General Music Chat

Yep... Can't seem to find me a bass player here in El Crapville ...so I guess now I'm gonna have to just go buy a bass and figure it out myself...

Honestly , Last week, I get this dude responding to my ad ...he's got 20 years in Nashville as a studio musician... I offer to pay the guy (Work for Hire), and he says he wont take up front money,,,just get it in the sales...SO, I figure he's willing to dedicate time & energy...which is what I'm looking for... SO I tell Him I got my play list lined up, ..just need him to throw down a simple track on my sample song. (Audition)
5 days pass...nothing So I contact the guy..."Did ya change yer mind or something...? and he says "Yes I did,,, Was gonna tell ya... Sorry for the inconvenience"

So I'm thinking I almost got hoodwinked by a poser... That 's the fukin story of my life in this piece of sh*t town... I'm way sick of these loser, useless, retarded assholes...

it's not your town you've been exposed to the musician's curse, it goes on everywhere.

If " professional " musicians are such a pain, why not find and train up an amateur that still has some enthusiasm ??

I must be truly a blessed man. I get a call from Steve who says " I got us a gig for 7/10 call the boyz and verify the date "
Ten minutes later I have all five of us on board and calling Steve back to verify.

What the hell is wrong with musicians these days ?

If " professional " musicians are such a pain, why not find and train up an amateur that still has some enthusiasm ??

I must be truly a blessed man. I get a call from Steve who says " I got us a gig for 7/10 call the boyz and verify the date "
Ten minutes later I have all five of us on board and calling Steve back to verify.

What the hell is wrong with musicians these days ?

Sans,

I agree with your suggestion and I actually have no problem with raising and grooming up an amateur (Some folks would call them muses)...

However, there is one slight problem. Those guys (The ones I have talked to) typically don't have their own gear, and/or transportation. In other cases, they simply do not have a good enough command of their instruments to flexibly step out of certain standard boxes...

So far, in most cases, the ones I've talked to have never actually worked in a song-writing circumstance; have never composed their own, can't really sing, and have a very narrow scope of genres. (I get a lot of Iron maiden Vets...which ain't bad,...its just that they don't understand ...you can't power-thump your way through every other genre/ song.)

The fact that I am offering to pay my hard earned cash to my participants on the project, and that the project is essentially no cost to them (i.e Studio time/w Engineer) definitely has me insisting that they shouldn't "suck" at what they do. In El Crapville, that seems to be an intimidating demand... and so, I believe many folks just aren't stepping up.

I would even consider that maybe my sample music sucks that bad...and doesn't generate the interest. However, most inquirers have flat out stated that they really liked the stuff they heard. ... Following that are all the aforementioned excuses as to why they don't stay on task and pursue my arrangement.

You are indeed blessed to have a cohesive band. If you guys were childhood friends (I.e. the core members) it really adds leverage in the attempt to sustain the band. It also really helps that you guys are all on the same page musically... *i.e shared vision of a direction for the music and the band.

As for me , I think I'm trapsing on a road, paved with sh*t sandwiches.

I'm not giving up, but man its frustrating.

Hang in there.

No ... not childhood friends.
A Kung Fu Brother yes ... but he was last to join.
Very diverse group actually with exception of the common goal.
Eric our bassist is the elder of the group, Vietnam Vet, father, grandfather, been playing longer than our singers have been alive.
Then me, and I'm 50.
Old head / oilfield trash turned nurse. Recruited to play right out of my full contact Kung Fu school ( hence the name )
Steve-O is about ten years younger than I, with the other two guys just now breaking 30.

It can be done !

Best wishes.

I have to second, Sans. I didn't just snap my fingers and poof there was my band. It took me 8 frickin' years to finally get a band. We had to wade through bad musicians and just tons of lameness. These people know how to conduct business like a bunch of monkeys. They have no people skills, zero business skills and no home training, yet they dream of stardom. Sorry cats, but the 80s are over, no signed band or record company is going to swoop you up and you get to rest in a nice paying gig. But they like to act like they do. And even when they find themselves with a professional situation that's paying, they still act like idiots, don't communicate, don't show up, etc.

So you have to do just what all of us do, we keep going and doing our thing until you find the peeps.

Perserverance!

Chaeya

So you have to do just what all of us do, we keep going and doing our thing until you find the peeps.

Perserverance!

