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Well the project I was working on broke up last Friday and I was just curious to see if anyone had any advice on what my next move should be. I really enjoyed playing the style of music and was the primary songwriter, but I'm not sure whether I should make it a solo project and record everything myself or try and find all new members. The other members basically weren't comfortable with playing in a band where I was bringing in ideas and would come up with some of the parts for other instruments as well and try to get them to play some of them.

I guess I was wondering if you guys have run into problems getting people to work together in a group. It was so hard for us to make progress together, but when I'm working alone it seems so much easier to write songs. I guess that's what happens when you only have to satisfy yourself and not worry about what other people think.

I guess that's the end of my whiny rant, but any comments?

it is really hard to find a group of people that are comfortable having someone else suggest or write their parts for them. lets be honest, most of us don't like doing what we're told. my old band was kind of like that, but when i let go of my attachment and let people do their own thing with their parts, it was never what i originally envisioned, but it was always incredible.

it's something to consider.

that being said - what's your next move? take a week or two off. i'm not saying don't play your instrument, but don't think about things in that context for a little while. let yourself find closure for the last project before beginning the next one, so that it's totally clean and separate.

record everything yourself, then find people who like the recordings to play it live.

Like David Bowie!

The band that I'm currently in is just me & one other guy - we've been playing together for the past 8 years, with a variety of other people in and out. A few years back, it became clear that since my music partner & I tended to be on the same wavelength and couldn't consistently find people who fit with us, we decided to go it alone as a twosome. We've talked about recruiting other people at some point in the future, but for now, we're content to play stuff out with a computer handling the additional instrumentation. I'm all for collaboration, and agree that it can result in amazing surprises, but if it turns out that you can't find other people willing to participate on your terms, and you're writing arrangements full enough for what you want to do, go it alone until the right people come along. If you're playing with people who aren't fully into what you're doing, it only makes things less fun for them and you.

Thanks for the advice guys!

I do understand about collaboration producing some great things, but it seemed like the other members were never coming up with stuff that often on their own or even at practice. And I do love playing live, but i really want to make a record for myself that I can enjoy and be proud of. Looks like the solo route is the way to go until I can find some cool people to cover it live!

Now an even tougher question...should I keep the old project name or go for something totally different? ahh choices, choices!

in2thegapagain85 wrote:
Now an even tougher question...should I keep the old project name or go for something totally different? ahh choices, choices!

Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm what was it?

If it's super epic then keep it, if it's meh find somthing new. You should probably come up with a new one unless the old one is that awesome tho.

Seizurema wrote:

in2thegapagain85 wrote:
Now an even tougher question...should I keep the old project name or go for something totally different? ahh choices, choices!

Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm what was it?

If it's super epic then keep it, if it's meh find somthing new. You should probably come up with a new one unless the old one is that awesome tho.

I wouldn't say it's super epic...but I did like it. The old one was this_silence_powerful, or TSP for short.

wait, so they were angsty about having you write their parts, but they were unwilling/unable to write their own? laaaaaaame.

jdavyd wrote:wait, so they were angsty about having you write their parts, but they were unwilling/unable to write their own? laaaaaaame.

well it was like I was the only one who was a musician outside of practice. I spent time working on new things and coming up with ideas so we would have something to do at practice! I pretty much know that they didn't work on anything during their free time. I like to go to practice and feel like I've accomplished something and not just stare at eachother.

absolutely, and i experienced that exact situation. it makes no sense to me.

in2thegapagain85 wrote:

jdavyd wrote:wait, so they were angsty about having you write their parts, but they were unwilling/unable to write their own? laaaaaaame.

well it was like I was the only one who was a musician outside of practice. I spent time working on new things and coming up with ideas so we would have something to do at practice! I pretty much know that they didn't work on anything during their free time. I like to go to practice and feel like I've accomplished something and not just stare at eachother.

