Band rant :(

hotpickups

thomasross20 said:

Woke up today thinking "bugger, I've got to keep going with this" - I did agree to keep going as the rest of the band are cool, we will likely get more gigs and I'll get more experience but yeah, I agree with what you say digitalscream. Thinking on it, I should have just walked and not went to the meeting. Benefit of the doubt for now but yeah, after the event you'd think there'd be more focus on that aspect. Said that it was my choice not to use sheets myself but I think that's a lazy way of turning the argument around. 

For the longest time I wanted to be in a band and now I find myself thinking I'm preferring sitting at home doing my album. Maybe once that is over I'll feel a little less pressure. 

I feel like I'd like to move abroad for work at some point so that might affect it all..!

At times like these I always say to myself 'Trust your gut and follow that'

Moe_Zambeek

I've wasted an inordinate amount of time in similar situations.

Here's what will happen, IMO: nothing.

What I ended up doing was being in an originals band for the musical stimulation and creativity side, while I stayed with the covers band just because I liked the guys in the band as friends.

If you want to do lots of gigs and be professional about it and the rest of the band are resisting, even passively, you need to move on, or 5 years later you'll be in the same position.

Moe_Zambeek

Course it's also true that there isn't much of a scene in Edinburgh and good bands are hard to find or create...

hotpickups

Moe_Zambeek said:

I've wasted an inordinate amount of time in similar situations.

Here's what will happen, IMO: nothing.

What I ended up doing was being in an originals band for the musical stimulation and creativity side, while I stayed with the covers band just because I liked the guys in the band as friends.

If you want to do lots of gigs and be professional about it and the rest of the band are resisting, even passively, you need to move on, or 5 years later you'll be in the same position.

I'll give you a 'wisdom' for that

vasselmeyer

@thomasross20 Sounds as if nothing changed at all. There's a phrase which I was taught by a mentor of mine at work a long time ago that still resonates with me, "If you always do what you've always done, you'll always get what you've always got". Unless you force the change, and in my opinion that means you or the singer, then remove yourself from the situation and do something which you enjoy. Life's too short.

thomasross20

Moe_Zambeek said:

Course it's also true that there isn't much of a scene in Edinburgh and good bands are hard to find or create...

Yep.

And yep, agree with all that's been said.

DesVegas

Yep, join a band were someone else is the leader .. and relax.

John_P

I'd give yourself a time limit to judge if anything changes.   I don't want to prejudge them but in my experience it doesn't - some people want to be in bands to gig and some just like being in bands and rehearsing/jamming/working on new songs.    

Who books the gigs?   I've had bands where the will is there but without someone pushing it forward and actually getting bookings it doesn't go anywhere,   if you want more gigs can't you book some?    More gigs = more cash and helps give an incentive to sort the PA side of things and tighten up the stage act etc.         Good luck - hope you see some improvements or find a band more to your liking.

BenSirAmos

To me you seem a bit, err, obsessive about the song sheets. I have a repertoire of over 300 songs - I don't need the chords but I do need the lyrics, and some indication of which arrangement with which musicians. But instead of having bits of white paper floating about, I do it professionally

http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y58/Ben_Sir_Amos/20150617_Windmill_89894796094_n_zps0izmlblf.jpg

See? Or rather, you don't. The stand crib sheet is not so noticeable. Black stand, black ring binder, and blacked out edges.

(not the best shot of me, but it is hard to find shots of me where you can see the stand and lyrics)

Wouldn't this look more professional and be a good compromise on something that clearly gets your goat?

thomasross20

Wow I never saw that lol! 

I don't know, I just think remembering the lyrics for the 40-50 songs we've been playing for the last year isn't tough considering we've learnt all the other parts. For 300 songs, I'd agree you need the sheets....!

For more gigs we're looking at getting a 3 song demo. That's what people are asking for. How do you get yours? 

BenSirAmos

How does anyone get gigs? Persistence. My only advice would be that if you spend too much time and energy getting a perfect 3 song demo together, you are bound to break up as soon as it is ready. 

