Quote:
Originally Posted by two fingers  Ha! You are better off without the dipsticks. I get so tired of commitment speeches from idiots who are going nowhere fast. If I hear the word commitment in the first 30 minutes of talking with a band, I split so fast it makes their heads spin. If you really want me to commit to something, it had better be established and paying big time money. If you want me to spend two years digging deeper and deeper into debt and misery with you, and commit to you just to save YOUR pride, no thanks.
Musicians, why are so many so unrealistic? Oy. |
A thousand times YES. Every band that I hear say something along these lines also usually talks about "making it." I'm sorry, but when you're a band that plays a gig every 9 weeks you have ZERO right to not take somebody in or get upset at a member on account of not being "committed." Committed to what? Coming to practice three times a week to learn cover songs and come up with band names and stage gimmicks?
I was in two bands that took up fairly equal amounts of time a few years ago. I was going to two rehearsals per week for each of them on top of having a second part-time job after my full-time one. I skipped one practice for the one band because I was exhausted, and I got chewed out for taking preference to the other band and not being "committed." This came from a vocalist who:
1) Constantly talked about "getting big"
2) Said he wanted to move out West so long as a few of us would come with him
3) Would refuse to play his own songs the same way more than once, resulting in us having to memorize vocal cues
4) Would not play certain parts WITHOUT vocals the same way twice
This dude's a really good friend of mine and writes some great music, but I felt that such behavior was pretty stupid.
Another band I'm familiar with existed for two years with the same members, played maybe 10 gigs at most, and kicked their guitarist out for "not being committed if we make it big." That band is now no more. Whodathunkit?
I'm seeing similar behavior from another band that my roommates are involved in now. After six months they still don't have a name, recordings, or more than three gigs under their belt. They all try to sing harmony and have improved marginally, but they seem more intent on screaming at the top of their range to "develop" it than actually practicing technique. Singer/guitarist quit his job to sleep in our basement on a mattress, which he has been doing for the past 2+ months now, and I've had several conversations with him where he indicates that he just wants to play music for a living and not work. Bassist is using a borrowed rig; other guitarist is using a borrowed amp. The whole thing just reeks of a bunch of kids playing musical dress-up, and it's sad because I genuinely believe that they're all good musicians, but in this specific context they seem to lack the drive or vision to understand what
has to be done
now in their careers as opposed to two years from now "when" they make it.
/End rant, but yeah. People who talk of commitment never have it and people that commit never have time to talk about it. Sucks even more because in every case I've seen the people were talented and capable, if logistically clueless.
Just saying...
