How did your band get together?

[Lee Flier]

I'll bet there are a lot of stories about how bands form. Let's hear yours!

 

For me, it was a matter of getting out and checking out other bands who were into the same kind of music. Which is a good thing to do anyway, and it was fun. I read an article in a local music rag about a band called Orange Hat who played psychedelic power pop in the vein of the early Who, Syd Barrett-era Floyd, Squeeze, XTC etc. I thought, "I gotta see these guys, I'll bet we could be buds." So I went to their next gig. They were fantastic! I introduced myself to them as a guitar player and fellow power pop geekazoid, and their organ player, Kenny Howes, told me that he was also in a couple of other bands that I should check out.

 

One of those bands, the Lizardmen, were playing later that week, so I went. When I saw their drummer, my jaw about fell on the floor. He was the best drummer I'd ever seen, so far as the style that I play. It was like if I could have had a custom drummer genetically engineered for me, this guy would've been him. I thought, "I simply must play with this guy one day, and I will."

 

Well... long story short... I continued to support both bands and go to their gigs, as well as a few others they told me about. And about a year after I first saw the Lizardmen, their singer quit. Their bass player and drummer wanted to stick together, so they asked me to play guitar with them. Boy was I psyched, needless to say! Four years later, I still am.

 

Then about a year after my band got together, Kenny had to quit Orange Hat to move to California, and Orange Hat asked me to join them too!

 

So... what's your story?

[BEAD]

(I play bass...)

 

I met a guitar player at work.

He knew this other guitar player.

The other guitar player... get this...

 

 

the other guitar player knew a drummer!

[cherri]

I was recruited to be a lead & backup vocalist for a local band after the guitarist heard me at a karaoke bar. That band fizzled, but I met some great people who introduced me to others, and I had the 'must be the front person' jones after the performances with Excalibur.

 

I was doing a few weddings and odd shows with the former keyboardist from Excalibur, and sitting in here and there with local bands.

 

At the same time, I was trolling the internet personal ads to see if there was anyone outside my usual social circle to hang out with. I met Paul, and in the course of getting to know each other and dating, discovered he was into music also. He started up with the bass again, and I started re-learning the guitar and the saxophone.

 

In the meantime, the aforementioned keyboardist introduced me to a guitarist - toothless Dave, who lived in a tent, but could rip Knoffler leads like nobody's business. We started jamming together, and Dave introduced us to Johnny, a local drummer.

 

At this point, Dave bowed out, and we put the word out that we needed a guitarist. Enter Bryan. He not only played guitar, he had a PA, he knew how to use it, and had the gear we needed to put together a basement demo to start getting local gigs. He taught Paul how to operate and maintain the PA.

 

By that summer we were steadily gigging, doing blues and classic rock covers. We had a two year run with Bryan and Johnny, Paul and I got married, then Bryan sold us his PA, grew out his hair, and left to find a more 80s rock oriented outfit.

 

We ran an ad the entertainment zine, and met Tony who is still with us. He's an amazing guitarist - his sound cemented our style. We started writing originals. Put out a CD. Started playing a wider and wider geographic circle.

 

Then Johnny left to move out of state, and we recruited Pat, who has a different style than Johnny (more finesse IMHO), and a good ear for writing. We put out the second CD.

 

Now we're looking for a new drummer again, as Pat is moving on. He's fulfilling our gig obligations and being relatively cool about the whole thing, but it's obvious his love for the band is gone. It's not fun for him, it's an obligation, and it shows in his playing and his demeanor. Because we do so many originals, it'll take whoever the new guy is a while to learn the material. And get used to us.

 

What was the question?

[THX1138]

All four of us knew each other from being in different local bands for years. In fact several of us have been in bands together before. Even more strange is that we have all been in the same particular local band, but in different incarnations and at different times. Never all at the same time.

 

We all did different coverband deals for years and were actually quite successfull. But, we all eventually quit our respective projects due to burn-out.

 

After some time had passed and we started gettin the itch to play again, we all got together with another local guy to put together an 80's hairband tribute act. Just wanted to throw together a one-off local show playin music that we loved. That project looked like it was gonna work quite well until the other local guy we recruited (singer) developed a bad case of "me-itis".

