Is your band a democracy? or the opposite?

[awakefie]

I played in a 13 piece band once. Whoever yelled the loudest got their way.

Now I'm in a trio, we compromise.

I once played in a "power trio" run by an egocentric "guitar god" that evolved into a 7 piece band.

As the trio grew to 5 then 7 the dictatorship didn't work so well. Our first realization that we needed to be more of a group happened when he tried to force his girlfriend on us as a backup/lead singer. She was very pretty but couldn't carry a tune in a bucket.

We spent 2 years working getting 7 people to compromise and it worked out well. That was a great band for me!

 

[Spinal Tapper]

We just found out our band is a democracy last night when our singer tried to rearrange the structure of a new song we had written a couple nights ago. We gave him a chance to talk, and played the structure in the order he requested. Even recorded a version to bring home and examine.
Then, last night at practice after listening to it all day, we said, "dude, we all feel like the song was better before." It was 4 against 1. He didn't take it very well, but finally gave in to doing it our way after an 30 minutes of discussion/arguing. The part that pissed me off was he wasn't even present when we wrote the parts out in the first place, he just comes in one day and is like, "this is how we should re-structure the tune."

What's with singers, man? If me or anyone else in the band would've had a 4 against 1 opposing their idea, I doubt we would've even tried to play it, but we went to the point of listening to it over and over all day long, until we presented the idea that our way was better originally. Basically wasted a whole practice about it. Stupid.

 

[bad_andy]

Depends on the band. The original group is a democracy and a pretty functional one at that. It's fun and we want to keep it that way.

The cover band has been around for years before I joined and is run like a small business by the married couple who started it. They know their crowd and the venues we play and what they're doing so I generally stay out of the way and concentrate on playing.

Both situations work pretty well for me.

 

[smogg]

If it's not a democracy then I'm either being payed for my time or I walk.

that sums it up. end of story.

 

[cassanova]

I'm a hired gun so it's never a democracy for me. I do what they want me to, get paid and leave.

 

[basslover24]

When I joined my band, this subject came up. The singer said that its his band, then turned to everyone else in the room and said, "Its your band, too." Basically he was saying that it is no one persons band; that we all own it. So he's MY vocalist and i'm HIS bassist, know what I mean?
It really just adds to the whole "A band is a marriage." idea.

 

[ilikethump]

We operate as something of a democracy I guess. Sometimes a band is the singer's baby - and it's their vision and their songs that they've been wanting to share for however long. That's perfectly okay, and that's the way my current band is. The singer has songs that she has toiled on for years and she is thrilled to finally be able to present them in the way she wants - and I FULLY understand if she wants them presented a certain way.

However, everyone has say in all of the other stuff and all our new songs. Heck I've written two or three songs so far, some even from the guitarist's perspective. Everyone is fairly open.

The only difficulty that is starting to rear its ugly head is our new guitarist doesn't seem to appreciate the bass line. I've been in this band for quite a while (longer than everyone except the singer) and have always been given freedom to actually add something to the mix with the bass lines... but now on the new stuff he's been starting to drop subtle hints like "you're not going to be able to play anything fancy here, just play the bass notes etc etc" or the passive aggressive "that's not really how I envisioned the song with the bass line being... busy... like that just play this note here" (ie he wanted me to hold one note for several measures) and in honesty I'm willing to work with them. I'm just afraid this is a harbringer of attempting to relegate me to dufus simple lines. I don't overplay or add fills over anything, I just like adding harmony :X or a complementing riff.

Each time it happens we work through it, but I really don't look forward to constantly clashing in the song writing process. It wears me out.

 

[SteveC]

We only do songs the singer likes. He has to sing them, so...

 

[JohnnyPustular]

Anarchist collective with rights of secession.

