The Bachelors, a local rock band, spent $14,000 and 11 months last year coming up with "Love in America," a compact disc of original songs. That was the easy part.
Now, Rick Senese, the band's drummer and publicist, is faced with the hard part: convincing local radio stations to play the CD. While some of the cuts are easily as appealing as anything else on the radio, Senese is finding that most Salt Lake stations don't want to bother with local efforts.The irony, says Senese, is that a rock station in New York City is already playing "Love in America" as part of its regular rotation, and it looks like the Bachelors might even get air play on the biggest radio station in Japan.
When you're a local band, sometimes it's hard to get the respect you deserve. Rick Welter, who plays with a highly acclaimed Salt Lake rhythm and blues band called The Tempo Timers, likes to point out that when one of his favorite bands, The Thunderbirds, goes back to Austin, it's just a local band, too.
But those aren't the only obstacles facing Salt Lake's hometown bands. "Salt Lake is a smaller market than it should be for the size of town it is," notes Kerry Pedersen, leader of The Gamma Rays, a popular local band. Utah's liquor laws and higher percentage of non-drinkers mean fewer nightclubs, and that means fewer venues for local artists.
"Competition is pretty fierce," adds Chuck Myers of Big Idea, a Salt Lake modern music band.
But the good news, says Myers, is that if you're good enough - and market yourself well - it is possible to make a living as a musician in Salt Lake.
There are hundreds of bands in town, but less than 50 of these are what Myers calls "deadly serious" - groups that have invested at least $10,000 into their careers or that play with at least some regularity at clubs, bars, private parties or as opening acts for bigger bands who come through.
From the Ninja Pizzas to the Joe Muscolino Big Band, there are bands to appeal to just about any musical taste. There is reggae (Irie Heights), southern rock (Backwash), California rock (Overboard), fusion surf (The Spastic Colons), an all-women rock/folk/jazz/blues band (My Sister Jane), pop metal (Vamp), techno pop (On Beyond Zebra), and lots of country music and modern music bands.
"This is a great place to be if you're into modern music," says Matt Udall of Only A Test, a modern music band that played recently at Club DV8 - which features local bands on Thursday nights.
For most local bands, the big dream is still to be Discovered. The most likely environments for that, says Bill Larned of the Cover Agency, would be the Zephyr Club in Salt Lake City or Z Place in Park City, where, the fantasy goes, a California record producer would wander in after a day on the slopes and be blown away by the original sounds of a group like The Boxcar Kids, a Salt Lake hillbilly funk band.
Most serious local bands, though, don't leave discovery to chance. Rick Senese guesses he makes 10 or 15 calls a day to promote the Bachelors. There are also Bachelors T-shirts, a Bachelors logo for display at local record stores, and a Bachelors hotline number.
Like the Bachelors, other local bands have produced their own cassettes, CDs and vinyls. With the exception of Musicland, a national chain that won't sell self-produced recordings, most Salt Lake stores carry at least a smattering of these local tapes and discs.
Radio station KJQ in Ogden airs a "Locals Only" show every Sunday at 10 p.m. Station Hot 94.9 FM plays a few local songs in its regular "power rotation."
"We're not going to play someone just because they're local," explains Hot 94.9 program director Lou Simon. "But we won't not play them just because they're local, either." Currently the station is playing songs by The Taylors and by Flexx, two local pop bands.
A record contract, followed by fame, glory and a video on MTV, are the goals of most local bands. But not all. The Gamma Rays are content to have fun, says singer/guitarist Kerry Pedersen.
Pedersen has been playing in some band or other since he was a kid. When the Gamma Rays got their first gig at a frat house four years ago, Pedersen was just happy to be able to strap his guitar back on again. The consistent bookings since then (every weekend for four years), and the growing popularity, have all just been extras, he says.
The Gamma Rays play some original songs but their sets are usually full of danceable favorites. "When you play in bars, your obligation is to keep the dance floor full," he explains. By and large, he says, people don't want to dance to a band's original songs. And by and large, he says, bands don't want to hear that kind of advice.
"When you tell (band members) that their original song is bad, it's like telling them their kids are ugly. But there's a lot of ugly kids in the world."
Joe Muscolino agrees. "Some bands," he notes, "are self-serving. They want to play what they like. But people don't want to hear what they don't know."
Muscolino's approach has paid off. His diverse repertoire gets him gigs at high school proms and 50th reunions. This past December his five bands had 60 dates.
But there are those who get tired of all this predictability. There is not much fresh talent trying anything different, complains one local club owner.
"All the local bands are good," the owner notes. "But there's not enough of the kind of thing where you know they'll make it big."
But there are still those who dream of "making it out of here," as Rick Senese puts it. Except for the Jets and the Osmonds, no band has made it out in a big way, yet. But Senese hasn't given up. Today he'll call 10 or 15 more people, hoping to get the Bachelors' name and songs into the limelight.
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What's hot, different
TEN OF SALT LAKE'S HOTTEST DANCE BANDS
Bachelors: Pop rock
Backwash: Southern rock/Grateful Dead
Big Idea: Modern
Boxcar Kids: Hillbilly funk
Gamma Rays: Modern/'60s
Irie Heights: Reggae
Joe Muscolino Big Band: Variety
The Pleazers: Modern/Top 40
The Taylors: Pop
Tempo Timers: Rhythm and blues
TEN BANDS WITH THE MOST INTRIGUING NAMES
Bates Motel: Modern/rock
Cosmic Moscow: Modern/rock
Dinosaur Bones: Modern/new wave
Killer Tomatoes: Modern/'60s
Ninja Pizzas: Modern
Only A Test: Modern
Ooba Squaba: Rock
Spastic Colons: Fusion surf
Transplant Jade: Modern
Various Precarious: Modern