Being a band leader sucks sometimes :o(

[Twinfan]

Quite the opposite actually.  The drummer told him some truths about his vocal (lack of) quality and it seems have shut him up.  I just told him it didn't suit the band, but the drummer was a bit more honest!!!

[dheim]

i just saw a video of "crazy train" and, honestly, you should have done it before!

if i were in UK i think you'd have just found a MUCH better singer! :P

[Twinfan]

Ha ha - cheers mate!

[ailean]

Quite the opposite actually.  The drummer told him some truths about his vocal (lack of) quality and it seems have shut him up.  I just told him it didn't suit the band, but the drummer was a bit more honest!!!

That's good, the last thing you need is him whining and creating a bad undercurrent.

[mikeluke]

We are similar position with our drummer...

[Twinfan]

Ouch  :(  Best thing we did was to move on, so I hope your situation works out.

We've got our second singer audition lined up for tomorrow night...

[Nadz1lla]

I'm finding it very hard at the moment too. I write all the music for my band, it's actually really my baby, everything is written and designed by me, the only other people are the guys who help me bring it all to the live stage.
But our last gig was meant to be something of a milestone for us, we finally got a supporting slot at our local "good" venue, the Cavern in Exeter. I told the guys the moment we got offered it that we couldn't mess up, we had to play the best we've ever played as a lot of good bands go through the Cavern and shortly afterwards get signed or otherwise have something else good happen to them.

I tried to get a practice sorted, a couple of the guys were up for it but one in particular said it's ok, he'd practised a lot on his own and he promised me nothing would go wrong on the night.

We played an absolutely abysmal set. We had tech problems, but that's nothing to stop a good performance. The guy who made me the promise and said he didn't need a practise messed up MASSIVELY on 3 seperate songs out of a 5 song set. To say I felt betrayed was an understatement.

So now I'm considering just letting the band die. This thing was my biggest dream and someone I trusted killed it in one fell swoop. I don't even want to show my face at the Cavern again because of the sheer embarrassment caused by our fumbled set.

So I feel where you're coming from, except I've decided to take the easy way out and not fire anyone, just tell them I'm not doing it anymore. Seems easier.  :?

[Ian Price]

The guy who made me the promise and said he didn't need a practise messed up MASSIVELY on 3 seperate songs out of a 5 song set.

I've experienced this and it is soul destroying. Songs played in the wrong key, capos on the wrong fret, chords being played out of order and a song being stopped and restarted all in the same set due to our singer screwing up. Absolutely soul destroying, particularly when the audience start shouting things like "you're rubbish" and "get off".

Apparently it wasn't even the singers fault!

If you get a new band and get back on your feet you might be confident enough to go back - sounds like it would be a shame if you didn't go back and prove that you're not as bad as you were that night.

[Nadz1lla]

Yeah, well, we'll see. There's one other guy in the band apart from me who has invested a lot of time and effort in it, I can 100% rely on him and he travels a long way just to practice and gig with us, the guy is pure gold. I guess it would be a shame for him to have done all that only for me to dump it all. Maybe there's something he and I can do together rather than throw all his effort away. If I was to quit entirely, the worst thing for me would be to think of him and all he's put into the band being for nothing. I think I owe him more than a walk-out, heh.

I guess I have to think on this some more really.

But as you say, really disheartening! We had to stop a song halfway and one of the Guitarists managed to get us back on track, but there were definitely heads shaking in the crowd that night.  :(

[Lew]

Yup, reminds me why I only do 'projects' and 'stand in'!

Good luck Nadz1lla, it seems bad now but I bet it will be a great story in your interviews once you've 'made it'  :D :D

[38thBeatle]

Yes Nadz1lla you should think about trying again but with the guy you can depend on and forget the others. I was thinking, as I read your post, where it was leading. It is very frustrating particularly when it is your own project though sometimes that can be the issue-where the others don't engage but  you'd think it would be obvious beforehand but it isn't because you are busy holding it all together. It doesn't sound as though it has affected your desire though so get some new guys and go knock em bandy.

[Henk]

At some point i saw every band as a project, since i wrote most music anyway. Some worked some didnt, just that.

If you really want to get more out of this band you really need to replace whatever factor that isnt working or just head on with the people who do work. It took me way too long to realise that, and by the time i did i was way too late to get something going which would take off.

Prioritize what you want to archieve and start working at that, expecting everything to 'happen' spontaneously wont work, at least it never did for me.

Greetings, Henk

[hunter]

Well I agree with others that firing by email is weak. Based on this and together with the personal disappointment, I can completely understand his reaction, I don't think it's very immature based on the way you treated him.

Anyways, moving on I have to say that a female singer does add a lot of change to a band, songs are different and the overall feel changes. It becomes more important to play subtle and nicely worked out rhythm arrangements. Less solo work normally. But it opens up some nice opportunities, like playing some version of Katy Perry stuff etc which can be loads of fun.

And if she looks good it can bring a lot of success too.

I think if you can mix male and female vocals, it's perfect. Either you could hire a guy and a girl or you could get the girl and sing some dude songs yourself while she is playing the tambourine (or if she could pull off some acoustic guitar while you sing, even better).

[Twinfan]

Our drummer sings backing vocals too, so I'm hoping the three of us can produce something worth listening to.  I agree about the change to a band with female vocals, but it can make you a bit less rock n roll if you're not careful.  We're re-auditioning her tomorrow tonight as the guy we tried last week didn't work out.

It's funny how people have reacted to the 'fired by email' thing.  There are so many ways to communicate these days:

Face to face
Telephone conversation
Text message
Email
Facebook
Instant Messaging
PM via a forum
etc

Why is email so inappropriate????

[Ian Price]

Why is email so inappropriate????

My take on this is that nobody is really qualified to say what is 'right' or 'wrong' other than you or your other band members. Nobody else knows what the singer is like, what the history was, how he takes feedback, if he is confrontational etc.

For this reason I just don't see how people can judge if it is right or wrong. I can see why people might think it is wrong but they can't really qualify it.