Male band led by American conducting (8)
I believe the answer is:
ushering
'conducting' is the definition.
(ushering is a kind of conducting)
'male band led by american' is the wordplay.
'male' becomes 'he' (he refers to a man).
'band' becomes 'ring' (a ring is a band of metal).
'led by' says to put letters next to each other (some letters go in front of others).
'american' becomes 'US' (United States).
'he'+'ring'='hering'
'hering' put after 'us' is 'USHERING'.
(Other definitions for ushering that I've seen before include "Showing people to their seats" , "Taking people to their seats" , "putting one in one's place" , "working as escorts" , "Showing to a seat" .)