Are you friends with your bandmates ?

**MAJOR METAL** · #1 07-30-2007, 06:16 PM

Are you friends with your bandmates ? I am with a few not all though and we socialize outide of the gig.

knarleybass · #2 07-30-2007, 06:19 PM

I consider my bandmates friends, I don't spend to much time with them outside the gig, but I alwayse look forward to hanging out with them when we have gigs. At this stage gigs are more of an excuse for us to get together and hang out.

Jim Powers · #3 07-30-2007, 06:20 PM

We work together in a large company; the guitarist is my boss! This was initially different but has actually developed better overall relationships.

Edwcdc · #4 07-30-2007, 06:30 PM

I am friends with the guys in my band and we get along great but I seldom see them outside of gigs and practice.

Hallway · #5 07-30-2007, 06:30 PM

My bandmates and I have been good friends since middleschool. We have had some rough spots but overall its been great. Being in a group together is almost a reason to NOT hang out imbetween practices/shows.

Nino Valenti · #6 07-30-2007, 07:13 PM

Theorem is like family. We've been together for 13 years and Darren (Vocals) had been with us for about 7. Been through Marriages, Births, Divorces, Birthday party's, etc.

My cover band than I jam with, were like family. Not as close as but closer than some other bands I've been in.

I try not to be in bands that I don't consider close friends.

bro)))616 · #7 07-30-2007, 07:15 PM

friends first
band last
friends after its over

Nino Valenti · #8 07-30-2007, 07:20 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by bro)))616

friends first
band last
friends after its over

Best post ever!!!!!

Lazylion · #9 07-30-2007, 09:10 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by knarleybass

I consider my bandmates friends, I don't spend too much time with them outside the gig, but I always look forward to hanging out with them when we have gigs.

+1 for my country band. Most of them live a little far from me for hanging out.
My other band contains my brother and my cousin, so we have family events, some with playing, some without, and various other hangs from time to time.

I wouldn't last too long in a band where I couldn't consider anyone a friend.

Baird6869 · #10 07-30-2007, 09:19 PM

I am not very close with any of the 5 guys I play with (drummer/guitar in one band and drummer/guitar/singer in the second band) but that is mainly due to the fact that I only joined both bands 4 months ago.

I doubt any of us will be bestest friends as we are all at different stages of our life right now.

GeddyFlea1974 · #11 07-30-2007, 09:27 PM

In my main band, the guitarist (we're a trio) was a pretty good friend of mine from school, but I didn't know the drummer too well, and so we had respect for each other after a nice jam session, but weren't exactly friends. However, after our first show together, we became inseparable. We were hanging out waiting for the guitarist to get there, and became friends real fast. I have been in bands that I have had touch-and-go friendships with the members; I'm no longer in them, so I guess that means I pretty much have to be friends with my bandmates or it doesn't work. Haha

SlavaF · #12 07-30-2007, 10:24 PM

In any of the bands I've ever been in, sooner or later I've developed friendships with all the members. That's not to say the friendships haven't been thoroughly tested (occasionally because of me

lol), but we can get over it and move on.

The ex-lead singer in Black Aurora (who I officially fired, BTW) and I were best friends before the split, and we're still pretty good buddies afterwards, even after threatened lawsuits and whatnot (don't ask!)

NKUSigEp · #13 07-30-2007, 10:41 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by MAJOR METAL

Are you friends with your bandmates ? I am with a few not all though and we socialize outide of the gig.

Been good friends with 4 of 'em over the years. The drummer I played with in high school went and got married and that was the end of that. The guitarist I was with off and on up until this year has moved on to "bigger and better" things aka scouring the countryside for the perfect singer and drummer and so on and so forth. To me, that's a wild goose-chase so I wished him well and said goodbye.

And I still jam with two guitarists (seperately) who are cool dudes to drink a beer with. I'm thinking about trying to unite the two and just form one sweet southern metal band as they are identical twins in appearance, style, gear, etc. The only difference is that one's in KY and the other is almost directly north across the river in OH.

Hahahaha - or I could have just said "yes, I'm friends with a few of them".

jtkennedy9 · #14 07-30-2007, 11:10 PM

When I auditioned for the band I'm playing in now, I didn't know anybody. We get to play every Thursday together, and in the last year we've become pretty close. Great bandmates and friends....

**tommyr01** · #15 07-30-2007, 11:18 PM

My singer has been one of my best friends since we started the band in 1989. His brother the guitarist has been a pretty close friend since then also. Unfortunately we've been through a number of drummers, so I've haven't really been able to get close to any of them.

Dave Muscato · #16 07-30-2007, 11:32 PM

We are a trio and very close. The drummer and I grew up together and have been playing together off & on since we were about 13. The guitar player/singer and I have been very close friends since we met 4 years ago. I actually just moved in with my drummer, and the third guy will be moving in when his current lease ends. We hang out often outside of playing.

- Dave

daofktr · #17 07-31-2007, 03:08 AM

i am still very good friends with the band i was in back in boston.
i am on quite friendly terms with both the guys in the blues band i'm in, though we do not hang out, and i get along pretty well with the guys in my cover band...
the guitar player, especially.
the last two original things i was in both were inflicted with massengill disease, and i made the fatal error of working for both drummers!
i'm finding out that, although i would vastly prefer to be tight friends with musicians that i play with, sometimes it ain't in the cards...too many backstabbers, too many headcases, too many issues/neuroses, and sometimes life just plain gets in the way.
i'll be happy to just get along with them, avoid drama, and make some good music, and decent money, when possible.

brianrost · #18 07-31-2007, 07:15 AM

I am friendly with all of them. I am friends with just a few.

I actually have very few friends who are not musicians, between raising kids and gigging I have no time for a social life. That might change in a few years once the kids are pout of college.

pointbass · #19 07-31-2007, 07:25 AM

We're only a trio, but we get along very well. I'm very good friends with the guitar player ..... we do a lot together socially and our wives are also very good friends. Not quite as social with the drummer, but friends none the less ....

I've been in much better bands musically, but there were always band-mate issues. This trio has been a great experience so far ......

cdef · #20 07-31-2007, 07:53 AM

I'm currently in two musically very different bands. In Band A we're all great friends and get along famously on the road, but for various reasons we hardly ever see each other in more normal social contexts. I get to help the others out with their PC software sometimes, we burn some CDs for each other, and that's about it. Our singer/songwriter/frontman has been distancing himself slightly in the last few years and prefers to hang with his own circle of young sycophants. That's OK, because we know he craves that kind of uncritical admiration to feel good about himself. SMS and email traffic is still lively.

Relations in Band B are more complicated historically, and too involved to go into here. Some of the guys I've known for over 30 years, others only since 2004. There is a recent and apparently serious communication problem between two core members that caused a gig to be cancelled. Everyone behaves in a respectful and gentlemanly fashion, but contact outside of urgent band matters is nil at the moment.