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Putting together a band is one of the toughest things to do and keeping
one together is even harder. Why is that? Well I’m going to take you
through my views on this and see if we can’t make some sense of it.
Musicians have a certain sound in mind when looking for bandmates and are
sometimes too stubborn about giving a little. Sometimes we look for the next
big thing for our band without thinking about how these guys (or gals) will do
in our band. I’ve been to auditions for bands as lead guitar player on a
couple of occasions and was told on one of them, “We are looking for
someone like Eddie Van Halen.” To which I responded, “Well I think he has
a band.” My point is why do some people have such high standards when
they look for someone to fill out the rest of their band? Do they not feel they
will bring something challenging to the table and that person will step up?
Lets take my current non-existent band situation as an example. My cousin
Mark started out playing bass just 3 years ago. It wasn’t until he had been
playing for 6 months that I found out and immediately wanted to pull him in
for a project of mine. We had similar taste in music and were looking for a
similar final sound. The only problem was that I had been playing for around
8 years and he had only 6 months under his belt. He wasn’t great, but he
was solid as a rhythm section. Now the sound we wanted was well beyond
anything he was capable of at the time and I pushed and pushed for him to
try certain things and he stepped up each and every time. Now he has
several bands trying to recruit him but is staying loyal to me for some reason
(maybe because I believed in him).
Too many people have power struggles in bands and don’t give. That’s not
what I like to do. If you play drums, I want you to write your own patterns.
Sure I will have a suggestion, and you can take it or leave it. My feelings
won’t get hurt. The same goes for guitar, bass, and vocals. I see too many
bands falling apart because one or two people want to direct all the action
with the other members filling in parts. That’s not how a band should work
for me. I think a band should be made up of its collective parts and not one
person’s agenda. All the best music is a collaboration of people on their
instruments doing what they do best. Why should one person dictate all the
action?
Even if you have the right goal in mind for a band, it’s often hard to find the
right members because they also have a direction of their own. They might
not like the overall sound you have and want it to change too much for you
to accept it. Too many of us musician’s will not give an inch when trying to
put a band together and that’s not the best approach. We should all lighten
up and let the chips fall.
Robert Neal Tyson
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