Finding replacement female singers

[BassAdder60]

Our band has the challenge of finding a new female rock singer for early 2024

 

OMG how difficult it is with female vocalists and rock !

 

Applicants so far .. can’t drive, or sung to backing tracks while stiff and expressionless behind a mic, or wants it to make a living or too far away 

 

We are based in the derrière end of nowhere called Suffolk / Norfolk and it seems good singer’s especially female are the rarest of finds !! 
 

We may have to change plans and get a guy instead !

[tauzero]

Are there any local open mic nights? Or even karaoke nights? If so, they might be worth checking out.

[snorkie635]

3 minutes ago, BassAdder60 said:

Our band has the challenge of finding a new female rock singer for early 2024

 

OMG how difficult it is with female vocalists and rock !

 

Applicants so far .. can’t drive, or sung to backing tracks while stiff and expressionless behind a mic, or wants it to make a living or too far away 

 

We are based in the derrière end of nowhere called Suffolk / Norfolk and it seems good singer’s especially female are the rarest of finds !! 
 

We may have to change plans and get a guy instead !

Do you have a 'local' FE College offering music as part of their curriculum? If yes, you may be able to either place a notice onto the faculty board/web-site, and/or be given an 'introduction' to suitable candidates through a tutor delivering on the course. Sometimes students are looking to participate in live playing scenarios to build credit towards their units. Good luck.

[Happy Jack]

1 hour ago, BassAdder60 said:

Our band has the challenge of finding a new female rock singer for early 2024

 

OMG how difficult it is with female vocalists and rock !

 

Applicants so far .. can’t drive, or sung to backing tracks while stiff and expressionless behind a mic, or wants it to make a living or too far away 

 

We are based in the derrière end of nowhere called Suffolk / Norfolk and it seems good singer’s especially female are the rarest of finds !! 
 

We may have to change plans and get a guy instead !

 

Bin there. Dun that. Bought the full drag outfit. 

 

Unbelievable levels of weaponised bovine faeces enter the equation as soon as you start trying to recruit a female singer, and the younger they are the worse it is. 

 

I very nearly started (yet another) thread about this after spending SIX MONTHS trying to find a competent singstress who could read. Turned out that none of them could read an advert (or in one spectacular case, an entire extended WhatsApp discussion by the band of the impending gig, for which she arrived at my studio for "rehearsal" just as the rest of us kicked off in front of a live audience three miles away) but ALL of them are very good at reading the lyrics off a sheet of A4 paper which keeps falling off the music stand. 

 

"Yes, I know the advert said that I MUST have a car but I didn't think it mattered. By the way, can someone give me a lift back to Woking after every gig?"

 

"Yes, I know I told you that childcare wasn't an issue because my Mum lives close to me, but actually I can't do any rehearsals at all. Not a problem though, because I'll turn up at the gig note-perfect and fully rehearsed."

 

"Yes, I know we agreed to rehearse every week but I'm really busy. October? Does October work for you?"

 

And all that's way before we get anywhere near the ones who can't sing, or stay in time, or recognise any of the artists. "So that one's by ... I'm sorry ... who? OK, how do you spell Aretha?"

 

 

[cheddatom]

35 minutes ago, Happy Jack said:

...Unbelievable levels of weaponised bovine faeces enter the equation as soon as you start trying to recruit a female singer, and the younger they are the worse it is...

 

 

Surely these issues are not gender specific?

[ARGH]

2 minutes ago, cheddatom said:

 

Surely these issues are not gender specific?

Only in Drummers

[toneknob]

Dare I ask what happened to the singer you're replacing, and could she stay in situ until you've got a replacement?

 

[Happy Jack]

26 minutes ago, cheddatom said:

 

Surely these issues are not gender specific?

 

Yup, in the main they are.

 

Far fewer non-driving males than females, far fewer Dads with childcare issues than Mums.

[Acebassmusic]

37 minutes ago, cheddatom said:

 

Surely these issues are not gender specific?

 

Definitely not gender specific.

 

If you advertise for a male <insert instrument here> you will undoubtedly come up with many male chancers who have no idea about being in a band. It gets frustrating trawling through them to find the hidden diamond but does that mean that all male <insert instrument here> are full of "weaponised bovine faeces"? Nope, same with women.

 

The band I ran for over 15 years had, at any one time up to 3 females in it. Throughout the 15 years we must have had up to 7 female fulltime / deps. 95% of the time absolutely no issues....the other 5% were just normal problems you have between human beings and not gender specific. Most of the problems I had usually came from the male element of the band

 

@Happy Jack I think I could quite easily use all your comments but change out gender / instrument as required and apply them to many people who have applied to bands I've been in.....you're not alone! 🤣 I once auditioned a drummer who could not drive, didn't own a kit or have funds to buy / hire a kit and had his kids on a weekend so Friday and Saturday gigs were out .....but wanted to be in a band. I had to say no which was a shame as he was a great drummer and nice guy.

