I wrestled with this one a lot when I was deciding which band I was going to play with. The main reason to leave Splunge was so I could play out again, and the move wasn't without risk. It was entirely possible things wouldn't work out with the new band and I didn't feel as though going back would be a good idea if I left. Instinct told me it was time to move on, but I like to understand my own mental processes, and I didn't this time.
It took me the better part of a week to think it through. I truly don't need an audience, though it can be Big Fun when they're receptive. I don't have anything to prove to anyone, and I don't particularly need the money anymore (though it's nice to get paid). But I do like to have a goal. Without one, the work I put into songs feels empty somehow, like a waste of time, even though I do enjoy the process itself to a point. And with a goal, I know the standard I'm working to. There's a *reason* the performance has to be good. With Splunge, I was starting to get sloppy because I knew I didn't have to be any better than I already was and I couldn't challenge myself without making things even harder on the band members who were already struggling. What I needed to do in that situation was make others better, and I only had a certain amount of control over that. The choice came down to joining another band that required me to push myself, or to stay with a band that required me to push others so I could get to a point where I'd be pushing myself, making that band Not Fun for everyone else in the process.
Tuesday, January 31, 2012
Monday, January 30, 2012
Splunge - 1/22/12
Jason, Sal, Nick and I, all on board. I had to begin the session with the unpleasant news that I had decided to leave the band and why. Sal's reaction was that he'd assumed from the beginning that something like this would eventually happen and that the band had always been on borrowed time as far as he was concerned. Nick was clearly depressed by the news, describing it as like finding out that your girlfriend was dumping you because she'd been offered a great job on the other side of the country. He said you'd be happy for her and sad for the resulting situation for you personally. Jason didn't say much of anything, but was clearly down as well. All wished me luck and said they'd want to come out to see my new band when we played out. The general sentiment was that they'd known I wanted to play out again for some time and were not surprised I'd take the chance when it was offered. I couldn't have asked for a better reception to such bad news, and I was very thankful to all of them for that.
So would Splunge continue without me? It was certainly possible. Nick could handle lead vocals while they looked for my replacement, but sentiments were clearly mixed. Sal clearly wanted to go on, and said as much up front. Nick shook his head, and didn't seem very warm to the idea. Jason, again, didn't say much. He very much wants to play out, and he may not feel this is a very promising situation for him to achieve that goal. I'd truly like to see them continue, since everybody gets along. Sal volunteered to step up and take leadership, at least for now.
Everyone still wanted to play, for which I was again thankful. We didn't put a lot of time in on any particular songs, deciding to just enjoy ourselves and get the best recordings we could. Our recorded sound had improved so much the last time that I hoped there would be at least a couple of keepers among the tracks to document what we'd done together. Unfortunately, with morale so low, it showed in some of the performances, and even my own showed serious signs of being distracted.
I would've passed on playing my own song, "Can't Go Back", but the others insisted and I went with it. The irony of playing a song that was originally written about coming to terms with the breakup of my first band hit me hard in this situation. We closed with Nick singing "Celluloid Heroes", then me singing "Keep On Rockin' in the Free World", which had always been our best song.
Nick asked if I'd come back if the other band didn't work out. I honestly answered that I hoped I wouldn't have to find out the answer to that question. Even if things played out that way, I think they'd always wonder when I was going to leave again, and that wouldn't be good for any of us. We left open the possibility of getting together again some time, just for fun. They're a great bunch of guys and I hoped I'd helped them improve musically while we worked together. Playing with Splunge gave me the chance to sing a lot of lead (too much, really) and experiment in ways I'd never had the time to do in my previous bands. We were certainly going to stay friends, and not every band departure plays out that way, so I'm grateful.
So would Splunge continue without me? It was certainly possible. Nick could handle lead vocals while they looked for my replacement, but sentiments were clearly mixed. Sal clearly wanted to go on, and said as much up front. Nick shook his head, and didn't seem very warm to the idea. Jason, again, didn't say much. He very much wants to play out, and he may not feel this is a very promising situation for him to achieve that goal. I'd truly like to see them continue, since everybody gets along. Sal volunteered to step up and take leadership, at least for now.
Everyone still wanted to play, for which I was again thankful. We didn't put a lot of time in on any particular songs, deciding to just enjoy ourselves and get the best recordings we could. Our recorded sound had improved so much the last time that I hoped there would be at least a couple of keepers among the tracks to document what we'd done together. Unfortunately, with morale so low, it showed in some of the performances, and even my own showed serious signs of being distracted.
I would've passed on playing my own song, "Can't Go Back", but the others insisted and I went with it. The irony of playing a song that was originally written about coming to terms with the breakup of my first band hit me hard in this situation. We closed with Nick singing "Celluloid Heroes", then me singing "Keep On Rockin' in the Free World", which had always been our best song.
