If it isn't fun your missing the point.
But, let me tell ya...
About a two years ago I picked up my bass for the first time in six or seven years. Point blank, I sucked. But I decided to join a band anyway. A little over a year ago I answered an ad in a local music shop and hooked up with this gawd awful lead guitar player. Well he was actually decent at the time, more on that later. We found a competent rhythm guitar player and a very good Jazz drummer, and apparently he already had some pretty phenominal singer lined up. He just couldn't get in touch with him within the last year and a half (he was never very good at reading between the lines). Well, here's the line up as it is now. A 19 year old lead guitar player who's into Metallica, Slayer, Megadeath, and various Hard Core; A 25 year old bass player who's into Sublime, Korn, Tool, and various alternative bands, who also hates almost everything 80's; A 38 year old drummer who is really into Rush and Priest; and a 48 year old rythm guitar player into mostly Stones and Beatles. Got any ideas about band dynamics?
Don't jump to conclusions just yet. It gets worse.
Another rhythm guitar player answers the same ad, (who btw was better than our current lead guitar player). Anyway, he was really into Maiden, I mean
really into Maiden. He has all their albums, DVDs, VHS, Audio casettes, knows every part to every song note for note etc. So this is about two months after we already had a rythm guitar player and this genius of a band "leader" decided to put everybody in the same room to "See what people do". Man, I was PISSED. If just replacing somebody who isn't doing anything wrong, can play his instrument, no real ego, wasn't enough, he brought both of them down to our practice spot to "see what people do". That takes a lot of nerve. I was pissed.
But, there the band split into two groups. Sort of a classic rock cover band, and a classic metal cover/original band and I'm sort of stuck in between and ended up playing for both. I liked playing with these old foggies, we'd just jam for hours on end. The cover music I didn't really care for, but it was just fun to play. On the other hand, Eric (the Maiden dude) had some
really good original material, and I really did like playing with him and he was a really nice guy. (Oh by the way, neither me, Eric, or Axle has ever been in a real band before.) I don't want to use the real name of this lead guitar player, so I'll just call him Axle.
Enter a new singer. Well, he was Okay. Very dedicated. He could stay in key for the most part and had some good grit. We liked some of the same music, but he was sort of a little back stabber. He'd talk sh!t about me behind my back and he'd talk about the other two to me. Still not as bad as Axle though. Ok so now we have a singer but no drummer. How often does that happen?! This new singer was also a drummer and he was playing for us to try and get us tight. He made us a deal. If we find a singer before we find a drummer, he'll drum. He was an extremely good drummer with good stick control and a metronome's sense of time, so me and eric tightened up pretty well, Axle never payed attention to anything except what he was playing. I was about fed up with this situation, and it was really draining. I actually grew to resent practice and the classic rock band didn't really like me playing for another band, so they're on my case about it. They said it's either them or us. I picked them. Mostly because they put me in that situation, and it really wasn't going anywhere anyway. Also, Got The Life by Korn came on the radio and I had so much fun jamming with it and figured I had to find a band who will play it. I was going to quit both bands and find one that liked the same music that I did.
Fate hit.
Enter Shawn. Well remember that phenominal singer that Axle kept telling us about. Well, here he is. Tonedeaf, Mickey Mousy falsetto and insisted on staying there. Despite all that, I heard nothing but potential. Really. I heard one of the greats in the making. He sucked at the time, but so did everybody else (except for eric, he was merely good). But, there was something.
We called our singer/drummer's bluff and he really didn't want to go back to drumming. He's just been there and done that and wanted to front so he quit a couple of jams later. Once again, a singer and no drummer.
