Here's the thing, I'm in a great band right now, playing music I love, selling lots of merch at gigs, just having a good time. The problem is our drummer, the weak link.
He's an alright drummer, but very barebones, has a bit of a "that's good enough" attitude.
He converted his garage into a rehearsel room. It's small, has terrible acoustics, the layout is all wrong, but it's ours. Problem is he lives half an hours drive from the city the rest of us live in, and since the rest of us are students, he's the only one with a car. Any one of us can cancel for any reason and the rest can go rehearse, but if he cancels, that's it. And he cancels a lot. We try to rehearse once a week, but realistically it averages out to twice a month. What really gets me though is how he cancels the night before, because he "just remembered" he has made other plans. He also rarely checks his messages which makes it frustratingly hard to make plans.
Now I would be quite happy cutting him loose right now, but we've got a major gig coming up in November, and finding a new rehearsel space, a new drummer, and getting him up to speed with the material in time just isn't going to happen. I've taken the role as de facto BL in lieu of anyone else, and have "gone behind the drummer's back" to see if anyone feels the same, and we're all in agreement, he has to go, but after the gig.
But what to say to him? We're using these next three months as a kind of "trial" to see if he gets better, but should we let him know? How long until after the gig in November should we wait to make it seem like we're not just using him? I realise how weird that sounds considering he's our drummer, but knowing him, that's how he would feel.
It's obvious his first priority is his other band, and that's fine, we're all good friends and have played countless gigs together, but I'm afraid letting him go will sour relations with the rest of his other band. So what's the most diplomatic way of telling him to jog on?
He's an alright drummer, but very barebones, has a bit of a "that's good enough" attitude.
He converted his garage into a rehearsel room. It's small, has terrible acoustics, the layout is all wrong, but it's ours. Problem is he lives half an hours drive from the city the rest of us live in, and since the rest of us are students, he's the only one with a car. Any one of us can cancel for any reason and the rest can go rehearse, but if he cancels, that's it. And he cancels a lot. We try to rehearse once a week, but realistically it averages out to twice a month. What really gets me though is how he cancels the night before, because he "just remembered" he has made other plans. He also rarely checks his messages which makes it frustratingly hard to make plans.
Now I would be quite happy cutting him loose right now, but we've got a major gig coming up in November, and finding a new rehearsel space, a new drummer, and getting him up to speed with the material in time just isn't going to happen. I've taken the role as de facto BL in lieu of anyone else, and have "gone behind the drummer's back" to see if anyone feels the same, and we're all in agreement, he has to go, but after the gig.
But what to say to him? We're using these next three months as a kind of "trial" to see if he gets better, but should we let him know? How long until after the gig in November should we wait to make it seem like we're not just using him? I realise how weird that sounds considering he's our drummer, but knowing him, that's how he would feel.
It's obvious his first priority is his other band, and that's fine, we're all good friends and have played countless gigs together, but I'm afraid letting him go will sour relations with the rest of his other band. So what's the most diplomatic way of telling him to jog on?
