writing songs for two different bands... which band gets which song?

[mcnach]

I am mostly involved with one originals band, called Sea Bass Kid. The style is a little hard to describe, as it has influences of various things, from funk to ska and lots more in between. We are a six piece band (soon seven, it seems) and we are all focused on this band.... but we have other projects on the side.

Most notably, there is a ska band (rhythm guitarist and singer/guitarist are in it), and a funk band (the third guitarist, drummer, and me on bass are in this one).

It has not been complicated, so far, so decide what songs get played where, because it's been mostly a collective effort. For the funk band, we came up with ideas when getting together as "the funk band", and whatever came up there we used in that band.
I am not present when the ska band meets, but I get the feeling it's the same.
The rhythm guitarist comes up with a lot of the "song scaffolds" for SBK... and lately many have had a strong ska component. It seems he gives priority to SBK. Cool. SBK's funky side is, however, a lot more subdued except in a couple of numbers. In fact, it's one of the reasons the funky band was formed... but sometimes we jam as SBK, and we come up with some interesting funky ideas. With three members of the funk band it's tempting to "grab them" for the funk band, especially as some you can tell that they will never make it into a SBK song... but it still feels a bit funny.

It's working out alright, so far... but I wonder how other people manage in these situations.
Do you take the "best" ones for the main band, and develop the class B songs on the side bands?
Do you keep strictly to the "what starts in this band, stays in this band"? This would be the most logical way to go about it if you work in group... but it gets complicated when several members are shared between bands.
What about when you write something by yourself? I have a few ideas of my own that I recorded on a Zoom H2, and I tend to just think that the "funkiest" ones I will present to the funk band, and the others not quite so funky to SBK.

I can imagine a situation when some song starts to form, and we don't know which band should play it.
Personally, I would love to share a couple of songs, if only to see how different bands -despite the overlap in members- can interprete a song in different ways and each band give it their own colour.

[TorturedSaints]

I have had a similar problem in the past, but there was no overlap in band members What worked then was to offer the bare bones of the song to each band and see which band 'ran' with it and greeted it with most enthusiasm. You soon get a feel for which band it suits best.