JCHRants

Hey Man, We’re Gettin’ The Band Back Together!

12.16.2009

This is an update on what I’m doing to try to get back to play for you. It’s also a comment on the music biz. A couple of old saws come to mind:

You meet the same people on the way up as on the way down.

…and…

People never really grow up.

(That second one is mine, by the way.)

Bass Player/Vocalist

I have to say that re-purposing myself to sing and play bass is turning out to be not only a challenge, but something of a drag. First there is the issue of playing the bass. Yeah, I can play, but not this much. Were basses always this heavy? 😀

And secondly, there’s the problem of actually…er… singing and playing (rubs tummy and head at same time to demonstrate.) Frankly, I dunno how guys like Sting do it. I know that I took the Frank Zappa approach; ie. I consciously arranged the tunes to make it as easy as possible for me to play guitar and sing. And much of the time that meant not having a guitar part where I might otherwise have put one. Now? I’m stuck! I have to learn to play all these notes that were never intended for me to sing on top of!

Because of ‘the hand thing‘ I’m trying to get together a new group with me as the bass player/vocalist. Great. There are some real challenges here.

One challenge is getting people who can play. Sure there are lots of guys who can play, but getting them to want to play my stuff? Hmmm… One issue that comes up time and again is age-related. Or maybe it’s energy-related. The younger fellas seem to be more open to working on ‘originals’. But (understandably) they want to work on material that is more in touch with the current zeitgeist.

Now the older guys seem more interested in doing something that is familiar and pays. Most of these chats have started off as discussions about doing JCHMusic and then subtly veered off in the direction of doing mostly originals and then some originals to… You get the idea.

What is both terribly interesting (from a sociological/psychological perspective) and terribly depressing is how delusional many of the people I speak with truly are. There is so much desperation and denial in being a musician. I’m sure I’m just as bad! And I’m also sure glad I was spared that through my unique good fortune as a solo artist (well, at least until I broke my hand!)

So the search continues. I’m pretty sure things are heading in the right direction, but I’m also just as sure that this will take some time to find a crew that has the right blend of talent, adventure and reckless disregard for current fashion and financial reward.