Looking for advice

I book acts for a bar, sing, play keys, guitar, bass.

The double singing was not enjoyable. I listened until the first chorus to see if there was harmonies. Nope.

You know what would have made that song sound better? A keyboard pad. Wouldn't surprise me if there's one buried in the mixx of the original.

You know what's happening to band pay these days? It's going down.

The guy can sing, play some guitar, and keys? I was in a band with 1 of those guys. I considered him the most important member even though he only sang lead on 5 songs. When the band split i looked for another. Couldn't find 1 so i spent a year taking singing lessons and practicing 3 or 4 hours a day on multiple instruments to become 1.

If this is a business decision you'll cut ties with long hair, tell duece to stop drinking and take singing lessons, and play an instrument on every song.

Now my favored format is a trio with a guitarist who sings, me singing and switching off between bass and keys as needed. The less moving parts, the more money, the less chance for drama.
I agree, a trio is about as big as you can go these days and make any money.
 
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Good on you Bro. You know what to do.

It was a tough decision, because I really like the songs we're playing, and I really like the drummer and guitarist. However, the thought of singer 2 being the lead just made my stomach drop. I don't want to play behind him full time.
 
You only need one singer - having a second singer to double the lead line is simply a waste. Either decide on one of your original singers to stay and work with them,or toss them both and start with something brand new. The key point I think is to play songs that work with your singers voice. You will probably have to learn new songs to match his / her tone etc but in the long run it will be less strain for them and no need for a second singer. All in all a win ..
 
You mentioned earlier that you had felt prepared to start a band because of all of the experiences you had learned about here. You then got down on yourself because this situation developed.

I think the above proves that you have in fact learned a lot. This was the correct move, imho.

Thank you for the encouragement.
 
I agree, a trio is about as big as you can go these days and make any money.
I think you way wrong..but I can see how each person views from their own perspective...Burning Las Vegas does a 9 piece band..they get $5500 to $8000 per show..and it is a show..you pay to see them..lots of talent..and that is what people pay to see.................Burning Las Vegas
 
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2 singers can work and be very entertaining. There must be however, good chemistry between them and in this case there clearly is not. The idea of a rhythm guitar that sings backup is not a bad idea but that isn't what you have now. You have 2 singers (relatively weak singers) competing for control of the stage and it isn't working. It is only a matter of time before people start dropping out and the band dissolves. Who ever is in charge needs to look for a new singer that is good enough by him/herself to front the band, sing the tunes, and entertain the crowd.

I think that this was another weakness of the band, that no one was in charge. We all had an equal say. I think it's because none of us really knew what we were doing, and were just trying to build something. I mentioned that during our meeting, that usually there's a band leader who makes the final decisions, and that we were kinda rare in that we all had a say. The drummer said he was seeing where that would probably be a good thing, while the guitarist thought it unrealistic that a cover band would have a band leader as we're just playing covers and not writing original music.

If I get involved in another project I'm going to look for one with a clear band leader who appears to make good decisions, or make my own band and try to be the leader.
 
You might want to hang in there a bit longer because Justin needs to leave soon to go to rehab. He looks like he came directly from work and overstayed happy hour until final call. He undoubtedly called in sick the next day. Playing accordion is the only thing he could have done to make it more ridiculous. The audience was very kind.

I like the band. Does #1 blow harp?
 
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The instrumental part of the band sounds good. :thumbsup:
On the recording, the long haired guy sounds better to me. But definitely the all unison all the time thing sounds and looks amateurish.

Good luck with your decision. Band drama sucks.

I think it is my church background that was all "yeah, more people singing the same thing is better!". But it's all about context. In this case, in the bar it looked/sounded like "bro karaoke". Lesson learned.
 
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Yeah I most definately do not like the 2 singer thing. It does NOT work. The band does sound good and I am also going to jump on board with the long haired singer guy instead of the other.

I am just confused on why this was thought to be a good idea to begin with?

I can only answer for myself, but I think part of why I was for it is my church background. A lot of times on the songs we play the original recording only has 1 person singing a line, but on stage there could be 2 or 3 people singing that line. To me it just came across as more powerful. I also saw it as a way to minimize the weaknesses of each singer and come across as more powerful. It appears I was very, VERY wrong.
 
Singer 2 is definitely not frontman material. He just does not look comfortable. Singer 1 is, and he can carry a show both as a singer and as a frontman. That singer 1 has some ego issues, some insecurity, that’s to be expected with a frontman or front woman. I’d tolerate that in spades for a great singer and frontman.

Now, trying these two together, well that’s never going to work. Forgive my smallness here, but their shirts tell you everything you need to know — one pink one black. I’ll bet their cars are similarly different.

Dump number 2 and ride number 1. Good singers are a hard-to-find.

Oh, nice playing BTW.
This, all the way... #2 did in fact strike me as a douchenozzle...

Too bad it didn't work out that way.
 
read the whole thread. I'd get rid of them both - neither are good enough for the band behind them and both have shown unprofessional qualities.

it's a shame the players in this group are tight and get along with each other, as it sounds like you'll be walking away. then again, it's a shame one of the band put loyalties over the end product - and a product is what it is - it likely won't be the last time.

leave on good terms and find something where people are on the same page and where you are valued.

That is pretty much what my wife said, too. I thought she would be upset that I quit, but she wasn't.
 
So singer 2 is the "more professional" of the two even though he has a drinking problem and even though the band pushed singer 1 toward acting out by foisting this two-singer doing unison thing onto him in the first place? I think singer 1 deserves some kudos for at least trying to hang in during this fiasco and not walking away the minute this was suggested.

Yeah, sadly, I think you have made the right choice. They're not thinking clearly about this. Singer 1 was sabotaged out of the position because singer 2 was a buddy of the other guy and wanted in. There's really nothing you could do about this to make it change; it was a done deal from the start. It's a "bro" decision they are making that has little to nothing to do with who's the better fit or the better singer, though they're pretending it does.

And if they can make a decision like this after mucking this up so badly, what are they going to muck up for YOU down the road?

I'm going to chill for a few days, and then call singer 1. Let him know I'm no longer in the band, and apologize for my part in the fiasco.

Also, after I got home and talked to my wife about how the meeting went, she said a lot of what you did. The drummer made a bro decision, the guitarist made a convenience decision, and both would rather continue with singer 2 (who is 'good enough' and 'can get better') than stay with me (the third part of the super solid core). After hearing that, it made the decision to leave less upsetting.
 
I only made it through chapters 1-3....


Just kidding! :roflmao:

Yeah this is all bad. I only made it through about 30 seconds of the two of them singing together. That was HORRIBLE. It kinda made me want to cut my own throat. So staying with that plan is no good.

But this was no good to begin begin with. Having two lead singers with very similar voices is not great.

You have a couple of choices here.

1) Keep one of them and hire a completely different voice to join the band. A female couldn't hurt. There's a lot of female fronted radio pop rock from the 90s and a little before and after.

2) Start over vocally speaking.

The problem with either is that people seem to have chosen sides. Even the original three of you won't be completely satisfied with the outcome.

Good luck with this.

I with @two fingers, I am not going to slit my throat though...as long as I don't have to listen to that again. The only thing worse than 1 male singer is 2 male singers. Who needs 2 guys in the band not doing their share of the work?!? Dump both of them and get someone who can sing.
 
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