The Jam Room Blog Thread.

Danny G · January 20, 2014, 07:29:21 PM

My old bandmate Eric Tessmer uses like 13-63's or higher in E flat.

It works. And sounds good. And he's crazy.

mortlock · January 20, 2014, 08:03:29 PM

any of you guys ever get discouraged and ask yourself why the fuck you dedicated your life to music and being in bands??

VOLVO))) · January 20, 2014, 08:50:23 PM

Why do you think I make knives now?

agent of change · January 20, 2014, 08:52:30 PM

Yeah. I even sold my drums and thought "Well maybe I'll also be that guy who turns 40, has kids, and gives up playing music." But then after about a year I figured out what the problem was, and changed it, and the right people showed up to play music with. And I've got an even better kit and actually love my bandmates.

Sometimes maybe we gotta give shit up for a while to get a new perspective on it. But also I gave up any dream of being a rock star a long long time ago, and play music because it's who I am.

mortlock · January 20, 2014, 09:01:28 PM

i never even considered being a rock star. all the bands ive ever played in are/were not nearly commercial enough. i have had and still do have my rock star moments from time to time though.. that's all that matters in the end. you still find a way to play....

dogfood · January 20, 2014, 09:02:10 PM

+1 agent

RacerX · January 20, 2014, 09:44:36 PM

Other reasons may come & go, but the one constant reason I make music is because I enjoy it.

BrianDamage · January 20, 2014, 09:56:26 PM

About to buy an ESP Eclipse I. ESP not LTD body with no electronics in it for 350. I think I am gonna go vintage style with the pickups and shit.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-N900A using Tapatalk

mutantcolors · January 20, 2014, 10:08:06 PM

After one band, to which I dedicated pretty much everything, vaporized because a couple guys were too lazy to come to practice, I was over it. I looked for (and somehow) found a way to stay involved without the prospect of making a buck from my own output ever being an issue, which has kept things real easy going ever since.

That and I've been away from home for nigh on five fucking years now, pretty hard to keep up a band under that context.

Lumpy · January 20, 2014, 10:11:11 PM

One time (the only time...) I saw this guy William Parker play the bass (double bass aka upright bass). The best bass player I've ever seen, by far - not that I've seen every upright bass player in the world, but if you told me he was the best in the world I would believe it. It was a free jazz trio or quartet, I forget, and the stuff he was doing on bass when he was 'laying back' was more powerful and more interesting than what I've seen other bass players do when they're 'going for it'. He was a monster, he manhandled it like a toy, really strong physically, and ideas were just flowing out of him. He was like a force of nature. But there was only like 5 people at the show (matinee in Brooklyn). That didn't seem to matter to the dudes in the band. Afterwards, William Parker probably didn't go home and wonder why he was still playing music... he probably just got ready to do the next thing on his schedule. So sometimes, when I'm wondering why the fuck am I wasting time playing music that nobody else likes or cares about, I think about William Parker, maybe the best bass player in the world, and how he doesn't get discouraged and have a crisis of self-doubt because there's only 5 people at his show, etc. He just keeps on going anyway. That story seems to help me, maybe it will help you too.

Danny G · January 21, 2014, 12:25:24 AM

Often. All the time actually. But I don't want to do anything else with my life, and for all the hardships and bullshit, it's been worth every second of my life that I've dedicated to it.

Danny G · January 21, 2014, 12:26:33 AM

^^^THIS.

JemDooM · January 21, 2014, 06:15:35 AM

That's a great story Lumpy

The people who I see burn out/lose it/allow music to make them miserable, are always people who started to want more out of it than just their own personal satisfaction, I cant believe the number of people I've seen go through this, I cant imagine that's you tho mort! Whats up?

khoomeizhi · January 21, 2014, 06:30:07 AM

discouraged sometimes, yes, but not the other part, since music is only one of a number of things i could say i've dedicated my life to.

Omlet · January 21, 2014, 06:34:26 AM

Well, my music sucks so badly that I'm forced to play it as solo project(s). Sometimes I don't care (and don't really care that almost nobody listens to it) but in most cases I'm really, really discouraged. And it leads to situations when I don't even touch the guitar for six months or so...

JemDooM · January 21, 2014, 07:03:59 AM

thinking on that, I was so busy thinking of those other people and their reasons, when I think of myself, there are plenty reasons for why iv been discouraged, thinking I was shit for the first few years of playing was discouraging, I used to dread going down to the practise rooms because I didn't want anyone to hear, trying out 4-5 drummers over months and none of them working out, the fact I harass myself all the time for not being as good as I want to be can be discouraging, driving 2 and a half hours to practise only for the drummer not to show up because he was sleeping and having to drive 2 and half hours home was discouraging, being boo'd and told to fuck off while playing live was discouraging. Yeah it can be pretty discouraging. But none of that was as discouraging as the time I was depressed because I wasn't making music, had no band, no-one seemed to want to do anything with me, that was much worse, like the other guys say its just something we want to do, so not doing it doesn't really work, sometimes you just have to push through the hard times...