 

[AlembicPlayer]

My bass is part of how I make my living. I can only take a gig by an artist who has their management together and runs the band like the business it is.
That said, all the players in my current band have input when it comes to the actual music, but when it comes to vision, direction and the actual business of management...that's another story,

business models are better for doing business then political governing concepts IMO
imagine running your business on employee consensus!

 

[Ed Goode]

Definitely NOT a democracy ... but not a dictatorship, either

My band partner and I make just about all of the decisions, then inform the others. We do all the booking, set lists, arranging, promotion, etc. The other band members certainly can voice their opinions, and we regularly accept their ideas, but ultimately they are told what to do, where to be, etc.

We have up to 7 players in the band at times .... if we had to get everyone to agree to things, nothing would ever get done ...

 

[lancimouspitt]

The last band I was in,was sadly a powerstruggle before I quit.Mainly between the guitarist,lead singer,and drummer.
The drummer and singer were dating eachother and it just made it really hard on everyone.The guitarist considered the band his baby,and I was really on his side on the whole deal,but in the end I really just didn't care.LOL
The project i'm in now is great though.Everything is pretty open and everyone has equal control.

 

[Bass Viking]

The two bands are run by a strong leader(s) who are not the most talented player(s). They call the shots and I show up, ready to set up wherever they want, and play whatever they want.


The jazz group leader, the sax player, is especially thick. One song reminds him of another and he calls them back to back - same key and essentially the same rhythm.
(Song for my Father and Tom Thumb for instance).

Interesting. Maybe they aren't good enough musicians to get into other bands. Probably couldn't even pass the audition for their own band.

 

[PBass101]

I'm in a newly formed trio of good, longtime friends (what took us so long to do this, I don't know) and we only go forward with an idea if there is a consensus. Anytime we start arguing about something, we just start drinking and ignore the entire situation.

Probably not the best formula for inter-band happiness, but we all like drinking and I've pretty much always ignored any problems that come at me anyway

 

[KrisH]

Two bands: the trio that does originals is basically a democracy, with the Guitarists in charge. He's very prolific with writing songs and has contacts and experience in the scene. The drummer and I have a few songs we've written and, although the guitarist has asked me to bring them in, I haven't gotten around to it yet. I will.

The cover band has just formed and so far is a democracy. I probably had the greatest hand in organizing it, but it's taking a life of its own. We've all brought songs into the mix, and we all have a pretty good idea after a few tries whether it will work or not. We're finding our niche as to what our sound will be, and we all seem to be thinking on the same page.

The cover band has been around for years before I joined and is run like a small business by the married couple who started it.

A husband-wife situation created the worst band-hell I ever lived through. Drummer/lead vocalist and I worked together for a good part of the 80s, and we needed a second guitarist in our band to replace one who was leaving. It was a pretty popular local cover band that was working several nights a week. Brought in a guitarist we knew, and he wanted to bring his wife, who was a drummer, and my drummer liked the idea because it gave him a chance to actually front the band. Pretty soon the husband-wife team began asserting their combined will and we lost control. We ultimately decided to split and go our separate ways; after the last gig, hubby-wife asked, "what are you going to be calling yourselves?" They had registered the band's name as their business under their name! A lesson learned. We went on to form under a different name, and had another successful band for several years.

On the other hand, hubby-wife soon left their band hanging and joined (as a team) an oldies vocal band that had several top hits in the 60s. Wouldn't you know, he finangled to buy the rights to THAT band's name and ejected the last remaining original member. After the dust cleared from the lawsuit, the original members were left in the position of not being able to perform under their name when they were inducted into the Hall of Fame several years ago. The worm turns, though: hubby-wife are now working together in a factory making safety straps, and the oldies band is now back in the hands of at least one of the original members, touring the country -- with my old drummer/vocalist as part of the front lineup!

 

[walkTheBass]

We operate as something of a democracy I guess. Sometimes a band is the singer's baby - and it's their vision and their songs that they've been wanting to share for however long. That's perfectly okay, and that's the way my current band is. The singer has songs that she has toiled on for years and she is thrilled to finally be able to present them in the way she wants - and I FULLY understand if she wants them presented a certain way.

