Band members in other bands

[mcnach]

On 22/06/2025 at 16:19, chris_b said:

 

Deps are not a negative scenario. Deps make gigging more flexible. Pick the right deps and you can have a lot of fun.

 

You don't give your band members much credit for their ability to learn sets for 2 bands.

 

You don't want band members to be in multiple bands, I get it, but your whole outlook on the subject is very negative.

 

 

Indeed.

 

With regards to deps... I was with an originals band for just over 10 years, we didn't use deps for that one. The chemistry among us was a big part of the band (which varied between 6-9 members). Sometimes we'd play with one or two members missing, which was not ideal but it still worked as long as the "core 5" were there. But for most other bands there would be someone who could step in if needed. Deps are very useful not just to book gigs when someone is not available, but as insurance against illness, for example. 

 

At the moment I only play with 2 bands, plus dep with others occasionally. The main band has a number of deps, for everything except main vocals (we're a 6 piece). They've become part of the band, they just don't play as much as the designated main player. 

 

[mcnach]

On 22/06/2025 at 21:47, Mickeyboro said:

I’ll just re-state my original question, as it’s three pages back…

 

Can a band thrive if most of its members have other, clearly more interesting/lucrative interests? If so, how do you manage/motivate them?

 

I don't fully get the question.

 

They're adults: they manage themselves.

 

They know what the expectations are, how often we're aiming to play, how much time they are likely to need and what sort of availability, etc etc. If that works for them, then they make it work. Motivation? They have to like playing with the band, that's all it takes really. There's one guy in particular playing with us, trumpet, who makes a lot more money with other gigs than with us, but still plays most of our gigs. He just likes to do it, so he makes it happen.

 

If somebody is a problem with their level of commitment or creating scheduling issues, then THEY are not motivated enough for that particular band. It's not down to me to change their mind.

 

 

[mcnach]

On 23/06/2025 at 07:07, Mickeyboro said:

I would ideally like one-band people, dedicated to the blues and backing us 100 per cent - no distractions. I only have room in my life for one band.

 

We had plenty of gigs, but personnel instability had caused a slowdown. We aim to do more gigs and be more lucrative.

 

People are willing to play for us, but they are already in bands. So while they rehearse, they don’t come prepared. This slows down progress, hence my frustration. Shuffling the pack constantly does so too, hence my wish to motivate.

 

 

Now, I totally get that. The hardest part for a band is to find the right members, I think. If they join you and don't go prepared to rehearsals, then they are not a good fit, that's all.

 

I endured a few bands when starting out, trying to make every situation work. Eventually I realised that learning when to quit a band was a very useful and powerful tool. I think it extends to choosing your bandmates: if somebody is unreliable, I will not have them around, full stop, and replace them with somebody else who is reliable. If I didn't, I'd probably be typing lots of posts in the Daily Annoyances thread 😄

 

[Mickeyboro]

57 minutes ago, mcnach said:

 

They're adults: they manage themselves.

 

If somebody is a problem with their level of commitment or creating scheduling issues, then THEY are not motivated enough for that particular band. It's not down to me to change their mind.

People like to play music and often dont know how to say no.  
 

I am using them to keep my show on the road, so seemingly have to accept there will be a lower level of commitment/effort. 
 

Thats how I’m feeling. 

[tauzero]

3 hours ago, Mickeyboro said:

People like to play music and often dont know how to say no.  
 

I am using them to keep my show on the road, so seemingly have to accept there will be a lower level of commitment/effort. 
 

Thats how I’m feeling. 

 

Assuming that they're as close an approximation to responsible adults as musicians can get, it's really up to them to provide their own motivation. Although they're going to be more motivated to work on permanent bands than temp ones - have you considered asking them to join on a permanent basis?

[Mickeyboro]

Just now, tauzero said:

Although they're going to be more motivated to work on permanent bands than temp ones - have you considered asking them to join on a permanent basis?

Sorry, it’s a long thread, but the basis is that they have other bands they are members of. It depends what you describe as permanent… as it stands they get their fair share of any gig proceeds, so they wouldn’t earn more. 

[tauzero]

9 minutes ago, Mickeyboro said:

Sorry, it’s a long thread, but the basis is that they have other bands they are members of. It depends what you describe as permanent… as it stands they get their fair share of any gig proceeds, so they wouldn’t earn more. 

 

I know that they're in other bands, presumably as permanent members, whereas with your band, they're temps. Just asking them to be members on a more permanent basis might be a motivator, whether they accept or not.