Get anything half respectable together as a demo and get it into the bookers and keep hassling them until you get a date. 

(Get off the singer's case and start making your whole act more professional)

thomasross20

We have a demo - it sucks and nobody is responding to it. 

I've not really been on anbody's case but like I said, will give the benefit of the doubt / see what time brings. 

This is the whole point - I want the whole act to be more rounded.... this is exactly the point...

midlifecrisis

re demos,, as someone who apart from this year, has regularly booked bands im in 30-40 gigs a year ive never bothered with demos, im talking about pub gigs. have come to conclusion they never actually listen to them, its just a polite way of getting rid of you when theyre not interested or busy. tbh, what you record and sound like in the studio doesnt always bare up to what you do live.

BenSirAmos

I'm not sure anyone listens to demos either - which is why no-one should delay things while waiting to get the perfect recording - even if it was perfect, you wouldn't necessarily get a response that you want: that's leaving it up to them to do all the work. You have to be there regularly giving them reasons to book you. 

EricTheWeary

I hate booking gigs but I do try. Pretty rare that anyone is interested in a demo ( for a covers band really what's the point?). A video on YouTube you can link them to is more helpful. Quite often landlords, owners know each other to some extent so being able to say we just had a great gig at the Tampon and Badger can be useful.

Danny1969

In my experience you get gigs mainly from your reputation. If a landlord knows your band will get a load of people in his pub he will book you ..... the more people you can attract the more money you can ask for. The hard bit is doing it week after week, filling a pub once with friends is easy enough but attracting a following of people you don't know can take a long time to build up. Once you got that following though you don't need to do anything other than answer your phone to get gigs. 

Demo wise I think studio recordings are pointless (and I own a studio) As Eric mentioned above Live footage on Youtube is what they are looking for cos then they can see how busy the gig was and what you sound like live, crowd reaction and such. My main band has about 60 live videos on Youtube and we get offers from all over the country to play. 

@BenSirAmos : your solution is indeed a lot better than a load of white pages, took me a while to see it. ... and it's a good excuse to dress in black

BenSirAmos

Danny1969 said:

 

@BenSirAmos : your solution is indeed a lot better than a load of white pages, took me a while to see it. ... and it's a good excuse to dress in black

I drive the missus mad by using a black magic marker to go round the edge of each sheet of paper. I've also tried colouring in the bolts that attach the music stand to the mic stand (which you can just see in the pic) - but the magic marker came off on my hands. Then I tried tying bits of black cloth around the bolts before having a word with myself. Did I accuse @thomasross20 of being obsessive about song sheets?

thomasross20

Danny wow in regard to the getting offers!

OK, YouTube videos it is

robinbowes

robinbowes said:

I too am considering whether or not to continue. I've told the singer I'm not happy, mainly with the bass player.

Life is too short to put up with crap.

Things came to a head last night at rehearsal. We had rehearsed last week and worked through about 5 songs, had them down pretty well. Turned up last night and it was as if we'd never played them before.

I told the singer it was him or me. Looks like it's him, so I'm looking for a new band

Anyone need a guitarist round York?

R.

ICBM

@thomasross20 - having seen your band play and with no offence to anyone intended, I think you're too good a player and with too much of a commitment to doing things properly to stay with them in the long term other than as a fun side project with friends. You were all good, but at the level of a friends' party band rather than a professional gigging band, if you see what I mean! I enjoyed the gig and I liked the singers' voices and the whole atmosphere, but it was not a professional operation and I have a very strong feeling it never will be. The people who can do that are always far more committed from the off.

For what it's worth I'm not cut out for a professional band either, I don't have the skill or discipline to learn parts perfectly, and I don't enjoy it - I prefer looseness and unpredictability. I've tried a couple of times and parted company by mutual agreement .

I would look for something else you can do as well - if you've got something which really suits you and you can put most of your effort into it can be less frustrating dealing with the one which doesn't. Although obviously that requires the time to do both...