New Year, New Band

[Monkey Steve]

Hey folks.  I’ve been on an extended break from social media - I’m sure you all missed me!

 

Dipping my toe back in, and the biggest change since I was last hanging around here is that I’m in the middle of putting a new band together.  Very long story short, a drunken chat in a pub shortly before covid hit in 2020 led to three of us agreeing to start a new band

 

The plan at that time was that we would work on some music on our own, ready to get together when one of our number got back from his main band’s European tour that was due to kick off at the end of March 2020.  Turns out that the tour ended much earlier than expected, but lockdown also put paid to us getting together, and much procrastination followed

 

The next time we were all together was for a birthday drink in between lockdowns in May 2021 and after a few drinks we repeated that we should start this new band, let’s all work on some songs and arrange to get together…

 

One thing that did happen in lockdown was me buying an iMac with Logic Pro, and I finally got round to recording some demos last Autumn.  A mere 18 months after I said I’d get started.  A little bit too pleased with myself, I sent those round and we’re off!

 

Sort of

 

There are some issues needing to be resolved

 

First, it turns out that making drunken plans leaves some room for interpretation about what had been agreed.  Mainly around the style of music we are going to play.  The other two are guitarists in reasonably well known extreme metal bands, but we’d played together before in a much less extreme hard rock band, and they thought we were doing the same again as they like doing stuff that is different to their main bands.  But that’s been ironed out and we are now playing what we like and seeing what works.  It's probably more towards the hard rock end of the spectrum than the extreme metal

 

Second, despite the fact that the other two are both very good guitarists, one of them wants to play drums in this band.  He has never played drums in a band before.  It all made sense when we were talking about being a three piece in the pub, but me and the one guitarist who will be sticking to the guitar have little confidence that the drummer will be up to the task.

 

In fact he sent us a demo of him playing drums over my demos (which the guitarist has played lead on).  I scored it as 4/10, and told him so.  It wasn’t actually that bad, or wouldn’t be if he stuck to getting the basic beat right rather than losing track of what he is doing every time he puts in a fill…but there are loads of fills and he is frequently out of time.

 

In fairness, he sort of knew this when he sent it, and it was partly for our amusement, and partly to illustrate that he could do most of the basics OK.

 

However, now that the guitarist understands that we’re not limited to being a hard rock band, some of the songs he is writing are quite complicated and being able to maintain a basic beat is unlikely to cut it.

 

But we’ll do the decent thing and allow him to fail rather than sacking him now.  But you can’t have a band with a drummer who can’t drum, so me and the guitarist have contingency plans. Admittedly drunken contingency plans which haven’t actually been mentioned to any of the people we think could be asked to be our new drummer.  But we’re sure they’ll work.

 

The last problem is getting some impetus to move things forward.  I might complain about getting used to things returning to normal as we emerge from the latest lockdown, but the main issue is down to me - the other two seem to think that I’m the band leader, and I’m rubbish at that sort of thing, as is the guitarist.  I’ve also had a bit of a health issue for the last few months, which I’m hoping will be resolved shortly, but that’s really an excuse for my putting off arranging anything.  The irony is that the drummer is a natural band leader, but he seems to treat this as his excuse to play the drums rather than a band that he is fully committed to, and he’s contributed very little thus far.

 

So it’ll be down to me to get a studio booked for our first jam.  I’ve acquired two new basses in lockdown so I’m really keen to get that arranged…just don’t seem to be in a hurry to actually arrange it.  I only have myself to blame.

 

We then have the search for a singer, but that’s a problem for another day.

 

Oh, and we have to find a proper name for the band, as the working title will definitely prevent us from getting any gigs

[Boodang]

Welcome back.

 

Band name suggestion; 

Long Story Long

 

Seriously though, interesting story and good luck, especially finding a vocalist, and keep us up to date, maybe with a cheeky demo or two.

[Bassfinger]

Band name - Monkey Steve and the Mediocre Drummer.

[Monkey Steve]

He might take that personally...still, it'll solve a problem if he quits

[Bassfinger]

Am I just weird, only ever playing in bands with nice guys who are decent musicians?  The only slight friction I ever experience is minor grumbling over setlists and songs.

Edited March 9, 2022 by Bassfinger

[Monkey Steve]

16 hours ago, Bassfinger said:

Am I just weird, only ever playing in bands with nice guys who are decent musicians?  The only slight friction I ever experience is minor grumbling over setlists and songs.

You sir must be a fraud - honestly, I can't believe you've ever played with any other musicians if you think they're all nice guys 🤣

 

Seriously though, these two are really good mates, and two of the best guitarists I've ever played with in our previous band...but as soon as the studio door closed the gloves were off and they never held back about their opinions on what the band was playing, whether any band members were performing to standard, if they thought the songs were any good, etc.  It really surprised me when the band first started, but unlike any other bands I've been in, it was kept strictly to the studio, and actually was really healthy - nobody went home feeling resentful or annoyed at what somebody had been doing, all the arguments were had in public and resolved.  And it was always about the music, not personal.  Nine times out of ten we'd go to the pub after practice and there would be no hard feelings about what had been said at rehearsal.  It was a really healthy attitude.

 

Ironically enough, the "drummer" recently sacked the actual drummer in his main band for not being up to scratch

 

Like I say, we'll give him the chance to fail, and if he's not up to it and can't improve enough to be the drummer we need then we'll tell him.  In fact we've already told him that he'll be sacked if he isn't up to scratch, only half joking.  The guitarist is happy enough if we tell him that he can't be the drummer but can play guitar instead, though whether his ego will allow that would remain to be seen.  It might also be an issue if one of our ideas for a singer works, as the person who has been making noises about maybe wanting to do it also plays guitar...

[theplumber]

Just get a decent drummer...save his drumming for demos!