 

Rather than let the whole thing fall apart, we just moved on without him and started plinkin around on original ideas we each had individually. That was about 5 years ago. Now we're gigging regularly and are about to release our second cd.

[squealie]

 

Originally posted by THX1138 All four of us knew each other from being in different local bands for years.....

 

 

I was waiting for you to type it all out.

 

All I could come up with was:

 

'we got together, cause that's where the beer was'

[THX1138]

 

Originally posted by squealie I was waiting for you to type it all out. All I could come up with was: 'we got together, cause that's where the beer was'

 

 

No, thats the reason we STAY together.

[bdemon]

Sick of putting together bands from ads, I was doing the open mic thing, scaring the folk players with weird techno stuff. A musician friend sent me a Craigslist ad that was seeking musicians for a local circus. Performing arts, sword swallowing, black light theater. A week later I'm hooked up with a half dozen guys, jamming at house parties, making background music for some of the performers. Within a few months, half the members quit or were thrown out until it was just three of us, a violin player, a keyboardist and myself, the guitarist/ztarist. Then we quit the project altogether when the ringmaster guy started playing some performers, but not us.

 

Just figured, "Hey, we seem to jam well. Let's keep jamming."

[riffdaddy]

The bass player runs the band. He knew me through church and through the shop I work at. He heard I was available, and proceeded to fire two other guys (the regular guitarist and his long-term sub) to put me in.

[Fr!tz]

I've known them for many years (we are all close freinds from other projects)... Other bands break up and new ones are formed.

[Cortfan]

I formed my high school band thru schoolmates, and various music stores in my area. We lived in Graceland subdivision behind Elvis' house, and Memphis was a hotbed of garage and frat bands at that time. After graduation, we broke up and went our seperate ways. Some of us got married, some moved out of state, some went into the service, etc. Scroll ahead 30 years. I get the itch again. I get on the net, and find a band (musicians.com)? with a studio, needing a lead guitar player. So I call them up and they are 7 miles from my house. I made the audition, but we kept losing bass players, so I just bought a bass and found a guitar player, since they are much easier to find. 5 years later, we are gigging when we want, doing a little recording, and I'm back in a band. I hope to rock for another few years before my hands lock up. www.735band.com www.studio735.com

[Dave Martin]

I started my current band by calling one of my favorite singers (we had played together in a rock band 12 or 15 years ago). We decided that even though we weren't to old to rock, we were probably to old for people to want to pay to see us. So we're doing a blues thing. And we're about a quarter of the way through tracking a record.

[JoshHaus]

I met my Bassist and Drummer through a mutual friend. They went through how many different guitarists until the day I showed up for practice. All three of us realized we had that certain chemistry.

 

I became the singer when we tried out how many different singers and I just ended up taking over due to the fact I was the only one of the 3 who could stay somewhat on pitch.

[Brian Krashpad]

 

Originally posted by Lee Flier One of those bands, the Lizardmen, were playing later that week, so I went.

 

 

There used to be a band in Tampa called the Lizardmen. I played on a bill with them years ago (circa 90-92, iirc). Since you're up in ATL I'm guessing it's a different band?

 

Or maybe they just were playing Tampa the night my band played with the Lizardmen...

 

BK

[Brian Krashpad]

Am currently in 2 bands, both doing originals. Main punk rock band I started almost 10 years ago. Got together first with a drummer who'd done some recording in his home studio of a couple prior bands I'd been in. (I'd dropped out of the more recent of those because I determined I was a little long in the tooth to be sitting on the floor in someone else's house while cops ran through it with flashlights and asking for everybody's ID, all because these guys weren't smart enough to use use the virtually soundproofed walled-in garage room for practices, as well as having invited a dozen or so underage friends over for beer and pot.) I'd initially found this drummer guy through a mutual musician friend, a keyboardist who had been a housemate of mine just after college.