However, everyone has say in all of the other stuff and all our new songs. Heck I've written two or three songs so far, some even from the guitarist's perspective. Everyone is fairly open.

The only difficulty that is starting to rear its ugly head is our new guitarist doesn't seem to appreciate the bass line. I've been in this band for quite a while (longer than everyone except the singer) and have always been given freedom to actually add something to the mix with the bass lines... but now on the new stuff he's been starting to drop subtle hints like "you're not going to be able to play anything fancy here, just play the bass notes etc etc" or the passive aggressive "that's not really how I envisioned the song with the bass line being... busy... like that just play this note here" (ie he wanted me to hold one note for several measures) and in honesty I'm willing to work with them. I'm just afraid this is a harbringer of attempting to relegate me to dufus simple lines. I don't overplay or add fills over anything, I just like adding harmony :X or a complementing riff.

Each time it happens we work through it, but I really don't look forward to constantly clashing in the song writing process. It wears me out.

I've been in this position a few bands.

The best way I found to resolve it, was to play the song twice. Once using my bass line and a second time playing what the other member was requesting.

Then the whole band voted on which one is best. If that resulted in a stalemate, then the person who wrote the song got the veto.

 

[john_g]

I have been thinking about this lately as I am in a cover band and we have been looking for a singer. So basically, the band (me, drummer and two guitarists) are already put together and have been playing together for months now. The one guitarist and (to a lesser extent) the drummer have so far been the leaders of the band. They have been coordinating stuff and actively trying to find a singer. I figured it would be hard to have someone like a singer (alot of times "the leader" in most bands) just step into this situation and try to take over.

Well, dont you know...we found a guy that came to audition with us last week and he was a good singer. He said he would love to join up with us. Then this week we get emails from him saying that we need to work on the songs he has in mind and that he has been playing. So, dont know how that is going to work itself out but...so far everyone has had a say.

 

[Munjibunga]

Mine is a benevolent egalitarian meritocracy.

 

[Munjibunga]

I have been thinking about this lately as I am in a cover band and we have been looking for a singer. So basically, the band (me, drummer and two guitarists) are already put together and have been playing together for months now. The one guitarist and (to a lesser extent) the drummer have so far been the leaders of the band. They have been coordinating stuff and actively trying to find a singer. I figured it would be hard to have someone like a singer (alot of times "the leader" in most bands) just step into this situation and try to take over.

Well, dont you know...we found a guy that came to audition with us last week and he was a good singer. He said he would love to join up with us. Then this week we get emails from him saying that we need to work on the songs he has in mind and that he has been playing. So, dont know how that is going to work itself out but...so far everyone has had a say.

We had a singer who came into the band and started acting like she ran it after about two rehearsals. We had been together over two years when she came in. This situation, along with some fairly serious pitch issues led to her early dismissal.

 

[chjohnst]

I am in a band with my closest friends I grew up with and we both learned bass/guitar/drums together. We listen to the same music and have the same style of playing. Generally we have always been the type of friends who have a natural competition of each other, but not in a bad way at all. I find it more of an encouraging competition if anything because it keeps us both on our toes to continue learning and bringing music to the table. If someone writes lyrics or brings new music to the table we are upfront about it and work it out. The guitarist recently brought his brother in to do our vocals and it has been working out great so far. Very democratic.

I think the most important thing is if you are in a band for fun then the dynamics of the group should be loose and democratic. Everyone is there to have a good time. If your in it for money, looking for paying gigs I think everyone in the band needs to play their part and know their role. That should be defined up front right away when you join. Look at the beatles, one of the most successful bands, supposedly George Harrison wrote a ton of lyrics and they were shot down. John and Paul were very competitive of each other for the "spotlight". I think naturally a band will have tension if you get popular. Unfortunately that can happen.