Mar 12, 2009 10:39 AM
New Singer
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Hey, I'm first! Cool!
We just got a new singer for my band. A very emotional time.
We'd gotten to the point where we were able to take the next step, from being a bunch of people on stage playing original songs, to a band, with an identity, sound and style. I don't know if this makes sense, but we were growing from a good band to a potentially great band. The problem was our singer wasn't there. She is a great singer, great lyricist, but she's only been doing this for 2 years. She just doesn't have the experience. She doesn't understand what it takes to go from good to great. We've been as encouraging as possible, discussing what we all need to do to step up to the next level and she just doesn't get it.
It takes work. Pure and simple. Practice, of course. But that's expected. At this level, there is no excuse not to have your stuff down. After that, though, is all the band work. Finding shows, making flyers, setting ups practices, maintaining a presence at shows and on the web and beyond, creating and maintaining a mailing list, sending out demos-both virtual and real, getting on compilations, then the real fun stuff...moving equipment, setting up equipment, trouble shooting equipment, packing and unpacking equipment, transporting said equipment, staying till 2 am because you lent the closing band equipment.....
Anyway, we've gotten to a point where we need not only a great singer, we need a great stage presence and someone eager to do some work.
So, we got someone!
A great singer, with great stage presence, eager and willing to work. We have to write melodies and lyrics to all our old stuff, so there's a lot of work to be done, but it looks like she's up to it. We have a show booked in two weeks! If we can get 5 songs down, which is a lot of work, but doable, we'll be set.
Check out her stuff. Listen to Clockwork.
Nuts...took too long on the phone...not first anymore.... ![]()
Congrats!
We switched singer's a while back but I've been contemplating getting voice lessons and doing it myself. I sing with more expression and stage presence than Steve but he has a better voice/pitch etc. He'd still play guitar with us but he's not very confident doing both. It's a big job and he does realize how difficult it is but I'm not sure he's driven enough to practice regularly.
Good luck with your new singer!
yeah man she's good
Sounds like an exciting time for you and your band--she sounds great! Good luck with it.
Here's a very short clip of her improvising over a song she hadn't heard before.
Totally stoked!
Gotta love the new forum...much easier to do stuff like this.
excellent vocalization
Yeah, she's pretty freakin' awesome.
What's really getting me excited is that she's progressing very rapidly. I'm so used to the 'slow and steady' way of people learning, it's shocking to see that she's getting significantly better each practice. Her potential is inspiring. She's going to take the band to a whole new level.
Plus she's very cool-a nice person. And she's completely dedicated to music.
In a couple of months, once we've got the melodies and lyrics all worked out and she's totally confident.....watch out!
and if i might be so bold, not to bad on the eyes
Oh, is she?
I hadn't noticed ![]()
Yeah, it certainly doesn't hurt. I won't lie...it was a slight factor in the decision. Not the major one, but again, it certainly doesn't hurt.
She's actually much more attractive in person. ![]()
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laughin' out loud!
DZG,
Sounds like she can really sing! Keep us posted!
I can see your cause for excitement because I was totally surprised. She can wail with emotion which, imo, is the hard thing to find. Hope that works out for all of you... .. .
make sure you post some of your stuff with her.
I was going through some practice recordings from last month and came across this one. The mix is poor..sorry. We record with Pods and V Drums to a PA direct to a CD burner. The bass and vocals are direct to the board.
It's a new song, so it's pretty rough-we've already worked out some of the kinks. It's pretty good indication of where she was a month ago and she's just gotten better and better.
DZG,
I like the song for the most part so far. I think the singer sounds best on this song when she's belting it out more. Drums sound good. I like the guitars on the verse & the first half of the chorus. You'll have to post it again if you make any significant changes/improvements on a recording.
Thanks Aaron. I'll repost when we get some of the demo done.
There is still work to be done on getting the tones to blend properly during the mellow part-kinda hard because when we get together we play, but only get to tweak once in a great while as a band.
Thanks for sharing that. I like the way this is evolving. You also made me nostalgic! (long story....zzz) ![]()
Good stuff. We just finally replaced our previous singer after 6 months of looking. We're just a hack cover band, which actually drove the issue. Other dude had zero stage, which was reminded to us many times, and we three just didnt get on with him too well. He was a great singer, for the most part, which made it tough, but it was more important to have fun without the BS. You can check out what we were before here: www.wireshutband.com if you like. Nothing recorded with new dude yet. After 12 auditions, 27 emails and 28 calls, we're happy to be in the seat for some *** kickin, once again..
~S
Good for you guys. Sometimes, it's really tough to make those decisions. It's about what you are looking to get out of the band experience. If you all felt the same way, then you make the tough choice. BTW, I can't get the link to work-maybe you should check it.
I was (hell, still am I guess since I'm playing with them in May) in a band in college. The singer was the greatest, sweetest guy in the world, but not the best singer. We talked about it a few times, but never went forward with getting another singer.
He's a buddy, though and a lot of fun and the band wasn't serious, though we could have been signed given what was going on in the scene at the time. No regrets there.
This band is a completely different thing. We've worked very hard and want to take this where no previous band we've been in has gotten to, so that means everyone has to be excellent. We were very lucky to have our last singer-a good friend, who now understand why we did what we did. We needed more than just a good voice-we need a professional attitude as well.
We've still got work to do, but we're getting there.
Good luck with your new singer!
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