This weeks band problems thread

monquixote

Seems like there is one every week on here and this week it's my turn. 

I got an email earlier from the drummer in my band. 

He's a superb drummer (I've played with a few pros and he is better than any of them), but he currently works in a fairly crap job and does various bands on the side. Apparently he just did an audition for something big and got it (I don't know the details yet) and so he's quit his job and all his other bands including mine. 

It's amicable, he has expressed his admiration for us and we've wished him well as he is a superb musician and deserves to make a living doing it however this leaves me drummerless.

I've been with my current band for a couple of years now, but we've never really got it together and got properly out on the road. We put the original lineup together, lost the drummer and had a miserable time finding anyone decent during which time the keys and sax got bored and quit. We finally found the current drummer and then got new keys and sax, got on the road and then the sax player went AWOL, got a third sax player and now we've lost the drummer again. 

So two years in we've played no more than a dozen gigs, got through a load of musicians and I'm wondering if I should go through the whole slog again, or just call it a day. 

My fear is that if I do give it up it's going to be the end of me playing guitar. I'm so much busier with work and family I can't imagine having the energy to put something else this good together and I'm getting tired of playing the kind of generic pub rock sex on fire stuff this band was designed to be an antidote to. (depping with a band doing it tomorrow and really not that excited about it) 

I left the band I used to play bass in about a year and a half ago and my bass hasn't been out of the bag since and I'm worried without the impetus of a band I'll end up the same way with guitar.

Advice forum brethren?

John_P

Sounds like you should keep going!    I don't know how hard it is to find musicians in your area but now that you've been gigging and have the set and lineup pretty much established it should be easier finding someone than when you were first putting the band together -  "established band" is a lot more attractive in adverts than "new band"

monquixote

I want to keep it going, but I'm not sure I have the resolve any more. 

I wouldn't really call us "established" we don't own a PA and most of the gigs we've done have been free charity festivals and the like. Every time we get to the point where we would start doing that stuff some fekker leaves. 

Most decent drummers seem to expect a book of well paying gigs before they will even return your phone calls.

This is what we sound like BTW

Kebabkid

@Monquixote - I, too, think you should keep going Nick. I understand and have experienced your frustrations, and I also have to put my work and my family first. However, quit this and you don't know when another decent band will come along. It's only one member leaving, be it a good one. You still have the others and more importantly for some people in a band, you have a decent vocalist!

My own function band of 15 years was getting lame last year and probably like you, I was the driver in the band. Instead of knocking it on the head, I decided to keep it there and just get out there and dep with other bands, and even swapped to bass for one band (now a permanent member) and this allowed me to see what else was out there. Consequently, we now play on an ad hoc basis. If you do that, it may help you to appreciate what you have and give it one final go, or make the decision you're currently thinking about.

I don't know you, but based on your enthusiasm and drive on the forum, I can't imagine you not playing in a band on a regular basis and you haven't earned the tag  "The White Nile Rodgers" for nothing!

One other thing. If you're not in a band or active, will Mrs.Monquixote still be cool about you buying gear? It's my only justification with Mrs.KK.

I say, see what the dep band's like this weekend. Compare it to your own, and maybe get out there and play some bass too with others, but keep your band simmering or get the other members more involved and see if they have "it" in them to continue. Your neck of the woods seems to be a hot bed of decent musicians and your material is fun and funky and should attract people. Who knows who you'll get in??

All the best and hang in there!

steamabacus

Definitely sounds like you should hang in there.

You've got a good singer - can you rework some of the material into more of an 'unplugged' kind of vibe? Maybe other members of the band can pitch in with a bit of percussion. It would allow you to get out there playing and maybe open up new gigging opportunities. And the best way to find a new drummer is to already be out there doing it.

TTony

You're too good a guitarist to pack it in completely.

Maybe it means you become a bit more of a studio musician - do some writing, do some home recording ... And then the SoF pub gigs might be fun again (and easier to sort out a band for).

johnnyurq

What they all said and I know it is hard after such a blow but the band sounds goood and well worth carrying on with.

Believe me my enforced (through illness) lack of gigging and even playing beyond noodling has taught me it will be missed badly at some point.

Give it one more push and review it if unsuccesful getting it to work with a new drummer, who knows it might give the band a new impetous and reinvigorate it.

Better to try, find out it is time for a rest (or pack it in) that way no regrets for not giving it a last hurrah.

digitalscream

TTony said:

You're too good a guitarist to pack it in completely.

Maybe it means you become a bit more of a studio musician - do some writing, do some home recording ... And then the SoF pub gigs might be fun again (and easier to sort out a band for).

