Band on the Web

Nov 1, 2002 12:00 PM, By Gino Robair

           

One of the ways a band can maximize the time a visitor stays at its site is to create something more than just a place to hawk merchandise. Such a site belongs to the band superjuice (www.superjuice.net), composed of Andy DiSimone (vocals, guitar, keyboards), Rick Heins (guitar, vocals), Bob Troia (bass, vocals, keyboards), and Pete Gilbert (drums, vocals).

Superjuice's four-song EP, Last Against the Wall, features intelligent pop lyrics married to intricate yet driving orchestrations. “Humble State” and “Listen,” for example, are reminiscent of the post-Squeeze work of songwriters Chris Difford and Glenn TiIbrook. “Need It Now” features processed drums and vocals for a more contemporary electronic feel, and “Shine” has a catchy, anthemic, wall-of-sound quality.

Superjuice's Flash-based pages are clean and well organized, and they graphically tie in to the band's CD. The front page includes transport controls (so you can hear the band's music right away from a streaming player), a link for purchasing the CD, and a window that displays the latest news and schedule of appearances. If a visitor wants to dig deeper, the five main links — Bio, Music, Journal, Forum, and Contact — are easy to locate.

“I did the design and programming by myself,” says Troia, “but the entire band had input regarding site structure, functionality, colors, and look and feel. We went through three design iterations, and the site took about one and a half months to build from start to finish.” In addition, members of the band contributed the photos, which are placed behind the text and help give the site a relaxed feel.

The main purpose of a Web site is to get the word out about gigs and releases. “We've done a lot of online promotion to drive traffic to the site and build awareness of the band,” says Troia. “We've used online guerrilla marketing tactics, such as posting giveaways on music-related message boards. We've also worked on optimizing our search-engine rankings and getting listed or featured on the popular independent music Web sites. Additionally, we have built up a large mailing list, and we put out regular newsletters — in both HTML and plain text — to keep fans up-to-date.”