Yet another drummer quits...

invader3k · #1 07-13-2007, 12:09 PM

Haven't posted here in a while, due to being pretty busy with work and life, but I thought this would drum up a little conversation.

So, we're a pretty meat & potatoes three-piece rock cover band. We found our current drummer back in January of this year, and he's been working out pretty well. Our band has struggled a bit recently, as we tried to add a new lead singer, but he just didn't work out (he had more of a country background, and wasn't conmfortable in front of crowds, as we found out at our one show with him). So, we were back to being a three piece. Anyway, we've been trying to practice regularly, adding a few new songs, as we have a private party gig booked for July 28th.

I called the other guys in the band to try and put together practice for this weekend. I mentioned I wouldn't be available Sunday afternoon (family stuff). Keep in mind we didn't practice last weekend because we all had July 4th family stuff going on. The guitarist e-mails me, saying he's going to be gone Friday and Saturday on a fishing trip, and he didn't think practice would work this weekend. I forward this to the drummer to let him know, and I get back a reply of "I'm gonna call it quits, this thing isn't going anywhere." That's it, no other info or explanation. I call him, and of course get his voicemail. I left a polite and brief message saying I wanted to talk to him and see what's up. I still haven't heard back from him (this happened yesterday), and guess I don't plan to at this point.

So, yeah. We've been through about 6 drummers in 7 years. I dunno if that is bad, or it just is what it is. The funny thing is that his e-mail didn't really faze me. Our band underwent a big lineup change last fall (drummer and lead singer quit to star their own thing) that made me really unhappy, as we had been sounding really good up to that point, and I guess I don't feel emotionally invested in the band anymore. The big problem is we're supposed to be doing this show on July 28th for some relatives of our guitarist's, and it's a paying gig, so I hate to blow it off...at the same time, I don't feel like I have the energy to try and find a replacement in two weeks. Maybe it's time to just let this band die for good, or find something else. I don't know at this point.

Thoughts?

louieeadg · #2 07-13-2007, 02:32 PM

There has to be something missing here. He hadn't expressed any ill feelings prior to this point? Then just up and quit? Sounds odd.

invader3k · #3 07-13-2007, 08:20 PM

He really hadn't. In fact, we recently started practicing at his place, at his insistence. We'd been practicing at our guitarist's for the last, well, years, and the drummer wanted to do it at his place, so we did. I guess the only thing I can point to is that he was frustrated we weren't practicing enough, but it's not like he had made a big deal about that before. *shrug* I dunno...the whole thing is just another stupid incident in a long line of them, for our band. I know every band has lineup changes, but we seem to have a lot, and they always seem to come out of nowhere. I'm really close to telling the guitarist I want to kill the band off for good and move on to something else. Only tough part is that he's my best friend, and I'm sure he'll want to keep things going.

troy mcclure · #4 07-14-2007, 09:39 AM

Get a fill-in drummer, shouldn't be hard. Post an ad on craigslist.

SirCanealot · #5 07-14-2007, 02:57 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by troy mcclure

Get a fill-in drummer, shouldn't be hard. Post an ad on craigslist.

God yeah, if it's a paid gig... find a hired gun :P

Find someone decent and go and have a blast.

People can be like this. Maybe it's easier for him to say that then "You know what? I hate this, this, that, this, this, that, about the band and I think you suck" :P

BetterBottomEnd · #6 07-14-2007, 10:14 PM

Or maybe he's just at a different place then you guys and wants to be practicing and gigging all the time. Theres nothing wrong with that.

invader3k · #7 07-17-2007, 09:40 AM

Well, realistically, I don't think he has time to play more than we do anyway. He works a second shift factory job that he commutes over an hour to, and often works Saturdays. We were often practicing Sunday afternoons, or on the odd Saturday where he didn't have to work.

I e-mailed him yesterday:
"Well, I guess I'm not going to hear back from you, after the voice message I left the other day. I'm disappointed that we couldn't work out whatever issues you had with the band. It puts us in a bind, since we have that show scheduled for July 28th, as you know.

Hope things go well in your future.

- Invader3K"

I thought that was professional enough, but got my feelings across. It just frustrates me that this came out of left field, and we seem to have issues like this all the time with various band personnel. Like I mentioned before, I feel my passion has really waned for this band, due to stuff like this. I cancelled our band website a while ago because I felt it was a waste of money with all our lineup changes (that and no one else was helping with it), and at least this confirms that. Maybe people just don't like working with me, I don't really know. Basically I feel like I want to kill this band for good, and just go be a hired gun for someone, because I don't have any emotional investment in this band anymore.

invader3k · #8 07-20-2007, 01:50 PM

Just a quick update...our guitarist was working on finding a fill-in, but I haven't heard anything yet, and it's eight days from when we're supposed to do this show. Seems like we're gonna have to cancel this one, which kind of sucks.