October 27, 2024 • 31 mins
Picture this: a freezing Reno garage, a propane heater trying its best, and a practice session that feels more like a scene from a sitcom than the birth of a band. Our journey from Garage to Stage starts with tales like these—missteps, misadventures, and a lot of music-making in between. Whether you're striking out on your own or joining the ranks of an established group, we promise insights into the realities of band formation, from choosing the perfect practice spot to navigating the complex world of potential bandmates through platforms like Band Mix and social media.
The road to a harmonious band is paved with challenges, and our early days in Reno taught us that aligning musical visions isn't just about finding musicians; it's about finding the right ones. We unwrap the trials and triumphs of assembling musicians with varying skill levels and ambitions. Expect candid conversations about managing expectations, ensuring everyone shares the same musical direction, and the eternal quest for the perfect vocalist without letting egos take center stage. Our stories are your guide to understanding band dynamics and the creative synergy that fuels a cohesive group.
And then, there's the laughter. The auditions that went sideways, the gigs where cymbals became airborne—these stories aren't just for chuckles; they're lessons in preparation and perseverance. We explore how these nerve-wracking moments shaped our understanding of the time and dedication a band demands, rivaling even personal relationships. As we share these anecdotes, we open the floor to you, our listeners, inviting you to become part of our narrative, support our podcast, and maybe even win a guitar along the way. Join us in a community that celebrates the journey from Garage to Stage with humor and heart.
Thank you and please visit our social medial sites to leave feedback and or support our project.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hello and welcome to Garage to Stage.
My name is Rob WardrumsFranklin.
I am your host today and myco-host is Dana Thunderbase
Franklin.
First of all, I want to thankall those of you that listened
to our trailer and hopefully itsparked an interest in what
we're going to be talking abouttoday, which is basically the
very first scenario.
(00:21):
It's called Getting that BandStarted, and there are basically
two different scenarios we'regoing to be looking at today.
There's one you're basicallyyou're the one putting the band
together, you or maybe a friendor somebody you've been jamming
with, and you're like basicallytaking control.
You're the one doing theauditions.
You're the one that's likesetting a direction for how you
(00:42):
want the band to go.
And the second scenario isbasically you audition for an
established band or a band maybethat's just starting out.
So, uh, my co-host here, mybest friend, my co-bandmate and,
uh, my, like I said, my bestfriend here is going to kick off
, uh, kick off the firstscenario.
(01:02):
So, dana, let let's hear whatyou've got to say.
I'll tear your eye out overhere.
Speaker 2 (01:07):
Thank you for the introduction.
I appreciate that.
So okay, so say you're a guitarplayer, bass player, drummer,
vocalist, keyboardist, anybodywith a musical interest and you
want to start a band and you'relike where do I start?
How do I get this going?
Well, first thing, obviously,is going to be where are you
going to do this?
You're going to have to figureout a location.
(01:27):
You know you might bepracticing in your room, but mom
and dad are going to be like,oh hell, no, you're not bringing
no drummer in here, vocalistand whole band set up.
So you know, maybe you can moveit to the garage if your
parents are really supportiveand have the room.
But more than likely you'regoing to have to find an
established practice spot, be ita room somebody's renting out,
(01:47):
office space or, as moststarting musicians and we've
done numerous times, storageunits.
You got to find a storage unitthat has electricity, somewhere
where it's a safe environment soyou don't have to worry about
anybody ripping your shit off.
And, as we've found is probablythe best case scenario is get
something that's climatecontrolled so you know nothing's
(02:10):
messing with your guitars andyour amps, your speakers and
everything that you're leavingin there.
So, once you get that locationand you figure out where you're
going to be doing this at, yougot to figure out it's like,
okay, how am I going to getpeople?
What do I need to do to locatepeople?
(02:32):
You know there's differentsites you can get on.
You know you can.
Of course, you can advertise onpaper.
There's social media nowadays.
You know there's still a paperaround.
You know I there might be.
I'm not sure you know it's adigital people.
