I got back from my Cirque audition a couple of days ago and I think it was a huge waste of time for me. The auditions were in Austin and I learned about it after I was perusing their website for musician job opportunities.
I saw that part of the application process for the Austin auditions were to submit two videos. After they saw these videos and looked over your resume they would issue you an audition invitation and you would schedule your own audition.
I got my invite, scheduled my audition, updated my photo and resume, and learned the songs they sent me.
They ended up sending me 6 songs for electric bass and told me that I would have to play them one song on a keyboard of my choosing.
None of that was a problem.
I would have to include their songs on a CD, bring it with me, and play along with the tracks at my audition. By the way, the songs they sent me had two versions: a reference track with a click and a track without the bass and a click. Also, a score was provided.
I then got, what I thought, were a series of bright ideas that would ultimately be my undoing in the process. From the audition experiences I'd read I decided that I would include one of my own songs without the bass track to perform in case they asked. I also included a backing track for myself for a song I wrote for a movie that was for acoustic guitar (in case they asked if I played guitar...which I do). I then included a backing track for two songs on piano which I was going to play and sing at the same time. These songs were Dream Theater's "Space-Dye Vest" and A Fine Frenzy's "Near To You." The backing tracks had a click track and drums, guitar, and additional keys that I performed myself. I was to use these backing tracks to play piano to and showcase my arranging capabilities.
The other idea I had was that I wanted to build a travel rig with a small percussion set on top. I had a Hartke 4x10 cab on bottom, my rack on top of that, an Alesis DM5 module with 4 electronic percussion pads attached to the rack mount, and my Line 6 podxt on top of that. This was all strapped together so I could literally wheel it in, plug it in, and go in 10 seconds.
All that worked out just fine.
My problem was that I tried to do WAY too much. In the songs they gave me there were these long gaps in the music that didn't have bass. So I decided that I'd spruce things up...be myself as they say. So in these gaps of bass-less moments I'd add some volume swells, percussion, and additional flourishes.
They didn't care for that.
Also, in my excessive practice I ended up damaging one of my fingers making it difficult to pop strings in slap/pop style. So during my performance I missed a couple of those.
So I feel that my performance was lacking, I was adding too much stuff that wasn't in the original recordings, and I wasn't responding to their critique because I didn't really agree with it so much.
This isn't meant to be sour grapes. I completely agree with them not picking me. If I was in their position I wouldn't have picked me either.
In hindsight I should have just gone in their with my bass, played the songs as they were recorded and left the silences alone and added my improvisations within the sequence loops.
I ended up spending 900 dollars getting my car fixed to get down there, 400 dollars on a hotel room for a couple of days (this was during SXSW festival so prices were a bit higher), buying a new bass to use which I didn't get a chance to use, and spent hours working on songs that I would never get a chance to play...16 hours of driving for a brief audition for a room full of people that were obviously itching to get out and grab dinner.
So I blame myself for not being polished enough. I would have performed a lot better if I wasn't trying to play drums and bass at the same time. I stupid decision on my part. Live and learn, you know.
I actually ended up recording around 18 songs on camera and if given the opportunity to audition for them again I wouldn't do it. They said they really wanted the songs to stick to the original recordings. That's something that I'm not interested in doing. I wanted to put my own stamp on it.
Oh well, it was a learning experience and I took a gamble.
Here is part 1 of my audition video if you're interested:
YouTube - Jay Lamm's bass guitar audition video for Cirque Du Soleil - part 1
