Trouble in Paradise

MetsFan5 · #1 05-14-2008, 05:54 PM

Me and my buddies have set up the band... But we can't agree on what type of music to play. My one friend wants to play Metal, the lead guitarist that is... The other mems don't care, but we don't really wanna play metal. Everyone gets a bad rap for playing metal, and I don't believe that life has no meaning... We can't figure it out... I kinda wanna play Hard Rock, but everyone else does't care... Can someone help me?

sirpug · #2 05-14-2008, 07:17 PM

The band that my friend and I just started is dealing with this same question. There are four of us and we all like slightly different types of rock music. Just remember that a band is a democracy. For our cover list, we each put five songs on a ballot and then voted for our own top ten from that list of twenty. Songs that happened to get four votes were in, followed by songs that got three votes and so on. This way we got a list of ten to start playing that everybody could live with. As far as our originals go, we just started jamming songs and it seems to be working out that our different styles are complimenting each other. One guitar player is more into metal and the other one is more into the older blues/rock style. The mesh is making for some really interesting and unique sounding guitar riffs and solos. Just start jamming and see what happens.

MetsFan5 · #3 05-14-2008, 07:56 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by sirpug

The band that my friend and I just started is dealing with this same question. There are four of us and we all like slightly different types of rock music. Just remember that a band is a democracy. For our cover list, we each put five songs on a ballot and then voted for our own top ten from that list of twenty. Songs that happened to get four votes were in, followed by songs that got three votes and so on. This way we got a list of ten to start playing that everybody could live with. As far as our originals go, we just started jamming songs and it seems to be working out that our different styles are complimenting each other. One guitar player is more into metal and the other one is more into the older blues/rock style. The mesh is making for some really interesting and unique sounding guitar riffs and solos. Just start jamming and see what happens.

ty

Depth_Charge · #4 05-15-2008, 02:32 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by MetsFan5

Me and my buddies have set up the band... But we can't agree on what type of music to play. My one friend wants to play Metal, the lead guitarist that is... The other mems don't care, but we don't really wanna play metal. Everyone gets a bad rap for playing metal, and I don't believe that life has no meaning... We can't figure it out... I kinda wanna play Hard Rock, but everyone else does't care... Can someone help me?

Hard Rock and Metal are pretty closely tied, depending on which metal the lead guitarist likes of course...

I don't see any reason why you can't do elements of both, lay down the hard rock groove then metal up the solo's etc.

Sounds like a good opportunity to explore some interesting musical space to me

I'd be on board with something like that!

IanStephenson · #5 05-15-2008, 04:40 AM

If it's a "buddy" band then you're going to all have to chill - it's for fun. Find compromises, and don't be precious about it. Spending time with friends is more important than the music. Rather than arguing about genre, pick some tracks. If your metal friend picks a few tracks maybe your hard rock friend might like some of them, or be able to suguest alternatives that everyone is OK with.

If you're a serious band looking to gig regularly then move on...

BillyRay · #6 05-15-2008, 10:09 AM

Sounds like the band I'm in right now: nobody sees eye to eye regarding musical choices, except mayeb the singer/guitard and myself. And it is becoming a buddy band.

Make compromises on song choices but not on musicianship. I have done that too many times already.

ClassicRock55 · #7 05-15-2008, 10:13 AM

my old band was like that. Me and the lead guitarist were set on stuff like classic rock and funk, good old stuff. The drummer and 2nd guitarist were dead set on alternative. We only played classic rock. Why? because the other half of the band was too lazy to learn any alternative numbers. If you want to play hard rock, learn tons of songs. You'll have the upper hand over other members (usually a guitard thing) who want to play a certain style of music but want everyone but them to do the work learning it. Good luck figuring this out.

Stealth · #8 05-15-2008, 10:20 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by MetsFan5

Everyone gets a bad rap for playing metal, and I don't believe that life has no meaning...

I fail to see the relation inbetween the two.

JackANSI · #9 05-15-2008, 02:00 PM

I used to have this problem with every band I was in... Then I grew a bit older and came to conclusion that its much nicer and much more fun for me to just play with people into similar stuff as I am.

