Musician Forum - Band Discussion Board - BandMix

Is it me or are Canadian musicians here in Southern Ontario mostly full of themselves?,full of false promises,lazy,like to name drop and waste time talking?

Why do I consistently bump into arrogant non-committal players, or the reverse -very pleasant inexperienced /hobbyist musicians?

You want to talk abject utter frustration?

I have been trying in vain with a friend to assemble a Paul McCartney/Wings type tribute together since Sept 2006.

We have had a number of players come through this seemingly ill-fated project. Now that we seem to have a stable line -up the singer left us a month ago.

Me and my pal are easy to work with, dedicated,enthused, sober,and usually see the light at end of the tunnel,why can most others not?

We have an agent patiently waiting to book us into places like Stage West,Casinos,and corporate events with great money to be made.

Some have said" if you have no gigs booked then you'll find no players", but how do you book such high end gigs without a singer?

Someone please show us that we are wrong? After 3.5 years of rotating line-ups and agents chasing us(at first) we are just about out of patience and lost faith that there are quality musicians here in particular a Paul singer/bassist..........

Any suggestions most welcome,
thanks


"This Guy"

Whooo-whee!

Yeah, our bailiwick is full of flakes & wannabes. I've been dealing with stuff like this for some time, but you gave some rather narrow requirements that take an awful lot of potential ppl out of the pic before you even get started. It's not necessarilly a bad idea, but it does make your list of choices kind of small.

Good luck.

I don't think your geographical area has anything to do with it.

Humor, They are everywhere even down here on the Texas gulf coast. I beleive it is because the music biz is so tough a lot of folks (at least the smart ones) LMAO figure out real soon that this biz is just not worth it. I call it the curse of music once it is in your blood you are driven beyond anything to complete your mission.

Another thing is (in all honesty) I have been looking for a band for over a year now. I have run across several opportunities to join tribute bands and have turned them down because they tend to be very one dimmesional bands I just don't want to limit the music I play to one supergroup. On the other hand a Paul McCartney/Wings tribute band that would be very tempting.

From what I have seen in this area anyway putting together tribute bands is the hardest you almost have to be willing to cycle through a bunch of hired guns to keep the various positions filled.

Trying to a tribute band is difficult as you've discovered. Unless you have paying gigs lines up people will tend to lose interest. A lot of places that host cover bands might not be interested because they usually prefer more generic bands that cover a wider spectrum of music. It can be done but most of the successful tribute bands I've seen are regional, which requires some travel. Get yourself a reputable agent who knows the circuit you need to work in; go out and see some other tribute acts and pick their brains.

quite honestly guy, if you want to find decent musicians in your area, it's probably not a great idea to come onto a web site and bash ALL of them. There's tons of GREAT musicians in your area, some even with great attitudes.

Unfortunately for you, most of them are already in other bands. At any given time, any number of them could quit their band and be looking, or the band just falls apart, or whatever. Do you think they will bother with the guy who said they are all egomaniacs and/or suck?

Kramer I thought we were all ego maniacs when it comes to playing guitar!

Just kidding!

Its the same everywhere, you just got to find folks you can get along with. I suggest go out and try to see bands doing whatever music it is you want to do and get your name in the hat with them. If noone is doing what you want to hear then there is a reason, Noone wants to hear it! On the other hand you may be able to put together something to fill the void in your area, but you need to be out there with "ACTIVE MUSICIANS" not computor wannabees, people that are actually out playing on a regular basis. They know people playing and can refer you to folks looking or they at some point may need some one. Face it once people get into thier 20s most of them will not commit to anything musically. You just got to dig to find the ones that will.

'Round here it's always a war to figure out what kind of music people want to play.

I.e. one wants punk
one wants blues
one wants beatles/anything else you weren't prepared for.
one wants food
one doesn't care and just wants to start playing without the rest.
(the drummer)