i have no desire

[christhammer666]

i have no desire to pay £2000+ to record albums
I have no desire to pay £3000+ to tour abroad to play to 50 odd people
I have no desire to sit in a pub ad talk about my band like were metallica

I want to rehearse with a set of guys on my level pay gig and just enjoy the music.

is that so wrong ?

[markstuk]

I bet Metallica pay much more than £2000 to record an album

[christhammer666]

I bet there coffee bill is $100,000+

[uk_lefty]

It's not wrong, it's just there's a lot of dreamers out there who talk about being in a decent band without putting in the rehearsal and gig time to actually be a decent band first.

[Lw.]

So don't.

[RockfordStone]

nothing wrong with that, we all do it for various reasons, and if yours is hanging with friends and jamming that is a good enough reason

[christhammer666]

Don't get me wrong I want to play seriously but also have fun.I suppose I Just done look at it all through rose tinted glasses

[Number6]

I used to be in a band that only ever rehearsed and gigged only a handful of times. The guitarist said we had to rehearse more because we weren't good enough.....eventually the band fizzled out because we were bored of that.

I'm now in a band that rehearses when we want and gigs when we want even if the songs aren't polished enough. We record the stuff ourselves using a tiny digital 8 track thingy.....it's laid back and it works. Find a band where you're comfortable bro.

[Dave_the_bass]

Welcome to my world.

Just finished a tour of the UK and quit the band the following day.

Truth be told; I wanted to quit in January but my wonderful young lady convinced me to stick it out until after the tour as:

A, you might feel differently when you've played a string of shows

B, It wasn't fair on the rest of the guys to drop the band 7/8 weeks before the start.

Main reason for quitting was the singer. He had delusions of grandeur on a band level and delusions of adequacy for his vocals/stage presence.

Going to retreat to my guitars, drums and bass to start working on some new songs before coming back fighting later in the year.

[RockfordStone]

[quote name='christhammer666' timestamp='1490089964' post='3262006']
Don't get me wrong I want to play seriously but also have fun.
[/quote]
that's where i'm at, i don't want to stop, but im past there "we are going to be bigger than XYZ, lets tour to 5 people" phase

i've got the kit and experience to self produce music, and contacts to play gigs, i just want people who want to do similar, which are hard to find i'm finding.

[Conan]

[quote name='Dave_the_bass' timestamp='1490090357' post='3262014']Main reason for quitting was the singer. He had delusions of grandeur on a band level and delusions of adequacy for his vocals/stage presence.
[/quote]

I hear you. I recently quit my originals band (after seven years) for exactly the same reason. Oh and he was a tw@t as well.

[wateroftyne]

If you know, deep in your heart, that the band has got legs and this could just be the beginning, then there's no harm spending money to tour, playing to 50-odd people a night.

You'll also know if you're on a hiding to nothing, and it would be pointless exercise.

[Downdown]

[quote name='Lw.' timestamp='1490088730' post='3261994']
So don't.
[/quote]

This.

There are no real rules and you only have to do what you want. Being realistic will help avoid too much disappointment, but ultimately no one is forcing you to do anything. It's your choice.

[BigRedX]

[quote name='christhammer666' timestamp='1490081493' post='3261925']
i have no desire to pay £2000+ to record albums
I have no desire to pay £3000+ to tour abroad to play to 50 odd people
I have no desire to sit in a pub ad talk about my band like were metallica

I want to rehearse with a set of guys on my level pay gig and just enjoy the music.

is that so wrong ?
[/quote]

Not necessarily, but at the risk of being unsympathetic...

[quote name='christhammer666' timestamp='1490081493' post='3261925']
i have no desire to pay £2000+ to record albums
[/quote]

TBH £2000 isn't a bad figure for recording an album. Unless you are so well rehearsed that you can record with the whole band playing together and get each track down in less than 5 takes, or you are doing it all at home (in which case you've probably spent considerably more than £2000 on equipment to make the recording) I'd say this is probably the entry level for a good quality representation of 40 -60 minutes worth of songs. Also when you split that figure between all the band members it's not such a bad investment IMO, and if your band are sufficiently entertaining when you play live, and you have the time and energy to do the required promotion you shouldn't have any difficulty making the money back. However...

Do you really need to do a whole album? Like it or not most of your listeners are going to consume your album a track or two at a time, and for every person who claims to only listen to whole albums there are plenty more who will cherry pick their favourite track(s) and ignore the rest. Why not break up your recorded output into 3-4 track EPs? That way you can concentrate on your very best songs. You are still getting your music out there to promote your band and have recorded product to sell at gigs, but IME you are getting a lot more value for money and so are your fans.

