what makes good band chemisty?

[Thor Von Clemson]

So a fellow guitarer and I were talking the other day about band chemistry. To elaborate a little more, he is in a band that NEVER talks outside of practice. They get together every other thursday to practice, play a show maybe once a month, and thats about it. He was complaining about how he tries to contact everyone via phone, email, etc, etc, and no one responds. He went on to further talk about how tired he is of trying to get ahold of everyone to hang out when they we not practicing.

He says when they practice, he really doesn't "feel it" or things "don't click". I am assuming that is what is meant by band chemistry. I am also assuming it has a lot to do with knowing the material (which it sounds like the rest of his bandmates don't know the material or don't practice outside of practice) and really building some sort of relationship with your bandmates. One guy put it "You all have to be married to each other" Not literally but you get the idea.

So can a band with good chemistry be 5 guys who just show up every thursday night to practice or is a band a group of friends who know the music, know each other, etc, etc.

Is it possible for certain musicians to just not click with each other regardless of how talented they are and still have a successful band?


Discuss.

[Joe_Steeler]

even keel, tempered egos.

Back in the day someone wil always be on a high state of alert. Wether it was our other guitar player not getting enough spotlight solos or the singer not having the right selection of songs "for him" or the drummer not feeling appreciated.
Something always going on. I could care less if I had enough solos or what, my schtik always was: be on time for the show and be on time at rehearsals the rest will sort itself out.
I am pretty self confident so I did not have to have my ego pumped up, through some activity, but I do have a low tolerance for idiots and that's why we went though so many changes and got nowhere.

Did get laid multiple times and had fun, which is to me what counted. I knew I was not going to make a career out of it.

[Endrik]

no girlfriends

[guitarsjb]

We have always gotten together, gone to shows, go to a bar and grab a beer, whatever away from practice. Not all of us all the time, a couple of us do one thing, others get together some other time, we have went to a couple of shows together all at once. Had cookouts. Watched movies. I never go more than 2 days without talking to one of the guys.

[Anathu of Lorenguard]

I have had some pretty bad experiences in bands, but doing well in one now. Sometimes hanging out a lot isn't always the answer. I used to be real close to my old band but one dude started getting an ego trip. We had planned hang outs, so it wasn't any different from practice. Lots of tension, talking behind backs at shows and all that stuff, not a fun experience at all.

My new band doesn't hang out as much, most of the guys live an hour away from me. We get a long really well for the most part though. Our long time guitarist and keyboard player just quit, but the founding guitarist that I replaced came back, which is the best trade ever, dude rules hard. Not sure if anyone here is familiar with the band Demiricous on metalblade records, but Chris Cruz played drums for them for a long time and on their debut album, but he is a very skilled guitarist and song writer as well. We all get along really well, especially since Chris has a ton of arcades and shit in his apartment haha.

Anyways, it more depends on personalities and stuff, who you can stand to be around, not how much you hang out. Hanging out with people you can't stand won't make you like them anymore, most likely make you hate them more haha. The more I was around one of the guys in my last band, the worse things got. We are starting to play again for old times sake and just dropped all the bs that was going on, it should be fun, but I know to hold it at a distance and focus on my new band as things have been going well.

[guitarsjb]

Our "hang outs" aren't normally planned. Sorry if I mis phrased that..we just do what we do. We LIKE hangin out together, and do it quite often. Just not always all together at once. I've also had past band members that I got along fine with at practice and on stage, but you couldn't pay me to "hang out" with them.

[Anathu of Lorenguard]

Thats the way it should be. My last band had "every tuesday is band hang out" day type of thing, it wasn't really genuine in any way. With the new band its more like "hey dude, we are coming down to Indy to hang out at Chris' tonight, you should come" Lots of Punisher, bad dudes, battle toads, street fighter, house of the dead, and hours of guitar playing, good times for sure.

