Bands you're in and why

[Mattsican]

So aside from high school jazz stuff i've really only played in one band. I'm not sure how i got in with them really. The drummer is really good. One guitar player is the son of a pretty locally popular 80's thrash metal band so he has been playing since he was 5 or 6. The other guitar player is trained, been playing for 20 years, has studied theory, gives guitar lessons, and generally is a fucking show off with how much he knows. I knew how to play jazzy rhythm guitar and got by but when my buddy had a cousin with a band needed in a bass player i said fuck it, borrowed a bass from another friend thinking "how hard can this shit be". It's cool though cuz id wanted to be a guitar player but now here i am 7 years into a band that by no means is making any money, but have had a chance to meet a lot of really cool people and be part of a lot of fun things id never had a chance to otherwise.

About 5 years ago i met some kids who were in a band, wanting to record a demo and me wanting to learn how to record i said id record their stuff for $100 bucks. it was fun, i learned a lot. They weren't really anything solid or tight or really knew anything technically music related but they were having fun and i liked that. So a couple months ago they needed a bass player and i was on it. Their songs are pretty simple and the exact opposite of the only other band ive been in thats really progressive and all that. Played our first show together and my wife came out and after the show she was all like "that was god awful. it wasnt tight, you looked old as fuck up there with you're non-shitty haircut and i've no idea why you would want to be in a band that isn't tight or skilled or anything." And i almost took it as a compliment. I had a great time, ppl in the crowd had a great time, it was relaxed playing not having to worry about making sure i nailed my riff perfectly in time with the snare while harmonizing the low part in that riff blah blah.

Anyways my point is i know as far as "musician points" go, its not sound and not a challenge as far as my development as a musician, but it's just a good time. I have fun doing it despite what my wife says or my other band mates think of my new band or what anyone else thinks. It's fun just being able to drink 1 or 8 beers, put on a guitar and have a good time. Kinda curious what other people think about the idea... like whats more important, playing in a "good" band, or playing in a shitty band, but having a good time? Sacrificing your musicianship to have fun vs. wanting to create thoughtful music. Or have you ever joined a band for a non-music reason like pulling tons of ass, making money, free tacos or perhaps a new yo-yo?

[NickS]

I only play in the cover band. I know the singer isn't David Coverdale, the rhythm guitarist just wants to play rhythm and my keyboard "skills" are strictly unprofessional, but it's great to get out once a month and get paid for doing something fun. The singer wants us to do some original stuff. That fills me with dread; been there, done that, it usually sits badly alongside the "proper" stuff.

Also: my wife is about as critical as yours.

[Freddy V-C]

Although I guess I play with various different groups of musicians on occasion, my two 'proper' bands at the moment are NOSE and Hungry Hungry Bears.

I do guitar and vocals in NOSE. It's pretty much my main songwriting outlet, which is weird considering it's the most collaborative band I've been in. We tend to work out most of our riffs through jam sessions. We'll find a few sections that work well together, then I tend to go away and work out lyrics and a definitive structure, and it gets fine-tuned when I bring it back to the next practice. I've written a few of the songs solely by myself, but to be honest they haven't been anywhere near as good. So I guess the reason I'm in NOSE is because it seems to be the truest reflection of the music I actually want to make. The songs we play in NOSE are somehow closer to my 'vision' than The Frontier Psychiatrists' (where I was the sole songwriter) stuff ever was. I'm almost concerned we're getting too ambitious for our own good at the moment though, haha... we've just finished writing a 7 and a half minute freakout in the style of Interstellar Overdrive, and now we're starting on a new song where the main riff is in 15/4 with a 4/4 drum pattern. I might have to stop getting drunk at our gigs.

Hungry Hungry Bears, where I play bass, is a deathcore band started by my friends Luther and Alex. Although I tend to like some extreme music, I've never been particularly into deathcore, so I'm not a huge fan of the bands we cover (Parkway Drive and Emmure). Luther, the vocalist, writes pretty much all the parts to all our original songs, and I really like the stuff he writes. It's easier in that I don't really have to come up with my own parts, but kind of difficult in that my brain doesn't work in the same way as Luther's, so sometimes I find the riffs difficult to get my head around. It's pretty fun playing gigs where there is a very real chance that we'll make somebody shit their pants, and that's probably the main reason I'm in this band. Also, we're on about learning a Korn cover, which I'm excited about.

