Nightmare drummer audition

[Michedelic]

My band has struggled to fill our open drummer slot. We’ve had two great drummers who had to leave for personal reasons and since then it’s been a revolving door of disasters. I just need to vent. We auditioned the latest one last night. He was 20 minutes late. Didn’t apologize. He had three weeks to dial in 10 songs, 5 we picked and 5 he picked. He muffed one after the other. He is in his 50’s, is single and lives with his mother. We told him we’d call him to let him know. He needed directions to get back to the freeway, apparently he’s never heard of GPS. Later in the evening he sent our female singer a text, then sent another one at 2:40 in the morning. Here they are. I’ve only removed names to protect the innocent and guilty… Hello, i just wanted to say i had a great time jamming with you guys tonite. I wanted to mention i think you are great players and good guys but i did detect errors in all of our performances tonight. Your bass player who i think is terrific and who plays a great walking bass line ala Bill Wyman.. did play several wrong notes.. Myself who i did feel played well, with a groovy beat didnt hit every drum break with perfection.. Youre gtr player who had a weak tone and when i could hear him, had a ' scratchy' gtr tone was not perfect either.. My point is i think we can help each other and be a top notch cover band.. You guys arent quite there.. and neither am i but together i think we can reach that next level.. p.s lets get your gtr player a Marshall half stack and a Les Paul and grow some balls - Sincerly —- Here is the 2:40am second text…that he sent to my female singer…full stop.

I couldnt care less about your band. I wish i could have my way with your feet.

It’s funny he referenced Bill Wyman, considering, at 5:10 here…

 

[Grinderman]

He is in his 50’s, is single and lives with his mother. ]

Whoa, whoa, whoa... that's TMI!

 

[frankie5string]

..."Hello, i just wanted to say i had a great time jamming with you guys tonite. I wanted to mention i think you are great players and good guys but i did detect errors in all of our performances tonight. Your bass player who i think is terrific and who plays a great walking bass line ala Bill Wyman.. did play several wrong notes.. Myself who i did feel played well, with a groovy beat didnt hit every drum break with perfection.. Youre gtr player who had a weak tone and when i could hear him, had a ' scratchy' gtr tone was not perfect either.. My point is i think we can help each other and be a top notch cover band.. You guys arent quite there.. and neither am i but together i think we can reach that next level.. p.s lets get your gtr player a Marshall half stack and a Les Paul and grow some balls - Sincerly —- Here is the 2:40am second text…that he sent to my female singer…full stop."

"I couldnt care less about your band. I wish i could have my way with your feet."

I was going to say that the first text message is something I've seen before, except they emailed the male band leader.
There are problems with his view of the world.

As far as the second text goes, that's an instant ban/block/ignore in my books, regardless of how anything else appears with the drummer.

 

[Low End Scum]

I was going to say that the first text message is something I've seen before, except they emailed the male band leader.
There are problems with his view of the world.

As far as the second text goes, that's an instant ban/block/ignore in my books, regardless of how anything else appears with the drummer.

Same. It's almost like the folks who try to "neg" people they're trying to pickup at a bar. You've gotta be REALLY good to be able to talk down about every member of the band and not come off like you're talkin out of your posterior with a holier than thou view of yourself. Even then, it'd still be a jerk move.

 

[Bighands Bill]

When our drummer is late, I remind him his job is to keep time.

 

[Uncle Ernie]

I don't even know what to say.
Just have a laugh between all you guys and thank the lord that he doesn't have a GPS to know how to return to your practice place...

P.S.: Maybe your singer should wear some sneakers on the next audition, just in case...

you can never be too safe!

 

[ebo]

No pictures, this hasn't happened unless you post pictures of the singer's feet...

. I’m going to leave my singers feet out of this for obvious reasons but this is what she said she is wearing at all future auditions. She has a good sense of humor and is rolling with the punches. And I kid you not he really did ask what he should tell his mother.

 

[Michedelic]

. I’m going to leave my singers feet out of this for obvious reasons but this is what she said she is wearing at all future auditions. She has a good sense of humor and is rolling with the punches. And I kid you not he really did ask what he should tell his mother.
View attachment 5210715

A boy’s best friend is his mother, you know.

 

[Bass Viking]

I don't think he should be considered for your band.

I don't think he should be considered for any band!

