A response to Thomas from All Tiny Creatures:
First, thanks for responding; I think it’s only fair to you that I respond to your comment. I said that you guys “might as well be the octopus project” because you’re both in the “electronic/indie/rock instrumental” genre and it was the easiest way for me to express what you sounded like without trying to get too technical. And don’t take that as an insult; I really like The Octopus Project and I have probably seen them around ten times in the past 4 years. You should check them out if you get the chance this week.
And concerning the bio, don’t feel too bad; you’re nowhere near the worst bio. I mean, you could have Catsus’s bio. And you also didn’t make the mistake of putting your phone number on your bio, (though you have to admit that their picture is awesome). I’ve never tried to write a bio before, but given the number of bad bios I’ve read, I suspect that it’s no simple task. For your bio specifically, I would have gone with the quote from The Onion and a band member names. It’s a really good quote and if nothing else, using a quote can’t be considered pretentious (well, less pretentious at least).
I look forward to checking out your show this week.
You make a good point about the difficulty of a professional bio. I think for most people the hardest part of writing a professional bio is choosing what to put in and what to leave out. Because after all, a bio is supposed to be short. But most of us have done lots of different things in our work careers. How do you decide what to focus on?
There’s a simple answer: focus on what’s going to be most relevant and impressive to your target reader!
You see, a bio is not a resume. You don’t have to list everything you’ve ever done. Just focus on the parts that are going to “sell” you to your reader.
A bio is a little advertisement for you. So think about who will be reading your bio and what you want them to remember about you.