Thinking about moving to the other side

I started my career playing in cover bands in the late 70's, then moved to a new city where I got involved in a progressive rock band as their main lyricist, lead singer and vocal arranger. Life tossed a few things at me and I ended up in California where I worked for the state for a few years and retired early, so I opened my own business and, at the same time, started looking for ways to put my chops back together.

That was a couple of years ago and, since then, I've played with an originals band that gigs about once or twice a month, usually with little pay, I've played with a blues guitarist who hired me for a handful of gigs for good money but needed to get back to a more lucrative situation because his blues gigs were harder and harder to come by, and I've played with a couple of other originals bands that bring me in now and then, but book infrequent shows. One of those side projects seems to have real legs, but the other has dried up due to a band member's illness.

I work really hard in my first originals band; we often do a show that requires two sets, and we recently booked a show (or so I thought) that required three, so we've been working toward polishing up a third set of covers for this venue that we were to play in two weeks. Today I got word that this show is cancelled, and I started thinking about how much work I've been doing to play originals and covers with other players who are basically hobbyists for not much pay. It's way more time than I want to spend anymore. I've realized that I just want a reasonable set list, an opportunity to play it enough that I'm good with it, and some reasonable pay for my efforts.

So, to that end, I've put some ads up looking for a slot in a working cover band. It goes full-circle, apparently. I'm back where I started.

My ideal situation, I realize, is to phase out my petsitting work in favor of music. It's a dream, I know. But I also know that there are decent, working bands out there. What's been limiting me so far are the people I've been surrounding myself with.

Time to make some different choices.

 

Thank you! Yes, I've read that before, but I'll take another look. For me this is a swan song of sorts; I only have a few years to full retirement so I'm hoping I can make those years a bit more fun and accomplish something musical along the way. But if I'm able to play music well past retirement age, that's just bonus to my way of thinking.

 

There are still good people, but they don't have time to play music anymore. If music was still paying well, there would be more around, I guess. I think they're all working in IT now.

 

Yeah, I advertised here and also the Bay Area, where I might have better luck. Got one band interested enough to offer me an audition and chat my ear off for an hour last night, but they only work a few times a month. Still, it's paid work with a decent rate, and the BL and I had a good long chat and seem compatible. Another contacted me but I haven't heard back from them yet since I sent them my YouTube stuff, so they may or may not get back to me. Most of the stuff I have up on YouTube is original rock, which that band is not, so we'll see.

So much of it, for me, comes down to how good the drummer is, and I stressed to the guy on the phone last night that I'm used to working with good ones. He says his drummer is good so I have fingers crossed. They gave me four songs to learn by Sunday, should not be hard.

 

Just wanted to mention that I do still intend to remain involved with at least one of the originals projects I'm currently doing. I feel like I have room in my life for both right now, and if I'm lucky I can stay fairly busy. The originals project that I believe may have legs is collaborating to write another album of music so there's some creative outlet there for me, which is nice. This bunch actually does have half a clue how the music business works, they're really good players, and they've been around the block a lot more more than I have, so I'm cautiously hopeful that they'll be able to get something done.

I have the audition for the other band tomorrow, so we'll see what they think, and what I think of them. So far no more good hits from my ad, but there are always a ton of bassists advertising around here, so not too surprising.

 

One of my favorites from that record. Takes me way back.

 

This is always the goal. Since I just started playing out again a couple of years ago, and I have no track record as a player here, I've had to keep moving forward in order to network with various players. The first band I joined had four players; two of us are people with flexible work hours who have played many pro-level shows and made our livings in music in the past. Both he and I take on other band commitments. The other two have serious day jobs and that limits what they can do. That band has gone about as far as it can go with its limitations, but I've met a lot of other players in this town as a result.

My newer originals band is comprised of some serious professionals who have toured in the past with bands whose names I know you would recognize. Our singer has been building a following over the past decade in the Bay Area with her cover band and is now stepping out on her own with her first album. We're writing the second album with her now. I believe this band has a ton of potential, everyone in that band puts music first and works their work commitments, if they have them, around music.

But all of this still leaves me without a gig on most weekends, so it seems like moving toward a working band to fill in the cracks and alleviate some financial pressure will be worth it. Everyone I work with in music knows that I always throw multiple projects onto my plate because I understand that few of them will stick with me over the long term. That's been true so far.