Omlet · January 21, 2014, 07:17:45 AM

That's the good side of playing solo - no one (except yourself) will ever disappoint you. And no one will complain about how bad player you are

The main downside is lack of live activities - but I don't care, as I really suck at playing if I'm not 100% focused

Lumpy · January 21, 2014, 09:15:04 AM

Mortlock's been playing in heavy bands since like 1990, he doesn't toot his own horn much here, but kudos for his long commitment.

Personally, I tend to give up on things too soon, but music is so important to me, I hope to be playing it in some form or another for the rest of my life. Even if it's just in my bedroom.

VOLVO))) · January 21, 2014, 11:55:51 AM

This is the SRV school of guitaring.

mortlock · January 21, 2014, 01:06:36 PM

im good, probably more of a mild midlife moment. im not willing to accept how sore I am the next day after an intense 2 hour practice session..haha. fuck it, if lemmy can still do it, so can I. ftw!!

thanks for the props lumpy. youre a gentleman and a scholar..

liquidsmoke · January 21, 2014, 01:15:04 PM

I haven't exactly dedicated my life to playing music, I see that as a sleep, work, play guitar/sing and do little else lifestyle which doesn't appeal to me at all because I am too lazy and like fucking off too much but after many years of being a terrible guitar player, writing mostly cliche mediocre riffs and no full songs, sometimes not touching my guitar for weeks and months at a time, and having only near band experiences that didn't go anywhere, I'm really glad that I stuck with it now that I'm in a band that plays out and records. Almost as soon as that started things began to fall into place. I got somewhat better at guitar quickly because I had to practice more in order to remember and get good at material that I was writing, I began to learn how to write songs, how to sing(it had been almost 20 years), and how to write lyrics. Sometimes it does suck but playing guitar and writing is so much more enjoyable now. I now have an actual vision that I feel is my own no matter how derivative it may seem to some(not sure about that yet but not too concerned) and sharing it with people live is usually very rewarding the times I'm not super nervous, even when we clear half the room after a song because we are slow.

Corey Y · January 21, 2014, 01:16:17 PM

Yeah, but only every other week or so lol. I'm technically in 4 bands right now and I haven't played a show since October of 2011. I keep thinking about doing a solo project, because I can't ever get a group of people fully on board with what I want to do. Either musically or just practically with the kind of schedule and activity I want out of being in a band. At one point years ago I just decided to focus on being a recording/mixing engineer instead of being a gigging musician, but that eventually washed out. If you want a hobby that has a worse ratio of investment to return, record OTHER musicians. Now I just have my recording setup at home and record my own stuff, but that seems to have becomes endlessly recording bands that never finish anything and then fizzle out or break out without ever actually doing anything. So I just work for free and never really get to play the music I want or I like the music and the band never does anything. I have never had any kind of ambition to be famous through music or make it a career either, just a hobby. Failing at a hobby feels kind of more hollowing and defeating than failing at a career.

Right now I'm trying to just focus on doing things I enjoy and getting the most out of the moment. Enjoying a jam, recording a song for myself, whatever. In the past I've tended to start doing things for myself, then go searching for people to turn it into a full band and get frustrated and give up. I think I'll probably get more out of music in the future if I focus on doing what I want by myself and completing it...then if I can find people to do it I will just treat it like auditions for a band. Instead of trying to start a band from scratch, with a handful of songs/riffs/ideas and it going off the rails before it gets started.

Your issue might be totally different, but my issue is focus. I enjoy something, I get a little ADD and take off on a course with it, then when it starts not working out I just kind of get depressed and give up. Trying to just keep my focus on doing the thing I want to do for myself or if I'm playing with other people just enjoying what I'm doing at that time and not get caught up in all the things that aren't happening that I want. Not that I'm the zen master, not giving advice, I'm a mess lol. I've never been one of those people that threatens to quit music, that's not an option for me, because it's just something I love doing. Love is a generous term, it's just something I'm obsessed with doing and I'm constantly trying to find a more emotionally healthy way to be in love with it.

liquidsmoke · January 21, 2014, 01:22:21 PM

A lot of people also want to make it big, or let's say would rather be playing music for a living than working at a call center or restaurant. I think it often comes down to how much they think about that versus how much they simply enjoy the music they make. Who wouldn't love to be at the High On Fire level for example? But if you don't get there after years of albums and shows and it bums you out big time then yeah, that's allowing that dream to create misery which is sad.

liquidsmoke · January 21, 2014, 01:25:09 PM

UPS just showed up with my Carvin. The box is cold, going to wait as long as I can before opening it and cranked it up.

Corey Y · January 21, 2014, 01:26:30 PM

What did you get from Carvin?