Abundance of one-man "bands" in modern prog

Evolver wrote: With one man recordings, I usually notice which instruments the artist specializes in, and which he is not as competent playing.  As a bass player, it irritates me when a great prog piece is brought down by a mundane bass line (often I hear keyboardists of guitarists lay down a bass track that finds a home at the root and stays there).

zerothehero76 wrote: Gerinski wrote: On a side note, it's curious that many modern one-man projects release their music with a "band name". uhm, interesting point of view. to me, having an "alias" is a means to overcome my shyness and separate my musical life with my "professional" one. Now I use zerothehero as a universal nickname for every artistic expression. (well, zero the hero was the protagonist in gong's trilogy: never forget it!) I see time is a common issue for every one man band. One year ago I found a really good drummer who recorded a couple of tracks for a "home" project but he disappeared after recording a couple of songs... lack of time!

I want to know why some bands go by a list of the musicians names (Emerson Lake & Palmer, Anderson Bruford Wakemen Dewey Cheetam & Howe...).

Edited by Evolver - December 26 2012 at 12:06

Gerinski wrote: That's more where I intended the discussion to gravitate to. I agree with the reflections pointed: for a musician wanting to do Prog nowadays it is probably difficult to find other band members in his geographical region who also want to do Prog, who want to do the same kind of Prog, who are skillful enough for what he wants to do, who get along with each other, who are committed enough to maintain a stable band etc. ...

Gerinski wrote: On a side note, it's curious that many modern one-man projects release their music with a "band name".... it's like they want to be considered as a "band" even if they are a one-man project. Funny?

well can't speak for everyone but in my cause it's doesn't really have anything to do with trying to be a "band", i don't think being a "band" automatically makes you more credible than a one man project, I just don't want to release anything under just my normal name because I'm not all that fond of my normal name and Sumdeus is a cool kind of pseudonym I came up with, as well as now becoming a life philosophy to some extent.

Neelus wrote: If there is really an increase in the amount of one man projects in prog.  I am feeling that a part of the reason might be that prog musos are having a hard time putting prog bands together.  I am not sure about the USA, but in places where I lived, it surely would not be that easy to put a good outfit together that played purely prog.  Prog metal maybe if you are lucky.  But prog rock.  Not easy.  So it can make sense that more and more prog fans that decided to pick up instruments might decide to start recording alone.

Yeah, I'm in Oklahoma for cripe's sake. I have a day job. My hair is starting to get gray. I don't have the time to collaborate with anyone.

rogerthat wrote: Otherwise it's going to get harder and harder for the traditional notion of prog ROCK to reach the heights of before.

That's more where I intended the discussion to gravitate to. I agree with the reflections pointed: for a musician wanting to do Prog nowadays it is probably difficult to find other band members in his geographical region who also want to do Prog, who want to do the same kind of Prog, who are skillful enough for what he wants to do, who get along with each other, who are committed enough to maintain a stable band etc.

Edited by Gerinski - December 25 2012 at 03:38

If there is really an increase in the amount of one man projects in prog.  I am feeling that a part of the reason might be that prog musos are having a hard time putting prog bands together.  I am not sure about the USA, but in places where I lived, it surely would not be that easy to put a good outfit together that played purely prog.  Prog metal maybe if you are lucky.  But prog rock.  Not easy.  So it can make sense that more and more prog fans that decided to pick up instruments might decide to start recording alone.

Edited by Neelus - December 25 2012 at 03:03

^^^ I don't know very much about modern one man bands and I would hazard a guess that they may be simply facing a problem of constraints.   My aforementioned friend has found it difficult to keep the flock together for any length of time and has been the only constant in his band since he first put it together just two years back.   Maybe this is a side effect of the emerging independence of artists, operating in a cottage industry-like model without label interference.   In the 60s and the 70s, bands would have had contracts and therefore some foreseeable income and incentive to stay together.   A fair few artists from that time have said later in interviews that commercial success was one of their most important goals.   Which artist making prog rock today realistically has commercial success as a goal?   We can see that many of the successful bands went through a lot of churning that way BEFORE they broke through.    Instead of trying to somehow grit it out with a band, maybe musicians simply prefer to put it together by themselves and try to find some audience. 

If, however, the said one man army actually was a very skilled multi instrumentalist, I don't think the lack of external influences on his work would pose a great impediment to him.  I come back to Wonder....of the 9 tracks on Innervisions, no less than 3 are credited entirely to him and at least two of them - Living for the city and Higher ground - are among his evergreen favourites.    The only reason we may not find such examples in prog of that time could be that the live act, specifically involving a band rather than guest musicians (esp ELP), was more important to their success than it was for Wonder, who enjoyed a lot more support in the radio and depended much more on album sales. 


Edited by rogerthat - December 25 2012 at 02:35

Evolver wrote: I believe you are mistaking a musician/songwriter leading a band with a single musician playing all the instruments on his album.

Edited by rogerthat - December 24 2012 at 23:22