Speaker 1 (02:43):
It's on your phone everything's's on your phone now
.
That makes sense.
That makes sense.
Speaker 2 (02:46):
So you know you've got to find other people that
are interested.
You know there's sites calledlike Band Mix where you just put
in, you know the local areawherever you're trying to form
the band in, you know, andthey'll ask you all kinds of
stuff for your level, your levelof commitment, what you've done
before, how many gigs have youplayed and you know, et cetera,
stuff like that.
(03:07):
So you know that's a good startand you start finding people.
Maybe you know some friendsthat know friends and you know
you just start connecting thatway with other musicians.
Speaker 1 (03:17):
Okay, man.
So you've got a hold of thesepeople.
Have you set up a time and alocation to get together with
these guys and jam and see whatit's all about?
Uh, where do you go from there,man?
Speaker 2 (03:28):
Well, you know, when you talk to the people, you you
gotta, you gotta have a base ofwhat, what you're going to jam
to.
You know, is this going to be a15 minute blues jam, you know,
to see what everybody's about?
Or you want to lay down acouple of songs like hey, you
know, this is the songs thatwe're going to plan on playing.
(03:49):
You know, learn this.
That way you've got an idea ofyou know what the song is
already supposed to sound likeand you can kind of judge them
off.
What you already know.
Um, so there's differentscenarios you can do with with
auditioning, with that.
But you know, you got to askthese people ahead of time what
kind of music are you into?
Is it the same genre?
You just say, hey, we want tobe a rock band.
Well, how many categories doesthat fall under?
(04:10):
Way, way low Are you going tobe an ABBA-type?
Speaker 1 (04:14):
soft rock band or.
Speaker 2 (04:15):
Bee Gees yeah hell no .
But for those of you out therethat like that kind of music, we
do not discriminate.
Well put.
Speaker 1 (04:24):
Good disclaimer.
Speaker 2 (04:25):
Or do you want to do something you know, like acdc,
iron maiden, you want to dosomething that's a little bit
more, more heavy, and you know,or then you got, you know the
black sabbaths and the tool, andyou know so many different
types of rock out there.
So you gotta, you know yougotta find people that are into
the same kind of music that youwant to do.
And then you know, of coursethere's always the talk of well,
are we going to be a cover band?
(04:46):
Are we going to do alloriginals or a little bit of
both to get out there and play?
There's so many differentthings you guys all need to talk
about.
And of course, you've got todecide on practice times.
How much are we going topractice every week?
Speaker 1 (05:02):
So true.
Speaker 2 (05:03):
What's everybody's level of commitment.
I, you're going to practiceevery week, so true, you know
what's everybody's level ofcommitment.
I mean, how many times have webeen in bands and people like,
oh well, let's practice in acouple of weeks for like a
couple weeks?
Or you mean like 10 times inthe next couple weeks?
You know some people a littlebit more committed than others
and that might tear apart theband or it might not even make
it to audition.
Speaker 1 (05:20):
Once you talk to people about that I know we
first started we were kind ofcontrol freaks too.
We were doing everything fromgetting a business name uh, go
down to the courthouse and get abusiness name checking account
start working on logos andt-shirts and stickers.
The whole works before we evenestablished band.
Speaker 2 (05:35):
Oh yeah, we even had.
I mean, we had a contract forthe club owners.
Speaker 1 (05:38):
Exactly, we did, we did, we were carried away.
What are you getting?
Speaker 2 (05:41):
paid, but these are the type of things that you need
to think about, especially ifyou want to be the leader of a
band or if you're the one thatwants to really start out this
band.
That's another thing you got totalk about with everybody.
Are they comfortable withhaving one person as a leader,
like we've been in some of theseother past bands, it's like, or
do you want to make it more ofa democracy where everybody
decides on?
You know, they, you know?
(06:02):
Do you decide on, hey, whattype of songs we want to do, and
you know all that type of stuff.
Speaker 1 (06:08):
Okay.
So all right, you're jammingalong and maybe you're making
mistakes.
