Being in bands you don't really care about

[Mosie]

Gotta start your own thing I guess ? Nothings perfect, but the “something is better than nothing” only works if the good outweighs the bad. Not giving a crap or putting any effort in is a sign of a bad situation in my opinion.

Maybe I’m a jerk.

Starting my own project was the right thing for me. After years of being a higher gun in subpar bands and being treated like a piece of equipment - OR - playing with people who were not very good and proved it on a weekly basis, (I still have PTSD from a dance band I was in) I wanted to start a quality cover band. In Northern California it’s a mix of people who do sweet home Alabama and Brown eyed girl medleys and I wanted something more interesting. More challenging.

Three years later I’ve gone through three guitar players and continue to push the bassist to be better (under threat of moving on). I like all my band mates and none of us are playing for a living, it’s our passion but I refuse to play with sub-par players.
IT’S BEEN A BOATLOAD OF WORK FOR ME, but we’re pretty darn good, and starting to get the better gigs and having fun playing out.

So yeah, I’ve been (a nice-ish) jerk from time to time because I demand quality from myself/my playing, and expect it from others I play with too. I’m firm on some things but from the very start I’ve gotten buy in from everybody; we want to be good and have fun doing it.
“RockWorksBand” is growing and we’re following are passion to play. In the end that’s what’s important for me. But yeah, it’s been a part-time job the amount of work to get to a place where I care about the project I’m in.

I hope you guys find and pursue what’s important to you as well!

 

[Old Drummer]

This is one of the main reasons I decided early on not to make drumming a career. I found it easy to get gigs with bands I didn't like, but very hard to get a band I liked off the ground. I realized then that I was destined to be a perpetual sideman, selling my skills to the highest (and often only) bidders, and that getting into an agreeable working band was a matter of luck.

I did know then that with a lot of work and moving to a large market where there are lots of opportunities, drummers can have fulfilling artistic careers. I admire the drummers who do that and occasionally wish I had too, but I'm not sure that it always works out super for them either. I remember reading an interview with Larrie Londin, certainly a successful career drummer, in which he discussed some of the hassles of being asked to play different things by people who didn't know what they were talking about. He didn't come across as bitter in that article, but I gathered that even for drummers like him at the top of their game, playing can be dispiriting work.

After becoming so fed up and burnt out that I quit completely for a couple years, I eventually hooked up with some guys playing music I liked. There were various incarnations of that band over several years, and none of them got many gigs, but it was a lot more fun. Today I still look for that--bands that are fun and who cares about the money--though they are hard to find too.

 

[Whitten]

To create something good often means hard work and conflict.
Those who have regular day jobs, have you always done exactly what you wanted to do at work? Didn't you ever waste your time or agree to do something you thought was wrong?
I can't think of anything worse than having to attend a team building weekend, or a worker evaluation interview.
Why is it assumed in order to be a full-time musician you have to be 100% happy every day. It's pretty much the same as most jobs, except that I'm being paid to follow my creative dream.

 

[Houndog]

To create something good often means hard work and conflict.
Those who have regular day jobs, have you always done exactly what you wanted to do at work? Didn't you ever waste your time or agree to do something you thought was wrong?
I can't think of anything worse than having to attend a team building weekend, or a worker evaluation interview.
Why is it assumed in order to be a full-time musician you have to be 100% happy every day. It's pretty much the same as most jobs, except that I'm being paid to follow my creative dream.

I can’t think of anything worse than being stuck on the road in a vehicle with people I don’t like .

I dont think people assume full time musicians have to always be happy .
Where did you get that idea ?

 

[Whitten]

Where did you get that idea ?

Because people compare their day jobs with fulltime musicians and say they couldn't do an unpleasant gig to pay their bills. Like no one has ever had a job they didn't like, or worked in an office or factory with people they disliked.

 

[Whitten]

I can’t think of anything worse than being stuck on the road in a vehicle with people I don’t like .

