Dealing w/ Differing Band Views

[mikedubbs]

I just joined a band & curious if anyone has dealt w/ people in their band being overly gung-ho? This was something I didn't pick up on right away but slowly snowballing...... For instance:

-Slowly ramping the 2 practice a wk schedule to 4 a wk
-Prematurely accepting gigs when the material needs work (from other bands I've played w/ I notice a difference between this & the typical musician never being satisfied feeling)
-No demo ....we're going straight into recording a full length
-Talking about how a tour will happen around summer(yet our 1st bar gig is a month away) ---& hinting that my job has to go then
-Focusing on t-shirts, banners, myspace, etc way too much for a new band

I don't want to make it sound all bad because the music is actually good.....but I got a singer who thinks we're already rock stars & a drummer who's his "yes man".

Feedback.......welcome!

[McGroovin']

I would stick with it until summer, then if they want you to drop your job for a tour that will most likely blow, drop them. The bands I have been in were great, and had potential to do some cool stuff, they just had a problem with getting together on a regular basis. Sounds like your band doesn't have that problem. But a tour after being together for only a few months after your first gig is kinda pushing it IMHO.

Does your band fit in with the scenes going on around your area? I've seen bands that totally blow around here that play plenty of shows, tour, get good crowd response, and make some decent money, but they play the heavy growling, screaming hardcore stuff that's in "style" right now. Most of the singers can't even sing in key when they stop growling and screaming at you. So it really depends on what people want to hear around there.

If you can, get to be good friends with an established band that everyone likes, then you can start doing shows with them.

If nothing else, practicing 4 times a week will give you some good experience and practice time.

That's just my $.02.

[invader3k]

Kind of sounds like they're the typical dreamer "rock star wannabes". Talking about touring when you haven't even done one gig yet? Kind of putting the cart before the horse.

Also, I can't fathom any band doing four practices per week, originals or not. Do these guys have real jobs, or are they the typical "I play guitar in my parents' basement, and deliver pizza two days a week, so I'm a musician" types?

[mikedubbs]

"Talking about touring when you haven't even done one gig yet? Kind of putting the cart before the horse."

Dead on.....I can't even count how many times I've thrown out that analogy.

[bigfatbass]

Most booking/management of any worth won't touch you for a tour until you've been out doing it yourself for at least one calendar year.

Saves on dealing with the routing whiners and wannabes like you are talking about. I wouldn't worry about any of it until they get a return gig somewhere. Tell them to be good enough to be asked back first, then try to build from there. You've said the tunes are good, trust your ears and try to ignore the pipe-dreaming. If they are actually good enough to make a go of it, their enthusiasm might actually be a plus.

[Bass Mule]

First question: How old are you guys?
Second question: What are your priorities as a band?
Third: What are your individual priorities?
4th: Do these priorities overlap? Or do they conflict?
5th: Who's priorities are more important to you? Your own? Or the Band's?

Answer those questions, and you'll know what to do.

[dcr]

Hey, I used to play with them!

• Girl singer who thought she was Shania Twain (but she did look the part). She also had no real job.
• Yes man drummer (her fiance/husband)
• Keyboard player with no real job
• Guit#1 with no real job
• Manager-type with no real job. Swore he would make her famous.

We rehearsed 5-7 nights a week. I had a real job, so I was leaving early in the a.m. for work, getting home, going to rehearsal, repeat every day. And they intended to have learned songs during the day.

I quit them after I fell asleep at the wheel and hit something on a construction site. Watched the news for 3 days to see if it ended up being somebody.

They never did get anywhere. I think they ended up with two gigs, max.

Overall, Bass Mule has some really good advice. It's about the same line of reasoning that I used to talk myself into quitting the above band.


dcr

[Fawkes007]

My orginals bands in Boston would rehearse 4-5 days a week without fail. If nothing else, it made us really, really good. By that I mean, everyone could play - but playing together is a whole other story!

The best way to get even better? Record and play gigs as soon as you can. Recording is good because you can listen back to it and make adjustments and improvements. What may sound fine to you in rehearsal may give you another idea when you are listening to a play back! You may discover that that cute little fill you threw in doesn't work. And gigs will give you the stage experience.

(Actually, if you want to get REALLY good, join a cover band where you have to cover many different styles).

