Local filth

[The Butcher]

Teens/early 20s it was fun playing live for sure, novelty wore off by mid 20s and I saw it as a chore almost, hated the waiting around, hours in cars/on buses etc. To take the next leap and gig outside Ireland was just too much for me, to give up a steady income for 5-6 weeks and be worse off coming home for what would have been an experience for sure but the commitment was too big for little to no return. Don't regret it despite the negatives.

Now it's just making music on my own terms and not looking for any return just feels much much better.

[blessed1]

I have an entirely different perspective on being in a band. I think it includes minor hassle but yields massive rewards, most of which are on a very personal level and almost zero of which boils down to anything financial.

I enjoy it nowadays in the same way people probably enjoy a game of 5 aside but if I stop and think about the last two decades worth of doing it...jaysus,what a massive waste of my and everyone else's time.  My perspective has changed massively in the last few months,but sure it might change again in another few.
Having said that,dying to get in to the practice room with the lads again.

Did you not record music with vircolac?
Can't see how you would consider that a waste of time?
Or maybe I'm reading your post wrong.

You're not me though,so you're obviously not going to see things the way I do in terms of my own endeavors. I've done plenty more recording than that band as well,that's a blip on a larger radar and I think we've established my contributions meant fuck all.

I guess what I'm trying and failing to explain is nowadays making music doesnt feel like anything beyond a bit of fun to me nowadays. Maybe playing the odd local gig is craic whereas as putting time and effort into making albums or playing gigs abroad doesn't really hold any great importance to me in the grand scheme of things because..well, I dont feel like I need to do those things at the moment really.  Been there,done that.

Ah yeah I get ya.
It's the same for me I guess. Its just a bit of fun these days and all I really want to do is record music at my own pace.
Never got the to urge to play gigs.
Tbh most metal bands sound atrocious live anyhow so it was never something that interested me.

[Pentagrimes]

Yeah basically I just feel at this point that all those things are realistically behind me. But like I said,we'll see. Us old farts need to move on 

Was talking to Quill about this too..playing live is a younger,fitter man's game ! I'm too old to be throwing my back out playing for half an hour every night haha!

[astfgyl]

I'd be very surprised if any young fellas starting out thought they were going to "make it" in any financial way playing extreme metal of any description. It has been gone over here but it seems to be a labour of love for a select group of lads in their late 20s to 40s and that's about it on this island.

[ochoill]

Yeah basically I just feel at this point that all those things are realistically behind me. But like I said,we'll see. Us old farts need to move on 

Was talking to Quill about this too..playing live is a younger,fitter man's game ! I'm too old to be throwing my back out playing for half an hour every night haha!

Haha, yeah once the body's not capable of even thinking about the kind of things you'd be doing to yourself on even a short tour, it's time to look at it another way.

I enjoy being in a band a lot, love playing gigs and doing the thing, but more than anything just love writing and creating music in any form or manner.  In any aspect though, there's no way I'm doing this for anything other than pure sport and the joy of creativity.  I wouldn't turn down doing three or four gigs in a row - a mini-tour or what have you - but much rather do a couple split out across a year, spend the rest writing, fire it out online and just plug away at it that way.  I do have certain personal goals for it but they are small stuff, and all in all enjoying making the music is absolutely the most important part of it.

I'd be very surprised if any young fellas starting out thought they were going to "make it" in any financial way playing extreme metal of any description. It has been gone over here but it seems to be a labour of love for a select group of lads in their late 20s to 40s and that's about it on this island.

I know a handful of younger heads in bands and they're in it for a variety of reasons, but none seem to be to "make it" in the traditional sense.  Anyone who is doing it is doing so because they enjoy it.  But yeah, the broader range of genres we would discuss here aren't the most popular on this island in general regardless of age group so we have what we have.  There's still people going to gigs at least - well, before the current situation - and they are a wide variety of ages.  How many of them pick up an instrument later remains to be seen.

[Trev]

I was doing some garden work with a bit of music on the other day and the neighbours kid, probably about 14/15,asked me what I was listening to and was chatting for a bit. He was telling me that him and his mates don't really listen to music at all but would get through loads of podcasts instead, which just seems such an alien concept to me.

Still though, he seemed intrigued by what I had on so maybe he'll explore it a bit further

[Anton Arcane]

Sometimes with music I wonder if it's a case of still loving it or just not knowing how to stop. I'm always writing and recording but when it comes to playing in bands I usually rotate a few years on with a few years off. Listening to lads talk shite in practice, driving all day, waiting around in airports, putting every cent you can spare into it, it gets a bit much after a while.

For me the buzz is finishing a song and feeling like I'm on to something special. Everything beyond that is work. Right now I have around two albums of different stuff that I'm sitting on. I think it's good stuff but the thoughts of going online and hustling and begging for a few likes or comments just puts me off doing anything with it.

[Pentagrimes]

Definitely relate to the "do I love this or am I just unable to stop" thing. Similarly yep,have a bunch of songs on the laptop here that I like and realistically noone else needs to hear it.  I've not got the energy to keep hustling at this point in my life. If people havent been interested at this stage,that's not going to change so why bother.

[Paul keohane]

Always made me wonder how so many small/mid level bands keep going for years!,really is a labour of love to keep the show on the road for decades!

[Anton Arcane]

Or it's so interwoven into their identity that they would be giving up a big piece of themselves if they stopped.

[Black Shepherd Carnage]

We need to put a rating in the title of this thread: Not recommended for people under 30.

[The Butcher]

We need to put a rating in the title of this thread: Not recommended for people under 30.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BGrfhsxxmdE

[Scáthach]

Not to mention a drummer for black or death metal is like gold dust in Ireland. Like a few have mentioned above, I still buzz off writing and recording at home. I gave up on the idea of a band and use drum programs instead. Not very satisfying, but like the old joke goes, you only have to punch the instructions in once 

[Juggz]

It was 10 years of 4-hour round-trips on the M9 which killed the buzz for me. Nothing grates quite like spending more time driving than you spend rehearsing and when you have a shitty rehearsal to drive back from... it's no fun at all. Those late night drives back from Fibbers gigs are no craic either 😂

I tried playing with a band in Limerick last year and knew after two rehearsals that old me doesn't love it enough to spend so much time on the road anymore. I still play and am getting set up again to record drums at home, after selling my old setup a few years ago. I now know I fucking hate programming drum machines, it's more fun to learn how to drum and play the bloody thing. If a band opportunity arises within a 30 minute drive I would probably go for it but that's not very likely so I'll just go back to making music to entertain myself.

[open face surgery]

Well, I fucking love it. More or less all I think about is music and/or music related. Conceiving it and writing it , then recording it and playing it live. Love of my life.