[quote name='christhammer666' timestamp='1490081493' post='3261925']
I have no desire to pay £3000+ to tour abroad to play to 50 odd people
[/quote]

IMO if you can't at least break even on a European tour then your band is doing something wrong. Every band I know who has gone abroad to gig, so long as they have been well organised, picked the right gigs to play and had a list of alternative venues to fill in if any gig gets cancelled at the last moment, and have had plenty of merchandise to sell afterwards to the people who have enjoyed your gig, have made at least enough to cover the cost of getting out there and doing the tour in the first place. Of course organising all of this takes time and effort, but there is absolutely no reason why you should be out of pocket at the end of the tour.

[quote name='christhammer666' timestamp='1490081493' post='3261925']
I have no desire to sit in a pub ad talk about my band like were metallica
[/quote]

I'm completely and utterly with you on this one. I doubt whether any of your friends want to hear this either unless of course you have some entertaining stories to tell.

[quote name='christhammer666' timestamp='1490081493' post='3261925']
I want to rehearse with a set of guys on my level pay gig and just enjoy the music.
[/quote]

And here's where I think you've got it wrong. Even if it is only unconsciously in your wording, it sounds to me as though you've put musicianship above the music. IMO the music should always come first. Everything else is subservient to that. Your audience will always appreciate a really good song over technical ability on your instruments, even if your are playing Prog, Math Rock or Technical Metal.

The thing is that in order not to keep having to pay out money to keep the band going you need to be really well organised, and also just being a good bassist is no longer enough (even if it ever was at any time). You need to spend the time and put in a lot of effort doing all the non-musical things required to keep the band going, and ideally you need to have a lot of those skills within the band itself. However don't despair if you or your band mates don't have the ability to do all of those other things, because IME if you look hard enough there are always friends of the band with the abilities you can tap into for free (or at least at a discount rate) when you really can't do it your selves.

OtOH, if the things in the OP are what the rest of your band want to do, but you really don't, then I hate to break it to you, but you probably are not in the right band for you, and you should probably do your band mates a favour and at least tell them how you feel, or step aside and make way for a bass player who is more in tune with what the rest of the band wants.

[bassjim]

I think there is a specific time in your musical life when its cool to go and have a go. Usually its in the first half of it. If you haven't done it before you should.

If you dont buy a lottery ticket ect......

However there is also a time when if you've been there a few times before and either satisfied your thirst or decided on what terms you would ever do it again, then at this point decline.

At least you have had that experience which can be added to your repertoire.

But ultimately if you don't want to give up a day job, use up day job holiday, help fund £2-3 grand then its ok. No one can or should force you. Every member of the band has their own agenda and you pulling out makes it difficult for them to fulfill it. The band may find someone else that will but from that point on its nothing to do with you.

A friend of mine is just going on tour for the first time right now but her band have got some government backed funding thing. She gets something like £100.00 per day, paid to her ! for doing it. The band she is in is run by the singer song writer who has presented this whole thing as a business plan and received a budget.

I dont know all the ins and outs of how you set this up but I did tell her that I'm not happy about my tax pounds going to help this project when I personally have suffered several either self funded or low budget record company outings but if they can do it why not others?

[crompers]

I don't play in bands but I have a lot of friends that do, to me it seems like the people who enjoy it most are the ones who view it as an after work hobby.

Then there are the people who don't recognise that the music industry has changed, getting signed and making vast amounts (or even more money than your mates who work in a bank) is more or less a thing of the past. The bands that aren't Coldplay and make a reasonable sum have to be prepared to be touring constantly from what I can see, and that is not an easy life.

[wateroftyne]

Back in the day, I did two US tours with my band, one of them ran to about four or five weeks.

Some gigs were great, many were furniture exhibitions, but it was all awesome. I was young and daft, and none of it mattered.

Circumstances have changed, and I wouldn't / couldn't do it now unless there was real cash money involved. I'm glad I did it the first time.

[Happy Jack]

From the ripe old age of 60, I'd say that this is chiefly an age thing.

I can still remember all the wannabees I spent time with 40 years ago, who seem to have been directly interchangeable with the 20-year-old wannabees who are around now. Only one of them ever amounted to anything, a guy I shared a bedroom floor with (we had no furniture) in a semi-squat in the East End.

If I had anything new or original to say musically, I guess I'd have said it many years ago.