 

So we had me and a drummer. I put up ads and stuff looking for a bassist and another guitarist, but only found a bassist. Tall blonde girl with rudimentary bass skills. Kept looking for a 4th but finally decided to run as a trio for starters. Bassist learned some drums and for a couple songs the drummer wrote, we'd switch instruments: me to bass, drummer to guitar, bassist to drums. After about a year they both quit on me. Back to square one. Rebuilt starting with a guitarist from a band that'd recently broken up, which had played on the same bill with the trio version of the band. Took the better part of a year before we finally settled on the other guitarist's drummer from his prior band and found a bassist. Have been a fourpiece ever since about 1997, with tons of changes, all told current existing and former players (including a couple 1 or 2-time fill-ins) stands at 18 people.

 

My side roots rock band I got asked to join as a bassist by a coworker who'd been doing the acoustic solo thing and wanted to expand to a full band. So I did. The drummer is also a coworker of ours at our day job. Their lead player turned out to be a real lush, so much so that even I looked good by comparison, so they fired him and asked me to switch to lead. Then we hired a great bassist (has played with Marty Balin and some other famous people) who was a friend of the drummer's, but he got cancer and had to drop out. So on our debut full-length CD I played all the lead and bass (and banjo on one song). Then we hired a kid on bass who was an aquaintance of the lead singer (he had worked for him at his comic store), but he turned out to be a flake and quit. Fortunately a kid from a punk band that my main band had gigged with had seen us (side roots rock band) playing out and had said he liked us, so when the first kid flaked we got the punk rock kid. That's our current line-up.

 

So there you have it.

 

BK

[Terry Allan Hall]

Having gotten tired of all the hassles of keeping a band together, I started doing primarily solo gigs, and when a band gig would come my way, I'd just hire whichever of my bassist and drummer friends were available for that night...at one point, I got an entire summer of Fridays and Saturdays booked at a local Bar-B-Q joint, so i hired this one bassist, who was very good, but pretty squirrelly...one Friday, about 3 hours before starting time, he called to say he'd pawned his rig for an eight-ball and wouldn't be able to make it!

 

Frantically, I called every bassist I knew, only to discover that EVERYONE was booked that night (Murphey's Law, right?)...

 

Finally, one bassist suggested one of his students, who he said was pretty good, and, as I always carry a "Fake Book" of my tunes, he felt she could pull it off nicely...would I like him to call her? I accepted his kind offer, as it was literally less than an hour before starting time, 7pm!

 

At 6:50, in walks this 4'9" gal with a huge sousaphone...she'd misunderstood what instrument to bring! At this point, I was just thrilled to see her...and as it turned out, she played the heck out of it!

 

The next night, she showed up with her Fender Mustang Bass and demonstated that she was pretty good on that, too!...We've worked together, as our schedules allowed, for almost 10 years.

 

My percussionist, Emalie Katelyn, I met at her birth... She became my percussionist when the former beater flaked out on me, and she said, "Dad, I can do that"...and she did!

[machinegun78_2]

myself and the other guitar player in Push Off have been playing together off and on since 95. in 03 we hooked up with this rhythm section in Dearborn. YOUNG guys, not yet even 18. but Tim was a prodigy on the bass, and would come up with basslines and song ideas better than guys twice his age I have played with.

 

fast foreward a year or so. our drummer, Paul, decides hat he wants to play guitar and quits. Tim had been playing in this cover band Temper Slang, and his drummer was ALL about us. Eric joined the band in 2k4, after we recoded our EP that's downloadable @ our site.

 

in the meantime, I'd been doin' this Open Jam thing with Dave Winans II of The Winans Gospel Family fame.....C.C., Beebee, and Ronald Winans are his siblings....Mario Winans (R&B artist) is his nephew. well last winter as we were auditioning new singers, Tim says he wants out. we are recording our LP and playing shows with Dave now....Tim's loss.

 

last winter, my buddy calls me up and tells me he's hangin at this dive down the road from my apartment. I go over there to meet for a drink, and this guy is singin Simple Man karoke.....BLEW ME AWAY.....Will has been in the band ever since.

 

Push Off(Will Gobel vocals, Dave Winans bass, Drew May(me) guitar, Eric Lynam drums, Rich Whitehead, aka Tank here on the forums, guitar) has been together as a band for 8 months or so now.