Almost always you get the gig because you fit in. I've done a few tours with people who were never going to be a close friend, but I didn't actually dislike them. The last tour I did, at short notice where I didn't know most of the people, we laughed ourselves silly for three months.
One of the key criteria when auditioning for a bus or van tour is that you all get on.
The idea that 'professionals' are always doing work they don't like with people they don't like is massively overstated.

 

[5 Style]

To create something good often means hard work and conflict.
Those who have regular day jobs, have you always done exactly what you wanted to do at work? Didn't you ever waste your time or agree to do something you thought was wrong?
I can't think of anything worse than having to attend a team building weekend, or a worker evaluation interview.
Why is it assumed in order to be a full-time musician you have to be 100% happy every day. It's pretty much the same as most jobs, except that I'm being paid to follow my creative dream.

While I agree that even playing music you don't care about, or even other hassles that come up as a paid musician, it may still on average be more enjoyable than many if not most of our day jobs. What I'm talking about though is pursuing music as a creative endeavor and to that end it makes sense that some folks would rather work a job that they don't care about outside of music, so that when they aren't stuck working they have the freedom to make any kind of music they want, without needing to factor in whether it might make a any money from it...

 

[Houndog]

Almost always you get the gig because you fit in. I've done a few tours with people who were never going to be a close friend, but I didn't actually dislike them. The last tour I did, at short notice where I didn't know most of the people, we laughed ourselves silly for three months.
One of the key criteria when auditioning for a bus or van tour is that you all get on.
The idea that 'professionals' are always doing work they don't like with people they don't like is massively overstated.

You can’t sort out a person for real in the time it takes to audition …It takes awhile to get to know someone.

 

[smittyboy63]

Well, I just met with my future bandmates this past Saturday. They gave me 4 pages of cover songs that they do, and EVERY song they cover is mid-tempo (think Bad Company...who I like, but let's face it, they were not an up-tempo band - think 1/4 note hi-hat playing all around).... There was one old song that was up tempo, which gave me hope, then they told me that the version they do is from another band...guess what? Mid-tempo, LOL. Now I realize I am just getting back into drumming after a 30 year break, and at this point I'm probably not capable of puling off alot of the high-energy playing I did when I stopped playing all those years ago, but regardless, their set-list is bleak for me, so the only way I can approach it is, well, mid-tempo stuff is what would be best for me getting back into drumming again, so maybe this is truly what I need right now. That being said, once I start getting my chops, precision, dexterity, and speed back, I WILL start looking for other folks to jam with, as I know I will not be happy playing 3-4 sets of mid-tempo stuff. - And the guitar player, who is very good at what he does, gave me 3 CD's, professionally recorded, of bands he's written music for, and I've listened to all 3 CD's and I just cannot get excited. Upon hearing all his music, I now understand why they are doing the cover songs they are doing, as I can hear their influence in his writing. So it all makes sense. The reality is, we drummers can't always get what we want.

 

[Steech]

Well, I just met with my future bandmates this past Saturday. They gave me 4 pages of cover songs that they do, and EVERY song they cover is mid-tempo (think Bad Company...who I like, but let's face it, they were not an up-tempo band - think 1/4 note hi-hat playing all around).... There was one old song that was up tempo, which gave me hope, then they told me that the version they do is from another band...guess what? Mid-tempo, LOL. Now I realize I am just getting back into drumming after a 30 year break, and at this point I'm probably not capable of puling off alot of the high-energy playing I did when I stopped playing all those years ago, but regardless, their set-list is bleak for me, so the only way I can approach it is, well, mid-tempo stuff is what would be best for me getting back into drumming again, so maybe this is truly what I need right now. That being said, once I start getting my chops, precision, dexterity, and speed back, I WILL start looking for other folks to jam with, as I know I will not be happy playing 3-4 sets of mid-tempo stuff. - And the guitar player, who is very good at what he does, gave me 3 CD's, professionally recorded, of bands he's written music for, and I've listened to all 3 CD's and I just cannot get excited. Upon hearing all his music, I now understand why they are doing the cover songs they are doing, as I can hear their influence in his writing. So it all makes sense. The reality is, we drummers can't always get what we want.