Instead, I recycle other people's songs and other people's basslines, I have a lot of fun, and it's about as stress-free as being in a band ever gets ... i.e. there are still plenty of fantasists, wnakers, and irritating twats but it's all more-or-less harmless.

Investing heavily in "being the next big thing" is strictly for the young folk of today. I still remember when all this were vinyl round 'ere.

Oh yes, and that guy I shared a floor with - Bruce Dickinson.

[christhammer666]

thanks for all the responses
I think a lot of he touring thing is im petrified of flying as well as the playing to no-one.plus u get back knackered and need a holiday.I can do that and have done that hear multiple times
I love nothing better then at the weekend driving up north in a sh*tty van playing in a dingy club then crashing on a hotel floor.
But spending money paying for an album to sit on my shelf when I could have a week in the county with the mrs just aint for me

Im either getting old or im turning into a miserable old git lol

[wateroftyne]

[quote name='christhammer666' timestamp='1490096325' post='3262090']
But spending money paying for an album to sit on my shelf when I could have a week in the county with the mrs just aint for me
[/quote]

Understandable, and I doubt you're alone. I think that's a comment on the state of the industry as a whole.. but that's another topic :-)

[Staggering on]

To answer your question,no it's not wrong.I find it interesting that "pay" is in your posting and I wonder if you meant "play"-a bit of a Feudian slip or just an accident?Does the type of gig(paid or free) make a difference?
To me I think you just do what you want and don't worry about what others may think.I happen to like a tight well-organized band that knows what they are doing.I also like to practice a lot(mostly EUB these days) and work on new ideas and music and like rehearsing with the band and I love playing gigs which I have been doing for 56 years and plan to keep going as long as I can(I'm 70).Others may like to be bedroom noodlers and that is fine but I like to play with and for people.I play music for fun and a bit of money and it works for me,no worries or concern about what I "should" be doing.
I have done everything from folk guitar work by myself to groups as big a 18(swing band) and am currently in a jazz standards quartet that gigs once or twice a month with no delusions,we just enjoy doing what we do and with 3 music teachers in the group it is always challenging but we have no ego problems and like to work hard on new music(over 140 songs in our regular book and about 50 more for special occasions).
Just have fun.

[dlloyd]

Lots of things I don't want these days.

I'm happy to play to a venue full of dancing people. It would be nice if it all started a bit earlier... playing til 1am is tiring these days.

A few more quid at the end of the night would be nice... I can do without fame/notoriety/etc.

Recordings... don't really care... I'd like to record our gigs though.

[Grangur]

I agree with Happy Jack, which in itself is worrying. But to keep to the subject; it is an age thing.

When you're young it's your duty to be young and foolish. If you don't you'll regret it. There's nothing good about being in the 2nd half of your life and have no stupid times to look back on. But once you have the "steady job" (if that actually exists, ever), the mortgage, the family/spouse, et al, you're tied down to grind-stone by commitments.

The daunting fact is that with all the "media explosion" there's less chance of making it big now than there was in the past. Today singers get booked by the media moguls. The band is replaceable by the staff musos; with a few exceptions.

http://youtu.be/kv_TA2S2z34

[Guest aDx]

join a band? good luck with that one!

Its all wanna be guitarists etc who dont seem to be able to rehearse! and only wanna chat online

[BigRedX]

[quote name='Grangur' timestamp='1490102709' post='3262165']
When you're young it's your duty to be young and foolish. If you don't you'll regret it. There's nothing good about being in the 2nd half of your life and have no stupid times to look back on. But once you have the "steady job" (if that actually exists, ever), the mortgage, the family/spouse, et al, you're tied down to grind-stone by commitments.
[/quote]

But of course once you emerge on the other side of all that responsibility with the mortgage paid off there's no reason why you can't indulge all over again. I joined The Terrortones 6 months before my 50th birthday. I haven't had so much fun musically since I was in my early 20s...


[quote name='Grangur' timestamp='1490102709' post='3262165']
The daunting fact is that with all the "media explosion" there's less chance of making it big now than there was in the past. Today singers get booked by the media moguls. The band is replaceable by the staff musos; with a few exceptions.
[/quote]

Which is why I keep saying it's more important to work on your songwriting skills than it is on your instrumental "chops". Take an active part in crafting the songs and make sure that you get a credit, then even if you do get replaced in the band, you'll still be making some money out of it - potentially a lot more if the songs are successful than you would if you were just the bass player in the band.