Why is being in a band so difficult?
I decided to make this post about what makes being in a band so difficult, and what important things a band has to have in order to stay together.
#1- The same goals
It’s so hard for everyone in a band to be on the same page and have the same goals. And the more people you have in a band, the more difficult that is. We had 4 different people with 3.5 different pictures we saw in our minds for what we wanted out of the band, and 2 of us were completely opposite.
#2- A place to practice
Every band needs somewhere to practice. A lot of bands pay $40-50 per person for their practice space, and if a band is just a hobby that makes no money, that can be a pretty expensive hobby. And even if a band makes money the way we did, it’s not as if a band doesn’t have a ton of other expenses already.
We got pretty lucky to have a band member’s house to use, but eventually, that wasn’t working out, so we had to rent a cheap space at another band member’s house, which was still a good deal. But even so, there were a lot of arguments about where to practice.
#3- Living close together
Bands are able to get so much more done when they live close together. Obviously, living in the same house is ideal, but not every band can have that.
We had the misfortune of having almost everyone live in a different town. So no matter where we practiced or where we met up for shows, someone got the short end of the stick. And because we lived so far from each other, we weren’t always able to load the trailer together before leaving for the show.
#4- Crew people who stick around
We were lucky to have a sound guy who stuck around for a long time. But before that, we actually went through a bunch of people. The main reason for sound guys quitting on us was that they always lived an hour away, and eventually started resenting the drive even of they didn’t mind it at first. When we had to replace sound guys on short notice, it got to be a hassle.
There are a lot of other things, too, but those are mostly the main ones.