They're making mistakes.
How do you handle a situationlike that when you're doing an
audition?
I mean, are you going to like,say, well, you know that wasn't
right, or are you just going tolet it go and discuss it at the
end?
Or how do you?
How do you handle, basically,how everybody's playing?
Speaker 2 (06:24):
well, you know criticism being in part of bands
just like.
You know this is like being ona sports team or anything else.
You got to be able to takeconstructive criticism.
You know good and bad.
You got to be able to give it.
You got to be able to receiveit.
You know, not everybody's goingto be on your same level.
You know you're ready to starta band, maybe you're feeling
really comfortable and you'reready to hit the stage.
(06:45):
You know, right off and you'relike, okay, let's learn these 10
songs in the next few days.
And the other person's likewhoa, you know I, you know it'll
take me months to learn 10songs.
So you know you.
You talk about level and Iguess the first 10 minutes that
you're playing with somebodyyou're going to definitely know.
You know where they're atcompared to where you know
you're at.
And now your main question isyou know, how do you can handle
(07:09):
it?
Well, I'd say you'd be up frontwith everybody, you know, right
there, and then, instead ofsaying, oh well, we'll give you
a call and say, hey, you knoware you into this type of music,
you know, yeah, okay, hey, Itotally agree with everything
you said.
Speaker 1 (07:25):
There's one thing I want to put out there, though
Pitfall you want to kind ofavoid, I know, if you haven't
played with a bunch of peoplebefore, you're going to be real
excited about playing withsomebody else and you're going
to be a little on theunjudgmental side and say, okay,
well, that sounded kind of cool, let's keep going.
But I think in the long run,you really want to.
(07:47):
You want to really think aboutthe position you're in right now
.
Do you want to keep auditioningor are you just real excited
about this first place personyou played with and then go from
there?
Speaker 2 (07:53):
yeah, that's very true.
We've definitely been in thatscenario where it's like you
know, it's just been you and meplaying for a while.
We're like, okay, let's findsome drummer or some guitar
player, Not a drummer.
Speaker 1 (08:03):
I hope yeah.
Well, no, I'm just kidding.
Speaker 2 (08:05):
Let's find a guitar player or vocalist and all of a
sudden the first guitar playercomes in.
You're like, okay, that soundscool because you haven't played
with anybody in a while.
Yeah, exactly, all of a suddenyou go back to, maybe listening
to recordings, you know, andthat's another riff that you
want to put in a song.
Speaker 1 (08:23):
Well, back in our day we couldn't afford to record
anything because we had nothingto record on.
Speaker 2 (08:27):
Yeah, things are a lot easier now.
Speaker 1 (08:29):
That's for sure that's very true, okay, okay.
So let's say, everybody justauditioned, it went well.
How do you proceed?
I mean, what would be your nextstep, do you think?
Speaker 2 (08:42):
Well, next step you know if you're feeling like
everybody's egos and attitudesare all in line and you don't
have one person, that's goingoff the deep end and you know is
going to go crazy on you, youknow your next thing is
discussing.
You know really practice timesand that's where the level of
commitment comes in.
You know if it's sounding goodand you're like you know what
this project is badass, let'skeep it going there.
(09:10):
You go.
You know, and you got peoplethere.
Like I said before, you knowmaybe you know between work and
family or whatever they gotgoing on in their life, they can
only commit to one day a week.
You know, can you?
Can you do that, or are youlooking for something that's a
little bit more serious?
You know that's a that's a bigsubject that everybody's going
to have to decide on right fromthe beginning.
Speaker 1 (09:25):
Okay, man, hey, can you discuss basically our first
three bands, Because we wereReno-based at the time and we
basically what the scenario thatDana's talking about right now?
Basically we went through thatthree times and if you could
discuss a little bit about whatwe did and how it morphed into
what it was?
Speaker 2 (09:42):
Okay yeah, our first band.
I believe we called it Pyrite.
Speaker 1 (09:47):
Exactly.