[George]

i am in no bands because i am an insufferable diffident idiot

[Gabriel]

I've played in a range of different bands since I started playing the guitar.

In my early teens I used to get together with a drummer and a bassist, who were my close friends at the time, and we'd jam around with the music we were listening to at the time - which tended to be metal, grunge and punk-rock bands. I had great fun and I don't think I would have developed the love of music I have now if I hadn't played with them. These years were definitely the formative years in terms of beginning my development as a musician.

However up until my final year of secondary school, I hadn't really played in a proper band per say. When I was about 15 though I started playing in a rock band, we wrote original tunes and we had great fun. I was really good friends with the bassist and drummer (different guys from who I used to jam with when I was younger) and we had a good chemistry as a group. But although we all got on well and had fun jamming the tunes we wrote weren't particularly great and eventually we all managed to piss each other off.

After that I played constantly - literally every day - in various groups in order to get a Performing Arts (Music) A level. At the time it was a complete nightmare as some of the people I had to play with were awful to work with, but I learnt everything I know about leading bands through struggling with those people. I also had the chance to arrange music for larger ensembles which was definitely beneficial.

During college I played in a covers band, it was a good laugh and we got paid a fair bit of cash but since the bassist and saxophonist went off to uni we haven't really done anything.

Now I play in the Midlands Youth Jazz Orchestra, it's basically like a high school jazz band but the charts are actually really tricky and there is a lot more room for improvisation. I joined mainly to work on my sight reading and ensemble awareness, but I've been having great fun taking part in it.

[Brandon W]

I am in 0 bands. I feel like i have to commit all or nothing and i have a great job that occupies almost all my time and i enjoy it. I do write songs nearly every day with other artists and i always get super excited when i'm asked to sit in on a recording session or a show. I play certain special things like festivals as part of a local supergroup that acts as a house band for a few venues. Everyone in the band but me is a highly skilled musician and i am really just good friends with them so i'm like a charity case i guess. It's cool though and i totally appreciate it. I'll take it! ha! Maybe in a certain situation i would be willing to give up more to join a band but it would have to be perfect for me. I would never half ass anything on purpose.

[luciguci]

i am an insufferable diffident idiot

qft and sig'd

joking aside, i was in a band once and only went to one practice because they were all incompetent:

• *said we were gonna go for a garage punk/lo-fi direction and yet we went absolutely a different way from that because the other guitarist didn't know what he was doing
  *they stole a chord progression that i made, added two chords and called it their own,
  *played it all the time at lunch (got really annoying since it was the only thing they ever played and never thanked me),
  *they kicked out our drummer because she had electric drums even though she knew she was getting real drums for christmas,
  *replaced her with a guy that also had electric drums but didn't know when or if he was getting real drums,
  *did nothing for the longest time because they had one incomplete song that i started since they didn't have shit to work with
  *added another guitarist to take my place since i stopped going to practice after that first day

later on, they made another song after getting tired of playing the one i made and kicked out the bassist because he couldn't get his bass line right (which was a really fucking simple one too)

so since then i've stopped trying to form or join a band, although the guitarist that replaced me is into shoegaze and experimental cool shit, so i might work with him sometime soon.

