Not necessarily - a lot of musicians listen to stuff which is not obviously similar. Examples I've seen: Billy Gibbons -> Depeche Mode, Robert Plant -> Patty Griffin, Bono -> Frank Sinatra, Lars Ulrich -> Lou Reed -> Laurie Anderson, Frank Zappa -> L Shankar -> Stefan Grappelli.

But yes, if you really want unexpected paths, you have to just keep your ear to the ground. The way I discovered I liked Goa music was that I randomly clicked on it while surfing Shoutcast 15 years ago.

EDIT: (of course the disadvantage is that you have to sort through a lot of chaff)

I'm a big Trevor Something fan as well (love that he releases an LP or EP annually), but surely you'd have noticed his material on NewRetroWave, the biggest synthwave Youtube channel.

They love TS as well, and make sure to upload his new stuff with a custom video.

Before that freeleech pick I had no idea any of that universe existed. I had no idea this genre even existed. Now I do.

w.cd had the best recommendation system for music and audio equipment. The communities that tried to take it's place after don't come close.

It's a shame because I don't know where to talk about it anymore. r doesn't come close, at least not yet. The community music collages on w.cd were unreal.

yeah, we really lost a huge resource when w got shut down. I had mostly stopped pirating music by then, but still visited the site daily just to find new recommendations. r seems like a good place to acquire music, but has completely failed to recapture that community aspect.

The influences does, but what you really need is an engine that recommends bands based on shared influences.

In other words, two bands in totally different genres who both call Led Zeppelin an influence

I get what you're saying but how does that help with small name or indie artists like Blank Banshee or Trevor Something for example?

What you're suggesting is definitely feasible with the larger acts that have been around and have been thoroughly psychoanalyzed.

Usually the bands themselves will tell you their influences. It's a very common interview question, and often appears in bios.