Speaker 2 (09:49):
It was you and me.
We had this cool house with acool-ass basement.
Speaker 1 (09:52):
And we were writing all the songs.
Speaker 2 (09:54):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (09:55):
Being just a drummer and bass player is unusual.
We were writing everything.
Speaker 2 (09:58):
So we were like, okay , well, we got this tight and
we're doing good, let's form aband.
And talking about where youfind people, it's like you know,
ours ended up to where.
We went to this local guitarshop and, like Rob said, it was
in Reno, I don't know if it'sstill there.
It's called Bizarre Guitar andyou know, we knew this guitar
(10:21):
tech that was in there all thetime.
We'd always talk to him andknew he was a good player, and
We'd always talk to him and knewhe was a good player and it's
like, dude, you need to be in aband.
And so we told him we wereforming something and he was
actually the first one that camedown.
His name was Neil, by the way,neil Schlocker, if you're out
there he came down and came toour basement.
Speaker 1 (10:43):
And we started jamming.
I think it was to Dockin' Songor something like that, I
believe it was Breaking theChains.
Speaker 2 (10:47):
I think it was the Dokken song or something like
that.
I believe it was Breaking theChains, yeah, something like
that.
And after we played that songwe were all looking at each
other like, okay, this is sick,and we must have played that
song 15, 20 times and otherstuff and jamming.
And then that turned into wefound another guitar player, I
think someone that you workedwith, and then we looked for a
singer and all this stuff.
Speaker 1 (11:05):
That's the struggle right there Found a vocal, a
good front man for the project.
If you have a vision and youcan't find a vocalist that fits
that vision, that's a.
That's a difficult spot to bein and we've been in it more
than more than once or twice.
Speaker 2 (11:18):
Yeah, yeah, you know, to find a good vocalist that
you know doesn't want to be themain leader or had that ego and
the attitude that goes usuallywith being the front man, you
know, not a bad thing, causethere's amazing front men out
there that you know.
The reason they are what theyare is because of their ego and
their attitude, exactly Um.
But you know, once you'veestablished all that um, then
(11:42):
you start doing the band thingand, like I said, our first band
we started out as a cover band.
I mean, we must have learned 40or 50 songs.
Speaker 1 (11:53):
Oh yeah, because in Reno the clubs are open until
like 2 am.
You're playing until 2 am, soyou're starting at 9 and playing
until 2.
So you've got to have somematerial, definitely.
Speaker 2 (12:03):
But the level of commitment that we were all at.
We we were practicing a lot,you know.
We learned those 50, 60 songsand probably two, three months.
Then we were ready to go outand start playing exactly those
are good days.
Speaker 1 (12:15):
I miss those.
Oh yeah, oh yeah.
Speaker 2 (12:17):
Hard work, but good days then that that pyrite band
actually, you know, morphed into, turned into our first original
working band, which we changedthe name to Vices.
Speaker 1 (12:31):
V-I-C-E-Z, by the way .
Speaker 2 (12:32):
V-I-C-E-Z.
Yeah, vices, which, of course,is a bad habit.
Speaker 1 (12:35):
Don't look for it on social media, because back then
there was no social media.
Speaker 2 (12:41):
Everything we recorded was on cassette tapes
or a camcorder.
Speaker 1 (12:44):
Yeah, from boom boxes .
Speaker 2 (12:46):
The recordings were pretty sad and ugly compared to
nowadays.
Speaker 1 (12:52):
Okay, matt from Advices.
Speaker 2 (12:54):
What happened Well, Advices, like I said, we started
playing out all over the place.
We were doing, like I said, thecover songs and I think in
those three or four months weput together one original song,
which was kind of sad because wewere so concentrated on doing
the cover songs.
Speaker 1 (13:09):
Back then you pretty much had to just to get into the
clubs.
I mean they wanted, you know,the girls had to have something
to dance to.
Speaker 2 (13:14):
Yeah, exactly.
So you know we did do the oneoriginal song but you know,
after a while we're like youknow we want to do just original
music.
