Starting an originals band to do covers.

[xgsjx]

About 1 1/2 years ago I started to look for musicians here in Perth to put an originals band together (preferably to do some songs that I'd written that just needed lyrics, but it didn't have to be them) & went through the slow process of trying to find musicians.

Finally after many folk coming & going (some I kicked out, some left due to other commitments), I got a band together that all gets on & can play.

We started writing, but every time we started, things happened & we got sidetracked & we've been getting nowhere for the past couple of months.
So, I called a band meeting. cancelled the rehearsal room a couple of weeks ago & we met in a pub tonight.
The singer isn't comfortable writing lyrics as this is the first band he's been in (he's a good singer & works well, so understandable) & one of the guitarists can't write to save himself. So we've decided to be a covers band &, depending on how it goes, get into the function scene.

Funny how things change. I'm happy enough to do this, but I dare say I'll end up starting a side project that does the things that I originally set out to do.

So here's the songs we're gonna try next week...

Mr Blue Sky - ELO
Local Boy - Stereophonics
The Circle - Ocean Colour Scene
Crazy - Gnarles Barkley
Breakout - Foo Fighters
Superstition - Stevie Wonder
Whisky in the jar - Thin Lizzie
Staying Alive - BeeGees
Johnny B Goode - Marty McFly (I think)

[JamesBass]

Bands are odd beasts! I've been in plenty that are about to really take off but instead spontaneously combust and leave me picking over the pieces to work out what went wrong! However when I have been in a band it's been great, covers and originals! The key is just to relax and have fun! Enjoy every part of it!

As for rehearsals, I've always found working on two or three songs a session to be most beneficial as you get to grips with really going over them and making them sound amazing!

Good luck though!

Edited March 13, 2014 by JamesBass

[lojo]

Playing covers can only help you as a band can't it ?

As long as everyone feels they have a few of their own favs in the set I'm sure it will go great

Good luck in that and of eventually writing your own stuff as is your dream

[JTUK]

Put the songs up and play them.... if they work, no one will really complain, IME.

The problem comes when no one is listening to whatever you play...
There are crappy originals and crappy covers bands and nothing is really going to save them....

Having said that, you aren't going to get out of pubs if you are playing AC/DC and Thin Lizzy all
night. You might do the odd biker show etc but it will be hard to break ..say, £500 unless you
include stuff that the market wants. And for parties and functions people will listen but they really
want to get up and dance.

Depends what you want.............

[Adrenochrome]

Good plan. Play covers to a high standard and you'll get really tight as a band, then start bringing the original stuff in either in to the main band or the side project. All my bands have done some of both, although only one was a true 50/50 covers and originals, most had a focus on one either originals or covers.

[Conan]

My originals band are now learning covers - mainly because it gives us access to a much bigger range of gigs. That way we can slip a few originals into a set of mostly covers and increase the ratio of original tunes as we build up a bit of an audience.

The problem for original bands (unless you are very young and can play school/youth club discos and the like) is that very few pubs want to book you. Too much of a risk. This is understandable of course, but if you are all in your forties and work full time, it can be hard to devote the necessary time to the marketing side of things. Without that (and even with that!) you need gigs. So the circular problem restarts.

We are choosing covers that blend well with the style of our original stuff. We then play them in a way that makes them blend even better, but they are still recognisable as the covers that they are. So far we have integrated versions of:

Here comes your man - Pixies
Wicked Game - Chris Isaak
Hangin' Around - Stranglers
Babylon's Burning - Ruts
Won't back down and Runnin' down a dream - Tom Petty
Rockin' in the free world - Neil Young
Suffragette City - Bowie
What's so funny about peace, love and understanding - Elvis Costello

Others being worked on include Ticket to Ride - Beatles, Horse with no name - America and Substitute - The Who.
Some we have tried and they just don't work in our manner, so we dumped them at an early stage - e.g. Bowie's Queen Bitch, Elvis Costello's Oliver's Army.

It could be argued that there is no real common thread there, but when we play them in "our" style, they hang together pretty well. It is an enjoyable process, and it saves some of us having to join a covers band in order to get gigs!

[andydye]

play what you wanna play, reinterpret them rather than 'parrot fashion' them and they become 'your songs' anyway if that's whay you wanna do, go hayseed dixie style and do major reworkings but with just enough of a hint of where it came from to still be recognisable?

