8 Reasons why being in a band is like being in a Long Term Relationship

Being in band can be intense at times. It's been one of those months, and sometimes I've wondered if life would be easier if we just cut out the middle man and married each other. Yes, it would mean a trip to Utah to legalise a five-way-wedding, but Utah is right next to Vegas - which would make for one hell of a honeymoon! Here's my list of 8 reasons why being in a band can sometimes feel like you're in a long term relationship - with four other people.



1. Borrowing each other's stuff without asking.


If I had a dollar for every time I'd gone in my case to find my tuner, lead, 9 volt, spare string, whatever..... only to find it missing or not how I left it, I would be very rich indeed. But, I give as good as I get and at present, only 75% of the strings on my guitar were paid for with my money. So, that one balances itself out!





2. Knowing where each other is, every day of the week!

Keeping track of each other has it's merits; it's hard to book a gig if you don't know if everyone's available and that expensive rehearsal room won't be free just because you left it to sit empty for a week. Having to put in for your three day trip to visit your family home six months in advance is pushing though - so watch out for control freaks!


3. You have "mutual friends".

If your band gigs regularly, chances are you'll meet each others friends. Meet them often enough and they'll become yours too. I recently went through my Facebook friends list to send out invites to a gig, and discovered to my horror that I knew less than twenty people in my area who weren't mutual friends of "Insert Band Name Here".



Those twenty event invites went a long way to getting the numbers up at our gig - NOT!!!

4. Arguments about money.

The music industry is an industry and it requires an input of cash from somewhere. Whenever it requires a cash injection from you; be it expensive studio fees, band merchandising costs, or top quality CD pressings, try not to argue about it! Like a relationship, it only slows things down and wastes energy.

Unlike a relationship, the making up afterwards is nowhere near as good!

5. Spending way too much time together.

When a group of creative types work well together, it can be hard to switch off and tune out for a while. In my current situation, musical matters get discussed nearly everyday. There's trips to the pub to check out other bands, weekly rehearsals, gigs at least once a week, piling into each others living rooms for an emergency song writing session......a night off just doesn't seem to exist. But if your band are buddies, being in constant demand can be one of the best things! Just watch out if your significant other asks you flat out if you're still in a relationship and feels the needs to add "with just the two of us?"

6.  Meeting the family.

When your band gets to the level where it needs the kind of time commitment a full-time job would, it's only natural your paths will cross with each other's families. This is also a big plus in my book; especially if you're a mixed gender band. Some of my band buddies Mrs's are my best friends and all those late nights and absent weekends won't raise any suspicious eyebrows if partners are kept in the mix.

7. Moving in together - sort of.

If things start to hot up with your musical act, it's only a matter of time until you have to expand your horizons and play gigs outside of your home town. When this happens, you may find yourself sharing a car, a hotel room, or even a tour bus with them. It's these times in the lifespan of a band when you discover just how small a drummers bladder can really be, and wonder whether or not you should just stick your finger up there yourself to see how inflamed that prostate is really getting.








8. Celebrating significant life events together. 

Just like that scene from Guns N' Roses "November Rain", you may find yourself tearing up at the sight of one of your bandies getting married. This has happened to me twice and has been the only two moments in my life when it's been remotely acceptable for me to compare myself to Slash.

For better or worse, for richer or poorer, being in a band is one of life's most awesome adventures and I wouldn't change it for the world!

Happy New “Year of the Groove”; an interview with Worldwide Groove Corporation

New Year’s Resolutions; why make them? January is a month that always really ticks me off for two reasons. One, the terrible weather in the UK and two, all the newbies at my gym who pack the place out solidly for three weeks, then you never see them again. Their sweat is barely dried on the seat of the exercise bike and they've already broken their resolution.

A novel way to stick to a resolution is to start it in July. That’s exactly what Worldwide Groove Corporation did when they started the "Year of the Groove”. The electronic music duo from Nashville have set themselves the challenge of putting out one release a month for at least a year. 

Their musical fingers have been in a range of pies with their work being used in film and TV and even as part of a partnership between WGC and the Right to Know organisation that aims to increase public awareness about genetically modified foods. They were even responsible for the Supermodel Astronaut Challenge; a social movement that spread as far as Europe and landed them a feature in the Huffington Post. With so much going on, I wondered how they even found time to work on their music.

As soon as I came across the “Year of the Groove” concept, I wondered what inspired them to set this challenge. For me, a release every month would be tough! I tend to release songs in bundles after spending months fiddling with them and going backwards and forwards until I snap! Perhaps a strict deadline is just what I need? Let’s see how it’s working out for them so far….

You've set yourselves the "Year of the Groove" challenge. What motivated you to do this?

"This is what we came up with to solve a few things that were keeping us from putting out any new music. We'd been working for 7 years on new music since our last album in 2007. It felt like it would take another decade before we could finish, since all of this is a side project and we pay our bills with other music work for clients.

After a time, we realised that the music market is more singles driven than albums driven, so it makes sense to simply put put songs as a series of smaller projects. That way we could finish them with graduated deadlines and they didn't all have to be cohesive with one another.

Once a month is actually keeping us working at a very fast pace. But this has been a great experience so far during the first six months. I just hope we survive the last six. HA!"


You pioneered the Supermodel Astronaut Challenge, a social movement that spread as far as Europe. What was the inspiration behind this challenge?

"The thought behind the Supermodel Astronaut Challenge was partly inspired by the ice bucket challenge, in terms of how it's structured, but the concept of it was fuelled by simply seeing so many amazingly strong and beautiful women and girls who don't even recognise their own accomplishments or gifts on a daily basis, because they're so distracted  by the things about themselves that they don't feel measured up. I wanted to endow them with a fitting title that would empower them to celebrate themselves just as they are and quiet that nagging voice of never measuring up because that is soul killing." 

Are these challenges you develop attempts to go viral and market your music in a really original, outside the box way? 

"Yes, but not just that. While it's quiet good to have something new to talk about each month and a reason to stay on people's radars through the "Year of the Groove", it's also driven by the need for regular deadlines or we would never ever finish any of it. The money work always seems to prevail! So when the idea got formulated, it seemed to solve so many problems at once.

As for Supermodel Astronaut,that did gain a lot of traction and landed us on Huffington Post which was really exciting! I'm not expecting it to go viral since that tends to be something that's hot for a moment then it's old news. I'd rather it have a slow burn where as people stumble across it, if it resonates with them, they can take the challenge and spread the word. The response from the girls and women who've seen it so far has been pretty much all positive, so I'd love to do more with the concept at some point. But for now, I'm in it so deep with the "Year of the Groove", there simply isn't enough of me to develop any more Supermodel Astronaut offshoots until I've got a little more time on my hands."

"If we didn't challenge ourselves this way, we'd still be sitting on several unfinished recordings and I' be feeling very creatively frustrated. You can only do so many music jobs for clients before you start to wonder if you're creative soul is still alive and able to create just for the beauty of creating".

If you were giving advice to other artists considering taking on a "Year of the Groove" for themselves, what would you tell them?

If I was going to do it again, I'd change the following...start in January just because it makes more sense, make sure I didn't have too many other obligations, maybe have most of the songs pretty much ready to go before we even begin, also maybe space out the releases a little more than one a month. But hey, we're doing it this way and we're not planning on stopping. Giddyup!

You can see more of Worldwide Groove Corporation's work here:

www.worldwidegroovecorp.com 

A full list of songs released as part of the "Year of the Groove" is available here: www.worldwidegroovecorp.com/the-year-of-the-groove

 and for sale here www.groovecorp.bandcamp.com