I'm tired of playing otherpeople's music.
We felt comfortable with ourplaying tour.
Speaker 1 (13:30):
Plus, we set our sights high.
We wanted to be more than justa local band.
Of course, we had the dream ofbeing worldwide.
Speaker 2 (13:37):
It's just like any solid musician would be.
It's like you don't want tojust play.
All of a sudden you're goingfrom your garage to your playing
clubs and then you're like,well, okay, this is cool playing
in front of 10, 50 people, butyou know, now I want to do 500,
a thousand two thousand twentythousand, you know and you know,
with that dream.
So our, our band vices actuallyturned into our third band
(14:01):
called monolith, which was, youknow, in my opinion, our most
successful band.
Speaker 1 (14:06):
Oh, definitely For the Reno area.
We were pretty popular at thattime and a lot of the club
owners actually at one pointwere calling us when they had
openings, instead of us havingto call the club owners.
Speaker 2 (14:17):
Yeah, it was nice to get to that point where, you
know, I mean, we were playingevery weekend you know, by
choice, you know we could haveplayed every weekend and then
sometimes even on Mondays andTuesdays, off days.
But yeah, and that band, youknow, when we got that one going
we did just we started out withjust writing original music,
(14:39):
which you know you and me wrote90% of the stuff which you know.
In most bands it tends to gothat way.
You'll get one or twosongwriters and you know it'll
kind of gravitate towards theirwriting most of the stuff until
someone else in the band is likehey, check this out, you know.
You know I want to throw thislittle piece in.
You know, the more people thatcan contribute, you know, the
better your sound, I think, is.
That way everybody's a littlebit more interested in it and
(15:01):
you're getting a.
You're putting together a uniquesound with just you individuals
as opposed to one personwriting everything and all of a
sudden you're like, oh okay,well, I know these guys, I can
tell just from that guitar riffbecause they're kind of in the
same.
Speaker 1 (15:15):
And I've got to kick out a kudo here for a guitar
player we had at the time.
We'd had multiple guitarplayers, but one we had at this
point in Monolith.
If you're out there, sammy, youwere the best.
I mean you were, uh, when wewrote songs and one in
particular called fool's gold.
We me and dana had an idea forthat song.
We knew the direction we wantedto go with it and he just, it's
(15:37):
like magically, just fell intothe song where we needed it yeah
, and now that's you know, andthat's going back to the
auditions part.
Speaker 2 (15:44):
That's you know.
Someone like Rob said with thatguitar player we had in Sammy
Martin, you'll know, not onlyare they going to be able to
make you sound better, butthey're going to help you create
your unique sound.
And he definitely did, andthose were good times.
Missed that shit.
Speaker 1 (16:05):
Yeah, me too did, and we, those were good times.
I miss that shit.
Yeah, me too.
And speaking of which, uh,you're gonna hear some pre, mid
and post uh music in in ourepisode here, and that's
basically from this band,monolith.
Uh, you're gonna notice, therecording is, you know, less
than optimal, but, uh, you haveto remember this was back in the
days when you're lucky to havea four truck recorder, and this
was actually done at a live show.
(16:25):
uh, all the segments of it weredone at a live show through a
camcorder, so it was difficultto even get somewhat of a good
mix, even through some software.
Oh yeah, okay, it's time forwhat we're going to call special
segment.
Oh shit, special this isbasically between Dana and
myself.
We're going to talk about whatwas either the funniest or the
worst thing that happened to you, either on stage or in practice
(16:48):
.
And for me personally, I'm justgoing to do a progressive kind
of thing, like my earliestmemories to like the most recent
.
So, dana, let's, let's shoot itoff with you, man.
What was like the funniest orworst thing that ever happened
to you?
Practice?
Speaker 2 (17:01):
I mean, I guess this could be funny and worse.
Speaker 1 (17:03):
I mean, I guess this could be funny and worse.
Speaker 2 (17:05):
You know, back in the day in Reno, when we were doing
a band, it was you, me and thisguy named Brian Wenzel.
