well, sometimes you have to just let it pass. my band has been together for alomost 5 years. we do a lot of nice gigs - mostly opening national shows - and it still gets frustrating. we rehearse our asses off, are currently in the studio, and are prepping for two new gigs opening for a couple of very cool national/international acts.
the secret i have found is to have somene you can vent to. no matter how cool you are with your band mates, somebody will always be under your skin. after a good venter helps because they have nothing to do with the band.
also, every band NEEDS a leader, or at least 2 people that share a common vision. that's the situation i have. i am the main leader and the singer helps out. we are very close and we put the band together so it works out well. get yourselves a leader, discuss your vision, get on the same page and run that band like a business. my band is actually a "limited liabilty corporation". i am the ceo and the singer is the president. we have two outside people that serve as secretary and VP.
having the band set-up this way makes it CLEAR to whomever auditions and fills an empty position (usually the drummer) understands that they are not entering a democratic situation where they have equal say is any decision making. our bass player is cool with just playing and doing what we want. he recognizes that i know what i am doing and have never steered that band wrong.
we employed a booking agent a year or so back and she gets us good shows where we make some money. it is not easy being an all original band and getting good gigs where you are paid. she only takes 5% too, which is pretty low. that didn't come easy. we had to practice our asses off and put together a "show". we have stage clothes and a presentation to our material that is very rehearsed with transitions between certain songs, songs with built in band introductions, bookends to our set. we also practice and use one set list per quarter.
we work on 2 new originals each practice so that we can have new material to add each quarter. we have separate writing rehearsals where a couple of us get together in my studio and flesh out new ideas. we record a demo as we write the songs, bring the into rehearsal, then the next week we begin fleshing ot the ideas and making the song whole.
so, in essence, we work our asses off - endlessly - in order to keep the band going. when someone falls off to the side a bit, we can him and move on.
the secret i have found is to have somene you can vent to. no matter how cool you are with your band mates, somebody will always be under your skin. after a good venter helps because they have nothing to do with the band.
also, every band NEEDS a leader, or at least 2 people that share a common vision. that's the situation i have. i am the main leader and the singer helps out. we are very close and we put the band together so it works out well. get yourselves a leader, discuss your vision, get on the same page and run that band like a business. my band is actually a "limited liabilty corporation". i am the ceo and the singer is the president. we have two outside people that serve as secretary and VP.
having the band set-up this way makes it CLEAR to whomever auditions and fills an empty position (usually the drummer) understands that they are not entering a democratic situation where they have equal say is any decision making. our bass player is cool with just playing and doing what we want. he recognizes that i know what i am doing and have never steered that band wrong.
we employed a booking agent a year or so back and she gets us good shows where we make some money. it is not easy being an all original band and getting good gigs where you are paid. she only takes 5% too, which is pretty low. that didn't come easy. we had to practice our asses off and put together a "show". we have stage clothes and a presentation to our material that is very rehearsed with transitions between certain songs, songs with built in band introductions, bookends to our set. we also practice and use one set list per quarter.
we work on 2 new originals each practice so that we can have new material to add each quarter. we have separate writing rehearsals where a couple of us get together in my studio and flesh out new ideas. we record a demo as we write the songs, bring the into rehearsal, then the next week we begin fleshing ot the ideas and making the song whole.
so, in essence, we work our asses off - endlessly - in order to keep the band going. when someone falls off to the side a bit, we can him and move on.
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