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Our drummer needs to go(maybe?)

M

Mooch

Jan 1, 2009
523
2
MN
www.facebook.com
#1
Hey guys been ages since I've posted as my band life has been good, bass life has been great. That said as the title suggests I need some opinions.

Long story short, 3 years into our run as a band and things are really starting to go our way. Big shows with national acts coming up, important battles that can put us on to summer festival record company stages and our own headliners that make us money.

With that our drummer just seems to be slowy forgetting how to play his drums. Im getting to the point if impaling him onto his high hat stand. Had a gig on Saturday night, we headlined a big club in our area and he was a total train wreck. We rehearse regulary and our set consisted of some songs we have played for 2 years and he even managed to butcher those.

The crowd didn't seem to notice but any educated musician would have thought we were a joke.

He's a good dude, but seems to just not care even if we let him know how much he just simply sucks sometimes.

How can we get light a fire under this dude or at this point should we just look elsewhere as we have so much important stuff coming up? But, as you know finding a drummer can be a nightmare.

Thanks dewds,
Mooch
 
#2
Sounds like there is something else behind the issues. If he "used" to be able to play the songs and things are all of a sudden going downhill; I would suspect there is something going on in his life that is impacting his focus.

I would sit down and have a chat with him. Not the "hey dude, you're making us sound crappy, fix your sh**" chat, but the "Hey, you seemed to be a little off from your usual performance at the last gig. Is there something that is impacting your ability to be your usual high performing self?"

Get to the bottom of the issue and then make a decision. Perhaps he's dealing with some heavy stuff mentally and he's having a hard time focussing. You don't have enough information at this point so get some details.
 
#3
^^ couldn't agree more. If you're rehearsing regularly something else has changed. You don't get worse at your instrument unless you're not playing much or something else is up.

The fact that he doesn't care when you tell him he's not up to scratch might be another key symptom here. I wouldn't be telling the guy that he sucks. I mean, if you're in the habit of ticking him off for his form there's every chance you've pissed him off and he's dirty enough on you to have stopped caring. Alternatives could be personal problems, or maybe his heart is no longer in it. Bad news for you if you have to find someone new but if that's the case finding out sooner is better than later, even if it means you might not be able to accept more gigs for a while.
 
#4
It might not be that he's that much worse than he used to be. . . . The rest of you might be improving and becoming more discerning musicians. Either way, it sounds like he's holding you back. If that's true, odds are that you'll have to replace him sooner or later. Be up front with him, let him know that you want him to be your drummer, but that he's holding you back from being what you all want to be. There's a good chance it will either light a fire under him, or he will quit. Of course, there is the possibility that he will become bitter and resentful, and be a worse drummer than ever, forcing your hand to fire him. But I've known of similar situations, and the lagging bandmember has amicably resigned and continued to be good friends with and a supporter of the band.
 
#5
Try what Joebarnes said first. As many of you already know, my first thought on most band management posts is TALK to the guy. But my gut agrees with Joe. This doesn't seem to be the average "guy don't give a crap" deal. I think there's an underlying problem. It still may lead to the guy's leaving, but you need to find out either way.

Best of luck with both the drummer AND your important stuff coming up.
 
#8
Our first drummer simply wasn't very good.

And by "not very good," I mean he didn't have a lot of natural talent.

He progressed with us for a while, by putting in a ton of practice.

After some time, he grew frustrated, and he let up on his practice.

Then he got worse, and I fired him.

I don't know if that story relates. I'm just saying, there are people for whom it comes easily, and there are people that CAN be good, but they really have to work at it. If a person like that stops putting in the time, it shows pretty quickly.

I would find out what has changed, as mentioned above.

That first drummer was just awful sometimes, but I don't feel like I ever dogged him out, or told him he sucked. I just think he felt that vibe from me, as I frequently had to stop the song, and count out certain beats, and after awhile, I don't think I could hide my frustration.

He said he knew it was coming when I did fire him.
 
#12
I have 3 theories -- pick or ignore all as you wish:

1) He's getting bored with the material and that's why he's losing focus.

2) As others have suggested, there's something going on in his personal life. Could be depression, alcohol, drugs, financial difficulties, a bad relationship... the list goes on.

3) He may be what I call a "self-sabotoger". These are the people that when things start really going their way they do something to screw it up because they are scared of success and/or don't want the responsibility it brings. I feel sorry for those people but at the same time this is the last type of person you want in your band because eventually in short-circuiting their own path they will ruin things for everyone.

As others have said, a sit-down talk with the guy seems to be in order. Good luck... it has to be very frustrating.
 
#13
jaywa said:
3) He may be what I call a "self-sabotoger".
Click to expand...


I've just had one of those myself, and it seemed like every time he had a come-to-Jesus moment about his playing, he managed to talk himself into caring less.

It got down to where I had been trying to get the band to stage for 2 years, while thinking that this was all just a bunch of drama for all of us, and I finally realized that no, it was just this guy and I didn't have any reason to wait around any longer for him to find his motivation. He wasn't learning new material, or if he was he was forgetting it immediately, and he stopped even trying to practice or take care of anything.

Alcohol is the culprit in most of these cases, I have found.
 
#14
All good responses and made me look at it differently. I could see depression being a part of his life far before I met him and he joined our band. He seems like the "type" although he also is the "happy go lucky" type but I've found those people are usually wearing a mask of some kind. And the substance abuse seems more than usual. He pokes smot and that has never affected that said I dont know if he smoked himself stupid the other night.

But, I do know he drank, and we all have a couple thats just what we do, but he was in excess and pointed our by our lead singer and I confronted it before we played, this may have led to the the train wreck.

Maybe me saying something made him freak and worry about messing up and thats exactly what happened?

Anyway, we do meet Friday and I will bring up some of the things you guys said.

I am the type to goto anger right away because I run this ship of a band and all my leg work is paying off on good gigs for us and thats why I posted first because I wanted to take a calm approach going in instead of the old "you suck we cant stand you you're booted!" approach.

We'll see I guess.

Fingers crossed, sucks when you like a dude personally but musically he makes you insane!


Mooch
 
#16
Mooch said:
He pokes smot
Click to expand...
That smot poking will get you in trouble every time. :hiding:

We had to have "the chat" with our previous drummer when he "vacated" on a couple of gigs, like he wasn't there but was if you know what I mean. It turned out he was getting jerked about at his work. He turned it around straight away.

We actually thought he was more doped up than he could handle and/or else just not that into it so we were ready to cut him loose. I'm very glad we didn't.
 

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