start a band

I’ve finally managed to get a group together who seem committed to the band. There are three definite members, including myself, forming a basic guitar/bass/drums garage-rock trio. We’ve got three covers that we’ve got just about down pat, and we’re writing a bunch of originals – we have a few complete, and several that need arrangements/lyrics.

We may be getting a second guitar player to do some leads, but not sure at this point. The next step will be to hook up some gigs.

I’ve posted a couple of ads to community boards to try to find bandmates. Hopefully this will turn up something.

On the bright side, my girlfriend started playing her sax again, and she said she’d be willing to join in on a few tunes, if I get a band ready before she leaves at the end of summer. Not optimistic.

I don’t think this band hookup is going to happen. Our schedules are in conflict and contacting Greg seems to be difficult, plus I’ve got so many other commitments. I think I’ll give it one more shot, and if nothing happens, I’ll give up on this guy and look for some other bandmates.

So my potential bandmate Greg responded to my e-mail, and he’s into the idea! He also has a friend that may want to drum for us. Sounds good so far. We’ll have to make an appointment to meet somewhere and hammer out details. The only obvious obstacles are scheduling and transport (I work all days, he works all nights and some weekends). But he says he has a little flex in his schedule, so we should be okay.

Man, so excited!

Well, I’ve written Greg back about starting the band, and explained my new musical direction. Now it’s just a waiting game to see if he gets back to me.

So, last night, just one day after I posted about starting a band, I opened my e-mail and there was a message from this guy Greg.

Greg and I worked at a call centre together some months ago, and we had a good rapport, we liked the same music, and we had started bandying around the idea of starting a little two-piece acoustic act. However, after I quit the centre – despite calling and e-mailing several times – I heard no word from him. I figured it was a write-off, and the band would never actually get off the ground.

So, out of the blue, here he is… and he’s still interested. My band concept has changed a little from the “two-man acoustic” idea, to a more “lo-fi garage band” idea (akin to the White Stripes, Replacements, Neutral Milk Hotel, Shins, Cold War Kids, Violent Femmes, Eels, Pavement). Hopefully he’ll be into it. I know he likes most of those bands, so I’ll throw the idea at him.

This is a good first step!

There are several band projects I would like to form, but the one that interests me most right now is a lo-fi, DIY, minimalist, two- or three-person outfit, with influences such as the Violent Femmes, White Stripes, Neutral Milk Hotel, Replacements, Cold War Kids, Eels, Gomez, Pavement.

I envision us using multiple instruments: acoustic and electric guitars, bass, minimized drum kit (kick, hi hat, snare, maybe one tom and one cymbal), piano, harmonica – whatever it takes to get the sound we want for each song, but each song would have only three or four different sounds.

I’ve tried to convince some of my musician friends to join me, but none are interested. It looks as though I’ll have to do some advertising.