My musical life has been actually making me money lately and feels fulfilling in a way it never has before.

Don't get me wrong, people bringing different styles really are great to have in a band!

...but not to the point where you can play anything because no one agrees.

COOL AND DEADLY · #10 05-15-2008, 02:14 PM

Sounds all too familiar. When we started I was looking for straight up reggae musicians. The lead guitarist said he was a big fan of Sublime and could definetly do reggae. I figured that would work fine. It did, but we leaned a little bit too far away from reggae for my tastes. I had a much more traditional reggae sound in mind, but without a legit reggae singer, leaning towards Sublime-like rock, punkish, reggae worked better. So three years later I have become a big fan of our sound which is neither traditional reggae or Sublime. It's just us. We all like reggae, but we all bring other influences into the mix and it seems to me to be a groovy, unique, fun sound. Now I find myself influenced more and more by great bassists from other genres, especially Jaco. So, if you guys can work out compromises you can probably succeed without picking a neatly packaged genre to put yourself into. We have some songs that are very heavy with a lot of distortion, like hard rock, and even a country song.

mikopita · #11 05-15-2008, 02:18 PM

Everyone has an idea of what they'd like to play. Rarely (if ever) does a band agree 100% on what to play though. It's like anything else in life.... you have to compromise. Hopefully you'll be able to convince the other guys to compromise too. IMHO, the best bands are those whose members come from slightly different backgrounds anyway.

bkbirge · #12 05-15-2008, 02:32 PM

You need to tell them it's Klezmer or it's nothin'.

bigfatbass · #13 05-15-2008, 02:36 PM

Pick a song you all like, and learn to play it without sucking.

It's not rocket science, it's rock n' roll, and you have already thought too much about it.

MetsFan5 · #14 05-15-2008, 02:58 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Stealth

I fail to see the relation inbetween the two.

When I wikipedia'd the type of metal my friend wants to play, it kept talking about some nephalish (wrong?) which means life has no meaning...

Depth_Charge · #15 05-15-2008, 07:57 PM

First, who cares? Do you like the music? Then learn to play it and rock out.

And second, Life has no meaning! It's what we make it that makes it mean something.

Stealth · #16 05-16-2008, 12:04 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Depth_Charge

First, who cares? Do you like the music? Then learn to play it and rock out.

And second, Life has no meaning! It's what we make it that makes it mean something.

+1

Thankfully, there's so many varieties and subgenres of metal theres' no point (pun intended) in boiling it all down to "depression metal". Come on, even doom metal has its bright moments!

It's worth repeating the previous posts - slowly add things into the mix and you'll likely end up with a completely new blend of music. Sometimes it really is worth giving up on boxing songs into genres and just letting it all flow.

Implosion · #17 05-16-2008, 02:04 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by MetsFan5

When I wikipedia'd the type of metal my friend wants to play, it kept talking about some nephalish (wrong?) which means life has no meaning...

Now I'm interested. What kind of metal was it? Could you give the genre name?

heroincredible · #18 05-16-2008, 02:22 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Implosion

Now I'm interested. What kind of metal was it? Could you give the genre name?

It was probably doom metal.

And who is this 'everyone' that gets a bad rap for playing metal?

What's wrong with playing metal?

Implosion · #19 05-16-2008, 02:29 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by heroincredible

It was probably doom metal.

And who is this 'everyone' that gets a bad rap for playing metal?

What's wrong with playing metal?

You know, it's like dangerous.

mutedeity · #20 05-16-2008, 02:37 AM

My advice is that you should get together and jam and see what happens. There is no point in saying it is going to be this type of music or that type of music before you even play together. Think of the bands out there that are unique and have their own thing going on. They are the bands that let all of their influences and ideas come together without having to categorise them before they are even written.

If you guys jam and it doesn't work for you or any other given member then you need to look for other people that have similar ideas. That's just the way things are, to be honest. There is no point forcing yourself or someone else to play something they aren't happy with. On the other hand you can come up with some interesting ideas when everyone has a slightly different approach to a project.

By the way, just in response to something someone else said, not all bands are democracies, but that is beside the point in this case, I think.