On We Need a Band Name

Koen,

I feel like starting this post with a really long intro that doesn’t have a whole lot to do with the title of the post, but we’ll get there. Every new year, your mom and I like to do a guided goals exercise with our friends. The friends change from year to year, but it’s fun to look back on what you accomplished and look ahead at what you hope to accomplish each year.

One of the questions for looking ahead was something along the lines of “what is something you want to do with your kids this year?” We have some fun trips planned for us, and I didn’t think the spirit of the question was about things that we (your mom if we’re being honest) have already planned. So I wrote down that I wanted to do more of the things you and your brother love more often.

My favorite thing that you and I do is when we go down to the basement, and you play drums and I play guitar. I know I’m biased, but you’re actually very thoughtful when you drum. You’ve been taking music classes for the past year or so. A lot of it is kind of a music theory lesson each week, but you learn about notes and rhythm and scales and different instrument. Then we’ll be messing around sometimes and you’ll tap a beat.

Clap-clap-head tap-head tap. Clap-clap-head tap-head tap. Clap-clap-head tap-head tap.

When we get downstairs, a lot of our music is a little louder and chaotic. We’ve written 5 songs:

• You Don’t Know About Trains
• You Don’t Know About Gumball Machines
• Pancakes and Pillows
• This is our TV
• ALL I WANT IS MY DINNER!!!

I don’t want to brag, but I think we got a real shot at superstardom. But before we get there, we need a band name. OK exercise in real time. Lets give the same prompt to 3 AI’s and see if we like any of them. You’re in the room with me now so we can choose which one we like here and now.

Prompt: we are a father and son basement band who is in need of a band name, and you are a music industry expert who knows what names capture people’s attention and is extremely marketable. I (dad) play guitar and my 5 year old son plays drums. We have written 5 songs: You Don’t Know About Trains, You Don’t Know About Gumball Machines, Pancakes and Pillows, This is our TV, and ALL I WANT IS MY DINNER!!! We like to play loud rock music. Three of our current favorite bands are Linkin Park, Green Day, and MGK. We don’t want any profanity in our band name because that just isn’t what we’re about, even if the songs we like have a lot of bad words in them. Give me 3 options we might consider.

So that didn’t go exactly as planned, because we needed to work trains into the name of the band. Once I added that component to the prompt, we were left with these options:

• Train Rebels (Grok)
• Locomotive Lunch (Grok)
• Midnight Rail Riders (Grok)
• Full Throttle Caboose (Chat GPT)
• Feedback on the Tracks (Chat GPT)
• The Basement Locomotive (Chat GPT)
• Iron Track Tantrum (Gemini)
• Full Steam Chaos (Gemini)
• The Freight Shakers (Gemini)

Initial impressions were that the non-train options were way better — one of them was Gumball Thunder and I think we really missed out on a banger of a name, but this was a collaboration and I wanted your feedback. As far as the train names, I was a little worried about the NSFW search result neighbors we’d be paired with if we decided on Full Throttle Caboose. Luckily, you like Train Rebels, and so it is. Here’s the write up Grok gave us for that:

Train Rebels – This one amps up the train theme directly from your song, adding a rebellious punk edge like Green Day’s anti-establishment attitude. It suggests you’re charging down the tracks with loud guitars and crashing drums, perfect for a duo that’s breaking norms in the best way. Super easy to logo with a stylized train ripping through a guitar or something explosive—great for merch and grabbing attention at local shows.

So I guess we better just go ahead and brand ourselves too. Here’s our band logo.

So I guess that’s it. I should mention that sometimes during band practice, your mom or your brother have wanted to audition and you’re pretty stubborn about letting anyone else in. Not sure if our sound is quite there yet, we both sing lead vocals depending on the song.

Anyway, just wanted to remind you that I really love that we get to do this and I hope that when you’re a mega rock star, that you remember who was in your first band! Train Rebels for life!

Here’s a clip from our last band practice…you made me add a crowd effect because I did it before. For whatever it’s worth, you weren’t too happy with this version of the crowd.

Love you bud,

Dad