...conversely some friends and I started a new originals band in december and we've now got 8 superb songs with a couple more in the works, averaging a new one most weeks! We've now got a 35 minute set which is a support slot's worth and hopefully by June we'll be polished up and ready to go play to some folks. Lightning has struck in that we've got a front man who's voice is golden and who writes stunning storyteller style lyrics and melodies and the rest of the band slot together perfectly behind him...we're pretty happy thus far!

[BigRedX]

In the end it depends what you want to do. I've always found in originals bands that I've played with learning covers was too much of a distraction from the core purpose of the band (which was to play songs that we'd written ourselves) and because I have spent very little time over my musical career playing songs that I haven't had some part in writing, learning covers is actually harder work than writing a new song of my own.

[Conan]

[quote name='BigRedX' timestamp='1394706571' post='2394166']
learning covers is actually harder work than writing a new song of my own.
[/quote]

Agreed. I can play pretty well in my own style.... but learning tracks with bass lines from dozens of other bass players is tough!

[JTUK]

It is..and you can see it in a lot of players.

I recently saw a Gtr I knew from a decent grundge band and he makes a good fist of that...
but change the emphasise of what to play and the songs in another band..even buskers like Sweet home, and Free world etc etc
and he was not the same player..
You'd think the standards would be easier than the grunge, and he had keys to help in the standards, and still
he was a fish out of water.

He hadn't played out of his comfort zone too much, ..that was pretty plain.

[BigRedX]

[quote name='Conan' timestamp='1394706695' post='2394170']
Agreed. I can play pretty well in my own style.... but learning tracks with bass lines from dozens of other bass players is tough!
[/quote]

Actually I find playing stuff which isn't my style not too bad - it's just a question of learning the notes. The lines I've had the most problem with are ones that are very similar to what I would have played if I'd written them, but a couple of note choices are completely different. The temptation to play what I've have put in if I'd written the line can be hard to resist sometimes.

[andydye]

I'm finding the opposite transition interesting at the moment, 20 years of playing in covers bands, playing all styles and everyone else's notes, it's really bizarre writing my own lines now and I find the prospect of playing these songs in front of people rather scary whereas I've not had stage nerves with covers for years!

[Conan]

[quote name='BigRedX' timestamp='1394712604' post='2394248']
Actually I find playing stuff which isn't my style not too bad - it's just a question of learning the notes. The lines I've had the most problem with are ones that are very similar to what I would have played if I'd written them, but a couple of note choices are completely different. The temptation to play what I've have put in if I'd written the line can be hard to resist sometimes.
[/quote]

Yes and no. Maybe I do things differently, but I don't find learning the [i][b]notes[/b][/i] to be difficult; but the exact phrasing and timing of those notes can cause me problems. Some players play slightly behind the beat (or play with drummers who are slightly ahead of it) and vice versa. Some players arrived at a bass guitar via keyboards, guitar or even drums - so the whole way in which they approach the instrument is different.

I know that some people will say that none of this matters. That you should just "get the gist" of a cover and then do your own thing. That's fair enough, but I like to totally nail the original bass part first before I start making any alterations. I see it as a bit of a challenge...

One particular track I noticed this on was "Here comes your man" by The Pixies. OK, it is not a complex bass part by any means - but playing it like Kim Deal plays (played) it was much harder than I thought it was going to be! I play it differently now because my band have slightly changed the feel so Deal's line no longer fits, but the process was an interesting one.

The nice thing about struggling through all these covers is that when we rehearse our original material it feels really comfortable and makes us realise that our stuff is at least as good as some of the covers! That is very reassuring!

BTW, that was my 4000th post. A minor milestone perhaps?

Edited March 13, 2014 by Conan

[BigRedX]

Back when I was briefly in a covers band, I was surprised to find on hearing their demo and listening more closely to the songs I had to learn, that my predecessor's baselines only bore a passing resemblance to the originals. However once I actually started rehearsing the songs with the band, I realised that unless the rest of the band were going to play exactly what was on the recording, learning the recorded bass line exactly was pretty much pointless as it rarely fit comfortably without a lot more work. At that point I wouldn't bother learning much more than the root notes and any bits where that bass was the dominant instrument until I'd heard what the other band members were going to be playing.

The few covers that the Terrortones play are much more fun because we do them pretty much in our own style and I approach the bass part in the same way I would for any other original song where the main musical part cover from one of the other members of the band.

