Bands members-discussion

[N.b.Rottenoise]

Hello!
I want to start an important discussion and please no bullshit in this one.
I'm bass player with some experience since 2000 from Croatia.In past I participated in several demo bands, projects, I create texts and music for own song on bass instruments, since I don't know how to play other instruments, but I know how to give directions to another person, I know how a band works and I have live experience on stage.So,I don't talk nonsense.

One thing has been bothering me for some long time and that's how to find band members.I have a feeling that nobody is really 100% interested in participating in a band or in creating a band. Regardless of whether I'm looking or someone else.
For example, in my country I tell my acquaintances that I'm creating a band and in a few days I'll complete the whole fucking band.Here;in Ireland it's mission impossible.

Namely,when placing the ad,some guidelines are clearly given in which direction to go (genre of music, which instruments and musicians are needed for that band, approximately the indicated place where the rehearsals would take place, experience....)
I know, it takes some time for someone to contact you and then after some positive conversation everything is agreed, something starts to be created and then the person realize the reality, they give up. And honestly, there are people who think they are the best musicians in the world and with such ideas it's as if it's easy to make a demo or an album overnight and when they come to the rehearsal they have one riff in own head and that's it, they expect you to do everything!The whole song,you tell them how to play their instrument.Unbelievable! They expect to play instead for them, pay the rent for the rehearsal room, arrange the complete logistics, etc.No productive participation from the other side.Just one riff and that's is.I have instruments!I'm here(if they come at all on rehearsal on this day).Great!

The second thing is that I have often seen ads(here,on Fb...) where they are looking for a person to participate in a band or create band and I'm  seriously interested, I call, send an email and...nothing. Not a single answer.
Or they still answer you and you agree with everything (you accept the band's conditions), I present and give my best
what i know (videos, lyrics,info, whatever...) and after that there is no sign or voice or they simply reject you, for example; you play very well,that's all great, we really like yours style and playing but.....for some really,really excuse and strange reason they screw you up.
Wtf! Are you serious in these ads of yours or are you doing some pranks?Such behavior is really frustrating and disappointing!

And I don't know why is so hard to find persons who will play music(ok,in this case I talking about Black Metal because I find myself in this genre) or maybe here in Ireland there are really very, very few people who, besides being metalheads, are really dedicated to metal music and the creation of that music.

Tell me yours opinion maybe I'm thinking wrong.

[Eoin McLove]

There seems to be an awful lack of young musicians coning up in the Irish metal scene. Older heads are possibly jaded or caught up in family life, or the ones that aren't already have one or two, or more, projects on the go. I can't explain why people would look for musicians and then ghost the ones who actually apply, though. Weird.

[Skott Furys jizz rag]

Fuck all young people play black metal. Fuck all older people have the time. The ones that are any good are already in projects. For the most part. Logistics is also an issue. You might be the best black metal drummer on the planet but you live in Cahercieveen so yeah no joy.

[KingHostile]

Ah lads......

I have seen two mental breakdowns, a lad disappear due to high anxiety, another lad who thinks he's doing great but does nothing!

I wanted to go back in and record, they gave out to me! I wanted to jam more, they just couldn't do it!

I spent a load of money, they haven't given me anything back. Thats gone!

One lad said I'll play a gig every night, but he couldn't even make rehearsal once a month!

Then, there is always that rock star baby, immature moron, you have to pick him up to practice, when he can make it, drive him there and drive him back! (This lad has a full licence and there are two cars him and his moths....never once...... not once...... did he ever drive or ask 'here will I drive')

How many times, have lads not had money, I'll get you the next time, etc etc........

As for the other rock stars who couldn't play a gig because it was below them??

All songs in C, so  thats tunes in E, D and C. Yes, I need three guitars ideally! why woukd you only turn up with one and then try and make people play tunes in C in D? As for never hearing of concert pitch.........

Heart broken!

Rant!

[Anton Arcane]

Yapping is another one. When you do finally manage to assemble everyone into one room for a few hours, all they want to do is talk scutter and act the eejit. You'd be doing well to get through a 45 minute set twice in 5 hours. I think it's because most lads learned how to conduct themselves at band practice when they were teenagers starting out and have carried all those bad habits into adulthood.

I just gave up on finding people and have started doing projects on my own. I've always been the one that did the vast majority of writing, organizing and generally just moving things along in any band I've been in so it's actually not that much different. I do occasionally get notions of putting a band together and playing live but then I remember what's ahead of me.

