• TalkBass has been independent since 1998. Add your voice.
    Create a free account to reply to discussions, view embedded media, and browse with fewer display ads.
    Join free Log in
    Want zero display ads or expanded classifieds tools? Compare plans.

Guys Who Only Play Covers: What Happened?

#261
Well, about the topic : I think it's just a feeling that you have. You get inspired by someone to play the bass (or other instrument) and you are so in love with someone's music style / playing style, that you wanna do the same. That's only how I see it :)
 
#262
Brad Johnson said:
And an agency band doesn't have to be charging $15-20k for an individual to make $300-500/gig.
Click to expand...
Exactly! Don't know of any 'cover bands' making that kinda coin anyway! Not to say they aren't out there but that's big time well known band type money! I just did a sub gig for a local band and made $200 for less than 2 hours work! This band does at least 100+ gigs or so a year where some gigs pay significantly more per! Do the math!
 
#263
DWBass said:
Exactly! Don't know of any 'cover bands' making that kinda coin anyway! Not to say they aren't out there but that's big time well known band type money! I just did a sub gig for a local band and made $200 for less than 2 hours work! This band does at least 100+ gigs or so a year where some gigs pay significantly more per! Do the math!
Click to expand...

The top wedding/corporate bands in Chicago do such as the Ken Arlen Orchestra.

http://www.arlenmusic.com/

And they guarantee that none of the singers will have a music stand in front of them all night, even if the songs are special requests for that event only, among other things.
 
#264
To be in a successful original band you A) have to have something to say and B) find an audience who wants to hear it. Although most people who write originals don't recognize that they don't fit into category A, this is quickly corrected by their inability to find B.

I had an uncle who used to say quite correctly that most of these people's ambition outstripes their talent.

I've never let lack of writing talent stop me from writing, but I am smart enough to recognize that I'm the only one who wants to hear it, which is OK with me. :D
 
#265
matante said:
I don't see why or how a bassist is less qualified to write a song than a guitarist.

Since several people have asked, I'm in my late 30s.
Click to expand...

We're not. The bass itself is not a good instrument to compose harmonies on since it's not really a chordal instrument. The guitar is (though the piano is better). Doesn't make the guitar player more qualified but it does make it easier since his instrument is more suited to writing.

That does go out the window if you write a bassline and build the song around it but that's an exception
 
#266
DWBass said:
Exactly! Don't know of any 'cover bands' making that kinda coin anyway! Not to say they aren't out there but that's big time well known band type money! I just did a sub gig for a local band and made $200 for less than 2 hours work! This band does at least 100+ gigs or so a year where some gigs pay significantly more per! Do the math!
Click to expand...

I know of agency bands that play only covers and command that type of money. I was saying that a lower tier band ($7,500-$10,000) cab still pay out pretty well for the individual. I work with a few in this range and slightly below. No original songs in any of them. And none try to make carbon copies of the original songs.
 
#267
Brad Johnson said:
I know of agency bands that play only covers and command that type of money. I was saying that a lower tier band ($7,500-$10,000) cab still pay out pretty well for the individual. I work with a few in this range and slightly below. No original songs in any of them. And none try to make carbon copies of the original songs.
Click to expand...

How many of you guys are in working bands are booking these lower teir gigs at $7,500.00 - $10,000.00 on a regular basis?

blue
 
#268
bluewine said:
How many of you guys are in working bands are booking these lower teir gigs at $7,500.00 - $10,000.00 on a regular basis?

blue
Click to expand...
Must be an exclusive club! I know a few bands who get those gigs but maybe 1 or 2 a year. I've been in a few top level agency bands here in VA and for many years in NYC. Those kind of gigs were few and far in between. More typically in the $2500-$5000 range. For $20k, you may as well hire a nationally known act.
 
#269
boristhespider9 said:
The top wedding/corporate bands in Chicago do such as the Ken Arlen Orchestra.

http://www.arlenmusic.com/

And they guarantee that none of the singers will have a music stand in front of them all night, even if the songs are special requests for that event only, among other things.
Click to expand...
Yeah but, that's a complete orchestra and production deal. A lot of employess to pay! We're talking probably a 5-9 member band with maybe a 3pc horn section. $20k? Must be some generous corporations in Chicago. We fight with corporate entities on the regular and they bitch and moan about a $2500 fee.......every last one of them! It's a constant battle!
 
#270
DWBass said:
Yeah but, that's a complete orchestra and production deal. A lot of employess to pay! We're talking probably a 5-9 member band with maybe a 3pc horn section. $20k? Must be some generous corporations in Chicago. We fight with corporate entities on the regular and they bitch and moan about a $2500 fee.......every last one of them! It's a constant battle!
Click to expand...

