Putting the Band Together

After years of playing music I have discovered that there are some things in music that no amount of lessons or talent can prepare you for.  Pop culture would have us believe that anybody with a garage and a spunky group of musician friends can put together a band and instantly jump into the world of record deals, touring and screaming girls. This could not be farther from the truth. For every band that actually gets off the ground there are ten that blow up on the launch pad. Really the best movie example of the kind of turmoil that band goes through would be The Commitments or maybe  the far less serious This Is Spinal Tap.

I would venture to guess that the average lifespan of bands that I have been in would be about a month. The problem is that there are a huge amount of factors that need to line up for a band to have any sort of staying power. There have been days when I got together with a random group of friends and write three or four songs and have absolutely great band chemistry but never play together again. Then there are other times when I’ve played with bands for months with nothing holding us together outside of the prospects of playing at the House of Blues.

Currently I have been playing with the latter. Call me a sellout, but frankly one cannot make it in the biz without connections and the kids I’m playing with are very well connected. If I have to play some bubble gum Colbie Caillat and Bruno Mars in order to actually have a paying gig for once I’m going to take it. People don’t understand that in the music world opportunity doesn’t knock very often and you have to take it when you can.

The major problem with this group hasn’t had anything to do with the music. The true challenge has been that these kids have never been in a band before. In the music world this is a huge red flag because it means either they are really inexperienced or they simply just don’t play well with others. I found that if I didn’t keep them on track practices would devolve into jamming which normally I would be cool with but when you aren’t a fan of the music and you have limited time it’s a lot harder. It also doesn’t help that they live 20 miles away and until recently lacked a drum set (meaning that I had to pack a full kit into the back of my tiny Honda Civic).

The inexperience of this group has also brought out another challenge to maintaining a band. It has been almost impossible to keep the same musicians playing with the group. In order to have a functioning group there needs to be relatively regular practices and musicians are notoriously flakey (I’ve always said that a good musician is never on time). Thanks to this we have been through a multitude of drummers, pianists and guitarists who, in some cases, have just straight up disappeared. After a year I’ve managed to finally lock in the line-up through all nature of bribes, favors and other incentives.

And I haven’t even started talking about my musical bane of my existence: the diva. I’ll have to devote all of next week to that one. Needless to say this gig better pay off.