This. Write and record your own stuff, perhaps in tandem with a singer. Promote it online, see if you can get a following...then recruit a band to gig it when life calms down and you've got proper time to do it justice.

'Course, I tried doing it that way, ended up with a whole band and I'm out schlepping round the originals circuit again

monquixote

Thanks for all the sage advice chaps. 

I think I will give it another go (provided the bass player doesn't quit which I worry he might). The singer and bass player are both superb and very good mates of mine so it would be a shame not to do it. 

One potential lifeline is that a chap who deps with us occasionally might be persuaded to join though I'm not sure if he'll be up for it.

Doing some acoustic type gigs might work. We've done some before. 

I'd like to do some kind of recording project, but I think realistically I'm too lazy to actually see it through. I need a band to give me deadlines. 

close2u

Awwww, man, I feel for you.

I have organised rehearsals for a new drummer and singer next week after my own situation the other week.

Fingers crossed for you and for me and for anyone with band woes.

johnnyurq

Oh very naughty @monquixote glass of fluid on an amp, it can and does all end in tears before bedtime.

Having seen the aftermath cordon off that amp.

:-B

monquixote

johnnyurq said:

Oh very naughty @monquixote glass of fluid on an amp, it can and does all end in tears before bedtime.

Having seen the aftermath cordon off that amp.

Yes the naughty singist put her cider on my amp. It seemed a bit off to reprimand her on stage especially as it was the first time we'd ever played together. 

Did the "SoF" gig last night. Had fun (I think I was just being a grumpy bastard the other day). Still pretty sure I wouldn't want to do it every weekend. 

Fingers crossed for a new drumist. 

johnnyurq

Yes best done after a gig for sure and being the first gig no need for the birch switch this time.


Good to hear you are playing on and good luck with finding a tame neanderthal sorry drummer.

ThePrettyDamned

I've said this before, but you guys sound really, really great - the singer is especially great (no disrespect to the playing, but in a band like yours, the singer needs to be great).  

So I'd say find another drummer, and keep the creative juices flowing - write original material, and keep gigging, even if it's a rarity.  

TTony

monquixote said:

I got an email earlier from the drummer in my band. 

I just had one of those too.

So, that's "the band" over then  

Does British Summer Time affect drummerists in some strange way??

mike_l

TTony said:

 

Does British Summer Time affect drummerists in some strange way??

Yes, they don't speed up every 2 bars.

1nten5e

An email? you were lucky, we got dumped by text............crack on, find another drummer, shit happens, our band is better for it now

ICBM

monquixote said:

johnnyurq said:

Oh very naughty @monquixote glass of fluid on an amp, it can and does all end in tears before bedtime.

Having seen the aftermath cordon off that amp.

Yes the naughty singist put her cider on my amp. It seemed a bit off to reprimand her on stage especially as it was the first time we'd ever played together.

You don't need to "reprimand", you can just point out that it's not a good idea because the vibration will make it fall off and spill it, ie "being helpful".

To be honest I don't worry too much with amps like that - if the drink falls over it will usually just drip off the edges. It's the ones with top-mounted controls or vents (AKA Beer Traps) which are really at risk. I tend to avoid amps like that if I can, because s**t happens.

My 'this week' is that having had to re-arrange practice (again) due to kids' school stuff, and checked with all the others first that it was OK (it was), we now get a call from the singer saying he can't make it, too late to cancel without paying for the room… grrr. So we're intending to do some sort of random vocal-less jam instead. Better than paying for two hours for nothing. The real annoyance is that this is not the first time it's happened, we've lost about a third of the practices this year to short-notice call-offs.

ESBlonde

Nik I have the number of the very good drummer we had at the end of our soul band and he's always up for the gig. pm me.

monquixote

TTony said:

monquixote said:

I got an email earlier from the drummer in my band. 

I just had one of those too.

So, that's "the band" over then  

Does British Summer Time affect drummerists in some strange way??

Aw that sucks. 

This is why I took up drums at some point in the dim and distant past. 

johnnyurq

ICBM said:

monquixote said:

johnnyurq said:

Oh very naughty @monquixote glass of fluid on an amp, it can and does all end in tears before bedtime.

Having seen the aftermath cordon off that amp.

Yes the naughty singist put her cider on my amp. It seemed a bit off to reprimand her on stage especially as it was the first time we'd ever played together.

You don't need to "reprimand", you can just point out that it's not a good idea because the vibration will make it fall off and spill it, ie "being helpful".

Here's me thinking that my use of an anal smiley showed I was being jocular with a side order of real world experience, as I am sure you have.