Chaeya

I guess the work ethic ain't what it used to be, which explains all the lamers in the 80's... Truthfully I hated most of the 80s bands.. with the exception of Missing Persons and Police. (IMHO Dale and Terry Bozzio rocked as a team and they really kicked some serious ass... As for Sting, he was the only cerebral poet amongst a boatload of goons dominating his scene in London. )

Make no mistake... I have not given up the search ... Was just venting. And its always good to get a little confirmation toward it. I hope it wont be 8 years (since I'm just doing a rec project) ... But if it takes that long to get the right assembly, then that's what it's gonna take

I understand, Dog, everyone knows how much I've vented about musicians here. I mean you write people messages here and they can't even bother to write you back. People have gone, yeah, they don't need to respond. No you don't, but I remember names and I've seen some musicians reputation come back to bite them in the ass when faced with a life-turning situation. This IS a business. When you treat your music as a businessman treats his business, people respect that.

Chaeya

I follow what your saying and by comparison I guess six months of searching Bandmix every day does sound like a snap of the fingers.

But our work has just begun ... and if there is one thing this ol boy knows how to do it's work.

My best wishes to both of you ... set your sights and pull the trigger baby.

Yep... Can't seem to find me a bass player here in El Crapville ...so I guess now I'm gonna have to just go buy a bass and figure it out myself...

5 days pass...nothing So I contact the guy..."Did ya change yer mind or something...? and he says "Yes I did,,, Was gonna tell ya... Sorry for the inconvenience"

So I'm thinking I almost got hoodwinked by a poser... That 's the fukin story of my life in this piece of sh*t town... I'm way sick of these loser, useless, retarded assholes...

I'm busy, but I'm not a poser, and I have no problems writing bass lines for music like your "Bench For Two" song. I'm not a premium member, so get my e-mail address from my site and I will be happy to eventually send you down an "audition". Are you looking for someone to make music for you in a studio? Or do you need someone to be able to live there and be in your band?

Sometimes I play devil's advocate. For one thing you shouldn't come on a public forum and trash the city you're in. Just my opinion. There ARE professional musicians on here (like me) and ALSO venue owners and promoters from your "El Crapville" who won't look kindly on your trashing the town. Second, you're offering people money to do what? Go to a studio and do YOUR tunes. And to what goal? Are you going to use the recordings to GET GIGS? Are you going to SELL a CD eventually? What if the the "loser retarded asshole" who sees your ad happens to be a very professional musician, songwriter, singer, etc. and can contribute to your project. Would you be willing to do any of his (or her) tunes? Frankly I'm not too interested in somebody with an attitude telling me I'll "pay you $X for X time in the studio OR (worse) I'll pay you IF the resulting CD makes a profit. I would be much more interested in somebody who is willing to do some of MY tunes as well, who would be interested in my artisitic input into the project, who would be willing to listen to my ideas to (just perhaps) improve upon some of your tunes. Sounds to me like basically you're a dictator. Approach this like you're REALLY interested in COLLABORATING. Then maybe, just maybe, you might uncover somebody who isn't a "loser retarded asshole" in "El Crapville." (Just my devil's advocate opinion, don't take me too seriously...)

Sometimes I play devil's advocate. For one thing you shouldn't come on a public forum and trash the city you're in. Just my opinion. There ARE professional musicians on here (like me) and ALSO venue owners and promoters from your "El Crapville" who won't look kindly on your trashing the town. Second, you're offering people money to do what? Go to a studio and do YOUR tunes. And to what goal? Are you going to use the recordings to GET GIGS? Are you going to SELL a CD eventually? What if the the "loser retarded asshole" who sees your ad happens to be a very professional musician, songwriter, singer, etc. and can contribute to your project. Would you be willing to do any of his (or her) tunes? Frankly I'm not too interested in somebody with an attitude telling me I'll "pay you $X for X time in the studio OR (worse) I'll pay you IF the resulting CD makes a profit. I would be much more interested in somebody who is willing to do some of MY tunes as well, who would be interested in my artisitic input into the project, who would be willing to listen to my ideas to (just perhaps) improve upon some of your tunes. Sounds to me like basically you're a dictator. Approach this like you're REALLY interested in COLLABORATING. Then maybe, just maybe, you might uncover somebody who isn't a "loser retarded asshole" in "El Crapville." (Just my devil's advocate opinion, don't take me too seriously...)

I guess my sarcasm did not show through enough, Bob? Your points are well taken. I know exactly what you mean. That's why I don't post more. Besides being busy, I just want to keep my head down and play music. In this busniness, everybody is a possible customer, or someday, a co-worker. Makes no sense to alienate anyone.....

Yep... Can't seem to find me a bass player here in El Crapville ...so I guess now I'm gonna have to just go buy a bass and figure it out myself...