 

[TimR]

We are human beings.

 

Talk.

 

Face to face. 

[chris_b]

6 hours ago, Mickeyboro said:

I am using them to keep my show on the road, so seemingly have to accept there will be a lower level of commitment/effort.

 

 

I don't understand this. Why will a dep have a lower level of effort and committent? Like I said before you're playing with the wrong people. That’s not my experience of how a dep behaves.

 

Most of the musicians, even many of the band leaders, I know are in more than one band and every one of them gives every gig full commitment and maximum effort. If we didn't give 100% we'd deserve to be out of work.

[BigRedX]

I think sometimes musicians have a very blinkered or naive view of what it is like for other bands (especially originals bands), regarding the use of deps. There are some great musicians out there but, IME once you step outside of conventional blue-based rock, soul and jazz, finding ones that understand the specifics of the music are few and far between. It's not just about playing the right notes in the right order.

 

For instance it would nearly impossible to replace any of my current band with deps. Firstly if we turned up with a different singer (no matter how technically good they may be) half the audience would want their money back. Any dep for our synth player would either need to have the same synthesisers with the same custom patches or they would need to spend some serious time with the recordings working out suitable facsimiles of the sounds. My dep would need a Bass VI with the same non-standard tuning as many of the songs are completely impossible to play using normal Bass VI tuning and a Helix or pedal board capable of producing all the bass and guitar sounds I use. And all of that is before we even consider band image...

[pete.young]

On 21/06/2025 at 12:54, bertbass said:

Sorry, but if you're in one band then that's it, you don't play in other bands.  Help out in an emergency as long as no one else minds.  Not enough gigs to keep you happy, get more gigs.  Wrong type of music, leave and join another band.  I think you get where I'm coming from.

 

That might work for people who can only play one instrument.

[mcnach]

16 hours ago, Mickeyboro said:

People like to play music and often dont know how to say no.  
 

I am using them to keep my show on the road, so seemingly have to accept there will be a lower level of commitment/effort. 
 

Thats how I’m feeling. 

 

 

It's a tricky one, do you go ahead with people that do not have the same commitment that you'd like so that you can go ahead and play, or do you wait and keep looking until you find the right people?

 

If people "don't know how to say no", that's going to be problematic. I would not like to have to rely on those. 

[mcnach]

10 hours ago, chris_b said:

 

I don't understand this. Why will a dep have a lower level of effort and committent? Like I said before you're playing with the wrong people. That’s not my experience of how a dep behaves.

 

 

 

Same. 

They/I would not be asked back unless they performed well.

 

 

 

[TimR]

Depends if its a one-off dep, or someone who is "second call" who does gigs when your main player can't play.

 

There are plenty of musicians who are strictly too good to be playing regularly  in amateur bands but are happy to stand in on occasion. 

 

I've done plenty of dep gigs at short notice. If it's get a dep in or cancel the gig, you have to weigh up the risk of another band getting their foot in the door and nicking potential gigs down the pipeline, and putting on a show that might not be to your standard but the punters won't realise. 

[chris_b]

1 hour ago, BigRedX said:

I think sometimes musicians have a very blinkered or naive view of what it is like for other bands (especially originals bands), regarding the use of deps. There are some great musicians out there but, IME once you step outside of conventional blue-based rock, soul and jazz, finding ones that understand the specifics of the music are few and far between. It's not just about playing the right notes in the right order.

 

For instance it would nearly impossible to replace any of my current band with deps. Firstly if we turned up with a different singer (no matter how technically good they may be) half the audience would want their money back. Any dep for our synth player would either need to have the same synthesisers with the same custom patches or they would need to spend some serious time with the recordings working out suitable facsimiles of the sounds. My dep would need a Bass VI with the same non-standard tuning as many of the songs are completely impossible to play using normal Bass VI tuning and a Helix or pedal board capable of producing all the bass and guitar sounds I use. And all of that is before we even consider band image...

 

You're missing the point. Demanding a dep turns up with the same instrument and trousers makes no sense. A dep is not a member of your band, he's sitting in and getting the band through a gig(s) that otherwise they would have to cancel. He gets you out of the hole so the promoter, the audience and the rest of the band are not disappointed.

 

I'd be very surprised if any audience knows or cares when a bass player turns up with a 4 string bass rather than a 6 string bass.

