Do You Like The Music You Make?

I have never really sat in with a band just to help out, so that doesn't come into it. I have mostly been in bands where I've been full-time in the band and writing/arranging at least some of the material. I couldn't get that interested in playing stuff that I didn't like, but I do think that there might be something to be learned in terms of song construction or technique etc. Maybe I should try.

I have often been in the position where I the band I'm in has a couple of songs in the set that I don't like, perhaps written by someone else. I generally grit my teeth and play them anyway if the rest of band likes them, and maybe try and add parts to improve them, but sooner or later I have to give my opinion! I find it hard to play even one song that's not *right*, so I doubt I'd hack it playing in a band where I didn't care for most or all of the music.

it became near unbearable to play in the old band, i started to hate what i was doing and gave it way too much time before calling it quits. the gigs with a friend were easier because, while they werent music i'd normally play or probably even listen too, it was still fun to do, educational, and it wasnt a weekly rehearsal thing. that is, not a *band* i'm continually a part of.

but in terms of the songs i write myself, yes I feel that I have to like it. If I don't like it, it's not worth my playing, and I'll refuse to play it if it's not "right".

Almost all of the bands I've been in, I've been part of the songwriting process. So if a song is going somewhere I don't like or needs some fixing, I say something about it. And if I still don't like it, I'm fairly aggressive about scrapping it. Fortunately, I've managed to be in bands with likeminded people, so there isn't usually a lot of argument. I played bass in one band where I told a friend of mine whose songs I liked that if he put together a band, I would be in it and would play whatever he told me to. But since I knew I liked his songs, it turned out good too.

Finding people that have enough common ground to do a band is pretty much impossible without having to drive forty five minutes to an hour each way to rehearse. I did that for fifteen months or so and the drive really got old and the gas money added up.

In the mean time since my last band went kaput, I have been trying to find some people closer to home. I did a bunch of recordings for some friends around town, but the same thing happened as a few years ago, I end up doing the recordings, but once their stuff is done no one has any time to do some more playing.

I'd be cool with doing just some sort of recording project, but I do not know if it would sound good enough trying to pull it off with sequenced drums, as the stuff I am working upon is pretty rawk. I've gotten serious about playing guitar in the past couple of years and feel that I can get the bass and guitar all done on my own. I can sequence drums pretty good, but outside of Big Black and some industrial music, I don't think the heavy guitar and drum machines have worked out all that well.

I've been playing bass on the side with a cover band for almost a year with these older guys. My punkindie self from ten-twelve years ago would be agahst with doing such a thing, but it has been more fun than I want to admit. It doesn't take up but a couple of practices a month and when we play a gig, I have been suprised by the cash. I would not want to do it more than I am now, but it is good to be playing some bass with a band. Doing some vocal harmonys for these tunes has helped my singing quite a bit.

if you're asking: 'do you like all your ideas?' then no obv. my strike rate is about average ie 9/10 things i try are either mediocre , derivative or just 'not working somehow'. you get quicker at rejecting so-so ideas, but if the core idea is good then you gotta hang in there - if it's not good bin it keep looking. nothing worse than ending a day feeling like a truffle pig in the ninth circle of suckitude. on repeat.

however, if you're asking: "do you like your stuff by the time it 'leaves the house?'" then yeah, i do. i stand by every committed second of our sound. if you can't hear our nano-cult repertoire for the clearly legendary canon that it is then i pity you fool. that's right YOU bub.

would i listen to it everyday? nope. do i like all of it equally? no.
is there room for improvement? weeeeeeeeellllllllllll if you can improve on *perfection* then i suppose there might be a little give in the gussett. :P

OTM. I actually want to do more of this.

Obviously I like my own band rather a lot.

Obviously, there's a huge difference between music that *I* write, and when I play other people's music, either session work or for friends.

Music that I write, I have to like it. It has to be stuff that would make me prick up my ears if I heard it in a shop. Towards the middle of the Lollies, I got very frustrated, because I felt like I was writing music for other people's expectations, rather than because I love it. And I got sick of twee girlypop. So I stopped writing for a while.

With other people's music... even in session work, I found it very hard to actually even *engage* with the music well enough to play it unless I found something interesting about it. So it was more a question of picking wisely, which ended up mattering more than getting paid. Bands I started as session work I'd sometimes end up as full members if I ended up caring about their music enough. I've even spent time playing music in a genre I hated because I wanted to learn something from it. (I spent the summer of 2002 playing bass in a reggae band because I thought reggae basslines were amazing and wanted to learn how to do it.)

The problem for me has often been *friends'* bands. That's where it gets a bit... "Err, well it's a mate so I've said I'd sit in to help them out or whatever..." and you end up with creative differences. It's bad on both levels - if it were a stranger, you'd just say "that song is lame" and not worry about it. But you don't want to offend your friend, either. I guess I've learned to take the tack that if it's something I could learn from, if I can challenge myself and expand my abilities, I'd be far more likely to say yes, even if I wasn't crazy about the music. But otherwise it's not worth testing the friendship.

I like the music I make a lot at the moment. Transferring it over to the new computer, I'm enjoying listening to it a lot. Kind of fortunate, eh?

Probably more than half the fun for me is just playing. A lot of times I get asked to help out as an engineer or pseudoproducer. Like, yes we'd like to borrow a bunch of your effects pedals and amps (and I have a -lot- in my collection), and we'd like you to help us get such and such a sound we have in our heads. And I'm proud to be able to do that kind of stuff relatively well, but sometimes I'd just rather be playing, no matter what kind of music it is.

Obviously, if I'm not actually working on my own stuff, I prefer it when collaborators let me have input too, but there's something to be said for just playing what you're asked. That can be fun and low-stress, provided you can actually hack playing what you're being asked to play. (See "chops" in that other thread.)

I prefer the soft/gentle guitar.

My whole life, I've wanted to be in a seriously psychedelic, seriously wiggy, seriously WUBWUBWUBWUBWUB dronerock/spacerock band. That's the kind of music that I love to listen to, and I kind of feel like I *should* be making.

But I have no talent for making that kind of music. I am stuck with the ability to write catchy, throwaway bubblegum pop. And no matter how hard I try, I never seem to be able to write anything as... BIG or as DARK as I really want.

Maybe this is because I still suffer from years of indie self loathing and indie guilt because I love pop and can't recconcile myself with that. Maybe this is because there's a difference between what I am attracted to, and what I identify with.

I still have trouble accepting that I am never going to have a band that sounds big and heavy and psychedelic like Loop or Secret Machines or sunn0))) or Hawkwind - I am always just going to be in a band that sounds like Shimura Curves and that's that. :-(

I am listening to some recordings I made last night with the bass player from our band for a mostly acoustic side project he keeps on the backburner and I keep veering from thinking "Wow, how awesome; me singing 'True Faith' and 'Enjoy The Silence'!" to "OH MY GOD NEVER SING AGAIN YOU FUCKING POSER".

This was supposed to be my band "for fun" but now I want to start another band which just does drone jams FOR FUN. Argh.

To me, the next song is always going to be the best thing you've ever done, and I'm naturally impatient, so I always want to get onto it *yesterday*.