Creatively I've never been happier. Is it a perfect situation? No. But it is workable and I'll take that over being stuck dealing with a seemingly endless stream of cluelessness and apathy. 

[Bürggermeister]

Finding a good bandmate is a lot like romancing a beautiful woman...

Nah, it can be a cunt of an ordeal, but it always has been and that's what auditions are for. The experience has changed over the years, though. I think, and this is based only on my own observation, there are less of the young people who really obssess about music when there are so many other things in their life, like the social media shit, gaming, etc. When I was a young lad, the music was it, at least among my social circle. Even the lads who weren't great players would have the enthusiasm to participate in all the other aspects of keeping a band going, if not the talent. There was a gang vibe. It also felt much easier to meet people you could could have long, nerdy conversations about different bands with. It feels like there are more things competing for people's attention than there used to be. When the going gets tough, there's more for lads to flake away to.

You'd still meet chancers, but there seem to be more of them around now. I was in some truly fucking surreal auditions in the latter years of my band times. From the drummer who brought his chain-smoking wife to sit beside him, to the lad who played like John Petrucci on the mp3 he sent us but couldn't fucking play a note when he showed up in person. It's a slog. It's great feeling when you can get four heads in a room who want the same thing and will work towards it, though, but I don't recall it ever being easy.

My own perspective of it all has changed too. After I moved to Tipp, I still played in bands based in Dublin. It's hard to find joy in arriving on-time after driving for two hours and sit around waiting for the local lads to arrive whenever, knowing the cunts will be home before you even pass Naas on the way back. The last couple of bands, it was more of a social thing for some of them, crack open some cans and yap. Very unproductive. You've got to have a bit of craic but when you spend this week's rehearsal watching them re-learn what they had to re-learn the previous week, it drains the enthusiasm out of you. I just can't do the travel anymore, though. I last auditioned for a band in Limerick and was into it but, after the second week of crawling through poxy Tipp town I realised I just haven't got enough grá for it to overcome how much I resent the time spent in the car. Younger me would do a 4-hour roundtrip every week but old me... nah, fuck that.

Like Anton there, I just record my own stuff now and I'm happy enough with that. I get the band itch sometimes but it's all cover bands down here and once I start thinking of spending four hours in the car to do a four-hour rehearsal, I realise I'm just not that up for that part of it anymore and try not to waste any other lad's time.

[Eoin McLove]

I always loved jamming, including the shite talk that ensued. It's a balance. There's nothing quite like bringing a riff in to rehearsal and hammering a shape on to a song over a few hours. Other people's input reshaping your idea and brining new angles to it, and you doing the same to theirs, bouncing off each other's creativity to create something more fully rounded. It was often a pain in the hole dragging the arse out the door to stand in a cold shed in the depths of winter but more often than not I would head home buzzing with excitement and new ideas. Hard work, but total fun.

These days I'm like the lads above, tinkering away at my own stuff at home and getting HUGE amounts of satisfaction from it. I'm surprised at how unpredictable the process can still be when I'm working alone. Sometimes the original idea is strong  and remains more or less unchanged but other times I've reworked songs so much that not a single trace of the original idea is left. I love it and I'll never give it up, but I do also miss the dynamic of the band environment when everyone is fully into it and bringing ideas to the table.

[Circlepit]

Being in a rehearsal space and having that moment where a basic idea turns into something fully fledged, knowing it's actually quite good can be both rewarding and exciting.
The shit talk goes hand in hand as it also offers an escape from the everyday stuff.
My one issue currently is one of the members in my thing is unfit. Really unfit. Needs a break after 2 songs.
We aren't playing anything crazy.
It can be very frustrating as just when we are hitting that sweet spot, greasy, loose yet tight... I hear " I need 5-10 mins guys"
Arrgghhh!

[N.b.Rottenoise]

I'm really surprised with posts and I reading every line you wrote reminded me of many negative situations when I was about 2 years ago started his own band here in Dublin.
With as many as three changes of drummers, irregular arrivals of other members, even at the last two rehearsals the vocalist stepped in.
 Even in such chaos, I managed to realize one rehearsal song (for which I have a video on YT) + working on two more songs in this 2 fucking months!
And that was a single moment of satisfaction and pride for me despite all the problems I encountered.
In the beginning, everything starts very optimistically, and when they realize that it's not like that to make an EP or a demo overnight, the whole story quickly falls apart.Unfortunately,because I got really good criticism from Irish bands and members.

