Enjoy the benefits of a premium membership!
Upgrade Account
-
TalkBass has been independent since 1998. Add your voice.
Create a free account to reply to discussions, view embedded media, and browse with fewer display ads.
Join free Log in
Want zero display ads or expanded classifieds tools? Compare plans.
Why did you quit a band?
- Thread starter Cut the middle
- Start date
This was way the heck before AutoTune was probably even invented. Surprising what echo and chorus can hide though.
Last edited:
Wasn't questioning your response curious for what reasom they would have to detain you. Some might see that as unlawful imprisonment or worse.
I have no need to bring the subject up. But I don't mind joining it. My own take could best be described as radical centrist. In that i think if politics swing to far left or right, economies fall over. You'd think that'd be safe ground but I routinely get called a Communist and a Nazi by both sides of the same argument. I laugh at your ivory towers and sacred cows.
Most people are generally happy not to get me started a second time.
Hey, I could get on with these guys! Where are you/they located?
Sounds like my life, except I got into my current band to have something other than work-kids-sleep in my routine.
Only band I actually explicitly quit was a church praise band. I'd basically become bandleader after the previous bandleader went off to seminary, ran the band (basically an offshoot of the youth group) for a year, spent money out of pocket on the band's gear, accessories, music etc, just considered it what had to be done.
Then, old bandleader comes back on summer break, shows up to practice, and nothing I've been doing for the past year is "right". Song choices, instrumentation, how I ran rehearsal, none of it met with any approval whatsoever. BL ends up hijacking the entire practice, I stayed to the end, packed my guitars, and walked out. I went back to the church one time to get one of two amps I had there, the other wouldn't fit in the car, haven't seen the place in over a decade now.
What did I learn? Never do that kind of work for free. In the groups, sacred and secular, that I've been a part of since, I've stayed out of leadership-type roles. I'm here to make music, not herd cats. I'll give advice or recommendations when asked for it, but the whole thing soured me not only on that church but on the informal politics of small groups in general, and I've taken some pains to steer clear of same since.
1: Played the same set list for 2 years straight with the very, very occasional new tune.
2: One occasional new tune, inserted without warning into the show, was "it's just a blues in B". Sounded like total crap until after the first turnaround and then only sounded like baby poo after that.
3: Tunes his guitar to open E only. Fantastic player and the best vocalist I've played with, but a steady diet of E is pretty limiting musically over a long period of time.
4: Would book gigs with drummers I haven't played with more than once in a year, instead of the guy I synced up with really well, that has been doing most of the gigs, is a fantastic drummer and is a really good, level-headed person. I miss playing with him. In a trio format, there's just no room for a loose rhythm section.
5: Finally get an agreement to rehearse some new material, most of which were originals that I was really looking forward to. After a couple of sessions, starts to cancel practice on short notice or doesn't review his own songs with regard to how he actually plays them on recordings. This was actually the last straw.
Being older, I have little patience for people wasting what time I have left for musical things. I love the guy and in retrospect, should have been upfront about exactly why I was quitting. I was not and regret it. Perhaps it might have played out in my favour had I been honest about it. I didn't want the confrontation, nor any lingering ill will. I still go to his shows and support.
2: One occasional new tune, inserted without warning into the show, was "it's just a blues in B". Sounded like total crap until after the first turnaround and then only sounded like baby poo after that.
3: Tunes his guitar to open E only. Fantastic player and the best vocalist I've played with, but a steady diet of E is pretty limiting musically over a long period of time.
4: Would book gigs with drummers I haven't played with more than once in a year, instead of the guy I synced up with really well, that has been doing most of the gigs, is a fantastic drummer and is a really good, level-headed person. I miss playing with him. In a trio format, there's just no room for a loose rhythm section.
5: Finally get an agreement to rehearse some new material, most of which were originals that I was really looking forward to. After a couple of sessions, starts to cancel practice on short notice or doesn't review his own songs with regard to how he actually plays them on recordings. This was actually the last straw.
Being older, I have little patience for people wasting what time I have left for musical things. I love the guy and in retrospect, should have been upfront about exactly why I was quitting. I was not and regret it. Perhaps it might have played out in my favour had I been honest about it. I didn't want the confrontation, nor any lingering ill will. I still go to his shows and support.
1: Played the same set list for 2 years straight with the very, very occasional new tune.
2: One occasional new tune, inserted without warning into the show, was "it's just a blues in B". Sounded like total crap until after the first turnaround and then only sounded like baby poo after that.
3: Tunes his guitar to open E only. Fantastic player and the best vocalist I've played with, but a steady diet of E is pretty limiting musically over a long period of time.
4: Would book gigs with drummers I haven't played with more than once in a year, instead of the guy I synced up with really well, that has been doing most of the gigs, is a fantastic drummer and is a really good, level-headed person. I miss playing with him. In a trio format, there's just no room for a loose rhythm section.
5: Finally get an agreement to rehearse some new material, most of which were originals that I was really looking forward to. After a couple of sessions, starts to cancel practice on short notice or doesn't review his own songs with regard to how he actually plays them on recordings. This was actually the last straw.
Being older, I have little patience for people wasting what time I have left for musical things. I love the guy and in retrospect, should have been upfront about exactly why I was quitting. I was not and regret it. Perhaps it might have played out in my favour had I been honest about it. I didn't want the confrontation, nor any lingering ill will. I still go to his shows and support.
