Life in a Band – To Be or Not To Be

To be or not to be: Life in a Band

We, at 8octaves have been covering the music scene in and around India for a while now and in this period we came across alot of talented musicians and their eccentric personalities. These musicians have a history, a background behind their current position in the scene. Many of them have experimented in different styles and with different musicians. Whilst many solo musicians have tried their hand at playing with a band.

Each have had their share of positive and negative experiences making them to resolve to stick to one or other. We were fortunate enough to be told of some of these experiences.

Genre made a massive difference in what setup one played few years back. Today, technology and need for innovation has facilitated guitar & bass players to be producers (Squarepusher) and DJs to be part of bands (Incubus, Linkin Park) as well as allow mashups of various styles. So basically the parameters that restricted one from doing the other are dissolving and hence now it is more a personal choice than an obstacle that would make musicians choose to play in a band or not .

Pros & Cons

Rarely have we heard of Bands that have not been in an internal conflict. Right from the Beatles to the Spice Girls, each has been subject to their portion of internal discrepancies and these are just the famous ones. One can only imagine the number of great bands that might have been if they did not split before making it big. Even with these issues of sharing and adjusting one’s musical ideas and being on the same as the rest of the band, they have it easy on some other parts compared to solo musicians. One of them being making more music. It is difficult for even a dedicated musician to conceptualize, create, record, mix and master an entire album on their own. A musically focused band can provide the right mix of elements that can create the brilliance which individually one can only dream to achieve. Of course there are some who do both but very few have been successful in doing this.

Usually the case has been that as a project becomes more dear to the musician the other ones suffer ( Corey Taylor’s split from Slipknot to pursue Stone Sour more seriously hurt the band Slipknot to quite an extent).

One positive of a band is the osmosis of related tastes creates a sea of inspiration for all members to bask in and take their own quota of experience out of it. In fact, there are number of solo musicians as well who engage in such symphony with other musicians to bring forth something more than what they already have. This at times, does have its flipsides with a lack of co-ordination or non satisfaction of the direction of the symphony for some members of the concerto. It is debatable if bands can present better live performances than solo musicians. Important here also is the point about the acceptance and relevance of acoustic instruments vis a vis computer and electronic devices.

Even the management aspect plays a crucial role here. Producers and Managers have been known to keep bands together for ages. They can be like nannies which stop the band members from cracking each other’s skulls. Today many managers and crew are not aware of this role or only have a professional relationship which does not go beyond the studio or an event.