as I start writing this, for your consideration, sharing my experiences and perspectives overall with all the beautiful minds and souls i've shared the privilege of making music with and for, I don't write this with any intention of putting down anyone or being indirect to anyone i've worked or aspire to work, but it's crucial to help ourselves to define what are the roles we aim to have wherever we find ourselves involved when we make this collective-ish way of art.
why collective-ish? good question! am I implying individuality stands over collectivism? let's not go that far just yet.
as Drum great Russ Miller put it on a very useful article years ago in a Modern Drummer column, the situations one find oneself as a musician vary according to the type of role we have with the ownership of the music and the purpose we serve, the benefits we get, the responsabilities we acquire and the sacrifices we give.
basically, paraphrasing it, we enter in this world of music with different relationships, and I've had the privilege of being a little bit of everything and learned from it. here's my take on being:
A BAND member.
a band is a pure way of collectivism. it's a Dying form of art set up (gotta tell you later why I believe it does, if it hasn't yet). feels like freedom, since it is, in utopic equal participation percentage, or a platypus called "collective leadership" where everyone is involved on getting the best, altough many bands usually pursue a collab mixture, while featuring a very necessary creative leadership, it implies absolute complicity of all its parts to sustain itself and will on putting individual footprint in something that openly mutates and evolves bigger, deeper, tastier, sophisticated with more souls involved, instead of a single individual.
too much poetry. the reality is, songwriting process in a band is different. everyone feels their involment doesn't gets moderated as such, everyone involved puts equal effort, and the end product it's the negotiation of the push back of all the egos involved into how much they do and let be done on their behalf to contribute to the big picture, wich usually stands out by the uniqueness of multiple perspectives and ceative inputs. sometimes it's a member's rough idea, followed by the collective input to make it feel whole. sometimes, it's a song written by a member, leaving the space for every personality involved to be themselves while enhancing the original vision. or every band member writes a song, and everyone plays each other's ideas as such, and the push/pull of the ideas gets a negotiation, while the end result it's treated as a collab effort with a collective mind, and not just a collaboration.
collaboration is a beautiful word, so missunderstood as charity, freebie or "something for nothing". even if Full Metal Alchemist is just an anime, that principle stands as something I understand as a principle of life: in oder to attain something, something must be exchanged. EQUIVALENT EXCHANGE!. in a band setting this kind of questions are out of the picture. I've been in those scenarios, where everyone works to enhance each other's ideas, not always in full harmony but in total willingness, and it's only when things get out that this picture when the project as a whole loses one member's presence, or changes it's DNA.
of course, this is related to the process of CREATING ORIGINAL MUSIC, rather than RECREATING MUSIC wich is also a posibility, for cover/versions/tribute bands (will talk about how I classify them as 'different') wich is a lot of work, either to replicate, or to re-arrange.
the thing with being in a band, is that its a marriage of egos, working together for a common good, benefit and uplift. it's utopic. its like a socialist utopia of creation of expression. collective complicity, if i may.
it's a society, a mob with an altruistic purpose, not all of them perfect or functional all the time, of equal input of investment, responsabilities and attention, but I'm convinced this is the ideal scenario, and one of the main reason we pursue our passions to learn an instrument . we grow from the exchange of musical tastes from our bandmates, we get used to the way they do things. we strive to make mutual success. it's the most progressive scenario, the most emotionally rewarding of them all. and the most difficult to embrace, get in. sustain and even, overcome.
carreers of musicians sustaining a 10+ years together are rare nowdays. usually like most human relationships, entropy appears and takes its quota of resentment, Ego Trips and "the state is me" attitudes, incompatibility of personality traits, irresponsability and when lines are crossed and people think of their own as it is usual over the collective wellness, that's how things usually find an end that is disheartening.
but unless it is agreed beforehand, we usually involve ourselves into other people's projects and they pretend it is a band when it comes to split responsabilities but a solo act when it comes to creadits and revenues. or, in the other hand a soloist who actually want to find a collective of friends who help him enhance their vision of his music, usually being this person, ideally, responsible for the collective that follows him but he refueses to call them "session musicians"(we'll get there later.) that weird hybrid also can be fruitful.