I had them as an 11 piece, including 4 singers who didn't look at lyrics all night (even for new songs) for a 2007 wedding at a fancy downtown Chicago hotel. Over $13k for the night in 2007 including ceremony and cocktail reception music (more than any other band I interviewed). They were worth EVERY PENNY! I'm sure they're more expensive now and obviously the larger contingent you request, the higher the cost. They play weddings every weekend and probably other events in-between. Yes, they are not a bar band. They are a top wedding/corporate band and can demand that kind of cash. Plus the MC duties they handle are polished to perfection no matter the venue or religion (for weddings). And these are "NY Style" weddings where the dancing starts the minute the cocktail reception is over. None of that waiting until after dinner stuff. Many/most are black-tie weddings/events. The band members have been around a long time because the leader makes sure they are paid well. No subs, no reading lyrics ever, no rotating crew. This is what it looks like from the TOP of the wedding/corporate scene in a major city. There are plenty of these types of bands that do it for less, including other groups on Arlen's roster. But when you want the best, you pay for it.
 
#272
DWBass said:
Yeah but, that's a complete orchestra and production deal. A lot of employess to pay! We're talking probably a 5-9 member band with maybe a 3pc horn section. $20k? Must be some generous corporations in Chicago. We fight with corporate entities on the regular and they bitch and moan about a $2500 fee.......every last one of them! It's a constant battle!
Click to expand...

Find a better booking agency and make sure you can deliver what's necessary.
 
#273
Brad Johnson said:
That's regularly where my agency gigs come in. And I do $500 every Sunday at church. It can be done.
:cool:

This is the circle I want to be in as a working musician so that's what I went after.
Click to expand...

Well, so far we have 1 TBer who is in a band with gigs that pay $7,500.00 - $10,000.00 every weekend ( my definition of consistent).

1 seems about right to me.

blue
 
#276
matante said:
So my question to you 'cover guys' is, what happened? At what point and why did you give up on making your own music?
Click to expand...

I'm probably the type of person you were thinking of. I used to write a lot and play in originals bands. Now I play bass in a great popular music band (Soul, Motown, stuff in the charts) and love it.

What happened? Life happened and I grew up. When I was a teenager I was sure that I had unique feelings that had to be expressed, angst I was living through and my identity and hidden genius to thrust on the world. I didn't only play original music I wore black leather trousers, had long hair and cowboy boots and went everwhere with a chain and padlock round my neck and empty bullet casings hanging off my leather jacket. I had to be different and stand out because I was something special and experienced highs and lows of emotions so different from the rest of the world that I had to communicate them through music.

Now I'm in my thirties with a full time job, a wife and son (with another baby on the way). I wear a suit and tie like the rest of the corporate world. I have a mortgage and other bills to pay, nursery runs to do and family meals to cook along with the usual household jobs. After all of that I don't have much time left for naval gazing and writing songs about unrequited love or how hard it is to be me. I figured out along the way that actually we are all pretty much the same and I'm not some hidden musical genius who needs to share his gift of creativity with the world. So I play my Jamerson and Babbitt bass lines in packed venues a couple of times a month where everybody is having a good time.

Oh, and just for the record, I've never been happier.
 
#278
boristhespider9 said:
That's because the guys making the big money are practicing right now instead of hanging on TB!
Click to expand...
Has nothing to do with that. I'm a very well rehearsed musician and can walk right in to any top40 cover band gig with little to zero rehearsal! We're talking 'Bands', not individual musicians. I just have a hard time believing the idea that 'a lot' of bands are making that kinda coin on the regular!

My area has about 3 or 4 agencies. A couple book national acts but their bread and butter is with the local bands. For a time, there were a few bands who made that kinda money (Right On Band (local), The Embers (Nat. act), Chairmen Of The Board (Nat. act)) for a short time. Their popularity has waned a bit these days. They have done the gigs for the rich and even for a couple of Presidents. But they most certainly did not make that much on the regular. I'm not sure where they are, moneywise', these days. If you're 'lucky' enough to be in one of those bands, more power to you! It's definitely NOT the norm!
 
#280
I've done both (originals & covers) over the years. Both are equally satisfying to me.

Most originals did not seem to task me much, other than to try to put little variations in each verse/chorus/bridge so these sections wouldn't be exact copies of each other (i.e. verse 1 and verse 2 would be slightly different).

With most covers I (attempt) to do note-for-note imitation... which can be challenging in itself... depending on the material, mostly because it occasionally makes someone play in a style or pattern one does not normally utilize.

I am currently in several bands. One band we occasionally "jam-out" on extended improvised solo/sections... I find that most satisfying as it task me to play some parts as authentically as possible but still allows me to be totally creative on other sections. The other (tribute) band again task me to retain the original feel, but we frequently draw ideas from that bands live material which has different bits of useful concepts here and there, and I get to meld those idea together.
 

Latest posts

Top Bottom
Back