Just when you think you're getting somewhere...
As some may know, the vocalist for Simpleflower has decided to pursue other interests. This is somewhat standard band fare, and in fact there has been some discussion of a musical 3 year itch.\r\n', 'The "7 year itch" is fairly well documented in relationship-land. The concept of course being that after spending a significant amount of time with one person (ostensibly in a marraige), one gets bored of the same old thing, and starts yearning for something new. For those of us who are ADD, I think this is more of a 7 day itch, but that is for another thread.
Bands are very much like marriages...except that more than two people are involved. And on top of that, there is (hopefully) a robust creative process involved, and invariably creative people have different opinions. And in fact if they didn''t, the music that resulted likely wouldn''t be very interesting. So given that, is it inevitable that bands will dissolve/morph/explode? I believe the answer is yes, and the mode of exit will depend on the particular personalities. I tend to be pretty laid back, so I haven''t been involved in shouting matches, etc. Instead, people just decide to go their separate ways, although I''ve kept in touch with a few of the players.
In particular, I still talk with my old bass player Harry Hache, having sat down to lunch with him last week when he was in town during a short tour with a band he is/was playing with. But Harry and I go back to high school days, so that really doesn''t count. Be he is bugging me to pick up a guitar amp and come down to San Diego and start playing with him again.
One case in point would be KTQ. We had a great run for about 2.5 years, but for the last half year or so we''d have gigs where it was obvious that Kaz wasn''t happy...things weren''t clicking. I think we likely had different opinions on why that was the case, but that isn''t really important...in the end I think it is the case that playing music requires a great deal of psychic and emotional energy, and after some period of time with the same people, that energy can go away. It becomes rote. And that is bad.
So in the case of Simpleflower, Venus has been playing with Jeff for about 2 years. The whold band has been together for about 9 months. But I think that Venus finally came to the conclusion that the music really wasn''t doing it for her. Which is sad from my perspective, as I *really* liked her voice and (most of) the tunes. Of course things weren''t perfect, but no band is. So now the questions is, "what next?". Jeff wants to audition new vocalists, and I''m somewhat on the fence. To me the attraction of the band was strong songs and Venus''s voice and vibe. So unless someone who comes in is just killing, I''m likely not interested. I don''t need to get signed. In some respects I don''t know if I want to get signed (I''d be taking a pay cut). I just want to play great music. And I want to play it live in front of people. As my friend Anuj commented, I "relish" being on stage creating music. And as commented by a Japanese reviewer, I play "with a perilous stance." It means the world to me. So now to find the next "3 year stand"...'