Do you get enough input into your bands material?

[OneAri]

Quick rundown, I joined my first originals band about a month ago basically acting as a hired gun for two guys i know and like quite well (guitar/vox & drummer). It's the first time I've played original material and I gotta say I don't think I could go back to covers, it's been good and productive so far and we have our first couple of gigs within a month.
One problem...
I don't feel like I have much input, I know this goes back to 'should a hired gun have standards?' debate etc etc. But fundamental things like naming a song ( I have artistic, though not musical background so having an allusiveness and depth in names and lyrics is kinda important in my mind)

The guitarist writes/names/structures what we play and he's properly good but so far the lyrics and names he's come up with have been just a bit cliche and weak ( dont get me wrong i feel we have some genuinely good material written), but at the end of the day, im just a 'hired gun'

Just wanted to know if anyone else out there has had similar problems, TB'ers are pretty wise so this seems like the place to ask around

 

[AaronVonRock]

Don't be a hired gun. If the song titles and lyrics are lame, tell him so. You can do it in a constructive, productive way. If you're good friends with the guys you play with, people's feeling are less likely to get hurt.

In our band, all four of us have to be on board with something for it to stick, be it a riff or a song title. If one guy doesn't like it, we'll talk it through, and if he still doesn't like it, we ditch it and move on. There is other rock to mine in the quarry.

I write the majority of the riffs, usually when we're jamming. That seems to work better for us as opposed to one of us coming in with prewritten material. We'll jam around on some riffs until we're pleased with them, and the drummer (a former guitarist) seems to be the best at arranging the songs and he'll put the different parts together. The guitarist will add his stuff on top of it and if we're lucky, we get a song that we all like. If we don't get a good song from it, it goes into the riff databank and is usually forgotten.

 

[Bassist4Eris]

In my band, I'm the main writer, so the question becomes "do I give the other guys enough input?" I think this is relevant, not so much for what *you* should do, but for what your guitar player should be doing (IMHO, of course).

I give my bandmates ALL of the creative input they can come up with. Got an idea? Speak up, and we'll try it. If we all like it, we go for it. If not, we try something else. Don't like my new tune? Speak up. I don't get butthurt about it, I just bring out something else to work on.

There is a very good reason why I do it like this. This is an original instrumental band. We don't make much money. All the same, I have managed to attract the interest of two pros who don't mind playing for little or nothing when they play with me because they love the music. Which is flattering as heck. But I'm sure if I were a dictator, they would walk. If they're not getting money, they need to feel like it's their band too. Which it is. Believe me, I don't have the talent or know-how to be a Zappa-like band leader. I need these guys and their ideas.

I give the guitar player, at most, a lead sheet with a melody in standard notation, and some chords written over it. Usually, he just gets a chord chart. In some cases, I just start playing the bass riff and see what he comes up with. The most the drummer ever gets from me is I might "sing" a part to him, or say "try going to the ride cymbal on that part" or something. Songs are credited to all three of us, with the copyrights shared equally, at my insistence. Some of you may disagree with that, but that's how I do things.

 

[IPYF]

Some clarity though please. Are you actually a member of the band or are you being paid to be involved?

If you're a 'hired gun', that means that you're being remunerated for being there. If this is the case then you probably shouldn't expect to have a say in this particular band's creative process. It all depends on what you've been hired for.

If you're not being paid or otherwise compensated for your time then you're a band member, and that means that you have to establish some kind of status quo. If you merely feel like you're being treated like a 'hired gun' then you should raise that issue with your band members and try to level the playing field if that's what you feel needs to happen.

 

[Runnerman]

You need to talk to them and tell them how you feel ....that you want to be part of the creative process and that you want to be a part of the band...not just a hired gun. If you can't get past that could be trouble.

In my band, there is no shortage of new songs. We have an unwritten rule that we pass around the opportunity to bring new song ideas. If it comes to your turn and you don't have one, you can pass. But you always have the chance to throw something in and it will come around again. This works really well. Most of the songs come with a scratch recording and general chording as a starting point and then the band works out the rest together colaboratively. I'm a firm believer in that. Rarely somebody comes with a fully fleshed out song with all parts although it has happened. In every single case though, the more collaborative the effort the better the final product.

It's also much more fun and satifying to record and perform songs that have your fingerprint on them.

 

[OneAri]

Some clarity though please. Are you actually a member of the band or are you being paid to be involved?

You're right I wasn't clear on what I meant by hired gun

I'm a member and seeing as our first gigs are yet to come money's a completely different concept, even if it weren't I'd be happy to play for the sake of playing

I'm not devoid of input by no means but a read around band management suggests that I can't be the only one where most of our material is written by our lead

 

[Duckwater]

I have nearly all of the input in my band, I wish the rest of them were more confident about their ideas and playing.