Starting a Band in a SHIT Town???

I think you should JOIN a band that gets a lot of gigs and plays what the locals like. It'll earn you a lot of experience and reputation. In a year or so, I would see about starting a different band with a different genre if you wish. However, if the local town doesn't have many people who like metal, you wont get many gigs.

in general I agree with Boom's suggestion but let me start off by asking your age bracket? teen? young adult?

do you guys have youth centers, YNCAs, that type of thing?

Hybridise.

LISTEN to what exists locally, (this is what is accepted, what people know). THINK about what you play. (What you like and WHY you like it). HYBRIDISE what exists and what you like. This allows you to play what you like while playing what the people like. If you do this well you bridge a gap and create something where everybody wins.

So who is to say you don't take a crack at the traditional music, and MODERNISE it? The melodic riffs that are traditionally violin or tin whistle could be replicated on guitar, with a bit of gain and reverb or even slide, some decent riff wrangling to be had there, while the percussive bass notes from both drums and acoustics that I have heard could be filled out with some palm muted chugging. It may not be ideal, but if that is all your town has, and nobody has done it before, it may just be that they have not thought of it. I am sure if you show some friends what you have in mind, that they could start picking up instruments and join up with you! Hell, 13 - 16 is birth of adventure! get creative and get good then get out there!!! Play at markets and fairs, community halls, hire a football clubhouse and throw a party... if there isn't a scene, MAKE ONE!!! hahahaha

From this, write your own stuff and get that mixed in with the other stuff.

You can play some Amon Amarth. I'd go to a show of that.

Also the only youth centre are for ages 6-11 I'm 15

so? barge in and ask if you can put on a metal show with a couple bands for ages 6 to 18, just a general all ages rock show, promise no profanity and to clean the place up at the end.... draw up flyers and pepper all the sign psots and phone poles in a 50 mile radius on foot

oh yeah, start a metal band too

and be prepared to pick up brooms and toilet brushes and clean the palce top to bottom afterwards if you get a decent enough turnout to make a mess...

seriously, it shouldn't be that hard to find kids who like metal at school or something even if they don't play anything yet, and then goad them into getting isntruments.... you ay not be good right away but that's what the next 15 years are for.... creating your own gigs is not as hard as all that, when I was a kid that's how everyone did it at your age whether they were in a big city or a tiny ton in the middle of nowhere.... and I have played some really great youth center and house shows in the middle of farm country that were more fun than the big pro shows I played in my adult music career

your biggest obstacle is the death of record stores which were a great place to network when I was a kid, but you guys have the internet which was brand new and pretty devoid of anyone bu hackers when I was a boy, so there's that... if you don't wanna listen to Boom and Tel_Nobody then get up and make your own scene

if I recall correctly my 1st show was at an illegal, underaged keg party and I was so young you could barely see me past the enormous Guild hollowbody I owned at the time... liquor and a lack of parents drew the crowd and drunken teenagers are into anything.... and elt me tell you, that was a BAD band....

HMV: His Masters Voice. Decent, but commercial record store chain. It died.

Do you have Facebook?

Gone are the days of hand drawn mini posters that you photocopy 50 times and sticky tape to every telephone pole in a 3 minute radius...

Start a page on facebook called "[insert name of your shit town] Teen Music Scene".... e.g. "Wexford Music Scene" and invite all your friends. If you make it a closed group, you (as admin) get to choose who can join the page, but leaving it public may get trolls from out of town or overseas.

Talk about bands you like, share youtube clips. From there, talk to people you share musical interests with, find like minded musicians and discuss places where you could rehearse, play etc. Maybe someone's dad [or mom] is an ex muso, or has a factory/ barn/ media room and knows a way to get excited group of teen musicians out of the bedrooms and into the light.

We used to hope enough people would find our little posters and play to rooms of 20 - 30 people.

We have all heard stories of Teenage Facebook advertised parties that go viral in big towns with hundreds of people storming them.

Not really bad exposure...

Don't wait for the music scene to hopefully or miraculously change around you. Be the change.

I live in a town where there's no record or cd stores there used to be a thing called HMV... but that to hell.

I was saying brick and mortar record stores are dead, but I was implying that even in the stone ages before the internet we found ways to start bands and play shows.... I think I was 14 at my 1st show, maybe 15 -- stop being mad about it and just think around the probem, hack away at the solution until you are on the path to where you want to be going.... namely a local band that puts together occasional local shows

before going facebook or anything, don't you have a few school friends who like the music you like?

In my humble opinion, you have two really exciting, creative opportunities here:

1. Use internet to collaborate from artists around the globe.
2. Invent your own new genre of music using unconventional instrumentation (example: instead of jamming with typical "band" folks hook up with that cute cellist in the school orchestra)

Great suggestions by all. Great thread since most young musicians believe there is "nobody to play with" in their vicinity. As a private music lessons teacher for over 15 years, I can assure you there are ALWAYS other people to play with, you just haven't met them yet. They may be adults, heck they might even be your friend's parents, but they're your neighbors. Quietly shedding in their proverbial closet.