 

[Auspuff]

My band has struggled to fill our open drummer slot. We’ve had two great drummers who had to leave for personal reasons and since then it’s been a revolving door of disasters. I just need to vent. We auditioned the latest one last night. He was 20 minutes late. Didn’t apologize. He had three weeks to dial in 10 songs, 5 we picked and 5 he picked. He muffed one after the other. He is in his 50’s, is single and lives with his mother. We told him we’d call him to let him know. He needed directions to get back to the freeway, apparently he’s never heard of GPS. Later in the evening he sent our female singer a text, then sent another one at 2:40 in the morning. Here they are. I’ve only removed names to protect the innocent and guilty… Hello, i just wanted to say i had a great time jamming with you guys tonite. I wanted to mention i think you are great players and good guys but i did detect errors in all of our performances tonight. Your bass player who i think is terrific and who plays a great walking bass line ala Bill Wyman.. did play several wrong notes.. Myself who i did feel played well, with a groovy beat didnt hit every drum break with perfection.. Youre gtr player who had a weak tone and when i could hear him, had a ' scratchy' gtr tone was not perfect either.. My point is i think we can help each other and be a top notch cover band.. You guys arent quite there.. and neither am i but together i think we can reach that next level.. p.s lets get your gtr player a Marshall half stack and a Les Paul and grow some balls - Sincerly —- Here is the 2:40am second text…that he sent to my female singer…full stop.

I couldnt care less about your band. I wish i could have my way with your feet.

You can't knock his honesty.

 

[juancaminos]

There was a time when we had to audition drummers. This went for two days, one after the other. On the second day we brought in a drummer from a local band that went on to be pretty famous then broke up. This guy was way cool and had a great vibe. But he played the exact same thing to every song. It was great, don't get me wrong, but it never wavered.

BTW...The guy we eventually went with was very rusty but could play the flat tire blues beat the best of all and had a great demeanor (at least in the beginning, another story).

 

[flojob]

Sounds like mental illness to me. Probably a good idea not to give auditioning people access to everyone's phone numbers

 

[Pocket Dave]

Hire him so you can fire him. Then give him wrong directions back to the freeway.

Seriously, block him. Everyone. You can't fix this level of sick & stupid.

 

[Minimalist]

I couldnt care less about your band. I wish i could have my way with your feet.

Am I the only one that thinks we need some pictures?

 

[Pocket Dave]

I read your story and the first thing that came to my mind wasn’t the “creepy drummer” part; It is about a better screening process for auditioning musicians.
There is something to wonder about this story: how a guy like that passed all your filters, had all your phone numbers, exchange many texts before hand and nobody was able to detect if he is a good fit for your band or not?
I would suggest to review your posted adds looking for a drummer, to review the questions you need to ask in order to detect red flags as soon as possible. Basically, the ones oriented to detect personality traits.
The process of hiring a new band member is two ways.
I know this is a fastidious part of having a band but it is important to know what you are looking for.
Good luck!

Agreed 100%.

When I used to audition people (these days I don't; I've worked enough in my market to have a network of reliable players to reference for bands, projects and gigs), I'd ask them to tell me about what they hope to do musically, about their process for learning material, and perhaps most importantly, their experience with bands in the past, and why they left. IME, just letting people answer this question for each band experience they share without interruption usually reveals some kind of pattern.

For drummers, I'd want to know if they had someplace to practice/woodshed on their own.

After reading the OP's story, I'd probably start asking for an address and checking them out through this: The Dru Sjodin National Sex Offender Public Website. The beyond-inappropriate nature of the second text, whether under-the-influence or not, points to some disturbing behavior patterns with others.

 

[salmon256]

This post should be share everytime when someone claims a drum machine isn't a good replacement.

 

[Pocket Dave]

There was a time when we had to audition drummers. This went for two days, one after the other. On the second day we brought in a drummer from a local band that went on to be pretty famous then broke up. This guy was way cool and had a great vibe. But he played the exact same thing to every song. It was great, don't get me wrong, but it never wavered.

BTW...The guy we eventually went with was very rusty but could play the flat tire blues beat the best of all and had a great demeanor (at least in the beginning, another story).

Ability to play a flat tire and really swing it goes a long way for me.

 

[Pocket Dave]

He lost me when he was 20 minutes late, and it was nothing but downhill from there.

Someone shows up to an audition 20 minutes late without notification and a DAMN GOOD REASON:

"You're out - The audition was 20 minutes ago."

 

[Gluvhand]

It's safe to assume if he's in his 50's his mother is at least in her 70's. They may live together but maybe she's not healthy and living with him. Yup, he's an unhinged loser, but living with a parent at that age isn't so strange these days. It never really was.

 

[Wesley R]

I ahhhhh, er ahhhhh, wellll it could've...

Nope, I'm speechless