Band Problems

This all seems so trivial right now but my band has been having some problems lately. Firstly, we argue. Every session. FOR HOURS. Secondly, everyone seems hard pressed to record a part of a song as soon as we semi learn it, thus making it sound like crap in my opinion. Secondly, none of us agree on style of music. I'm the prog guy *obviously* but I don't try to force it on anyone *despite their comments on it* because we aren't a prog band. The keyboardist, I dont know what the hell he's influenced by. The drummer tends to be more mainstream alt metal, which I don't mind one bit. (he likes prog but doesnt want to play it) Thirdly, the bassist, is heading in a semi POP PUNK way, but surprisingy he's the most complient to whatever we decide on. Okay, that was the nice stuff, now for the heavy stuff. The keyboardist is tempermental as hell and throws out every other riff I write, but he's good at writing his own stuff. The drummer seems fine, but when it comes time to actually do something, he makes more comments on how we should be doing something than actually doing something. Then the bassist...first of all as of recently he's starting to blow all of us off, just because his girlfriend is preppy and he must move in w/ that crowd *although she's really nice....dont know why he's blowing us off though*. Meanwhile, I havent talked to him in like 2 weeks. Anyways, onto me. (yes, I'm including myself, it's only fair). I keep writing stuff that's either too prog or that no one likes. So, basically, to summarize, our band is composed of an *starting to be* arrogant bassist who frequently fights w/ the keyboardist, and I just come up w/ guitar stuff while the drummer kinda ignores all of it and goes along. Sound familiar? Seriously though, the whole band is imploding. And keep in mind we're all friends *well, the bassist is questionable at this point*. Wow that took a long time to write, sry, i just need a way to vent. Any suggestions or solutions?

Schedule a group meeting. Discuss everything you want to thorughly. In this case, the bassist needs to choose either music or his girlfriend. Usually, it wouldn't be so bad, but it sounds as if he doesn't care about the music. I think that possibly you guys need to either take a break, replace somebody, or call it quits. If there's one guy in the band who everyone can't get along with, then a replacement might be a fix. But if there's a lot of tension between everyone in the band, then it might be time to go seperate ways. Get together and talk it all over (ie, where the band is going). If the feeling that the band should break up, then you should think about that. but perhaps all it is is a lack of communiaction, and a meeting might help air everyone's feelings.

Dude, concentrate on writing by yourself, lyrically and musically.  Listen to some juicy prog, get inspiration.

Then try and record some stuff by yourself, even if it means using something like CuBase.  You can always later re-record the drums or whatever at a later date.  Experiment.  The best music you produce you'll find is the stuff you do by yourself.  No conflicts of interest.  When the time comes, you can maybe make it into a project and bring in guests.  Obviously this is tough, if you're starting out, or know few people, but if people hear what you're doing, then other like-minded musicians may join you to help out.

Of course, if you want to earn money from gigs, this is tougher... but for album or EP purposes, technology means you can do a lot of it via the Internet now.

I guess you need the equipment though...

Maybe that doesn't help at all... oh well.

your group seem to be suffering "musical differences" a bit earlier than they're supposed to ! i suggest having fun and  a good old jam for a few months before tackling anything heavy. good luck.

You should probably just ask them what is it that they want to do, if it doesn tally with your plans at all, then start a new band.

I hate to counteract every point here but I've tried making a jam......THEY WON'T HAVE ANY OF IT! They're sooooo damn focused on "putting out a product" *what the hell we're just a little band anyways* that they don't want to do anything but get songs DONE. Not WRITE songs, but get them DONE. They won't do jams, they won't do covers........

I hate to sound like a dick and all, but if it were me I woulda left ages ago.

I think you should break up the band and stay as friends before it's too late.

Edited by Bob Greece - May 15 2006 at 10:24

i say kill them all!!! jk

yeah well if we were still doing the epic...