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Better Band Or Better Friends?

The Band, Or The Bond?

  • Take the contract; drop the friend.

    Votes: 6 85.7%

  • Drop the friend; take the contract.

    Votes: 1 14.3%
  • Total voters
    7
O

Omnipharious

Mar 14, 2010
367
10
Douglasville/Villa Rica, GA
#1
(Poll has a typo, ignore it, just reply with your answer)

Which is more important? I know this can be a pretty loaded question, so I'll try to not be too open-ended with it.

You're in a band started amongst friends, one or two of the friends left (either in interests of other music, or just they just hung up their instruments), and you have had to get a person or two in the band that you don't all know too well, but the person, or people, play well, and don't complain. Let's say it's you, and two or three other friends, and the one or two aforementioned others in the band.

This band has been together for about two years now, but it's small time nonetheless. Local gigs are your usual hire, nothing more glamorous than a dark, smoggy dive. While playing at one of those small gigs, a music producer doesn't see the band, he sees potential. He approaches the band saying that he wants to give you guys a two year recording contract, but his son is a keyboard player, and one of prerequisites of this contract is that his son is the band's keyboard player. Your keyboard player is one of the founding members; one of your friends.

The vote is split, you're the King's X. What do you do? Keep the friend, and almost surely develop lung cancer; or drop Johnny Nobody, and start looking a pair of huge headphones?
 
#3
If your keyboard player sucked, and they had a hotshot virtuoso they wanted to add to your band, I'd say take the contract and drop your buddy.

The fact that he wants his kid to be in your band (I'm not sure, maybe he's a hotshot virtuoso?) doesn't speak well to me.

Screw him, and his keyboard playing brat, and get used to those local venues......
 
#5
I agree with Phalex. Don't go for instant gratification. It leads nowhere. Get so good that some other producer sees not potential, but the band at hand. Besides, what's more fun, playing music with your friends, enjoying the experience and rocking it out with great chemistry on stage, (as long as your making a living) even if not in glamorous places, or playing in a band with maybe one good friend, meaning not quite as good chemistry, maybe even resentment among members, leading to a falling out and break up, and later having to deal with a buddy who's bitter about being replaced in the name of cash? I go for #1.
 
#6
Are you asking this as an abstract moral dilemma or is it an actual choice you're facing? If it's meant as a black-and-white moral dilemma, I guess I would assume 1) that said contract is a "big break" that will send you on to fame and fortune, 2) that the friend is musically just as good a contributor to the band as the producer's son would be, 3) there's no middle option to keep the friend involved, and 4) that a recording contract is the band dream, you're not weekend warriors who play for fun and pocket money in spare time from your real jobs. Oh yes, and 5) that what your friend has to say on the matter is not supposed to be taken into account.

As an abstract dilemma, if I were 20 and my lifetime dream was to be a rock star, I would take the contract. If your friend is really a friend he would support you in the opportunity that's opened up and be happy for you, though he'd be bittersweet at not being able to come along. Friendship should be based on more than making a career together. Besides, once you make it big and the two year contract has run its course, you can find ways to do new bands and projects with your friend and give his career a boost too.

If this is a real life situation, I'd revisit variables 1 through 5 here. 1) Who is this producer really? Does he have a track record of successful bands? Is he investing in your band as a group or is he hiring some backing musicians for his son? 2) Is the son any good? Likely to succeed? Or will you be spending two years recording crap with a dud who will never catch on with an audience? Is your friend a great musician or a mediocre one who's only in the band because of friendship anyway? 3) If said producer really wants you, can you negotiate some sort of provision for the friend to stay involved? 4) If the point of the band is just to play together, make good music, and have fun, then risking a friendship for fortune and fame does not fit. 5) What does your friend say about it? Is he willing to sacrifice for the band's greater good, does he want you guys to be held back so that he can stay with you?

So in real life, I'd need to know more before making a decision about this one.
 
#7
Given how little value most recording contracts actually represent- see Steve Albini's article for the math - I'd say it's a no-brainer, go with your friend and screw this guy and his son who can't get in a band of his own. It actually sounds like the "producer" guy might be totally full of S4!T - do you know for a fact that he really wields any power at all to write a meaningful contract? Or is he just some huckster with maybe some extra cash who wants to buy his son a band to play in?
 
