Is it All About Image?

4 April 08

Welcome to The Pier's 'Ask Weege' column. This is where the 880 South's front man and music scene veteran will be answering questions and providing tips for up-and-coming bands and musicians.

This week, Gavin from San Diego asks, 'How much a part do you think image plays in a band's success? Are you conscious about the image 880 South conveys? Do you make any band decisions based on image? Thanks Weege, really dig the column!'

You know Image is a tough subject.

It clearly plays a big part in a band's success. But I think the important thing to look at here is "speed" and "timing". I mean if you're targeting the goth/emo crowd. You're gonna dress the part I assume. If you're goin after the teeny bopper crowd and you sing pop. You're gonna wanna look the part. I think the obvious is well...obvious.

I guess if you really wanna bump up your chances of success then you'd dress the part. Still I remember a band from a show a few years back and they came out and played roots dub music. All the dudes had Bob Marley shirts and rasta colored head bands/wrist bands, and even think they had the shoes to match. To me this screams desperation. Maybe some people dig that. I think the whole band was like Filipino or something. I personally thought it was cheesy. I didn't care much for their style, it was kinda boring after a while and lacked a spark. I guess you can give off the impression that you're trying too hard and you're desperate.

This can also convey into publicity though. I guess with timing it's important to keep up with current events and what trends are going down. I'm not really worried about current trends myself though.

In my personal opinion. I think it'd be much cooler if someone who didn't look the part, played the part. Take a look at Matisyahu. I mean he definitely doesn't look the part. Then again, that's all I heard about when he first came out on Leno. Now whether he did that on purpose or not is yet to be told. I'm not one to judge. I personally think his music is pretty cool and his message seems positive. So I could care less what he looks like.

Originally when we were the Floppy Rods and not 880 South. We tried a few attempts at image. It was a failure. We didn't really try hard enough. There was on time we played a show and we all wore Warriors jerseys. I'm not a big NBA fan, but I grew up watching the Knicks as a kid. Now I'm not gonna get into sports here, but the image we portrayed wasn't all that exciting. In fact a lot of our fans thought it was cheesy. I also thought it was cheesy.

Our image. Is pretty simple. Beer Drinkin' Blue Collared City Boy Reggae Funk. Maybe it's not that simple but it's easy to identify. We never claim to surf, or skate (even though I road a skateboard for a good 1/3 of my life, back in the Bones Brigade days). I love snowboarding now but you won't see me sportin snowboard duds on a daily basis. Probably because I'd be sweating my ass off in California weather. We're total suburbanite city cats from California. We don't live by the beach, although we live closer than you think. I might even ruin some people's perception of 880 South. But what you see is what you get. We've never claimed to be anything else than what we are.

So I guess we don't really stress our image much, but we do try and keep ourselves tidy and clean. We ain't down with that "fromunda" funk. Honestly, image is really only important if your goal is to impress people with your looks or you're trying to identify yourself with a genre. Personally I could care less about what a person looks like, so long as the music fuckin rips!

-Weege-

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