You on bass player tv

[attackbass]

Hey Justin

I watched those video interviews with you on bass player tv today from some bass event.

I found the topic on sessions and fees and the fine line with writing credits really interesting and the way you deal with these things really helpful!

I had just yesterday been thinking about an 'audition' I did couple of years ago where I came away feeling used and tricked! I thought i'd let you and others know about one of my experiences...

Basically I was put forward for an audition by a big producer (who i had done a project with an old band) for a singer songwriter. I traveled to London for an audition i was thinking would take a 3-4 hours max. When I got there I was we played a few songs that I had been given to learn, then a few new songs... I was given a notebook and a pencil - i thought that at that moment this was ok - they wanted to see what i could contribute to a new song and what i could add.

10 - 11 hours later I left the audition having recorded demo songs and been part of what some would consider a writing session. I let it slide tho - and thought maybe i would get the job - funnily enough i got a call the next day to say that i didnt get the job and that maybe i could work with them in the future - i later found out they didn't audition any other bass players and hired an older session guy to do the recording session.

I haven't heard or seen anything from this artist since that audition, and since doing it I have experienced success with my band and with other session stuff, whether working doing dinner jazz or making records - working with pleasant people who know the score and have respect for me and for my playing!

I also know not to be roped in to any dodgy auditions again!

 

[jmjbassplayer]

Wow, that sounds like a bizarre situation. Thanks for the recounting.

 

[kyral210]

The term screwed comes to mind. Did they make you sign anything as legaly if they released the material you worked on you are owed royalties under copyright law. That is pretty bad though!

 

[JimmyM]

People always seem to be trying to rip musicians off. And it happens at all levels, too. I remember reading about Steve Bailey doing a session, and the producer was asking him to hit certain notes on his bass, and it took him about 3 requests to realize that he was being sampled against his will. He immediately stopped and demanded the producer erase everything. Good for him.

After you've done it a while, you get wised up really quickly, as you've found out. People always try to use musicians' services for free, and they'll lure you with phrases like "this will be good exposure for you," or "we have a pending record deal with a big advance." 99.999% of the time it's BS. I'm still waiting for those record deals to happen with a couple people who roped me in with that when I was younger.

BTW, any audition that goes longer than an hour is suspect in my book. Most auditions I've gone to lasted less than a half hour, some as little as 2 minutes. There's just no reason for even a 3-4 hour audition, and 11 hours is right out!

 

[DaybeD]

Same thing happened to me. I was sucked into this whirpool of ********. It was supposed to be a nice little audition for a musical in my local theater and then boom next thing i know they wanted the band i found out the music director had no idea what he was doing and it all sounded like crap at least you were given notes they wanted all the musicians improvise generic copies of genres throughout the play as a type of soundtrack. All the musicians at one point left, me being the first. I kinda felt flaky but the show was in two days and i would've done it if it was a month or at the least two weeks before with practice with the other band members. From what I heard they fired the manager and hired a new one.

 

[BrickIsRed]

People always seem to be trying to rip musicians off. And it happens at all levels, too. I remember reading about Steve Bailey doing a session, and the producer was asking him to hit certain notes on his bass, and it took him about 3 requests to realize that he was being sampled against his will. He immediately stopped and demanded the producer erase everything. Good for him.

Seems like a lot of trouble to sample 3 bass notes. They have programs for that...

On the subject of sampling, I did a bass track for a metal band and without my knowledge they made up some completely new bass fills by copying and pasting notes together. I don't mind since I volunteered playing bass for them. Just saying, it's easy to take bass samples so be careful.