Hence why I don’t play in cover bands anymore.

But if you do decide to take it you won’t need to haul your massive kit.

 

[smittyboy63]

Hence why I don’t play in cover bands anymore.
But if you do decide to take it you won’t need to haul your massive kit.

Oh, I am going for it. It's my only chance to play for now. Who else is going to want anything to do with a drummer who's been away for so long? These guys are giving me a chance to get back into the swing of things, and that's a big plus. I just wish I could get more excited about the choice of cover songs, but even the guitar player's original material is not my preference. I am going to downsize the kit for sure for this band...probably start off with just a single bass drum too, as their music really doesn't require double bass. Most likely will go with a 5-piece, as I want more then 1 rack tom to play with. I can't see playing on anything smaller than 5-piece. I need more tones.

 

[Houndog]

Oh, I am going for it. It's my only chance to play for now. Who else is going to want anything to do with a drummer who's been away for so long? These guys are giving me a chance to get back into the swing of things, and that's a big plus. I just wish I could get more excited about the choice of cover songs, but even the guitar player's original material is not my preference. I am going to downsize the kit for sure for this band...probably start off with just a single bass drum too, as their music really doesn't require double bass. Most likely will go with a 5-piece, as I want more then 1 rack tom to play with. I can't see playing on anything smaller than 5-piece. I need more tones.

Hard to play melodic fills with 2 toms .

 

[Steech]

Hard to play melodic fills with 2 toms .

Not if you turn the snares off and play the snare as your third tom. Or have a side snare. Or set up one of your awesome concert toms as your first tom and crank that sucker.

 

[smittyboy63]

...Or set up one of your awesome concert toms as your first tom and crank that sucker.

All in good time. I have to see how I feel about lugging around what I've picked so far.

 

[Whitten]

You can’t sort out a person for real in the time it takes to audition …It takes awhile to get to know someone.

I'm just talking from 40 years of experience. Most gigs come about through personal recommendation. Also, people don't exist in a vacuum. Most of the time when I've accepted a job with a difficult person, I already knew from many separate sources that person was going to be difficult.

 

[Whitten]

so that when they aren't stuck working they have the freedom to make any kind of music they want, without needing to factor in whether it might make a any money from it...

Instead they have to make the kind of music they want in the spare time left from their day job.
The flip side is playing drums every day, then playing drums on the 'kind of music' you want in the spare time from being creative behind a kit every day.

 

[Houndog]

Not if you turn the snares off and play the snare as your third tom. Or have a side snare. Or set up one of your awesome concert toms as your first tom and crank that sucker.

2 concert toms are better than one !!!

 

[5 Style]

Instead they have to make the kind of music they want in the spare time left from their day job.
The flip side is playing drums every day, then playing drums on the 'kind of music' you want in the spare time from being creative behind a kit every day.

Sure, it can work that way, and does for a lot of people. It does seem like a lot of folks though, if they are dedicated pros, end up taking only the gigs that pay and don't have the bandwidth to deal with other projects that may be more creatively fulfilling. Many, if not more of the folks I've known locally who are making music that I really respect are been people with day jobs. There is a certain freedom that one has in not needing to make money from whatever their passion is. No doubt, there are plenty of professional players who aren't compromising what they do at all and are still able to make the art that they most want to make. That's the ideal, but I would say that most aren't able to strike that balance.

 

[michaelocalypse]

I avoided the problem for years by just not playing.
Now I'm in one of those bands and can barely play the songs.
"It is easier to stay in shape than to get out of shape and try to get back into shape."

 

[Steech]

I avoided the problem for years by just not playing.
Now I'm in one of those bands and can barely play the songs.
"It is easier to stay in shape than to get out of shape and try to get back into shape."

That’s a great topic for a thread.