Nick asked if I'd come back if the other band didn't work out. I honestly answered that I hoped I wouldn't have to find out the answer to that question. Even if things played out that way, I think they'd always wonder when I was going to leave again, and that wouldn't be good for any of us. We left open the possibility of getting together again some time, just for fun. They're a great bunch of guys and I hoped I'd helped them improve musically while we worked together. Playing with Splunge gave me the chance to sing a lot of lead (too much, really) and experiment in ways I'd never had the time to do in my previous bands. We were certainly going to stay friends, and not every band departure plays out that way, so I'm grateful.
Sunday, January 29, 2012
JW - 1/15/12
I received a message from a band called Jefferson Wheelchair on the bandmix.com web site. They were looking for a bassist and wondering if I might be interested. I wasn't looking for another band at the time, but had decided that it would be a good idea to get some perspective by playing with musicians other than the guys in Splunge, and this seemed like an easier option than trying to organize a jam with random people on my own. Nothing said I had to take the job (even assuming they offered it to me), and it was about a forty minute drive away, which was a reason to say "no" all by itself as far as I was concerned.
I did a little research on the band and found some video footage of them. My initial reaction was a shrug, but I also know that the quality of sound on home video is really poor, and not a fair reflection of the actual sound of the band. On the plus side, they had a keyboard player and a lead singer (two things Splunge did not have), so I'd be able to focus on bass for a change, which was very appealing after singing so much lead the last couple of years. And so I agreed to go.
We had plenty of material to work with, as I knew 17 songs from their list from previous bands, and was confident that I could jam my way through another half dozen or so, so I didn't even have to practice anything in advance. Most of the list was basic classic rock from the '70's. Seemed a bit cheesy to me, to be honest, and not as much fun as Splunge's diverse list, but at least they knew who they wanted to be as a band.
Dale, the drummer and band leader, was a personable enough guy and helped me load my equipment in. The other band members showed up shortly thereafter, and all seemed friendly and intelligent. I was actually sort of hoping I wouldn't like some of them, which again would've given me an excuse not to join, but that wasn't an issue at all.We got down to playing, and it became immediately obvious to me that I'd been losing focus with Splunge because I had to work to keep up with these guys, something I hadn't had to do for a long time. Whether I joined this band or not, I made a decision at that moment that I had to do something to challenge myself more in the future. I stumbled here and there because I was not only unfamiliar with the players and the songs (I hadn't played some of them in over 25 years), but I was unfamiliar with my own bass because I'd bought it just the day before (an Ibanez SR 505, an early Valentine's Day gift from my wife). Maybe not the smartest move, but it sounded great, and I'd brought my Rickenbacker in case I truly needed a familiar instrument. Vocals were a bigger problem. I could hear the lead singer well enough, but the only other singer there (the lead guitar player) was almost completely inaudible to me, and I could barely hear myself, never mind hit a particular note with confidence. I still managed some harmony here and there ("Call Me the Breeze") and they had me sing lead on one song ("Takin' Care of Business").
Things went well overall, and they offered me the job a few days later over the phone. I consulted with my wife at length about the two band situations and what she could live with, because JW practiced far more often than Splunge. The choice was not at all clear, but in the end, I decided to take the job with Jefferson Wheelchair, primarily because I could step back into my comfortable traditional role of bassist with occasional vocals and leave the organizational/business end to the JW band leader. I knew I'd be able to play out relatively soon with JW, since it was just a matter of my learning their material (and I already knew most of that), while Splunge needed to find a lead singer (difficult at best) and learn at least another dozen songs (a long process with that group) before playing out was even a possibility.
I was going to have to explain to the guys from Splunge why I was leaving. Not easy, but it had to be done, and I wasn't looking forward to it.
I did a little research on the band and found some video footage of them. My initial reaction was a shrug, but I also know that the quality of sound on home video is really poor, and not a fair reflection of the actual sound of the band. On the plus side, they had a keyboard player and a lead singer (two things Splunge did not have), so I'd be able to focus on bass for a change, which was very appealing after singing so much lead the last couple of years. And so I agreed to go.
We had plenty of material to work with, as I knew 17 songs from their list from previous bands, and was confident that I could jam my way through another half dozen or so, so I didn't even have to practice anything in advance. Most of the list was basic classic rock from the '70's. Seemed a bit cheesy to me, to be honest, and not as much fun as Splunge's diverse list, but at least they knew who they wanted to be as a band.
