I joined three or four bands in the late 90s and 00s. I took most of the 10s off making music. The 20s see me doing solo noodling and dad techno.
First band: a duo. We basically wrote and produced separately, but would share the mixing and recording stage. Similar tastes, we were friends before starting. With hindsight, more a two-person collective than a band. No strict roles ‘cos we both did a bit of everything. Was fun. We started talks with a hot d&b label of the time but didn’t push ourselves hard enough to make that work. One of my bigger regrets in life. Occasional disagreements but nothing major. We liked a lot of the same music, although over time it’s clear I like more grit and he likes more slickness. We’re been friends about 35 yrs now.
Second band: I started out doing a couple of mixes/remixes for them. Later invited to join, mainly as “rhythm section” using Reason to make beats, which the guitarist and singer would perform to. The guitarist would work on chords he liked. I usually hated them and would make a beat intentionally orthogonal to his output. E.G. he’d play something country-esque and I’d give it an electro backing. Funk was our shared reference, so everything had groove and that bound us and resolved tensions. The guitarist and singer would take my four bar loops and create an arrangement with verse, chorus, midddle 8 etc without me. Then I’d return for mixing, flourishes, recording. I played bass on a BassStation when we did live shows. Later we got an engineer/producer (not yet pro but later it became his full time job). At first I resented it, but he was nice and his output excellent so I sucked up the humbling. I later became his part time studio assistant and played keys in another band he drummed in. We’re all leading disconnected lives now but occasionally check in.
Third band: covers for weddings, with the guitarist of the first band. Terrible covers, but we got taken to nice places and fed. It taught me to olay other peoples’ music and learn from it in ways none of my earlier experiences revealed.
Fourth band (with the engineer/drummer from before): originals, songs in a house vein. I was just a keyboard player for live shows. Played some nice shows. Strongest work ethic of all my projects so far (the drummer and singer had both had previous record deals, toured; one of them had a top 100 in the UK). I had very little input into the creative process. There were debates and challenges during rehearsals, in terms of how we might jam, whether we were hitting cues the right way etc. Right at the end we were all invited to contribute new songs/beats, but as the band leader was pulling back, we all lost momentum and it fizzled out. No serious beef, just unrealised potential.
Fifth band: part jam band, part playing compositions from the band leader. I was by far the least talented musician. The jamming worked well, but playing the composed parts challenged me a lot. I hate rote practice but should have done a lot more, which frustrated the band leader. The band leader had a history of not managing his expectations of his bands well. He really wanted to lead and produce but hated leading and didn’t see himself as a producer. He’s v.talented but muddled; I’m not that talented and a bit vague. We still talk. The drummer was great but made a snap decision to leave which took all the wind out of the project.
Sixth band: a improv drone/noise project. Low key, only practice a few times a year and gig even less. I play shnth, my partner plays gongs. It’s almost like a “sound bath” but with more electronics and we dress up funny. Remarkable collab: we basically just vibe off each other. The mood is quite clear and the format very open so we basically just take turns suggesting stuff and almost always the other one agrees. It’s really nice. Having very low expectations for commercial growth and wuite a good shared understanding of the mood we’re after makes this one a breeze.
I usually don’t share so much personal stuff online. I might delete a lot of this later.
.