Good post I agree with everything in it. However, that little snippet of your post captures me in a nutshell!! Exactly how my philosophy is for the last several years. Almost 60 myself.
My last " real band" ie, one where it was the sole source of income for 4 musicians and 2 roadcrew members circa 1992- I quit because we were stagnant and the scene was changing considerably due to Karaoke, DJs, and Nirvana
I followed an ex, 1000 miles south to finish my formal education, held a "real job" and regretted it for years. Watching bands when "I should be up there" was painful.
Had I stayed in that band we would have continued to be good but never jumped to the next level and we would have continued to smoke prodigious amounts of weed and eventually someone or all of us would have been popped by the law.
Hindsight- good decision. First three years after? Hated the decision.
I followed an ex, 1000 miles south to finish my formal education, held a "real job" and regretted it for years. Watching bands when "I should be up there" was painful.
Had I stayed in that band we would have continued to be good but never jumped to the next level and we would have continued to smoke prodigious amounts of weed and eventually someone or all of us would have been popped by the law.
Hindsight- good decision. First three years after? Hated the decision.
Just quit my original hard rock/metal project last week. Very promising, outstanding music, so much potential. I was a major contributor in many ways, including writing. But, after three plus years, not being able to find a capable vocalist and dealing with lack of motivation and action on everyone else's part, I bailed. Got to the point where I wasn't thinking about writing music for it any more, and determined that I wouldn't miss it despite having so much creative control. It was too little, too late.
I hate incomplete stories that have a thread like that. Will we ever find out....
-- In band I was with for 2 years, the guitarist BL fired our perfectly good singer because he wanted his friend to have the job. New singer was awful and was also a jerk. He alienated audiences and also his bandmates. BL was 100% in charge and I realized that his skewed judgement would eventually doom the band so I bailed.
-- With a successful power trio cover band for 5 years and it was great because we were all friends in addition to enjoying playing good music and getting well paid gigs. Guitarist was always into casual pot smoking but he eventually started to really abuse the drug and he went off the deep end. We tried to convince him to ease up but he was smoking weed all day every day until he lost his job and his girlfriend. He was so high all the time he lost his ability to play and he started yelling at others, blaming everybody else for his problems. After several months of his completely dysfunctional behavior, I left.
-- I joined a 5 piece cover band from a local ad. I liked them a lot and they were good musicians. They seemed to have similar goals and ambitions to my own. I'll skip the long boring details, but 2 years later we were averaging 1 gig every 3 months. I eventually figured out that they were all about "practicing" every Saturday afternoon and drinking a few beers with their friends always invited to hang with us while we played through our setlist. Perpetual basement dwellers. I tried to motivate them to get out and play real gigs but they constantly invented excuses for not doing so.
-- With a successful power trio cover band for 5 years and it was great because we were all friends in addition to enjoying playing good music and getting well paid gigs. Guitarist was always into casual pot smoking but he eventually started to really abuse the drug and he went off the deep end. We tried to convince him to ease up but he was smoking weed all day every day until he lost his job and his girlfriend. He was so high all the time he lost his ability to play and he started yelling at others, blaming everybody else for his problems. After several months of his completely dysfunctional behavior, I left.
-- I joined a 5 piece cover band from a local ad. I liked them a lot and they were good musicians. They seemed to have similar goals and ambitions to my own. I'll skip the long boring details, but 2 years later we were averaging 1 gig every 3 months. I eventually figured out that they were all about "practicing" every Saturday afternoon and drinking a few beers with their friends always invited to hang with us while we played through our setlist. Perpetual basement dwellers. I tried to motivate them to get out and play real gigs but they constantly invented excuses for not doing so.
I stopped enjoying the process of making music with a largely good group of guys due to one toxic member who missed practices and was absent for long period of times, told other members what to play, and did not practice or prepare for group rehearsals. The music was good yet the band politics were strangely different than previous bands I have been in. I wish them well and want them to succeed yet their methods do not make sense to me = time to leave.
Nothing turns a bunch of adults into whiny teenagers faster than being in a band. People engage in behaviors that would promptly get them fired from a real job.
This...
The band was too loud. I asked them to turn down. Next practice they were back at it. I asked them again to turn down. Next practice, three times and I’m out.
Phew, been there. We did a gig where the guitarist who had a synth took his mininova and cranked it through a vox with its treble cranked as well. Half the bar left immediately. The other half left progressively as they realized it wouldn't be getting any better. So my best friend who was there to suffer through this (with a perforated eardrum no less) tried to be gentle. "Hey guys, you sound pretty cool. Any chance that you might turn down a little bit though to fit the room?"
"Psh, no dude. That wouldn't be rock'n'roll"
We still laugh about that even though it was almost 10 years ago. I ended up getting fired from that band (but they maintain it was mutual). They saw a craigslist post that I had up looking for other bands, got jealous, told me I over play (I did) and that it wasn't working out. Though the narrative now is that I had quit. Guess they were not enthused about the idea of multiple projects. I ended up in the drummers main band for like 8 years after that.
I was in a band where each member was involved with himself rather than listening to and responding to what the other musicians were playing.
At one rehearsal I decided to turn the volume on my bass to zero and continue to play. As expected, no one noticed or commented on the abrupt loss of my bass in the mix. This has been my biggest complaint about the many bands I have been in. The musicians (?) simply do not listen to one another. I like to think that I listen to the other musicians, though I don't mean to boast or brag about it. It's simply a fact that it is impossible to progress without paying attention to what your bandmates are playing.
