"The reason I formed my own band in the first place is so that I could step up as the singer"

A simple sentence reveals a whole creative philosophy. Forming a band wasn’t an accident or a byproduct of jamming with friends; it was a deliberate structure built to house a voice. The act of founding a band becomes a strategic move, a way to bypass gatekeepers and waiting rooms, to seize the microphone rather than audition for it. It signals ownership: of the stage, the narrative, and the risks that come with both.

“Step up” carries the weight of courage. To sing at the front is to accept exposure, your words, breath, and falterings are unshielded. It’s a transition from support to spotlight, from shaping the sound to becoming its focal point. That step is also a recalibration of responsibility. The singer is the conduit through which the audience meets the music, and that role demands stamina, clarity, and a willingness to be read.

Starting a band to become the singer highlights a paradox: a deeply personal ambition pursued through a collective form. A band is not a mirror; it’s an ecosystem. The founder’s voice must still coexist with other sensibilities, schedules, and signatures. Leadership in this frame is not domination but direction, curating repertoire, setting tone, and creating conditions where individual expression strengthens the whole.

There is also a practical realism embedded here. Singing leads to greater creative control: lyrics, melodies, aesthetics, and the emotional temperature of the performance. It shapes branding, audience connection, and the arc of a live set. Yet the deeper motive is identity. Taking the lead vocal is a declaration of self, an insistence on being heard in one’s own timbre, not filtered through someone else’s mouth.

Ultimately it’s a manifesto of agency. If the path you want doesn’t exist, build it. Call the band into being, climb to the front, and let the voice define the space it inhabits.