....And still can't seem to find the "right" one! We're "just" a cover band that plays classic rock, alternative rock, and a few country tunes. These auditions have become somewhat frustrating because we can't seem to find who we're looking for.
The four of us (drummer, bassist, two guitar players) are all in our mid-to-late 50's. We're not a start-up band, either; we are a working band and losing out on gigs at this point. Our singer quit back in late October and had been with us for over two years. It's not that he was a hard act to follow, we're just not going to "settle" on someone this time like we had in the past.
I don't believe that we're being overly particular/picky. We are looking for someone that is going to be the right fit for us; not only a good (great?!) singer, and has a decent personality. I think every band desires someone like that. So far we just haven't found that guy who fits in with us. And, yes, we're looking for a male lead singer.
Some have been cocky; full of themselves, and weren't the best of singers.
One guy we auditioned sounded like Joe Cocker, but with a burnt-out voice, and there was no way he'd make it through 4 sets. Another guy just couldn't sing very well at all. He was a nice guy but nerdy/geeky. He had a lot of energy but a lot of our tunes were out of his wheelhouse. Because of his nerdiness I would've been a little embarrassed to play a gig with him.
A guy we auditioned last week was 36 years old, had a very powerful singing voice, but he sang way too loud! As I stated, we do classic rock, and this guy is into heavier rock (Nickelback, Five Finger Death Punch, etc.), and so he put that kind of spin into his singing of "All Right Now", "Blue On Black", as well as a few others. We want to keep our classic rock songs sounding as such, not with a "modern" heavy sound to them.
A singer that I liked and felt was a decent singer was 61 years old. He didn't have long hair, which is OK (wouldn't have mattered either way), dressed the part, wore skull rings, and had tattoos up and down both arms and his neck. He seemed to have a decent personality and I thought he'd fit in OK with us, but one of our guys felt that he'd make us look like fools by the way he dressed, with his skull rings and tats, and that he was "over the top."
We cancelled an audition for this week for a singer that just sounded "way out there". He allegedly has a lot of musical experience, but after talking to him on the phone and hearing his life story and musical experiences, something just didn't feel right about him. The drummer felt the same way after I told the band about this guy, and he didn't feel right having him come into his house, since we practice and audition at the drummer's house.
I placed an ad on Craigslist and that's where a majority of our auditions have come from. I also placed an ad on a local Facebook band members page, and thought we'd have better luck by now with both ads out there. At this point I'm tempted to go to Guitar Center and a few other local music shops and ask the sales associates if they know of any singers that might be looking for a band to join. One of our band members suggested going to an open mic night.
You can check us out on Facebook: @redlinestl
Has anyone here spent this long auditioning a singer or other band member???
