AKA: Why my last band never broke up.

I was recently introduced by an old friend (and advisor for Magic Room Brand) to someone here in St. Louis who was looking to meet creative, entrepreneurial, music-focused people. Aside from being flattered that my name even came up, I was happy to take the meeting because I find meeting people that are eager to make their mark in this world is usually a very energizing experience. The conversation was great and I found myself jacked up on overpriced coffee talking about the bands that I was in.

Each band has its own story of how it was created and how it broke up. One band had our first rehearsal and first gig on the same day. It was weird. A few of the other bands were just a new version of previous bands and were equally weird. One band was so slapped together with talented people that it was a ticking time bomb from the first note of the first rehearsal. Still shaking my head at that one.

Bands are weird things.

Great things, but yeah…super weird things. In a weird way, none of them are meant to last. That’s often a shame, but also, it’s kind of the dark, brooding, beauty of it. It’s a sort of “let’s see how great we can be before we start hating each other and totally mess this up” kind of thing.

That sense of urgency – recognized or not – is always there. It needs to be there.

All the bands I was in broke up…except the last one I was in. Now, to be clear, the band hasn’t played a show or rehearsed in years, but it technically can’t be categorized as broken up either.

Why is that?

I don’t really know for sure. But there is one thing that was different about how this band was created. For this band, members were selected using different criteria.

Before, it was:

1. “Can you play [instrument]?
2. If yes, then, “how proficient are you at said instrument?”
3. If proficiency level was satisfactory, then it was “please be in my band.”

Seriously. That was it. I know. So dumb.

But this time, I wanted to do it differently. Of course skill level was vital, but it wasn’t the most important criteria anymore. I looked at personality. What they wanted to get out of the band. Not just their musical style, but their overall life style. Less about if they could play my songs, and more about how they would make my songs our songs.

Being in a band can be fun. But being in a good band can be a profound experience that is recalled (and blogged about?) years later. I remember thinking back then that if I was going to start another band, you’re goddamn right it was gonna be a good one.

I figured it out.

Don’t look for the best people, look for the right people.

• Look for people who shared the vision of what we could do and what the band could be.
• Look for people that didn’t just want to be in a band, but wanted to create something with people that could be enjoyed.
• Look for people that understood the levels and purpose of rehearsals:
  1. Rehearsing alone is to learn your parts.
  2. Band rehearsals are for learning everyone else’s parts.
• Look for people that didn’t want to just showcase their talents, but instead explore ways to fit their talents with other talented musicians to get even better. 2 + 2 = 5
• Look for people that didn’t take life too seriously, but were committed to their craft.

. . . . .

Imagine pulling together your favorite musicians ever and then getting to play your songs with them on stage a bunch of times. That was The Removers for me. They were my band mates and I was their biggest fan.

Maybe we’ll never play another show, but I know we’ll never “break up.” The band was built in a way where it couldn’t be defined by how frequent we played or performed. It’s defined by the fact that it was the right people, with the right vision, for the right job, at the right time.

#bewhatyoumake