Dale, the drummer and band leader, was a personable enough guy and helped me load my equipment in. The other band members showed up shortly thereafter, and all seemed friendly and intelligent. I was actually sort of hoping I wouldn't like some of them, which again would've given me an excuse not to join, but that wasn't an issue at all.We got down to playing, and it became immediately obvious to me that I'd been losing focus with Splunge because I had to work to keep up with these guys, something I hadn't had to do for a long time. Whether I joined this band or not, I made a decision at that moment that I had to do something to challenge myself more in the future. I stumbled here and there because I was not only unfamiliar with the players and the songs (I hadn't played some of them in over 25 years), but I was unfamiliar with my own bass because I'd bought it just the day before (an Ibanez SR 505, an early Valentine's Day gift from my wife). Maybe not the smartest move, but it sounded great, and I'd brought my Rickenbacker in case I truly needed a familiar instrument. Vocals were a bigger problem. I could hear the lead singer well enough, but the only other singer there (the lead guitar player) was almost completely inaudible to me, and I could barely hear myself, never mind hit a particular note with confidence. I still managed some harmony here and there ("Call Me the Breeze") and they had me sing lead on one song ("Takin' Care of Business").
Things went well overall, and they offered me the job a few days later over the phone. I consulted with my wife at length about the two band situations and what she could live with, because JW practiced far more often than Splunge. The choice was not at all clear, but in the end, I decided to take the job with Jefferson Wheelchair, primarily because I could step back into my comfortable traditional role of bassist with occasional vocals and leave the organizational/business end to the JW band leader. I knew I'd be able to play out relatively soon with JW, since it was just a matter of my learning their material (and I already knew most of that), while Splunge needed to find a lead singer (difficult at best) and learn at least another dozen songs (a long process with that group) before playing out was even a possibility.
I was going to have to explain to the guys from Splunge why I was leaving. Not easy, but it had to be done, and I wasn't looking forward to it.
Wednesday, January 11, 2012
Splunge - 1/8/12
Jason, Nick, Sal and myself all back on board. Major set-up change again. The problem is that we've been using a stage type set-up, and some of our timing problems are being attributed to some members not being able to hear well enough. Since we're not getting near a stage anytime soon, we moved things around quite a bit so everybody felt they could hear everybody else. It's strange-looking, but it's not designed for appearance.
On the plus side, the change did what it was supposed to do, and there was some benefit in the sound. However, some timing problems remain on the guitar players' part. The weird thing is that when these timing problems occur, Jason and I can hear it, but the guitar players can't, no matter how obvious they appear to be. The bottom line is that both guitarists tend to rush, coming in early and speeding up so they get out of sync with the bass and drums. They're following their own rhythm, trying to lead rather than follow, but they don't hear it. Very frustrating, from my point of view, and I'm out of ideas as to how to try to fix it. I thought the problem was simply that they couldn't hear themselves, so they relied on their own internal rhythm, but fixing the hearing issue only removed some of the problems.
Jason continued his improvement, so the bass and drums at least sounded pretty good. I was in fair-to-good voice for the beginning of the session, deteriorating a bit as I started getting congested at the end.
"Space Oddity" and "Surrender" were both pretty bad. "Space Oddity" isn't at all coordinated, and I think may be simply too much for a group with timing issues in the first place. Nick is singing lead on "Surrender" and really isn't into it, so he doesn't sing it very well. I can't just take the lead on it, because there isn't anyone else to sing the harmonies that are essential to the song. So neither of these is really working out.
Nick hit a couple of harmonies well, and the group riff on "Poor Poor Pitiful Me" worked out a couple of times, so there were some positives, too.
We've been talking via Facebook and the group consensus is to spend more time working out individual songs. I'm bored as it is, so beating individual songs doesn't sound like fun to me at all, but some of the guys seem to need the work, so we'll give it a try.
On the plus side, the change did what it was supposed to do, and there was some benefit in the sound. However, some timing problems remain on the guitar players' part. The weird thing is that when these timing problems occur, Jason and I can hear it, but the guitar players can't, no matter how obvious they appear to be. The bottom line is that both guitarists tend to rush, coming in early and speeding up so they get out of sync with the bass and drums. They're following their own rhythm, trying to lead rather than follow, but they don't hear it. Very frustrating, from my point of view, and I'm out of ideas as to how to try to fix it. I thought the problem was simply that they couldn't hear themselves, so they relied on their own internal rhythm, but fixing the hearing issue only removed some of the problems.
Jason continued his improvement, so the bass and drums at least sounded pretty good. I was in fair-to-good voice for the beginning of the session, deteriorating a bit as I started getting congested at the end.
"Space Oddity" and "Surrender" were both pretty bad. "Space Oddity" isn't at all coordinated, and I think may be simply too much for a group with timing issues in the first place. Nick is singing lead on "Surrender" and really isn't into it, so he doesn't sing it very well. I can't just take the lead on it, because there isn't anyone else to sing the harmonies that are essential to the song. So neither of these is really working out.
Nick hit a couple of harmonies well, and the group riff on "Poor Poor Pitiful Me" worked out a couple of times, so there were some positives, too.
We've been talking via Facebook and the group consensus is to spend more time working out individual songs. I'm bored as it is, so beating individual songs doesn't sound like fun to me at all, but some of the guys seem to need the work, so we'll give it a try.
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