[skorb]

it's funny, I've been in one band, the cover band I joined as the main guitarist last summer, and we are all in our 30's and 40's, and we really only meet at rehearsal (weekly) and at gigs (we've done two since I've been playing with them).

given that we all have lives and we all work full time, and the bass player and I have kids, and our keyboard/guitarist/singer is getting married and our drummer is working odd hours, the weekly thing is about all we can do, but we seem to do fine just meeting then. our drummer maintains the lockout studio and all the PA stuff for us, he's great at that shit.

we click musically and everyone comes prepared, at least almost always. so that is the good part. plus I think we all respect each other's talent.

anyway, I guess I'm kinda lucky as band situations go.

[Newc]

Me and the guys I've been in and out of the same band with over the years have always been able to pull rabbits out of our collective hat when we got together at rehearsal or gigs, but never really hung out together unless it was musically related.

I went up to the singer's house for a Labor Day barbecue and he's got tons of cousins and other relatives running all over the place, and we really didn't spend much time together. After everyone bailed, his Dad tells him to go and do some yard work he'd been putting off, and the singer volunteers me to help.



I'd only known him for maybe 3 months at that point, and he was big on the "band = family" thing, which wasn't my bag at the time, so naturally I was the prick and declined, saying thanks for the food, see ya at practice. I was invited for food and fellowship, not toil.

When I hung out at the drummer's house, we spent hours miking his drum kit and mixing it until he got the sound he was looking for.

When we all got together to practice - even the first day (Halloween), we clicked musically like we had been playing together for years. We knew some of the same songs, but we knew all of the same styles - Hard Rock, NOWBHM, Blues, stuff like that. We all knew maybe 100 covers each, but only about 10 or 12 of the same thing, but when we just cut into a jam, we were all in sync (N'Sync? :puke: )

We get along great as long as we're playing, but basically can't stand each other when we're not

[Carbuff]

No singer and a drum machine. Ive not been in a band but all my friends bands have either had a singer that was an asshole or a drummer that was just plain nuts.:ROTF:

[Sinistas]

I get along fantastically with my bandmates, for the most part. We're pretty similar in personality while still having our quirks. None of us have huge egos, so we're all open to people getting solos, offering changes, etc. Everybody except our drummer hangs out a good deal. *shrug*

[Endrik]

I don't care if the other band members are nuts, assholes, ego-maniacs or whatever....I'm just like that....I don't care if nobody gets along.

But I'll most definetly go apeshit when somone is slacking, making stupid excuses and shit like that. I hate when people with talent waste their time on worthless shit.

[sl2lover]

I agree that g/f's and wives fuck things up! But I think the biggest contributor to band chemistry is an openmind! If you limit yourselves you won't get anywhere! Especially musically!

[OnlineStageGear]

Our band hangs out all the time. We show up early to gigs and hang out and if we aren't the closing band we will usually hang out till closing time. We go see other bands and even throw parties. Usually the only thing that keeps us from hanging out more is uaually someones girlfriend wants to go home.

We got rid of our problem over a year ago (second guitar player) and we haven't looked back. He just thought he knew what was best for everyone and usually the 4 of us had the same idea and he had a different idea.

Matt

[zeegler]

I can only speak for what works with my band. We are all good friends. My other guitar player and I, have been friends, and played guitar together for 14 years. My bass player is married to my wife's cousin, and lives about 200 yards away from my house. I pretty much think of him as my younger brother. We have known our singer for 10 years. I was in a band with him before, and even though he works a lot, he makes a huge effort to hang out with the rest of the band as much as possible. We haven't actually known our drummer for very long (about a year now I think), but he is definitely one of the boys. We usually hang out at his house, and his wife is also such a cool chick, we pretty much consider her part of the band. She helps us book gigs, she rolls our doobies for us, and gets us beer. I truly believe that if we didn't do the band thing, we would all hang out together anyway. This works for us, and I wouldn't have it any other way.