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band drama:youtube covers vs. origonals

MarkMyWordsXx

MarkMyWordsXx

May 17, 2006
1,611
3
#1
somewhat of a rant, excuse that part.

So ive been in my current band for a year or so now. We have a 7 song EP, as well as 3 or 4 unfinished originals (i finished my parts). Our other focus, is youtube covers, and this is really the source of our disagreements. you can find them here SetTheCharge's Channel - YouTube

so its a 3 piece. me on bass, a singer/guitar player, and his brother the drummer. we have a unique situation in that they run their own studio, set up for internet radio broadcasts and audio production. So since i joined the band its been a partnership between me and the singer, with the drummer just coming in when we have finished songs for him to record. I dont believe he plays other than the twice a week we play.

some time in december we sat down and agreed on a gameplan for the spring and summer. We agreed that since we are stuck between old and new songs, we would take aprox. 4 months (ending in late march) to shoot and upload original videos for our ep. we set a date so it wouldnt be an ongoing thing, and however many we finish, we finish, so we can move on to our new content. the ep is a mix of older songs before me, and newer songs that we wrote together( lets say their 50-50 on average).

the problem is, its now almost march, and we have made little waves on the agreed upon originals, but will have released 3 cover videos paired with one live acoustic version of an original. im assured that we have started making progress on an original vid that we have big plans for, so we outsourced it to a local film maker that the band (not me) has some experience with.
I realize that the youtube growth is important, but not without originals to benefit from the subscribers. as you can see from our page, we have 5 or 6 original videos up, the majority being lyric videos.

Im tired of doing covers of bad pop songs, instead of working on originals and playing live shows. Im always assured that its all in support of our originals, but deadlines keep disappearing and being replaced with "quick" cover projects. Its not that our versions are bad, their quite good. Its just not fun anymore to try to redo "stupid hoe" rather than something artistic.

Has anyone else run into a similar situation? i get that they get us views, but i also would like to be in a real band that is proud of their art.
 
#3
I liked the original videos.

Are you sure the band is a "partnership" between you and the guitarist/singer? Is that the way the drummer would describe it? Is that the way the guitarist/singer would describe it?

Who writes the music? Were some of the originals written before you joined?

It seems from your post that you don't have as much control as you would like. I think the band 'ownership' and decision making authority should be discussed.
 
#5
After watching the Stupid Hoe clip, it's quite clear who the odd man out is...

Everyone looks to be into it, having fun...and the bassist looks bored as hell, as if he'd much rather be taken more seriously in kind of a "please notice that I'm playing bass" way as opposed to the other two guys who look like they are just happy as can be to goof off in a mock video.

I liked the version of the song, though...the drums and vocals were recorded professionally.

Couldn't hear one bit of a bass tone however...completely disappeared into the mix.


I would say do something else that fits your desires more. This clearly isn't it. No one is going to pay attention to a bass player who's doing a piss take of "Stupid Hoe" even though there is absolutely nothing wrong with that.
 
#7
MarkMyWordsXx said:
guess who mixes?
Click to expand...

I could hear the bass just fine, not if I listen on laptop speakers, but with good speakers or headphones I hear it just fine.

So these guys put together and own a recording studio equipped for internet broadcasts, and audio production. They mix at a professional level. The guitarist does the lead vocals and background vocals.

Someone's real good at video production too, and it doesn't appear to be you.

So, I'm guessing the guitarist writes the tunes also.

Is that about right?

What is your role besides playing the bass as I heard?

It really doesn't seem to be a partnership as you state.

But, the band has a good sound and good tunes. If you leave, will you find something as good as this?
 
#9
First of all I must say, you Sir, have one fantastically awesome mustache. Well done!

I look at the time and effort that goes into all of the productions on your page. That is a lot of work in the audio recording and in the video production. You have more than a quarter million hits, so people are interested in what you are doing. This is good. I also understand with that much work, you want a payoff somewhere, like live shows, finished products etc. Are you sure the other guys are interested in that? I have found, to my horror, that some guys are quite content and happy making "fake" videos and doing home recordings. You don't sound like one of those guys, your band mates, maybe.
A few questions. 1) Have you guys played live gigs before? If so, what was the result? 2) Your originals have some heavy vocal post production and added instrumentation. Is it possible to play them live, true to form, with your current 3 piece set up? As a group, do you have an end game? Touring? Recording deal? Sponsorships?

I really enjoyed the presentation, I hope you find a way to work it out.
 
#10
leonche64 said:
1) Have you guys played live gigs before? If so, what was the result? 2) Your originals have some heavy vocal post production and added instrumentation. Is it possible to play them live, true to form, with your current 3 piece set up? As a group, do you have an end game? Touring? Recording deal? Sponsorships?

I really enjoyed the presentation, I hope you find a way to work it out.
Click to expand...
Haha thanks! :p so yes we have played live maybe 7 or 8 times over the last year, one or two of them had a good result, some were eh, some left me wondering what I was doing in the band.

Over production has always been a concern to me, including our phantom synth player that always shows up after we finish recording, and can't reproduce live. I get a lot of "manson" comments about the over produced vocals.

I guess we should sit down and reestablish what we want to get out of this.

Thanks for all the opinions so far guys, even the not so friendly ones.
 
#11
hudpucker said:
You're too young to be spending that much time on covers when your heart is clearly in original music, IMO.
Click to expand...

My first gut feeling as well. I'm impressed with your originals. I still like that you guys did your own versions of these covers. I wouldn't post all of them , though. I think Stupid Hoe is one that I would put on the shelf. I would take a couple (the best ones) that are the best representaion of your "sound" . It would be smart , imo, to pick the best from the lot and only let people see those. I see the strategy and can appreciate it big time. You guys are really working at it which is the most important thing. Congrats on your songwriting ability, btw.
 

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