 

Of course no dep is going to be a clone and if that's what you demand, then all you can do is cancel any gig the whole band can't do. Most bands are not in that situation. Being a clone is not what deps or this thread is about.

[TimR]

1 hour ago, chris_b said:

 

You're missing the point. Demanding a dep turns up with the same instrument and trousers makes no sense. A dep is not a member of your band, he's sitting in and getting the band through a gig(s) that otherwise they would have to cancel. He gets you out of the hole so the promoter, the audience and the rest of the band are not disappointed.

 

I'd be very surprised if any audience knows or cares when a bass player turns up with a 4 string bass rather than a 6 string bass.

 

Of course no dep is going to be a clone and if that's what you demand, then all you can do is cancel any gig the whole band can't do. Most bands are not in that situation. Being a clone is not what deps or this thread is about.

 

One of the things is I do when I dep is ask for a dress code. I don't want to be the bass player in the wrong band. 

 

I have 2 basses, I won't be hiring or buying one for a dep gig, I'm happy to borrow the bands regular bass player's bass if it's that important, but I've never done a Tribute band so it's never come up. 

[JapanAxe]

On 22/06/2025 at 21:47, Mickeyboro said:

I’ll just re-state my original question, as it’s three pages back…

 

1. Can a band thrive if most of its members have other, clearly more interesting/lucrative interests?
2. If so, how do you manage/motivate them?

1. Yes, but there needs to be a consensus on how this will work, for example - first come, first served as far as gigs go. If I’ve agreed to do a gig, that gets priority. It goes in other band diaries as an unavailable date for me. If a ‘better’ opportunity comes along, I won’t blow out the existing one. I may try to negotiate an arrangement so that I can do the second gig, but I’ll never leave a band in the brown stuff.

I’m in the slightly unusual position of being an actual member of two bands (one a startup not yet gigging, the other gigging infrequently) and depping with at least five others. I mentioned diaries - some of those bands use the Teamup app, which is free and pretty simple to use. It saves a lot of to-and-fro messaging about who is available for what dates.

2. It sounds like you’re the bandleader here. I’ve done that twice - never again! I don’t think I can help with this one, other than to ask: If they lack motivation to play with your band, they probably shouldn’t be doing it!

[BigRedX]

2 hours ago, chris_b said:

You're missing the point. Demanding a dep turns up with the same instrument and trousers makes no sense. A dep is not a member of your band, he's sitting in and getting the band through a gig(s) that otherwise they would have to cancel. He gets you out of the hole so the promoter, the audience and the rest of the band are not disappointed.

 

I'd be very surprised if any audience knows or cares when a bass player turns up with a 4 string bass rather than a 6 string bass.

 

Of course no dep is going to be a clone and if that's what you demand, then all you can do is cancel any gig the whole band can't do. Most bands are not in that situation. Being a clone is not what deps or this thread is about.

 

I would like to think that any promotor putting us on and any audience coming to see us would be somewhat disappointed if there were different people on stage to those they were expecting.

 

Any bass player replacing me in this band, trying to use a standard 4-string bass would find much of the set challenging and some of it completely impossible to play. That's not because I'm some "monster" player (I'm not by any stretch of the imagination), but simply because they wouldn't have access to a lot of the correct notes I play. As the live sound is stripped back to vocals, synth, bass VI and drums, what I play is integral to the overall band sound and playing something different because your choice of instrument is different to mine is not going to cut it.

[Stub Mandrel]

9 hours ago, BigRedX said:

I think sometimes musicians have a very blinkered or naive view of what it is like for other bands (especially originals bands), regarding the use of deps. There are some great musicians out there but, IME once you step outside of conventional blue-based rock, soul and jazz, finding ones that understand the specifics of the music are few and far between. It's not just about playing the right notes in the right order.

 

For instance it would nearly impossible to replace any of my current band with deps. Firstly if we turned up with a different singer (no matter how technically good they may be) half the audience would want their money back. Any dep for our synth player would either need to have the same synthesisers with the same custom patches or they would need to spend some serious time with the recordings working out suitable facsimiles of the sounds. My dep would need a Bass VI with the same non-standard tuning as many of the songs are completely impossible to play using normal Bass VI tuning and a Helix or pedal board capable of producing all the bass and guitar sounds I use. And all of that is before we even consider band image...

 

That's because people come to see YOU as an originals band. Most covers bands we are pretty interchangeable. One thing about depping is it's a licence to get creative  but it can get a bit hairy if there's a dep guitarist as well and many of the songs have multiple well known versions...