so, playing as a team has a deeper personal, human; say, spiritual component to make music than any other scenario. is not the type of gig you question yourself doing, ever. you want this. it's where your individual growth and effort finds a place to be, to flourish, to nurture. even better, it's the place where you also, if later that decision is made, where you learn to be a professional. but not exactly.
few bands achieve success to levels where making revenue is enough to make a living, let aside retirement, unlike old time "rockstars era". so, we all probably either aim to big leagues, or to show our music to our friends on weekends and finish college and have a, you know, "normal life"
my suggestions for you if you want to embark in this adventures are simple:
always keep a clear mind of your role, leaving the EGO aside, serve the songs, be a good person first, and a professional(!). your value in any setting depends on these 2 things. when replacing or joining a band, songs are usually already imprinted and re create that sound is the usual expectation. it's custom as musicians being called to be actors and channel the character we are meant to play, more than being ourselves, but when that's on the table, that also means respect boundaries, the legacy of past members and blend in.
personal relationships are the main reason we remain in bands. good musicians are everywhere. (specially guitar players), but being in a band, means that your membership imply how unique you become and how the cohesion sustains longevity. you'll be surprised how musicians not too skilled but that have played together for longest sound tigher and more organic than the most proeficient ones that can't get along.
original music is in it's all time low when it comes to compare what it used to be. sometimes it take more investment and effort than the revenues, and that struggle is shared. investing collectively in this art form is more viable, altough having a solo career implies carrying all the expenses by the main head of an operation, and this is where things get mixed wrongly and disagreements flourish when lines are not drawn. individually and collectively we aim to be sustainable, for starters. keep your hopes and goals realistic and work hard. we depend on our public, the ones who like our music organically and not because we spam them only. yet, spam them and playing our mob mentality in and outside stage helps to grow. don't let issues inside the band become a matter of public domain, also known as gossip.
altough the idea of a band as a collective looks very acephalic, every band does have a band leader, because it's natural. someone has to keep the foot on the accelerator and 4 people steering a wheel is not driving. take the time to always have a band day/time to hang out and discuss, after rehearsing(in my experience, before can carry the risk of "drain the mood" and/or if you are paying for a rehearsal room, time is money!). as much as the collective will keeps itself oiled and tight, music feels better. after all, of any other scenario, we usually are here because we want to. because it's fun. because it's meaningful to us. because that meaning finds the way to reach its objective. when those landmarks are lost, you are just going just for being responsible or probably just for a pastime you actually don't value but can't seem to let go.
having people waiting or not being cooperative hurts the thing we love the most more than anything, and certainly creates an environment of hopelessness about our craft that its constantly being moved to the back seat.
always keep a whiteboard on your rehearsal room, that helps to ease working on the song structure and ease the learning process.
and yes, CREDITS! your legacy, contribution and work. well, when it comes to do things seriously in this bussiness and you register the material, and it, as it may, gets registered, usually lyrics, and melodies are the ones who are credited to their authors. whenever entering a collective, so does creating, yet it is a matter of endless discussion and sometimes bitter arguments when the divorces happen and listening to songs that are part of you being played by other people can be one of the worst feelings in the world when issues are unresolved. but the song survives in recordings and in the hearts of fans, so its not an actual loss. yet, those credits, if any, also mean a source of revenue, so it's necessary to address these issues from day one, with a calm attitude and leaving everything on paper, since is only healthier that way. all those "this is my idea" issues in big scenarios turn into legal battles and consequences even to the art form.
for many of us, the first experience and dream we have as musicians comes from this idea of making music for a long time with friends. we hope for the best and we care because it is our outlet to be ourselves, express our own ideas, make something meaning that lasts and says "I was here".
I hope my insigt is helpful for your pursuit of a musical venture with friends.
nowdays people are even more individualistic and the line of making a band, and being without knowing, just a session musician for free without realising it. if everything seems to flow from and in only one direction in a musical setting, then, that's not a band, and issues need to be adressed resonably. we love what we do, but love is not an excuse to blind ourselves to being instruments of someone else's project. a band is more than the sum of its parts, but is a collective in all the sense, and collective work is one of the most difficult tasks on the human experience, and one of the most rewarding.
second part is on the way.
