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ivan@stellysee.de
| From | Stewart Mason <flamingo@TheWorld.com> |
| Subject | Re: Taking over? or The way it should be?... |
| Date | Sun, 29 Aug 2004 17:19:39 -0400 |
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At 04:26 PM 8/29/2004 EDT, AdamGhost@aol.com wrote:
>I think it really comes down to the bands and personalities involved. Every
>musician brings certain talents to the table and that includes their own
>personality traits which play into a band situation. A good bandleader
knows what
>his/her bandmates are capable of and acts accordingly. The complication is
>when any band member -- particularly the leader -- is suffering from a
case of
>"bad ego." Your goal as a band leader should be to make the band sound as
good
>as it possibly can, and not necessarily to control everything just to
control
>it (it's easy to confuse the two goals though).
A much rarer problem, but one that can be even more frustrating, is a
distinct LACK of ego on the part of the leader. A band I used to work with
had this exact problem, and it was probably the biggest frustration of my
thankfully brief label-owning career. Having me (as label owner, producer,
fan and friend), the engineer (who had mentored this guy since he was in
high school), and the other three guys in the band all raving about his
songwriting was no particular help, because he didn't rate himself as
either a guitarist or a singer. And yet, no matter how much he tried to
lobby to get other guitarists and singers in the band, that NEVER worked,
because no one could sing and play his songs as well as he could. The
result was that the sessions always bogged down and after seven solid
years, we never did finally get a completed record.
Which is a shame, because I really think that a CD of his 12 best songs,
properly arranged and produced, would be one of the greatest jangle-pop
albums ever made, up there with Let's Active's AFOOT, Guadalcanal Diary's
WALKING IN THE SHADOWS OF THE BIG MAN and the first two dB's records.
S
NP: FIVE -- Town and Country
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