Just before Christmas, a guitarist I used to play with reached out to me to start a new project. He's a bit of a "personality" and can quickly derail other people's projects because he always knows how to do it better. I was hoping that if it was his project, he'd be easier to deal with. He's a very tasteful guitarist, competent voice. He means well, but seems to lack some social skills and can be very hard to work with.
He brought a drummer in from his previous project and I invited a lead singer. We all got together for the first time to see if we fit and there was some solid potential. The drummer was pretty good, but had some tempo drift issues. But most of the sessions was trying to find songs that we had all spent time on.
Pulling together playlists was torture. LG never "heard" me say I really don't care and I'll speak up if something offends me when it came to suggesting songs (I'm not singing them and LS should be doing most of the suggesting, IMO). While I protect my contact information before first meet, after we met and we all exchanged information, it was up to LG to work with LS to develop the list. But LG kept asking me what was going on with LS's list ideas.
So we got this 50+ list compiled but then there was no direction on what to focus on as we were getting to know each other, so the one rehearsal we had after designating the candidates was pretty lame. I think we muddled through about 10 songs because that's about all of the common prepared ground we had.
At that point, I said lets ID 15 songs that we all focus on for next week. We put that on LS, the next day he sent an Email with the 15 songs to focus on. This confused LG. I almost quit right then, but we were rehearsing at my house and LG and drummer left things at my house, so I figured I'd give the focused rehearsal a shot to work before my final decision.
I'm working with LS in another project and we talked at our gig on Friday about this project. I told him that if this rehearsal didn't go great, that I was pulling out. He agreed and I expected him to give it a go last night, but LS texted us earlier in the day saying he was bailing out, so I told the other guys to come and get their stuff. When they came over, I told them that I was basing my decision to stay on this rehearsal going really well, so "thanks for the opportunity, but I'm not feeling this". They were cool about it and we chatted for a bit before they took their stuff and went home.
I'm not one to walk away so easily, but this project was already pushing a lot of my buttons and we were only a few weeks in. It would just get worse. I just really don't have time to be in a disorganized project - I need a "give me a playlist and tell me when to have it ready" situation.
So I imagined that I read a post here from a bassist in this situation. I would have told that person to find a new project, so I simply actually followed my own advice rather than try to force this beast into submission like I usually do. It felt pretty good to have this project removed from my life.
Being in 2 other projects with another on the horizon made this a very easy call - I just hope I would have done the same if I wasn't so otherwise committed.
He brought a drummer in from his previous project and I invited a lead singer. We all got together for the first time to see if we fit and there was some solid potential. The drummer was pretty good, but had some tempo drift issues. But most of the sessions was trying to find songs that we had all spent time on.
Pulling together playlists was torture. LG never "heard" me say I really don't care and I'll speak up if something offends me when it came to suggesting songs (I'm not singing them and LS should be doing most of the suggesting, IMO). While I protect my contact information before first meet, after we met and we all exchanged information, it was up to LG to work with LS to develop the list. But LG kept asking me what was going on with LS's list ideas.
So we got this 50+ list compiled but then there was no direction on what to focus on as we were getting to know each other, so the one rehearsal we had after designating the candidates was pretty lame. I think we muddled through about 10 songs because that's about all of the common prepared ground we had.
At that point, I said lets ID 15 songs that we all focus on for next week. We put that on LS, the next day he sent an Email with the 15 songs to focus on. This confused LG. I almost quit right then, but we were rehearsing at my house and LG and drummer left things at my house, so I figured I'd give the focused rehearsal a shot to work before my final decision.
I'm working with LS in another project and we talked at our gig on Friday about this project. I told him that if this rehearsal didn't go great, that I was pulling out. He agreed and I expected him to give it a go last night, but LS texted us earlier in the day saying he was bailing out, so I told the other guys to come and get their stuff. When they came over, I told them that I was basing my decision to stay on this rehearsal going really well, so "thanks for the opportunity, but I'm not feeling this". They were cool about it and we chatted for a bit before they took their stuff and went home.
I'm not one to walk away so easily, but this project was already pushing a lot of my buttons and we were only a few weeks in. It would just get worse. I just really don't have time to be in a disorganized project - I need a "give me a playlist and tell me when to have it ready" situation.
So I imagined that I read a post here from a bassist in this situation. I would have told that person to find a new project, so I simply actually followed my own advice rather than try to force this beast into submission like I usually do. It felt pretty good to have this project removed from my life.
Being in 2 other projects with another on the horizon made this a very easy call - I just hope I would have done the same if I wasn't so otherwise committed.