[Mattsican]

i am an insufferable diffident idiot

qft and sig'd

joking aside, i was in a band once and only went to one practice because they were all incompetent:

• *said we were gonna go for a garage punk/lo-fi direction and yet we went absolutely a different way from that because the other guitarist didn't know what he was doing
  *they stole a chord progression that i made, added two chords and called it their own,
  *played it all the time at lunch (got really annoying since it was the only thing they ever played and never thanked me),
  *they kicked out our drummer because she had electric drums even though she knew she was getting real drums for christmas,
  *replaced her with a guy that also had electric drums but didn't know when or if he was getting real drums,
  *did nothing for the longest time because they had one incomplete song that i started since they didn't have shit to work with
  *added another guitarist to take my place since i stopped going to practice after that first day

later on, they made another song after getting tired of playing the one i made and kicked out the bassist because he couldn't get his bass line right (which was a really fucking simple one too)

so since then i've stopped trying to form or join a band, although the guitarist that replaced me is into shoegaze and experimental cool shit, so i might work with him sometime soon.

I've played with quite a few different people. One of my good friends is a guitar player/drummer and we click really well but he is a flake so we never have started anything. I've gone and just "jammed" with a few random people once or twice and it really wasnt intended to go anywhere. I feel like even if its a shitty musical experience the more random people i play with good or bad makes me better. Being able to adjust on the fly and know how to fit in the best i can in a shitty situation makes it that much easier when conditions are ideal i guess.

[ultratwin]

It's been about a decade since I was involved with any group that came anywhere close to the drama listed above, and forgot how insane it can be to hold a barely-hemmed group together amidst different personalities.

I realized that I'm simply too busy to be active in a group now, and it eats me up that I'll spend a few hours a day tracking stuff solo, yet not have a chance to play out at all. That being said, there's something incredibly fun about recording with my wife. The neato thing(to me at least) is that none of our songs are meant to be played live, tracked "once and for all" and we'll never be able to reproduce the songs in a live setting. Not just because a full orchestra and a dozen guitars are horribly impractical to stage(and we can't really sing), but because we honestly can't remember how to play the parts. On the far end, out of our latest 25 there's one demo song (that we left alone as a final) that we don't even remember tracking. Either spooky or pointing to premature senility, it'll be on the final product.


That being said, I'm grateful that I was able to be a part of my friends' Mitch & Sunny's band The Breathing for a good 5 years or so, they being such close friends of Cindi and I that we still spend a lot of time with on the occasional weekend. Truth be told, they sound much better without me, and have been writing some really cool pop tunes as of late.

Poor Sunny has been suffering from MS for the past 3 years now, but is able to keep most of the pain and fatigue (not to mention the progressive deterioration) under control with steroids, and was able to do some fairly strenuous lifting while shooting this video last Fall, a tune that jump started my brain to get back into writing more pop again, though I'm a wee bit sad that I had nothing to do with it.

[youtube][/youtube]

[Simon]

I've been in a few bands over the last 10 years. My last band, Waiting for Winter was probably the most serious band I've been in. In terms of commitment and how far we wanted to see it through. I think in the end if became too serious and we weren't enjoying ourselves anymore - which is something I always tried to tell myself, if it got to that point then I'd call it a day. Luckily our drummer decided to quit and so he kind of made the decision for us in a way. We were all burnt out from it and it ended at the right time, although ironically we were working on two of our best song ideas when we packed it in.

Since then I've for a few people. I played a few live shows with a friend of mine who does electronica/dance type stuff called Johnny Phonic. A bit like Four Tet if I had to describe it to anyone. That was really good fun and it was nice to play some guitar on a completely different genre of music. Especially trying to write guitar parts that would suit the song and do them justice.

I then recorded some guitar for a friend who go's by the name of Ajimal, who is stupidly talented and deserves every success that comes his way. I played some live shows with him and that was great fun but he's not really asked me to do anything with him recently. That's fine because I realise you can't always expect to be called to play on what is essentially a solo artist's material.

I now play with a girl called Natasha Haws. I posted about her in the Whorehouse. She's a very bright prospect. She's still learning a lot in terms of music and writing but she's got great potential. We're currently a 4 piece and I play guitar and also trigger a few samples in one song. It's good because I think I've gained her trust in that she will ask my opinion on a lot of things and ask for my thoughts on certain things. It's nice to feel appreciated for what you bring to the table and it's good to be able to bring your experience. We've played a couple of gigs in London as well as in Newcastle. It's been hard work trying to get back into a regular practice routine. I haven't really practiced twice a week for around a year and a half.