Edited July 20, 2023 by Acebassmusic

[MacDaddy]

If I was looking for a vocalist for a rock band, I would happily approach a chap who had the right image and ask 'do you sing?'. 

I would be wary, to the point of not actually doing it, with a lady.

[Happy Jack]

Have you never done it with a lady, then?

 

Nudge nudge, wink wink.

[cheddatom]

35 minutes ago, Happy Jack said:

 

Yup, in the main they are.

 

Far fewer non-driving males than females, far fewer Dads with childcare issues than Mums.

 

Although those two statements are probably true, that's not quite what your post implied. IMO your post implied that female applicants were incapable of reading your advert and poor at communication in general, the implication being that male applicants would not have the same issues. Sorry if I've misinterpreted your point

[Happy Jack]

3 minutes ago, cheddatom said:

 

Although those two statements are probably true, that's not quite what your post implied. IMO your post implied that female applicants were incapable of reading your advert and poor at communication in general, the implication being that male applicants would not have the same issues. Sorry if I've misinterpreted your point

 

Not to worry Tom, apology accepted.

 

[BassAdder60]

2 hours ago, Happy Jack said:

 

Bin there. Dun that. Bought the full drag outfit. 

 

Unbelievable levels of weaponised bovine faeces enter the equation as soon as you start trying to recruit a female singer, and the younger they are the worse it is. 

 

I very nearly started (yet another) thread about this after spending SIX MONTHS trying to find a competent singstress who could read. Turned out that none of them could read an advert (or in one spectacular case, an entire extended WhatsApp discussion by the band of the impending gig, for which she arrived at my studio for "rehearsal" just as the rest of us kicked off in front of a live audience three miles away) but ALL of them are very good at reading the lyrics off a sheet of A4 paper which keeps falling off the music stand. 

 

"Yes, I know the advert said that I MUST have a car but I didn't think it mattered. By the way, can someone give me a lift back to Woking after every gig?"

 

"Yes, I know I told you that childcare wasn't an issue because my Mum lives close to me, but actually I can't do any rehearsals at all. Not a problem though, because I'll turn up at the gig note-perfect and fully rehearsed."

 

"Yes, I know we agreed to rehearse every week but I'm really busy. October? Does October work for you?"

 

And all that's way before we get anywhere near the ones who can't sing, or stay in time, or recognise any of the artists. "So that one's by ... I'm sorry ... who? OK, how do you spell Aretha?"

 

 

Yes 100% this !!

My pet hate is singers standing behind music stands with the words while they read the song and make an emotionless attempt at singing !! 
 

Or you tell them you are a rock band and then they ask if you cover Adele or Amy Winehouse lol 😂 

[JapanAxe]

39 minutes ago, BassAdder60 said:

Yes 100% this !!

My pet hate is singers standing behind music stands with the words while they read the song and make an emotionless attempt at singing !! 
 

Or you tell them you are a rock band and then they ask if you cover Adele or Amy Winehouse lol 😂 

Without wishing to initiate another music-stand-related pile-on, I wholly concur with the first statement.

 

Regarding the second, there is definitely a thing where a band will consist of a bunch of middle-aged men who want to play dad rock, fronted by a much younger woman who wants to sing pop. I’m always amazed the these unhappy alliances last beyond the first attempt at a rehearsal.

[Dan Dare]

10 minutes ago, JapanAxe said:

Without wishing to initiate another music-stand-related pile-on, I wholly concur with the first statement.

 

Regarding the second, there is definitely a thing where a band will consist of a bunch of middle-aged men who want to play dad rock, fronted by a much younger woman who wants to sing pop. I’m always amazed the these unhappy alliances last beyond the first attempt at a rehearsal.

 

There's something much worse than a music stand and that's a singer peering at a mobile whilst singing. Never experienced it in a band, but have seen it on several occasions. A discreetly placed stand with printed sheets or an iPad on it is one thing, but hiding behind it and making no eye contact with an audience is quite another.

 

I suspect most of young women in those dad rock bands are the daughter of one of the players. I turned up for an audition with one such band some time ago. The singer was easy on the eye and had a decent voice, but most of the material was bland pop. That and the fact that dad was insanely proud of her led me to decline. I could tell that any suggestion regarding the vocals, however diplomatically put, would not go down well. Working with people who are partners carries a similar risk.

 

Regarding the more general point, female rock singers are relatively rare beasts in my experience. Plenty of female soul, pop, jazz, etc singers about, but not rock. 

[Skybone]

Just finding a decent rock singer is hard enough.

[BassAdder60]

We may revisit this problem and find a male vocalist instead 

 

Female rock singers of any quality are extremely rare these days 

 

The fun of running a band !! 

