Being in a band is not an easy job, especially when there are too many things happening around you and you don’t know what to do. We caught up with a very well reputed and established band from Bangalore and asked them about the current scene. We got this heartbreaking letter in reply. Read on, and the next time you hear bands playing somewhere near you, do support them:
Any Musicians and Bands out there trying hard to play gigs but to no avail? Well, join the club! Lately it’s become so hard to find gigs it ain’t funny. I mean we get that the economy is down so it’s hard to pay a good amount for any artist regardless of the field, but when you start expecting to everyone to start playing for free then that just isn’t right. Personally speaking I remember us (My Band) getting quite a few gigs but not able to close once the finance talks in. We give our quote, they say it’s over the budget; we negotiate and somehow try and settle on an amount. They give us a verbal confirmation. Then few days later all of a sudden we hear “Oh sorry, but you guys are a bit too expensive for us and we won’t be able to fit it in our budget”. Then we hear they get a band to play for free! Well you can understand for a while a few bands would start to play for free because that’s how you start out. You play for free so people can see and hear you and start to like you, then follow you and that’s how you build a fan following. But when musicians start playing for free (whatever their reasons may be), it puts a lot of musicians who make a living out of it out of business.
One of the things that can really get on your nerves are some of these fraud organizers. I’m not going to put any names here but I know a lot of musicians have been through the same situation and a few that have been swindled by the same organizer. We were asked by an organizer to play a show at a venue for a last minute show. Well we still wanted to play of course since it’s what we love to do. So we talked out how much the fee would be and came to an understanding.
Biggest Mistake: We didn’t get a mail confirmation from this person since we had played a show for him before and there was a certain trust that was formed.
We played the show and the crowd loved us, the organizer thanked us repeatedly saying it was a wonderful show and we all went back home with wide smiles on our faces. A few days later we try contacting this organizer in regard to the fee that was due. He doesn’t reply regardless of how we try. Calls, messages, mails, we aren’t able to trace this guy at all. About a month later he finally replies by mail and message. He gives a lame excuse as to why he didn’t respond, and we honestly didn’t care. We just wanted to get what we had earned. All of a sudden he says that the price agreed was half of what was once agreed. We’re sitting over there with our mouths hanging open. In the end we couldn’t do anything since there was no written proof. Really sad there are people out there who could cheat others even after getting good product.
One final thing I’d like to address is this revolting Genre battle that is happening between fans. I fail to understand what reason is there to fight with someone about something you don’t like that he does. I mean if you don’t like you just stop listening to it plain and simple. I see old school fans commenting on New Wave of American Heavy Metal Bands saying that its ‘shit’ and nothing beats old school. I hear some people hating on new bands just because their sound isn’t good and they probably wouldn’t of been tight on stage. How can you hate those bands?!? You should be able to relate to them since we’ve all been there. When you see someone having issues on stage or playing a performance that could have been done much better, instead of telling everyone they weren’t good you can help them out with advice on how to improve. This war between genres and musicians really needs to stop. If you can’t depend on your fellow musician for help then who are you supposed to turn to? Trust me this is more like an advantage to the sad ass organizers and promoters to take advantage over an upcoming band.
Now, that the main problems of bands are addressed with, let me pull out on what is happening in Bangalore.
A lot of Bands (when i say bands i mean big bands, I would love to pull out the name but I’m not immature like these people) diss on the upcoming bands. I mean a lot of young musicians would look up to these people while making music and it is just a let down situation for them when this happens. And the organizers would take advantage over it and probably wouldn’t give a chance for promising musicians after following with the lame comments made by these so called BIG MUSICIANS.
There is another type of situation that these promoters/Organizers come up with. A lot of upcoming bands sell their merchandises when they play at these venues.
I once remember when my band was confirmed to play a local gig we wanted to sell our merchandises. The organizers had agreed to pay a certain amount as the band fee. But later she comes up with this clever idea saying there is a shortage of budget so she expected us to make money through the merchandises and 10% of that money will go to her. This was so far the stupidest organizer we had seen in our lives. She had first agreed to pay the band and now she expects the band to pay her 10% of the merchandise money. Well, we certainly asked her to read between the lines anyway.
One thing i would like to say to the bands that agree to play free gigs: If the organizer is not ready to pay a fee don’t just blindly make a decision to play for free. Make a deal with him/her. They should at least bare you transportation charges from the place to the venue. Trust me it is not easy carrying shit loads of equipment without hard work. Book a cab or if you have a vehicle make sure the cab fare/petrol charges are taken care of by the organizers.
And the main thing is food for musicians at the venue. The organizers are not paying you. But still you are taking so much pain and energy to come and play an energetic set and entertain the crowd. How are going to get this energy back? Food, of course! Ask the organizers to take care of your food charges because you certainly helped them out raise a certain amount of money with your performance and the least you expect is respect and nothing can be as great as them providing you good food and booze.
Lastly I just want to say, all you so called music lovers who are out there sitting on your asses and just downloading music of bands you like. Try to go to a local gig and start buying a band’s CD and merchandise to whatever extent you can. Do you know that nowadays certain venues make a deal with the artists? The entry fee completely belongs to the bands playing at the venue. They share it equally. So your presence makes a lot of difference. Also there are so many amazing local bands out there you wouldn’t believe me until you actually went out there and heard them. You are not just paying for them to make good music, you are also giving them a hope that their music is worthy enough for them to stand against all odds and make more amazing music. So please do go and pay that nominal fee so that those bands can survive and continue to make music you love. Without you fans, us bands can’t continue doing what we love!
P.S. : Due to possible complications, the name and details of the person writing the letter has been kept secret under their request.