Well shawn new this drummer who lived about two hours away and figured let's see if he's any good. He wasn't. Though to his credit he hasn't even touched a pair of drum sticks in over two years, but Axle was impatient and said he was our drummer. He had potential though if he worked at it and was a great personallity to have in a band. I'd take him just for that. No ego, no attitude, and generally somebody I'd just want to hang out with. The only problem is, he didn't have time to work on his chops, and I don't think Axle really made him want to find time either. The first time I jammed with him, I basically threatend to quit the band. But I figured I'd see where things go. Well, we jammed with him for two weeks and decided to finally book something. Yeap. We have a full line up for two weeks and already set a date. He had four weeks to learn Hallowed Be Thy Name and The Trooper by Iron Maiden, Creeping Death and Fade to Black by Metallica, and three of our originals. Keep in mind that I'm still not really into this band so I still only have a rough idea about how these songs go, our singer doesn't know the words, and Axle is playing all of these in double time. Two weeks till show time. I still only have a rough idea about how these songs go, our drummer doesn't know the songs at all, and our singer only really knows the melodies to these songs.
Ok, time to kick it into gear. I found six hours a day to practice with jam tapes, shawn miraculously learned most of the words to the covers and could fake the rest, and our drummer actually at least knew the structures. We get on stage in front of what was actually a good turn out for that club and put our thing down. I was particularly nervous as I had a little intro to start off the set. They went NUTS. Really, WOOOOSH of applause and yeahs and screams. I couldn't beleive it. Heads actually turned.
Now all of this happened within about four or five month of answering that ad that brought me into the music business and I haven't even got a lable yet
.
Enter Jim
After that show our drummer quit (tired of Axle) and the drummer from the headline band that night offered to play with us. We had already booked another show at that venue and were out a drummer so we said sure. He picked up the songs within a couple weeks and we had two more songs written, by Axle. Axle didn't want Eric to bring any songs to the table, so we were all stuck working on bad songs. But I liked the Metallica songs and Hallowed (which we still get good responses from) and with Jim, we were more on the way up. Eric
finally got to bring something musical to the table, and these were really good songs. I've never liked that 80's sound, but I like these melodic but edgy riffs and unique lyrics. Shawn had some really good lyrics going and could hum riffs and stuff. When we'd get to practice early we'd have fun jamming until axle showed up. Some of our best songs were written then.
Exit Axle
Well we've been together for a few months and his playing and writing just kept getting worse and worse. Basically all he cared about was flying a million miles an hour, and he got really choppy, his timing was worse than it ever was. Serously, our first demo was just, well BAD. I figured it would be, so I made sure it would be done on my four track cassette recorder, to nix the idea of actually paying for studio time. I didn't want anything to do with paying $200/day waiting for him to finally hand eric his guitar. He was so off time parts of the songs just sounded like a bunch of noise. And that was when he was turned down in the mix. Which by the way, I never heard the end of.
When it came time for our second demo is when I went all out and got some good recording gear, mics, etc... He ran soooooo much feedback through it I could have shot him.
Anyway
When shawn asked him to not play leads while he was singing. My God, I have never seen anybody pick a fight so quickly over four bars. I mean seriously, this is how bad it got. He's always had a bit of a temper, but he was about to punch shawn. Both me and shawn were about to leave and start our own band if this all kept up and after this little display, it was the last straw.
We're not playing with him anymore and now we're playing better than ever. Shawn's become a pretty amazing singer, Eric has turned into the next Adrien Smith. Unfortunately, I've been spending so much time learning my way around recording gear that I've been running flat. (But so far the drum tracks are sounding absolutely spectacular.) I can still keep up with out any real strain. But that will change once our cd is done.
Anyway-- The moral of the story is you never really know what is going to come next. Being a dick about stuff will only yeild resentment, but a good kick in the ass or a sense of urgency may be a good thing. I hate to say it, but rushing into that first gig was probably the best thing that has ever happened to this band. So much has come from it.
As far as getting tight, it just takes time and repitition. Just go over your set twice when you can practice. And keep in mind that there really is no such thing as a
perfecly tight band. What you hear from the front house speakers is often helped by the sound guy and just the pure volume. If you listen closely enough, you'll hear the timing issues, even with bands that have been playing together for twenty years. But if you've been playing for ten years you've probably already considered that.
Back in high school, when I was first learning how to play bass, I really never knew what it really meant to be tight. All my jazz band teacher had to tell me is when he hits that drum, you play that note. And then it just sort of clicked. Just saying the right thing may be all that's needed.
Well I've been rambling for quite some time now and need to go to bed. But I hope that helps some.