[ossyrocks]

We’ve just had the opposite experience, much to my surprise. Advertised on local Facebook groups and JMB for a female lead to join our male lead. She would get half the lead and half the backing. We shortlisted four, and all of them were excellent at auditions in the last two weeks. It was a tough job choosing. We asked them to learn three specific tunes, and pick another one or two from the set if they wanted to do more, but it was not obligatory. In the end we went with the girl who was most relaxed, and who sang effortless harmonies behind the male lead on songs we hadn’t even asked her to learn. Two of the others asked for feedback in order to understand why they hadn’t got the job and address any issues. Our feedback was all positive and encouraging, any of them could have done the job. 
Maybe there’s just a lot of talent up here, auditions were in Blackpool.

Rob

 

Edit. We did ask for video/audio of them singing prior to shortlisting. I actually didn’t get to hear any of the ones we didn’t shortlist, so maybe there were some shockers, but I don’t know.

Edited July 20, 2023 by ossyrocks

[BassAdder60]

1 hour ago, ossyrocks said:

We’ve just had the opposite experience, much to my surprise. Advertised on local Facebook groups and JMB for a female lead to join our male lead. She would get half the lead and half the backing. We shortlisted four, and all of them were excellent at auditions in the last two weeks. It was a tough job choosing. We asked them to learn three specific tunes, and pick another one or two from the set if they wanted to do more, but it was not obligatory. In the end we went with the girl who was most relaxed, and who sang effortless harmonies behind the male lead on songs we hadn’t even asked her to learn. Two of the others asked for feedback in order to understand why they hadn’t got the job and address any issues. Our feedback was all positive and encouraging, any of them could have done the job. 
Maybe there’s just a lot of talent up here, auditions were in Blackpool.

Rob

 

Edit. We did ask for video/audio of them singing prior to shortlisting. I actually didn’t get to hear any of the ones we didn’t shortlist, so maybe there were some shockers, but I don’t know.

Blackpool is a big place !! 

[Silvia Bluejay]

There isn't much of a tradition for female-fronted rock bands. Especially in our age group (55+). I'm racking my brain. Debbie Harry? Joan Jett? Suzi Quatro? Pat Benatar? Chrissie Hynde? I'm sure some will say they are all, arguably, pop rather than rock singers. Courtney Love? Hmm. Perhaps Lita Ford, who at least was fronting a hard rock band after the Runaways, but she's not as famous as the others. And even I can't remember the name of the frontwoman in Vixen*, and I was a fan! There are very few, and relatively unsuccessful, female hard rock and rock bands women my age may have wanted to emulate when we were younger.

How about younger potential female rock vocalists? Well, does anyone under the age of 30 like rock or hard rock nowadays?

 

* Janet Gardner - thank you Uncle Google.

Edited July 20, 2023 by Silvia Bluejay

[Silvia Bluejay]

Oh, and just to add another thought - most hard and classic rock lyrics are not what a woman with a modicum of self-respect would want to sing.

[Phil Starr]

11 hours ago, BassAdder60 said:

OMG how difficult it is with female vocalists and rock !

 

We are based in the derrière end of nowhere called Suffolk / Norfolk and it seems good singer’s especially female are the rarest of finds !! 
 

We may have to change plans and get a guy instead !

Looks like @Silvia Bluejay beat me to it. Rock has been essentially a male preserve, partly a reflection of it's time. Without making any assumptions about the OP's set I've never really understood why so many covers bands have women singing songs written for/by male singers. The range is going to be awkward and the lyrics a bit odd. This includes my own band by the way. Come to that I don't get why someone with an essentially soprano range wants to sing a tenor part without even a key change.

 

I'm almost surprised there are any female singers who want to sing with a rock band.

 

It's not as if there aren't a wealth of brilliant songs by female singers and given that in general female audiences are less self conscious about getting on the dance floor why bands with female singers don't have a set designed to match their skill set and capitalise on what they are going to do best.

Edited July 20, 2023 by Phil Starr

[snorkie635]

10 hours ago, Silvia Bluejay said:

Oh, and just to add another thought - most hard and classic rock lyrics are not what a woman with a modicum of self-respect would want to sing.

Janis Joplin, Maggie Bell and Elkie Brooks spring to mind? 😉

[Woodinblack]

11 hours ago, Silvia Bluejay said:

Perhaps Lita Ford, who at least was fronting a hard rock band after the Runaways, but she's not as famous as the others. And even I can't remember the name of the frontwoman in Vixen*, and I was a fan!

 

Dorothee Pesch springs to mind?  There were quite a few others, but obviously a lot less than men.

 

Obviously in a pretty well sexist world, having children and going out to practice is always going to be more common for a man, and also there are going to be less family issues for a bloke going out every week to practice with a group of blokes than there would for a woman.

 

When we were going through looking for singers, we found it was easier the older, rather than younger. There was a lot less drama, and more chance the kids had moved on.