Because i dont like going out. Im a hermit now. 
6 Likes
I played in a couple of bands but nowadays i enjoy dancing more than performing.
- I don’t consider my music good enough to go out on a stage and say “you people in this room should listen to this”
- I don’t really have any motivation to play live (probably because of 1)
- I rarely enjoy live shows as a spectator, so I can’t possibly imagine anyone liking my shit
- what’s the point?
- there’s too much generic electronic music being played out already
- I’d only press play anyway, and if not I’d have to invent some routine just to be able to play live, and I can’t be arsed
- it’s the creation of it that interests me, and I hate being in a room where my music is playing and other people are listening
Haha. Life of the party, ain’t I? :)
1 Like
My main reasons over the last 5 to 10 years has been just wanting to focus my limited time for music making for things other than prepping a live set. But also, and perhaps more importantly, I’ve never really been too great at promoting myself and making the connections to get myself some gigs.
That said, I do have more than a few warm memories (and quality anecdotes) from the occasional gigs I played back in the late 90s and up to the mid-00s. So much so that I’ve been increasingly tempted to try to do that again. So, I’ve been slowly piecing together a bit of a live set and I’m thinking about recording some jams for youtube purposes too. Which is all well and good but then I need to solve the problem of how to get gigs. Not looking to play loads of shows and indeed the weirder or quirkier they are then the better…
so, if anyone has any leads across the central belt of Scotland? Or, indeed anywhere in the UK to be honest (it might be fun to go on a trip somewhere)… be sure to let me know.
1 Like
I’m somewhat feeling the pull to play live again. I used to play in bands (guitar, bass, vocalist) As I embark on my third release, this time with a (small) label, it makes me think about playing live again. Very happy to just create, however there is a bit of a push now. That said, is it me or are MOST electronic acts boring live. There are definitely exceptions, but man… I do not want to bore people.
It’s important to me to play live but I’m very picky about the who, when, where. I also don’t really seek shows out, I kinda wait for them to come to me, which is rare. I even get into the habit of knocking those back from time to time, which isn’t a good look. A deadline certainly helps me get things in order, but I need like, a 3 months lead time to get my shit together. Usually I pile and pile on material into a horrible mess, then chisel back to minimalism to keep it more refined. But often I feel too like my material is too prepared, or I’m playing the same show over and over. But hey that’s what big acts do too. I like the idea of building a more responsive system that I can truly play live, but that’s pretty risky. Haven’t gotten around to it yet. But I do feel a duty to do at least one show a year, and that can easily slip you by, not performing much for a couple years. And hey the big bands do that too. I’ve always performed but I’ve always felt uneasy and nervous about it. But sometimes I get an epifany where it’s like, it really doesn’t matter what you do on stage. Most musicians are shit, and I’ve certainly been to worse shows than the ones I perform and still enjoyed them. Watching an artist improve over time is cool too. And in general most people don’t truly care how good or bad something is, they just want to have a beer and catch up with some mates in front of some speakers. Probably the best thing you can cultivate over any type of musical prowess is a sense of humility and some organisational skills, you can make a lot of in roads from there.
1 Like
One thing I want to mention about live music is there’s room for it everywhere. Even with the flood of home produced cuts on the interwebz nowadays, every night all across the globe there’s people that want to go out and hear and or dance to some music…
I say if you have even the tiniest inkling that you would like to play out, give it a whirl. Don’t worry about if people won’t like it or if you think your music’s boring or whatever the reason that’s holding you back is. You never know until you try and an artist is always the most critical of their stuff. Time after time countless musicians make pieces they don’t think are that good and to folks that don’t make music at all they think it’s wonderful. What’s there to loose? Either it keeps going and fulfillment comes to both the artist and the audience, or it doesn’t go too far and becomes a distant memory. Even if the performance turns out to be crap nobody is going to remember and care about it after some time. At least you know you tried. Odds are at least some folks will like it, and then there’s some motivation to keep practicing and get better…
3 Likes
I’ve heard you’re in NorCal @Open_Mike . Any thoughts on the scene out in your area and do you play live yourself?
1 Like
I believe I’m just an hour away from you, great electronic dance scene here in the cozy foothills of the Sierra Nevada. I can get gigs but I don’t have a set prepared at the moment as I’ve been highly transitory for awhile now. I’ll PM you, but probably tomorrow… We can hang out sometime for sure…
I know a good venue for chill/ambient low pressure towards dancing styles as well…
1 Like
Yeah, might be cool to put something together for a live set. Maybe a collaborative effort. I have no official plans of a live set at the moment, but when I do, there are a few coffee house type deals in the downtown / midtown Sacramento area. Might be the best jump off point for the live show angle. Lemme know if you have links to your music, I’d like to hear some!
1 Like
@Open_Mike @Cepheid, let me know if this becomes anything. I have family in the bay area and I might be able to make it out to attend.
1 Like
Sure thing @konputa…
Speaking of Bay Area, one thing I’ve wanted to do for awhile now is go have some coffee with @bradleyallen… 
2 Likes
I love the idea of playing live. I tried twice at an open mic with ableton and an APC which was OK. Then a year later also at an open mic with an SP-404.
My main issue for not playing live or not doing more live stuff, is that I’m still working on finding my ‘sound’. I don’t stick to a sound long enough to develop a setlist. Maybe my longest streak was with lofi hiphop, but now I’m doing more ambient stuff.
I’m planning on playing at another open mic but bringing a synth and few pedals this time. Or maybe use the Digitakt and do some looping stuff.
1 Like
I’d love to play live. Right around the time I was actually getting some shit together with my friend who plays bass (I play drumset), I started getting vertigo and odd periods of hearing loss. Turned out to be Meniers disease and the my bass player and his lady had a baby.
So… that’s on the back burner.
As for any sort of electronic performance, I am but a babe in the woods, still learning how to walk and talk… maybe someday.
Hell! Maybe I will perform at my 40th bday this summer!
There are a lot of reasons but mainly:
If I cannot finish a damn song imagine building a liveset, too many unfinished/unmixable patterns & styles.
Every year I say “yeah, this year I will finish a liveset! I have improved my skills, I’m comfortable with my hardware and have fun with it; I’m going to focus in [insert style/whatever] and blablabla”…
…maybe next year.
1 Like
A few reasons for me:
- Variable confidence in what I am doing, not easy to want to play all the time
- Mutliple live projects with different setups and unability to decide which to focus on, practice and perfect
- Very few contacts and very narrow network, so most of my attemps are cold calls to promoters
- Unability to be keep on doing this marathon of networking, sending e-mails, following up, following up again, keeping track of every body
- Social skills are not that good
- Also, maybe my set are not that good
If you see yourself in this and have advices to give, please do!
1 Like
I played live shows for years, but eventually got tired of being a nanny for the other guys in the band. I am the only one in our three-piece who has a driver’s license so I was always the designated driver while the other two were drunken monkeys who fell asleep in the car backseat etc. and I had to drive the whole way home in the dead of night. And it was not only the driving but needing to take care of a lot of the responsibilities regarding booking and playing the gigs.
That was all fine when I was under my 30s, but it really started chafing after doing it for over 10 years. My dream is just to make my own music in my homestudio just for myself and never have to ever play it live again.
Stage fright is one thing - I’m a really reclusive and introvert person - but after you get over that you realize that you really enjoy being on stage and knowing your own songs inside out and performing. It’s just everything else (van rentals, booking the gigs, sending invoices etc.) that killed gigging for me.
1 Like
This!