Your act or track will only be as good as the quality of your creative collaborators. We have the lowdown on how to find backing musicians in Southampton, Hampshire, who’ll fit your style, genre – and that you’ll enjoy working with too.
Are you recording or playing live gigs and in need of some musical support? Read on for our practical tips on sourcing good backing musicians.
How to find backing musicians in Southampton
Great backing musicians can stay with artists for their entire careers in some cases, Once you get to know each other’s ways, it’s so much easier to improvise, add licence and ad-lib. Here are some of the qualities that’ll be important in who you hire.
- Reliable. It’s vital that the person or people you hire will turn up when they say they will. If they’re late it can cost you valuable studio time, or if they don’t turn up at all it can derail your gig and leave you hanging in front of a live audience.
- Affordable. You have to be realistic about your budget and what you get for your money. Don’t expect or demand anything unrealistic. This will involve doing some research on the current rates for the discipline in question and placing a limit on how many instruments and people you use.
- Personable. Playing and singing together is, while a professional endeavour, a relatively intimate one too. You’ll have to work closely, possibly for long hours and maybe in challenging circumstances, so it really helps if you get on.
- Experienced. Unless you have zero budget and can’t afford to be picky, be sure that the people you hire have the right kind of experience.
- Local. Unless you’re a big star who can fly in your crew, it helps to work with people who are nearby.
Know what you need before you start looking. Identify the exact instruments that’ll work best and the number/balance required. If you’re unsure, speak to a producer who can help evaluate what’ll work best.
Finding local musicians to jam with
So how do you find people who are experienced and local who match your vibe? A great way to test out many of these factors is to jam with them and see how you gel. Take a look at what jam nights are happening in your area. You could also proactively pop along to open mic sessions, contests and competitions. If you see and hear people you like, approach them and ask if they’d be interested and what their rates are.
Southampton has a vibrant music scene. These are some of the frequent events you can attend to find great talent.
Music in the City. This annual festival features lots of emerging artists and there’s plenty of opportunities to mingle after sets.
Open Mic Nights are plentiful. You can check out this website for upcoming nights in Southampton and Hampshire.
Jams are listed on this group.
Competitions like Battle of the Bands and local music contests large and small are a good way to find backing.
Music groups Southampton
As well as heading along to local gigs, you should harness the power of the internet and social media to extend your search. Still keep it local, unless you can afford to pay your backing musicians’ travel expenses. It’s well worth joining some groups to keep ahead of what’s happening and source people to work with. Here are some to have a look at:
- Southampton Musicians and Performers
- Musicians Wanted – Hampshire (UK)
- Dorset/Hampshire Musicians
- Hampshire & Dorset Musicians Past & Present
- Hampshire Musicians Community
- Quora (you’ll need to set up your own local thread)
- Southampton Jam Sessions
Musicians wanted in Hampshire UK
You can also place an advert and invite musicians to apply. This can be offline or online. Place you might wish to advertise include:
- At recording studios. Ask if you can put up a poster or flyer. You can also ask people at the studio if they know anyone suitable. They’ll likely have a pool of regular musicians they use. If you’re looking for engineers, mixers or beats this should be your first port of call.
- Similarly, ask around/put up ads at local music venues like The 1865, Concorde Club, The Frog and Frigate, The Brook, The Joiners, The Loft and more.
- Gumtree Southampton. Post an ad on the website.
- Bandmix. This site is designed to connect musicians.
- Musicians in Your City allow you to post classified ads seeking musicians.
- Star Now is another site allowing you to post ads for professional musicians – be sure to add Hampshire as the job area.
- Last Minute Musicians enables you to hire musicians online for work in Hampshire.
You can also approach entertainment booking agencies (like Alive Network) to hire musicians. This is a very expensive way to do it though, and you usually won’t meet the artist until the gig. So it’s a less personal route and, like Last Minute Musicians, better reserved for emergencies, such as when one of your backing musicians is ill and can’t make a session or show.
How to find band members
Perhaps you’re looking for long term band members? If so you should follow the same routes and processes as for backing musicians, but be sure to audition and spend time getting to know each other. If you’re in a band, the relationship is more equitable in terms of artistic decisions, so your relationship is more crucial than when employing someone to accompany you.
If you need more assistance setting up your act, finding the right backing (be it electronic or live) and branding, it may be worth considering artist development.
And if like many jobbing musicians, you teach, this can be a useful way to find competent backing musicians who know and like your style. Good luck finding backing musicians and we hope to see you in the studio soon.
Related Questions
How do I find other musicians?
There are many ways musicians connect: online forums, via social media, at music colleges, at industry events, at competitions, in the studio, at gigs, at open mic nights, on the circuit, at parties and through mutual friends.
What is backing in music?
The backing is anything that augments the melody, topline or soloist. This can be an instrumental or electronic track, live musicians, backup singers, backup dancers, a choir, beats and percussion.