Putting a band together - The saga continues part 2 of 4

**Bish** · 10-07-2016, 09:39 PM

2nd topic after my long hiatus...This is going to be a long post. Sorry.

The project with "Play-Bak" fell through big time about 8 weeks ago.

For now I am calling them the twisted sisters.

Here's how it played out with the singing sisters, the whacked out husband and the musicians.

The main sister (with the husband) only sang and played very little keys. She also could only sing about 3 songs before she was winded and red faced. The other sister whom had the better voice only sang and only came over when she felt well enough which ended up being about half the scheduled practices.

The bassist, guitarist and myself all work day jobs and were struggling to keep up with the unreasonably demanding schedule of the main singer and her husband. She also did not work so was home all day to work on songs and pick new ones.

Her husband muscled his way into the band by buying a cheap little under powered PA system that was barely enough to get us through rehearsals. Just as an example the mixer he purchased only had 5 XLR channels and all of us were going to sing. No channels for instruments and the power amp was under powered for the speakers he bought, which didn't even include any kind of stage monitor system. (First red flag)

Less than a month into the rehearsals we all (minus the guitarist) went to a local bar to watch a band perform. While sitting with the husband, he confided in me that he had to take the guitarist aside (earlier in the day) and scold him for ripping on the bassist during rehearsals. In all honesty it was, IMHO, constructive criticism about how and what to play on certain parts. I always thought that's what rehearsals were for but with the demands of them wanting us to learn perfectly 10 songs every week, it was just too much to ask. Plus, with him taking the guitarist aside privately, it seemed like a slap in the face and not a good thing to exclude the rest of the band. I didn't like it. (Second red flag)

With that in mind, us 3 musicians decided to get together on Saturdays at my place to work in the material so we could be ready for the Wednesday rehearsals.

The next Wednesday we went back and the guitarist fumbled one tiny part on one of the newest songs and right away you could see from the looks given by the singer and her husband, they weren't happy. (Third red flag) When we left rehearsal talked about what had just happened and at that point I had decided that this wasn't for me but would do what I could to stick it out for the sake of the other two musicians.

The very next morning I received a text message from the singer telling me that I needed to stop over after work. Not even asking but telling. I responded that I had an obligation after work and would check in after that. I also asked what it was about and she only responded with "It'll only take a couple of minutes." No other explanation. So that left me to stew all day wondering about that. I knew it was going to be my scolding even though they didn't have to say anything more.

So after my obligation, I went over to their house and the husband proceeded to tell me that I messed everything up by holding additional rehearsals at my house and that I had put them behind by 2 weeks and if it happens again I was being held accountable.

I shook my head and said that they wouldn't have to worry about it because there wouldn't be a next time and that I would just grab my gear and move on.

The husband jumped up from his chair and agreed and led me to the basement so I could pack my things and get out.

Now for the good part...sort of.

That was Thursday. On Friday the bassist called me and said after he was informed that I had left, he went over and got his gear and quit them and brought his stuff over to my house. Later that night the guitarist did the same thing. Went over there and got his gear.

We agreed to continue on. That Saturday I message the sister/singer and explained what had happened and asked if she would be interested in moving forward without her sister and her over bearing husband and she was very happy to accept the invite. She also stated that no one liked the husband and made all kinds of negative comments about him.

So for the next 4 weeks we tried to set up rehearsals and the sister kept making excuses as to why she couldn't make rehearsals so on the fourth time she backed out I told her that this wasn't going to work and told them I was moving on to other projects. Of course in her mind I was the jerk and called me all sorts of obscenities and that everything was my fault.

That was all fine by me, I had two other offers on the table and had other choices. Plus, the bassist ended up going on 3rd shift so he could no longer make rehearsals anyway. To top that off, neither musician said a word about the final break up so I just quietly rode off into the sunset.

So that's the end of that fiasco. More to come in another thread.