5 days pass...nothing So I contact the guy..."Did ya change yer mind or something...? and he says "Yes I did,,, Was gonna tell ya... Sorry for the inconvenience"

So I'm thinking I almost got hoodwinked by a poser... That 's the fukin story of my life in this piece of sh*t town... I'm way sick of these loser, useless, retarded assholes...

I'm busy, but I'm not a poser, and I have no problems writing bass lines for music like your "Bench For Two" song. I'm not a premium member, so get my e-mail address from my site and I will be happy to eventually send you down an "audition". Are you looking for someone to make music for you in a studio? Or do you need someone to be able to live there and be in your band?

I'll contact you and then we can dicuss more : )

Sometimes I play devil's advocate. For one thing you shouldn't come on a public forum and trash the city you're in. Just my opinion. There ARE professional musicians on here (like me) and ALSO venue owners and promoters from your "El Crapville" who won't look kindly on your trashing the town. Second, you're offering people money to do what? Go to a studio and do YOUR tunes. And to what goal? Are you going to use the recordings to GET GIGS? Are you going to SELL a CD eventually? What if the the "loser retarded asshole" who sees your ad happens to be a very professional musician, songwriter, singer, etc. and can contribute to your project. Would you be willing to do any of his (or her) tunes? Frankly I'm not too interested in somebody with an attitude telling me I'll "pay you $X for X time in the studio OR (worse) I'll pay you IF the resulting CD makes a profit. I would be much more interested in somebody who is willing to do some of MY tunes as well, who would be interested in my artisitic input into the project, who would be willing to listen to my ideas to (just perhaps) improve upon some of your tunes. Sounds to me like basically you're a dictator. Approach this like you're REALLY interested in COLLABORATING. Then maybe, just maybe, you might uncover somebody who isn't a "loser retarded asshole" in "El Crapville." (Just my devil's advocate opinion, don't take me too seriously...)

WHich is it gonna be Bob? Should I take you seriously or not?

I trash the city I live in, Bob, because it's THAT bad of a place. Only with respect to "Professional Demeanor" EL Crapville sucks the big donkey weenie, The town is replete with lithium addicts and idiots... I Am here because I lost a bet... Its the kind of town where you'll see some dumb-ass actually walk in to a white collar job interview wearing jeans and sandals... Its the kind of town where all those Girls, who couldn't be smarter than "Valley Girl", show up... and You'll know them as you spot them sitting with their dates, busy texting away.... Its the kind of town where a dumb-ass coffee-house owner insists that you bring 25 fans or more to play in his little shit-house of a floor. ( He already knows what me and 50 others think about that , if your worried about him reading this)

As for the venues and promoters in my Town, f**k em... They are useless...They don;t give a sh*t about the local scene...They arent that professional, and they damn sure aren't making it anywhere else...So, They always out-source.. (Are you guys reading this??) I will be fair and say I personally know of two who aren't that bad. I can't begin to tell you the drain we have of talents, leaving this city because of the coke-head garage attendants that pass off as promoters and club owners here. They wouldn't know what to do with the talent here, if it kicked em in the nuts.

As for my offer, Yeah I am willing to pay somebody to do my Playlist.. If that somebody feels strong enough about it, I can consider their tunes... (and pay for it. But (This specific) project from the Git go is about My tunes... The fact that they would get credit for songs they DIDN'T write, but for having participated ...well whats so bad about that? . If it works out, post release...we got a band of people saying...Sheeeit lets do it again, only this time , lets create the cd together.

The fate of this specific CD.. That's really up in the air right now. Its common consensus that the CD will promote the musicians, which leads to gig -opp. I doubt that it would ever really sell for profit... I mean Our environment just isn't conducive to sales here. Everybody "expects everything to come for free.. My plan was to mass-produce copies and just give em away.

What if the the "loser retarded asshole" who sees your ad happens to be a very professional musician, songwriter, singer, etc. and can contribute to your project

Its impossible... You can't be a loser retarded asshole AND be a professional singer and song writer at the same time (Union rules). But seriously, if that dude is so offended, and can't get past the bravado...I guess twixt the twain...we shall never meet.. ...and I got no time for it. It ain't gonna be the end of my world, that is for sure.

Frankly I'm not too interested in somebody with an attitude telling me I'll "pay you $X for X time in the studio OR (worse) I'll pay you IF the resulting CD makes a profit. I would be much more interested in somebody who is willing to do some of MY tunes as well, who would be interested in my artisitic input into the project, who would be willing to listen to my ideas to (just perhaps) improve upon some of your tunes.