my last good band was kinda like that, except that everyone was ok with me writing everything for everyone and I was ok with them changing their parts to suit them better, sadly our bassist moved to LA so we lost our practice space as well as 1/4th the band, our other guitarist now has a kid and gave us a cancer scare, the drummer and I now work full time in pointless jobs (at least mines well paying and the people are cool, he works in a plumbing store....hes a drummer for goodness sakes!)



im actually auditioning for a 60s/70s style band tonight after work, we'll see how that goes

after spending (too) much time in bands, and now having spent more than ten years recording/producing other bands, i have come up with a theory that my pals have heard me ramble on about more than a few times.

bands cannot be democracies.
bands function best as a dictatorship. there. i've said it. i have reasons too.

things work almost effortlessly when you have A GENERAL and his SOLDIERS.
the GENERAL is THE DUDE: he/she writes stuff, probably named the project, often times has an overall idea of the aesthetic he/she is trying to put forth with this project. also tends to be the person doing the administrative side of things- booking, scheduling rehearsals, top of the phone tree for communication.

then there are the SOLDIERS: people you can get and trust they will do what you need them to do for the song/project. they will play the weird bass line you thought of. sometimes they can come up with awesome things for the songs, but THE GENERAL put them there because THE GENERAL knows what or who works best.

bands fall apart when dudes who should consider themselve SOLDIERS start to think that their part is greater than the sum of all parts. the 2nd guitarist who never writes anything, yet complains about new songs. the bassist who won't actually write a bassline, but refuses to play the correct one you wrote for the song. the drummer who thinks the GENERAL can't get any other idiot to hit shit with sticks for him.

think about your favorite bands, and apply this theory to them.
i know a lot of you really love Smashing Pumkpins; for awhile Corgan had soldiers and he was the unquestioned general. then things kinda fell apart when the band thought they didn't need him to tell them what to do. exit bassist. and Iha has great tone and ideas but not necessarily the best songs for those ideas (just my opinion, but i'm trying to strecth a point here...)
were they not a better functioning band around say "Melon Colie" following the general's ideas, versus the crumbling free-for-all it turned into in the end?

there cannot be two generals in a band, or else you have a splitting of camps which usually borns two bands from the original band (ala Uncle Tupelo which split into Son Volt and the highly overrated and much more boring Wilco). there can be a few good albums from a two-general band (ever heard of The Beatles?) but the existance of the two will ultimately tear them apart.

OK, done with rant.
the coffee shop down the street from me has these AWESOME RedEyes for $3. i've had too many.

I didn't read your post besides the main point, "bands are best as Dictatorships."

I definitely agree. But when the band is a democracy, I think the songs should be dictatorships. Whoever wrote the song gets the final say.

gobopierce wrote:
bands cannot be democracies.
bands function best as a dictatorship. there. i've said it. i have reasons too.

things work almost effortlessly when you have A GENERAL and his SOLDIERS.
the GENERAL is THE DUDE: he/she writes stuff, probably named the project, often times has an overall idea of the aesthetic he/she is trying to put forth wirth this project. also tends to be the person doing the administrative side of things- booking, scheduling rehearsals, top of the phone tree for communication.

then there are the SOLDIERS: people you can get and trust they will do what you need them to do for the song/project. they will play the weird bass line you thought of. sometimes they can come up with awesome things for the songs, but THE GENERAL put them there because THE GENERAL knows what or who works best.

bands fall apart when dudes who should consider themselve SOLDIERS start to think that their part is greater than the sum of all parts. the 2nd guitarist who never wrotes anything, yet complains about new songs. the bassist who won't actually write a bassline, but refuses to play the correct one you wrote for the song. the drummer who thinks the GENERAL can't get any other idiot to hit shit with sticks for him.

I totally agree with these points. The other guys would come up with some parts that I really liked and we used, but overall I was coming up with everything and giving them direction on those parts that they were working on. It's kind of funny because I have a set of drums, and I was able to write an entire song with lyrics and all in 2 days, where as with the band it would have taken weeks.