[Dad3353]

Very often (no, not always, but very often...) the original band will have as many versions as they've played concerts. The 'bare bones' are there, but there's a lot of variance or improvisation going on. Depends on the style a lot, certainly. I'm not at all sure I'd want to see a band 'playing the recording' much, unless the musical content was to a very high level. What so sacred about a dozen chords at most..?

[xgsjx]

My previous bands have all been originals bands & the last one was something different to what I'm comfortable playing, but I really enjoyed it (it was a mix of folk, country & jazz).
We used to throw in a couple of covers, like a folk version of "Rocking in the free world" & we'd not play them anything like the original.

The new band just want to do covers as they are on the record & maybe become a function band. I've no problem with this as I can learn bass lines easily enough to any of the songs suggested. I was trying to find 1 or 2 more challenging ones to throw in there & keep it mostly good songs that folk can & will dance to if we're to pull this off.

I do enjoy writing songs though.

[xgsjx]

Funny how things happen.
I've been contacted by an originals band that play electronica based stuff (similar to what I was trying to start a band to play in the first place). They're a drummer & a guitarist/keys player & he likes his fx. They're auditioning a vocalist on Wednesday.
So I think I'm gonna quit the band that I'd started & join these guys instead.

I'd been running through the list of songs for my current band yesterday & today at home, practicing the bass lines & was thinking to myself "do some of these bassists not get bored?". Namely the bassists in Foo Fighters, Barenaked Ladies, Stereophonics & Ocean Colour Scene. Yes the bassline fits the songs, but man, there's a lot of samey stuff there!
I enjoyed learning ELO's Mr Blue Sky though & the walking bit at the end is nice, but as much as I tried to convince myself it was a good idea, I don't want to play in a pub pop rock covers band. Even though the band are all good guys.

So now I'm planning on leaving the band I started to join someone else's band!

I'll try & find them a replacement bassist first (if any of you are looking for a covers band in Perth to join...).

[lurksalot]

[quote name='xgsjx' timestamp='1394996750' post='2397566']

I'd been running through the list of songs for my current band yesterday & today at home, practicing the bass lines & was thinking to myself "do some of these bassists not get bored?". Namely the bassists in Foo Fighters, Barenaked Ladies, Stereophonics & Ocean Colour Scene. Yes the bassline fits the songs, but man, there's a lot of samey stuff there!
..........


So now I'm planning on leaving the band I started to join someone else's band!

I'll try & find them a replacement bassist first (if any of you are looking for a covers band in Perth to join...).
[/quote]

I think that a bassline needs to suit the song , I know where your coming from , but how many people want to hear virtuoso bass parts in your standard pub rock bands, as a covers band you can easily interpret the numbers you do your own way and slip some special bits in there , dont worry , know one will notice

Good luck with your move , just remember there could be a massive difference in the dynamic of the band, as technically, you are joining their band

[xgsjx]

[quote name='lurksalot' timestamp='1395002438' post='2397696']
I think that a bassline needs to suit the song , I know where your coming from , but how many people want to hear virtuoso bass parts in your standard pub rock bands, as a covers band you can easily interpret the numbers you do your own way and slip some special bits in there , dont worry , know one will notice

Good luck with your move , just remember there could be a massive difference in the dynamic of the band, as technically, you are joining their band
[/quote]

I agree 100% that the bassline needs to suit the song, & I'll happily play to suit. It's not so much about the virtuosity of the bass line, but just how much fun it is. Some bassists are happy to play simple straight forward "get the job done & back up the guitar" basslines & there's nothing wrong with that, but a bassline can be fun & groove without having to be flashy or technical. In my last band there were many songs that required a simplistic bassline & then there were others that tested me to the best of my ability.
The other thing is I don't want to play pop rock anymore. I started off a blues bassist, then hard rock/metal, went onto rock covers, then a straight rock band & then my last band was a flip over to acoustic folk/country/jazz type stuff. Ever since that last band ended I've wanted to do something different again & been drawn towards the electronica end (though I'm partial to some funk & RnB, such as D'Angelo).

I've always enjoyed playing the odd cover or 2 in my previous bands & we do our own take on them, but I'm not one for doing carbon copies, which is what the current band want to do.

I'm gonna meet up & have a jam with the other band before making my decision though.

[gub]

Jealous you're doing mr blue shy though! Would love to do some elo