In terms of touring, well, that may be a bit ambitious at this stage in the game, but you never know. I knew a band in Boston that was signed and on the national scene within a year! Those cases are rare, but they do happen.

One band I was in was under contract to the Power Station in NYC. We were in Boston. During the recoding of our EP, some keyboard parts had to be done over. The keyboardist said he had to work and couldn't make the session until the next day. So, the next day when he showed up, Tony Bongiovi, who owned the Power Station at the time and was our producer, said to him, "What do you do for work?" The keyboardist replied, "I'm a sheet metal mechanic." So Tony asked him a simple question, "Do you want to be a sheet metal mechanic or a rock star?" I think he made his point.

Having goals is good, even if they seem far off at the time. If you like the music and the people in the band, go with it. I'd rather play bass for a living than do anything else, and in my 20's and 30's that is all I cared about. I was lucky to have a job at Berklee where it was OK for me to take a few days off at a moments notice - they understood what I was trying to do, and I worked my tail off for them. I don't think IBM would have been that understanding.

[YCBass]

It is a problem but it's a better problem to have instead of having to motivate (or push really) your bandmates to get things done.

I would say really figure out what you want out of the situation and ride along - if they're talking like that then they should put up and do the leg work that comes with those plans - do as much as you feel comfortable with to make it happen.

I used to be in a band that rehearsed 6x/week - that was because we were all young and single and that's all we really had - without partying too much.

[Audiophage]

I would never practice with a band 4 or 6 times a week, you need the space to figure things out on your own.

[chaosMK]

My band was full force like that when we started-

Practicing almost every day, for our second show accepting a 2 hr slot when we had 45 mins of music (we practiced every day so in a week, we filled up the material), recording a 10 song album before a demo (never released, wasnt great quality). Shirts and merch came later and I cant say there was anything stupid about the way we approached it. We always wanted to do out of town shows, tours, etc, but were never able to successfully coordinate it (vehicle/transportation/comfort level was the big issue). Once we really got serious, like a year into it, we'd promote every show with 500-1000 handbills handed out to people at venues or on windshields.

Now... having done all these crazy things personally this is what happened- we gained a ton of success very quickly. We shot to the forefront of our scene. Everything we did for about 2 years was golden- main stages, winning music awards (on the second album, which didnt suck at least), venues filled to capacity, recognition in the local rags, opening for national acts, excellent business relationship all around and in the scene, radio play, etc.

This might burn you out though.

Remember to have fun and the original spark of what drove the music and experience and to keep your life well balanced in general- it's easy to get wrapped up in the business end and forget some of this stuff.

We are kind of on semi permanent hiatus now.

[jimbob]

Summer is still a long way off so lots of stuff can happen between now and then but keep your "spider sense" going.

[dman_113]

Ok so here are my person opinions on your situation from my own experience.

-Slowly ramping the 2 practice a wk schedule to 4 a wk

OK, I'm a big proponent of practice but 4 days a week will tend to burn you out, if people are working on there parts at home 2 should be fine.

-Prematurely accepting gigs when the material needs work (from other bands I've played w/ I notice a difference between this & the typical musician never being satisfied feeling)

Have these guys ever gigged before? If not than this could just be innocent enthusiasm, but if you don't feel that the material is ready you should voice your concerns.

-No demo ....we're going straight into recording a full length

This is almost always a waste of money, demos are cheaper and do the same for a beginning band as a full length will do.

-Talking about how a tour will happen around summer(yet our 1st bar gig is a month away) ---& hinting that my job has to go then

I would just ride this one out and see what happens.

-Focusing on t-shirts, banners, myspace, etc way too much for a new band

Well myspace is free so I really wouldn't worry about this one to much, on the other hand banners and t-shirts are not. I would suggest starting small, get 500 black and white stickers made and hand them out. T-shirts are harder to sell than people seem to think, I was in a band for 4 years we could sell out the 300 person music hall here in town when we played at it and we couldn't sell shirts worth a darn.

[invader3k]

Heh, speaking on shirts, I've kind of been on that end. Our band had already been together for about three years and I thought things were kind of taking off for us. I bought t-shirts to sell, and of course a couple weeks later, our drummer goes AWOL. We've sold quite a few of the shirts, but I still have a box full up in my attic, waiting for another gig.