How to Write Your Own Compelling Bio Using the Question-and-Answer Method

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Writing an interesting band bio can be super boring and difficult. You may be weighing your options – lay down some cash to book a professional bio writer? Ask a friend to help you out and risk it being just another poorly written bio? If you decide that you want to write an interesting bio for yourself, here's a quick and easy method.

First, answer the questions below. When you’re finished, use the rubric at the end of this article to piece together your answers in sentence and paragraph form. Bye, bye tedious, boring bio!

The questions: your raw material

1. What's your genre?
2. What's another genre you fit into?
3. What's one quality of your music (i.e. dark, romantic, upbeat, acoustic, etc.)?
4. What's another quality of your music that could also be used to describe food (i.e., sweet, fulfilling, warm, etc.)?
5. Why did you first start making music?
6. Where are you from?
7. Where are you now?
8. What’s the best compliment you’ve ever received about your music?
9. What’s the coolest, most important show you’ve played to date (the kind of show you’d like to play more of)?
10. What’s your latest release?
11. Have you won any awards?
12. What are your shows like (e.g., intimate listening room sets, raucous pop/punk menageries, piano-pop with vocals that soar to the rafters, etc.)?
13. Who do people say you sound like?
14. Who do you think you sound like?
15. Who have you shared a set with or opened for in the past?
16. Do you have any associations with charitable causes?
17. How have you worked with them?
18. Do you have any quotes or reviews from friends and colleagues? (If so, add them below.)
19. What are you focusing your time on now (e.g., recording a new record, touring the Midwest, writing, etc.)?

The rubric: putting it all together

Now you have the raw materials to build out your bio. Take your answers, and compile them into sentences and paragraphs in a readable way. Use the following format to get started. Feel free to switch questions and answers around if you need to. Also, feel free to break these paragraphs up into more paragraphs.

First paragraph

Define your music. Talk about what you’re currently doing. Use your answers from questions 1, 2, 3, 4, 7, and 19. You can also sprinkle in questions 12, 13, and 18.

Second paragraph

Begin your linear timeline. Talk about your musical past and where you’ve been. Use your answers from questions 5, 6, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, and sprinkle in reviews from question 18.

Third paragraph

Your accomplishments (make mention of them in a humble manner). Use your answers from questions 9, 11, 15, and 18.

Last paragraph

What you’re currently working on, and where you’re going. Use your answers from questions 19. Feel free to talk about charitable associations mentioned in 16 and 17.

Let us know if this method helped you craft a bio. Comment below!

Get more bio-writing advice:

• 7 Ways to Improve Your Band’s Bio Page
• Ask a Music Journalist: 4 Things We Never Want to Read in Bios Ever Again
• Ask a Publicist: 5 Ways to Tell a Compelling Story in Your Bio
• Here’s What Sonicbids Promoters Actually Care About in Your EPK
• How to Draw in Promoters and Press With Your Band Bio

Sarah Spencer is a singer/songwriter and blogger, working, living, and playing in Nashville, TN. By day, she's the creative director at boutique creative agency for the music industry. When she's not on the web, she's writing songs, playing shows, and singing as a session vocalist.