After seven years of hard work studying an instrument and a year and a half of learning to compromise, I've found out that being in a band is a little harder than I had imagined. Well, at least it's a little more like taking care of a child than I thought. Hundreds of dollars have to be invested. You have to give up some of your space. You go around introducing it to people and talking about how proud you are, thinking of a catchy name, talking about its interests, future plans…The rest of the time you spend justifying the choices you make on its behalf: "No, we don't play any Elvis Costello, but it's the drummer's fault, I swear! No, I don't have any leather pants. I can't help it that I'm not British, but Americans can rock too." But when you first start a band, one of the biggest choices you make is what image you want to put forth.