GOD FORBID guitarist Dallas Coyle has written the latest entry for his weekly column on MetalSucks, The Hard R. In this installment, Dallas talks about the process of getting signed and finding your voice as a band. An excerpt from the blog follows:

"A lot of the time when we’re on tour people ask us about how to get signed. It’s a hard question to answer because it’s different for every band. Every band has their song writers, their role players, etc. Essentially being in a band is a gift and a curse because it’s a lifestyle based around uncertainty and instability. Relationships inherently are unstable and uncertain.

Creation is a powerful animal. Creation is the ability to turn nothing into something. It’s the big bang theory in a rehearsal room or in your bedroom. When we go into the rehearsal room to write new songs it starts with a riff or an arrangement. But that end product doesn’t work unless you build it from the ground up with a blueprint in mind. In politics they have a saying: ‘It’s the economy, stupid.’ If you want to be a successful band I have a saying: ‘It’s the songs, stupid.’ Writing good songs is the main course in the meal. Most bands offer dessert. A sweet dish that makes you sick if you eat too much of it. Our band is much different than most bands. In the beginning, we wrote dessert songs. I don’t enjoy our first two records too much because as impressive as they are from a musical standpoint we never had the idea of writing songs when we wrote those records. We wanted to write songs that confused people. We wanted people to know we could play our instruments. If you are in a band starting out that’s the worst place to start writing.

Read the rest of this entry at this location.