the road. 

If someone in your band has a vision, let them fulfill it.

Every bandmate’s opinion matters

Even with one visionary, everyone in the band has an important role. 

Maybe it’s interpreting the leader’s vision and putting their own spin on a part or maybe it’s generating ideas for the visionary to work with.

The goal is for every member to matter and for it to not to matter how big or small each member’s contribution seems. 

I was in a band for 4 years in a former life

Shortly before I quit, I told the lead singer and songwriter I was tired of contributing ideas because he always thought of better ones. And he shocked me by saying my ideas helped inspire his ideas. 

I thought my ideas didn’t matter because they weren’t being heard by our fans. But they did matter. 

Everyone has a role to play in a band. Some are leaders, some are followers. Sometimes the smallest contribution has a huge ripple effect. 

A single nut or screw falling out can cause a machine to break down. The best bands are the ones whose members accept their role and play it with love.