Making our bands music sound original?

Well basically me and my buddies are forming a band and thus far it's doing good. And right now where in the phase where we're right songs and I was wondering, how can we make our songs stand out and not just be like every other band? Do we add a lot chords? Do we make the rhythms more complex? Do we make songs that aren't written in common chords? What can we do to make sure that our band sounds original? Thanks for your input in advance. And if it helps, our band is gonna be doing basically, R and B, Electronic Music, Funk, Rock and Blues.

write what you like, stand by it. give it some time, eventually your band will sound unique since the band will be so fucossed on eachother (assuming this band formation will be consistent).

there's no band i know of (of which the bandmembers hadn't played together yet) which sounded unique straight away, this just doesn't happen.

it's not in the chords, or melodies, it's in the approach of songwriting (together!). let everyone bring in their musical influences, and then work on that, it'll be a solid base for something new (ofcourse, not straight away, but again, give it some time).

good luck.

My advice is that you listen to A LOT OF MUSIC!!! Listen to EVERY BAND within the genre you want to play in - don't even filter out the bad music, or the music you never think you would like. Just listen to it all, maybe together as a group if you can. This way you will learn a lot more about your individual musical tastes. Also, pick some songs from your listening, and try playing them with your band. Learn what each person likes to play, what they can play, etc.

Most of the struggles for a starting band are just this problem - finding the band's true sound. Most bands start out as just a cover band, doing songs they like, until they come up with their sound. Good luck!

Don't try so hard to be original. Be good first ;). Seriously. Not saying you have to be a cover band, but you'll have a hard time being truly original. Take a band like The Zutons. They aren't exactly groundbreaking, but they're still great at what they do.