I'm happy to be playing again but I think the one thing I've learned is that I can't take it as seriously as I used to and I have to be able to detatch myself from certain situations. Coming from a band where I had a full say in everything we did to one where I don't have as much of a say is difficult.

I would love to be in a band where we just did it for no other reason but to have a good fucking laugh but I've never met with like minded folk. I want to play gigs where we all look like we are having a really good time, sadly I'm always too busy concentrating on what I'm doing.

[Aiden]

I'm playing in two bands at the moment. In Monster Island (see sig) I play a bass with 3 strings. We're kind of swampy/no-wavey/post-punky, I think. The band has been going for a lot longer than I've been in it. There was a big line-up change last year when the drummer and bass player left (amicably - one went to the India, the other went to London) and the guitar/voice man needed to recruit a whole new band. So I finally got to join a band I loved. We don't play any of the stuff from the old line-up at the moment, but might do again at some point. There's a big back-catalogue to pick from. It's noisy and awkward and I like it very much at the moment. We don't play too frequently, which is good for me, and we practice above a pub, which is also good.

Monster Island's latest album


The other band I'm playing in - guitar this time - is the Phlegm Fatales. We used to play together 5 years ago and we've got back together to do two reunion gigs at the end of the year. The gigs are tied-in with the ten year anniversary of the closing of a venue in Preston (my hometown) called The Mitre Tavern. The Phlegm's singer used to run it (I think at one point he was the youngest publican in the UK, either 20 or 21) and put on loads of gigs (including the first gig I ever played when I was 16). Again, the Phlegms as a band had been going for years before I joined them. They used to be a straight up hardcore punk band, then went a bit new-wave. By the time I was in them it was a bit heavier. I added a lot of noise and used to play in denim hotpants. We were going for maybe two years and my body still hasn't recovered from the drinking. We recently had our first practice in half a decade . It was very good, very loud, and I played many awful solos.

Basically, I join bands I really like and slowly break them apart from the inside. A song by the Phlegm Fatales called Hold My Hand I'm Drunk

Long before these bands I was in a math/noise/post-rock/post-punk band called Inside The Black Square. http://www.myspace.com/insidetheblacksquare. We played a lot in Preston and sometimes other places in North. We were chaotic; lots of falling around and breaking guitars (mostly on my part). But at least we weren't boring.

[Aiden]

I do guitar and vocals in NOSE.

I like NOSE. I'm a complete sucker for song-speaking - it's a big part of the band I'm in, and in other UK bands I really rate, like Total Victory & Art Brut & Prinzhorn Dance School.

Well done NOSE.

(yr deathcore band is pretty hefty as well).

[johnnyseven]

I still play in Episode One, although i'm getting annoyed with the lack of availability of some members to ever do stuff. I have mentioned leaving but we have some gig commitments up to July that i've said i'd do, but I think i'll see how I feel after that.

I have been looking out for other things to get involved in though, I'd really like to get a group of people together who live not too far from me (or at least in London) so that rehearsing or gigging doesn't have to be such an effort for everyone to get to. I'm in contact with a guy in Streatham who seems to be into the same sort of stuff as me so we'll see where that goes.

[stewart]

i'm in two, links to both in my sig. black international is the first band i ever played guitar and sang in (because i'd just started learning the guitar and the singer i was working with was useless). i don't know why i do it, it's just my main release valve for spiteful lyrics, i guess. i want to do more interesting things with it musically, but i'm not really a good enough guitarist to do more than strum wildly and shout semi-tunelessly. we seem to be making more of a mark recently, i think i'm finally starting to write songs i'm comfortable with.

billy ray osiris is the other one, i felt i needed a project that involved improv, jamming, noise, and just generally having fun, all of which are contained in this band. since we 'went public' last month we've had a really good response (there's a ready made audience for this music, getting people onside takes very little effort, which is pretty alien to me). we've done two gigs, both of which were really intense and horrifically loud, and thoroughly good fun. got a wee mini tour lined up already, good things a-comin'.