And of course, this is true! But there are also wrong ways to rub each other wrong. He mentioned at least twice that they were people “who rubbed each other wrong in exactly the right way,” and that that was part of their greatness. Recently, Michael Stipe gave a speech inducting Nirvana into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. When they don’t carry their agreed-upon load, yours gets heavier – and unless you want the (possible) extra power that can come with putting in more work, avoid working with people who will ghost on you.
This shirking can also translate to not paying their share of practice space rent when the band fund is low (which is almost all band funds). Beware the shirker of this duty, someone who doesn’t see it as part of the job of being in a band that can’t afford or doesn’t want a road crew (which is almost all bands). People enjoy doing that loading on their own even less.
No one has fun loading out of the venue after a show, into the van, out of the van, and then back into the practice space (okay, m aybe Ian MacKaye does). You’ll notice yourself slowly going insane trying to even book practices. Otherwise, avoid the musician who is overly committed. I can’t imagine how anyone would ever get anything done this way, unless writing/rehearsing/recording/touring are very low priorities to your band. But what you don’t want fostered is the idea that your band can only play shows that don’t conflict with the schedules of this member’s 14 other bands. It can be great for one’s creativity to interact with different musical work ethics, different genres, different players, etc. It’s 100% fine, even great, if people play in multiple bands that they truly care about. Here are the top five to look out for: 1. There are, of course, several types of people you don’t want to be in a band with (sexists or violent creeps, for example), but would you really want to work with those people in any context? For the purposes of this article, we're talking about the types of people that are a bad idea to team up with in the specific arena of bandhood. You may appreciate someone’s creative genius, but if his/her personality or habits don’t align with yours, it’s unlikely it’ll be a sustainable partnership. It may sound like a sterile, uncreative approach, but at the end of the day, your band is like a business. or something even worse.įor this reason, it’s helpful to be selective when forming your band and to be able to spot red flags in potential bandmates. That weirdness can also be the reason a band doesn’t last very long, or makes bad music, or lasts too long when nothing satisfying to any of the members is happening. The weirdness that exists between members can be the trigger for really special music, the little pocket out of which a very specific kind of creativity grows. Bands are delicate ecosystems, even when there are only two members.