Well, that's you, but that ain't everybody... Quite honestly, as a professional, have you actually paid others and funded a whole recording project (Basically Artistically produced, Executive produced a full CD BY yourself with no other financial contribution?) If you have, then you should understand my position... I am not interested in paying people for any service that they suck at. And NO, The priority ain't gonna focus on their "Artistic input" in this project. I'm not saying they cant have input.. If I say to you..Please throw down a bass line that you think works...am I not soliciting your artistic input? Beyond that , Its my bidding on this round, My Way, and yeah I'm gonna be the alpha dog for this one. It doesn't mean I won't acquiesce to the group effort in other projects.. If you are a professional, why the hell do I have to explain this to you?

I would be much more interested in somebody who is willing to do some of MY tunes as well, who would be interested in my artisitic input into the project, who would be willing to listen to my ideas to (just perhaps) improve upon some of your tunes.

Yeah, so I know what I'm lookin for...If you got that which I seek... Then simply earn your way, Like I'd have to if I walked into your band...right?

Sounds to me like basically you're a dictator. Approach this like you're REALLY interested in COLLABORATING. Then maybe, just maybe, you might uncover somebody who isn't a "loser retarded asshole" in "El Crapville." (Just my devil's advocate opinion, don't take me too seriously...)

Now Honestly, I see your point about my approach. In the very beginning I was all about the 'love" ... 'Hey man... Lets create something fantastic.." blah blah blah.... I got calls from people who either lied outright about what they do musically, or underage kids, or simply un suitable... In all cases but one. The one case was my drummer, Dan. He responded maturely, was straight with me and we shared same vision, and he's on board. Now, That guy is gonna have some artistic input.. BECAUSE he proved he's got the chops.

Speaking of Dictators... I just got 'told' by a non-dictator that I shouldn't post comments about my city in a public forum...

I know it ain't gonna make you feel any better about being down and out in 'old El Pasowhatthephuckisup but my band finally got its highly talented but very young 19 yr old drummer BACK from the brink. Now we are auditioning LEAD VOCALISTS since I can't cut it. My voice can be very powerful AT TIMES but I'm not naturally gifted as a frontman. I'm like EVH to his David Lee Roth. We got guys answering CL ads and I was very specific about being this, and that, and yeah so what. People are musicians, musicians are people, often wannabes and often talented assholes or wonderful people with no talent!! Somewhere, out there, in time, YOU WILL FIND THE RIGHT PLAYER. Its a crap shoot, though right now you probably would prefer to just shoot the crap dead thus creating a process of elmination. And lots of jail time for you. So be cool. This business is cruel, wicked, lonely, thankless................and eventually rewarding. When musicians talk about being in a band akin to being married to three or four other people, it ain't no lie. Just finding a good reliable friend can be Mission Impossible. BUT, the odds will turn in your favor. Don't waste your time pursuing morons who YOU END UP CALLING only to be insulted twice, as has obviously happened to you by this knuckleheaded bass player. RIGHT CHAEYA???? You remember me. I come 'round once in a while to at least say Wassssupppp!!!!! NOW, I HAVE A QUESTION FOR ALL OF YOU, based on my personal feelings regarding the matter of auditioning LEAD VOCALISTS. They are (usually) the WORST OFFENDERS. Especially if they are kick ass both vocally and as charismatic stage perfomers. They know they're in demand and unless mom and pop learned them their manners right (still no gauruntee) they will come around full of themselves acting like the alley cat's meow. OR, they will be surprisingly cerebreal, professional, reliable. Then they hit the stage and turn it on, BIG TIME. What I can't stand is these cretins who show up with a few songs learned and they seem to think the band will have A SHINEY HIGH-END MACKIE 8 CH MIXER AND BIG POWER AMP, 58'S HOOKED TO MIC STANDS, EVEN A FEW DECENT SPEAKERS. Uh, no phucking way jose. A REAL PRO will at least have his own Shure 58 and when he sees what WE are using for a compact practice PA, he will likely be laughing inside but will also hear a band that kicks ass. If he doesn't have ANY gear of his own, that to me is a bad sign that this garden nome is a flakey premadonna. Hey, I sing, play guitar, got a bass player and a great drummer who also sings, but we got OUR GEAR DUDE - where is yours? You got PA gear? Great. Pass the audition and we'll help ya load your VOCAL gear into our practice pad and away we go. Got talent but no gear? It costs about $600 to aquire a decent used practice PA. Don't need much in the way of watts coming into a hard rock power trio with a side order of metal. BOTTOM LINE IS, no band should have to supply a vocalist with gear. Hate to lose out on a potential H-Bomb of a singer, maybe we can work something out, but for the most part, uh uh, you get gear. You come back hear. Set up gear. Everybody "hear" what I'm talking 'bout? Thank you, and to all a good bunch of much luck. That's rock n' roll.