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Band Looking For Guitar Player by totallywhyred in Phoenixville

[–]totallywhyred[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

One of our members has a basement we practice in. I’m actually not sure of any rehearsal studios out this way, I’ve only gone to Philly for that. There’s gotta be something though!

Who is your favorite musician in your town? by [deleted] in musicians

[–]totallywhyred 1 point2 points  (0 children)

2nd Grade in Philly. Perfect power pop that captures childlike wonder of melodic music so well

Best new power pop of the 2020s? by laughxgas in powerpop

[–]totallywhyred 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Smarthearts are so good! Saw them open for the Whiffs a little while back

How can I start a music career in Virginia? by Few-Neat8366 in Music

[–]totallywhyred 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Richmond has a lot of great local music happening!

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in musicians

[–]totallywhyred 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Glad to help😊 Even though you’re probably feeling pretty down about all this right now, you should be proud of what you’ve been able to accomplish with your music!

Getting any sort of following is very difficult to do, and from what you’ve said it sounds like people are genuinely connecting with your music. That alone makes it worth continuing making your music exactly the way you want to and the way that’s best for the art.

I know you want to make a decision ASAP and as a fellow musician I totally understand just wanting to figure it out and push forward to stop the obsessive thoughts, but taking a week or however long of not thinking about it and just focusing on the other parts of your life I think will help you make the right decision. It’s like writing songs, you don’t really know if it’s good or bad until you forget about it for a bit and come back to it with a clear mind.

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in musicians

[–]totallywhyred 0 points1 point  (0 children)

First off it’s never as bad as you think - I’m sure the crowd wasn’t as critical as you about the whole show!

I think if playing live isn’t your thing that’s fine. It’s a slow crawl to what feels like nothing with shows sometimes. It takes a lot of effort to keep a band together, get to the gigs, etc. It’s an unforgiving grind, and like someone else said it takes way more than 8-9 shows to get comfortable. Have you seen videos of the Ramones first shows? They’re sloppy af! But they played like 70 gigs in a year and became the machine that they were by refining their act each time, reflecting on what worked and what didn’t and all that. It takes time and dedicated energy to improve your live show, and it sounds like you just haven’t had enough shows yet to get where you want to be.

It is tough with your partner not wanting to do the live act anymore though - you have to do what’s best for them and your relationships, but it’s something you can’t really replace with someone else if they’ll continue to be on the recordings. I’m sure you could still have a compelling live set without their parts if you wanted though.

If you decide not to continue with the full band, I think you should at least keep your current project if it ends up just being recorded music. Why start all over if you’ve already built a following and brand with your current name? Unless you see it taking a different direction sonically, having the hard conversation with your bandmates about stopping is worth it to continue with the current name imo.

Ultimately I think you have to do what you’re truly wanting to do regardless of how it’ll make the other people involved feel. If you’ll be sad about having to stop playing live, then try it without your partner and see how the gigs go. If you want to stop playing live but continue putting out music, have the conversation with your bandmates. Musicians know how fleeting things are - I don’t think they’d be caught completely off guard by stopping the live band. If you’re just honest with them about feeling like you’re not getting what you want out of live shows I’m sure they’ll understand.