band tension

[BassPIMP]

My band meets every friday for rehersal since we're all still in high school and have busy schedules. We have lately had a series of problems but today I, for the first time, feel as if our band is starting to cripple. I understand that all bands have problems and arguements because thats just what makes rock bands rock. However, today we started on a new song project after our series of disputes; amazingly, we wrote what could be our best song yet. Now to keep you up to date, our band is a funk/punk band, not hardcore so most of our stuff is light and clean but powerchords none-the-less. We wrote this incredible song and i'm actually wondering wheter our negative attitudes had something to do with this. I want to solve the problem: Does playing in a band with a mad or negative mood help you play and/or write songs? Thought please.

[Aldena]

Anxiety and tension sometimes bring about high levels of creativity. You see it all the time on VH1 Behind the Music.

 

How about some details of the band vibe? Sometimes it helps to vent here, I've seen some very good advice given out.

 

Plus, I love hearing all that band soap opera stuff. I'm the guy in 2 diferent bands who knows all the crap that's going on!

[bottle12am]

I've been married for 12 years. Wife's complained why I never wrote a song about her.

 

I tell her it's a good that that I didn't, that the day I write a song about her, she better get a divorce lawyer.

 

I can only write when I'm angry. I'm a relatively well-mannered guy, and considered to be the life of the party in circles, but I just can't write unless I'm pissed off or upset.

 

Case in point: Last five songs I wrote covered a death, a skank, another death, corporate corruption, and depression. All songs were based on real-life occurences in my life, stuff that I don't usually talk about.

 

Guess it's manic-depression or suppression or something that motivates some music and musicians.

 

But ask me to slap together two couplets and a melody when writing about my wife, kids, or anything else going good in my life and it's near impossible for me.

[Tom Capasso]

While I know that tension fuels some folks, it's not universal. I have limited tolerance for it - I play to have fun.

 

The real issue here is trade-offs. Can you stand the type of crap they are dishing out? How much of everyone's crap can you take before you are frustrated beyond staying?

 

Example - one of our guitarists is somewhat neurotic. I fondly recall him getting angry as we set up for our first bar gig some years back. "This is all your fault!" he told me, meaning that he was so stressed. I said "that's right!", and we had a great show. We tolerate each other well. Other characters I've played with have been more difficult to live with.

 

Bottle - very interesting about your songwriting. I've written very very few, but my wife found the lyrics to one recently. It was about a very "cold" woman from the man's point of view. It wasn't written about her. It actually came from a very bad pun (I know - hard to imagine from me). So I did the basic blues-rock she-mistreats-me thing, but I think it bothered her just because it was harsh. I kept thinking "it's a song", and I specifically don't write about anything in my life that I wouldn't make public. Until I figure out how to write a decent love song, they won't be about her.

 

Tom

[Cthulhu Fhtagn]

I did commercial art on the side quite a few years ago. I used to draw "political cartoons" about some of the events and personalities that happened at my day-job - for myself and peers only. I learned very quickly that drawing cartoons about specific individuals may be hazardous to one's career.

 

On that note - never create "art" about anyone in particular unless you are willing to catch the full amount of crap about it.

[Bassplayerjoe]

I would not use frustration all the time when it comes to writing music, later on someone might really take it offensive and there could be great problems. But that is still pretty cool how you wrote that song. I know my band has had problems before but unfortunetly we got no new songs out of it.