#8
The question is more of a obligatory moral dilemma, I wanted to see how people who have been in a band would answer, as I have never been in one, and my friend wants to start one with me and my brother.

I'd rather not go too far into the hypothetical and make it too obvious what the choice would be, so let's just say that your keyboard player is good, not amazing, but neither are any of you (in this hypothetical band), and you don't know how good the producer's kid is, but he says he's good; it's not a producer you've heard of, but you googled him, and found out he won't be able to make you Zepplin, but he can get you somewhere; the producer is giving you only a small window of opportunity, and it isn't a flexible window, or one that will last long.
 
#9
If this wasn't hypothetical, I'd first find out if the son was really a much better keyboards player. Then, I'd pay an attorney to review the contract. Then I'd consider how likely my friends and I would be secure in our jobs if the producer has other relatives.
 
#10
Omnipharious said:
let's just say that your keyboard player is good, not amazing, but neither are any of you (in this hypothetical band), and you don't know how good the producer's kid is, but he says he's good; it's not a producer you've heard of, but you googled him, and found out he won't be able to make you Zepplin, but he can get you somewhere; the producer is giving you only a small window of opportunity, and it isn't a flexible window, or one that will last long.
Click to expand...

Hypothetically speaking, if you and your mates are "good" (hypothetically), then no hypothetical producer's son is going to make you better.

+1 on the Albini article. It will remove the scales from your eyes.
 
#11
What is the payoff again? A two year recording contract means you agree to record only with this producer for two years, but says nothing of what you will gain. A producer who wants to add his family to your band sounds shady.

If there really is something to gain, I'd weigh the skill and dedication of the keyboardist, but in the end, I doubt there is something worth trading him for. Two years is a short time.
 
#12
I would stay clear.

The condition of "and you have to fire your guy so my son can join" is a HUGE red flag to me, and is completely unprofessional. If his son is so much better than your buddy then the kid would be in a band already. Also, if your band has potential, your current keys guy contributed to that.

I would say that this "producer" person is not somebody that will help your band. More than likely what will happen is it will start with firing your friend, which will generate internal drama within the band, and further that will give the producer a foothold in the band, so that anytime somebody disagrees with the new guy you'll get things like "but my dad thinks...." There are way more opportunities for disaster with this than benefits.
 
#13
I shouldn't have screwed up that poll; you guys are making this ultimatum a rainbow.

None of you are amazing, I should say. Most of the most popular bands these days aren't good anyway. Producers see monetary success, not instrumental prowess.

Try and answer it as if you were in the situation; as I said, the offer is on the table, and the table's slipping away fast. It's only hypothetical, for heaven's sake.
 
#15
You ask for an opinion then say "none of you are amazing." I'm assuming that's a bit of an insult. However, record deals usually are based on a per record contract not per year (ie: a 2 record deal, 3 record whatever, not 2 year, 3 year)
 
#17
OtterOnBass said:
I don't think our answers will mean anything to you, since you're working in total fantasy.
Click to expand...

Now that attitude will get all of us nowhere. It's just a hypothetical. Take the deal, or keep the friend. I'm just trying to see what other people would do. If you really want to be picky, and you're going to rummage through every situation I try and conjure up, then for you, and anyone else who has been doing the same thing, let's just look at it as black and white as possible: would you rather be in a more successful band, or in a more close-knit band?
 
#18
Omnipharious said:
...let's just look at it as black and white as possible: would you rather be in a more successful band, or in a more close-knit band?
Click to expand...

There's more to it than that. Your band now has a new influence and possibly two new influences if you consider that both you and the new musician are now indebted to the uncle who is now your ticket to maybe, possibly being successful.

Apart from no guarantee of actually being successful you now have a new personality you'll have to deal with and if it turns out to be a bust you'll be right back where you were before the deal except now you'll be down a friend and a bandmate you knew you could work with.
 
#20
Phalex said:
If your keyboard player sucked, and they had a hotshot virtuoso they wanted to add to your band, I'd say take the contract and drop your buddy.

The fact that he wants his kid to be in your band (I'm not sure, maybe he's a hotshot virtuoso?) doesn't speak well to me.

Screw him, and his keyboard playing brat, and get used to those local venues......
Click to expand...

+ 1. My sentiments exactly. Only replace a known commodity with a far superior known commodity, not a pig in a poke.
 

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