Of course, this with ads is total bullshit. You can't publish an ad if you don't have sincere intentions and if you don't stand behind every fucking word you wrote and don't screw people with some nonsense and not answering because apparently such actions speak volumes about what kind of person that person is.

And now I just realized in your posts that most of you play for yourself, so most likely I will get some programs, applications, whatever for instruments and slowly learn how to use it.What I need I don't know but I have net
Although it is not an ideal solution; nevertheless, a band is a band and joint creation gives some indescribable satisfaction, but as they say - you can't drive your head through a wall.

[ochoill]

I like making stuff alone and with a band and have been lucky enough to play with old friends more than having to find people to jam with.  Genres and bands shifted over the years but I am happy with the dynamic at the minute - sometimes we put on the serious hat and get practicing a set, writing, organising next jams etc and partitioned out over 2-3 hours with a little break.  Other times we drink cans and completely improv and record some shit with rakes of chatting and bollix acting in between.  Other times I turn up and everyone is either late or cancelled so I do some work on my own tunes since I've set the time aside anyway.  All good.  I do understand it is a lucky and unusual situation given the grief other bands have even organising three lads to be in the same room at the same time so I don't complain.  Well ...I wish we were a bit more active with main band released but it is what it is.

[The Great Cull]

The band I was in broke up around 13 years ago. Several members had kids on the way but we were probably headed for some major change anyway. While it lasted it was an amazing outlet and we really did collaborate on some great songs with none of the lost time with drinking etc. Band time was music time and so it should be. It was still fun and not a band on earth had such an armament of cock jokes and put downs. No room for ego at all (possibly why it lasted as long as it did).

I was driving to Dublin from outside Mullingar and the costs and time associated with it just wouldn't fly now.

I have the occasional desire to do something again (especially since my pool of influences has increased massively) but with kids of 11 and 13, my time is already thin without trying to factor a band in too. I also, increasingly think metal is a young man's game and at 43, I think that ship has likely sailed for me.

What is sad though is the lack of interest in younger bands. One local-ish young band i know of are happy to rehearse and write the odd song and "release" it as online content to a virtual audience and also live stream a rehearsal without the hassle of travelling to play gigs... While not making any money from playing in an originals band in dumps up and down the country can get old very fast, it's something that can also be immense fun and helps you to build a fanbase and network with other bands in a far more solid way than any fucking algorithm can.

[Giggles]

Metal is a young man's game? Tell that to Rob Halford!!

[The Butcher]

From 2005-2012 for me it was all about the band shenanigans. Lucky to have the guitarists big feck off shed out the back with the drumkit setup. Get in there, practice the setlist from start to finish with shite talk before and after. Head down to the local shop for a roll etc - then last hour or 2 - try out a new song or the most difficult song or mess on someones riff for a while but usually for us anyway, only about 2 songs came about from a riff expanded upon and expanded upon on during rehearsals, more songs would be brought in from someone with 70-90% of it already written. Guitar Pro was so handy for this, everyone would have their bits written with the freedom to change things if needed. Also being into IT/gaming myself, I made it my mission to tab out all the songs in this format and I've carried that on with the solo work which I've done since 2013.

Don't miss the gigging aspect really, was a slog at times, the waiting around drove me absolutely nuts!! But nothing beat a gig going really well in front of a decent crowd. And you could always compare those gigs to the ones playing to the 2 locals in the pub or the dustbin

I've no idea what it's like nowadays but I think the pool of players are limited from all that is mentioned above - older most likely have more commitments or happy to do their own thing or are already in established bands and won't budge. Then you have the ones that want everything handed to them on a plate or the ego driven types and you'll often find they aren't in any band for long. Just goes to show how lucky you can be in a band with people that have similar tastes + somewhat the same aligned goals and expectations.

Can't say much on the people under 30 - as someone said - younger people from the get go have way more options available to them, gaming I can see is so instant for them in terms of gratification, why would they bother slogging it out in a band and the "anxiety" that comes with it by fecking up or playing to no one when starting off? Music is a passing thought to many which seems alien to us within niche genres so I do wonder - are we the last cohort of critical mass to play metal and the days of metal are numbered? Elvis started back in 1954 - 70 years on - anyone playing original rock n roll nowadays? I'm probably waffling but how long has metal got left in the tank? 

[The Great Cull]

Metal is a young man's game? Tell that to Rob Halford!!

I fucking wish someone would tell him

[Bürggermeister]

You'd have to speak up so he can hear you!