He's a guitar player amazingguitar player.
Speaker 1 (17:14):
He's a guitar, god, it's outstanding.
Speaker 2 (17:16):
We were fortunate to play with him for a couple weeks
until, you know, when he hadhis own manager that took him
off to a band inzona back in theday.
But but when we were, when wewere playing, it was in the
middle of winter, probablydecember, january, and of course
it's colder and shit, snow'sflying, yeah, and we got the
storage unit that's, you know,pretty close to railroad tracks,
or no, not the railroad tracksby the airport yeah, yeah and um
(17:39):
, you know, like I said, it'sdecember.
This is not a climate controlledplace, so we're in there
freezing our ass off.
I think we're playing songs andpracticing in between putting
our gloves back on trying tokeep our hands warm enough to
play, and if we tried to recordanything, of course we had to
wait for the airplanes to landor take off, because we were so
(18:00):
close to the runways.
Speaker 1 (18:02):
Or that heater that sounded like a jet airplane.
Speaker 2 (18:04):
Yeah, we had this heater in there, heater that
sounded like a jet airplane.
Yeah, yeah, we had this heaterin there that it literally
looked like a jet engine and youknow, as I don't know if it's
propane or something.
Speaker 1 (18:12):
It was propane and oh yeah, it stunk really bad.
Oh yeah, I mean five minutes ofthat.
Speaker 2 (18:16):
Oh yeah, we're just we're thinking of all kinds of
crazy stuff to play, becausewe're you know, we got some
definitely fumes going and we'rewe're hiring shit just from the
remember this is like a 10 by15 like storage unit at the time
.
Yeah, so we're going fromfreezing our ass off to all of a
sudden it's 100 degrees inthere.
We turn that thing off and 10minutes later retune all the
instruments yeah, so it's youknow that good old days, cool.
Speaker 1 (18:39):
Well, mine was uh, basically, uh, very like one of
my very first bands uh, this iseven before me, and dana, this
was a.
It was actually a prettysuccessful band for for the time
.
But we were playing thisoutdoor party and there had to
been probably 150 people there.
Everything was going reallyreally good.
But another thing about reno itgets really really windy and at
(19:02):
the time I had this reallycheap piece of shit drum set and
with the single bar, you know,uh stands.
So, needless to say, halfwaythrough this, the set we were
doing, the wind picks up and mycymbals are blowing off and over
to, you know, just blowing over.
So by the time we got done withone song, I only had my ride
because that was the only onewith a double brace stand.
(19:23):
So that was my first anddefinitely embarrassing, but
there's nothing I could do aboutit, so I just played through.
Speaker 2 (19:29):
Playing some air cymbals, huh.
Speaker 1 (19:31):
Exactly Okay.
So I'm going to kick off thesecond scenario we discussed.
Okay, you're going to auditionfor an established band and one
just starting out.
I'm older and have a little bitmore experience in this area
than Dana because he was moreinvolved at the time with, you
know, building up his businessand you know spending time with
family, which is totallyunderstandable.
(19:51):
But basically I went through afew different scenarios in this
scenario.
Um, I've auditioned for bands.
I've got to tell you, one of myfirst ones was a guitar player.
This was in the Sacramento area.
Um, I auditioned for this bandI really really respected and
the guitar player I knew from adifferent band and at the time I
had just moved to Sacramentoand only had an apartment.
(20:14):
So basically, I really didn'thave a way to practice.
I didn't know about the rubberpractice pads you could put on
your toms at the time and playin a scenario like in an
apartment.
Anyway, what I did was justlike listen over and over and
over again and basically youknow tap on books or you know
kick my foot to the floor tryingto learn the material.
But I showed up at the auditionhonestly unprepared.
(20:37):
Were you nervous as shit?
Oh, you're always nervous.
I mean, I don't care how longyou've been playing, you're
always going to be nervous.
And so I basically I tanked, Itanked it.
And not only was I embarrassed,but it just made me understand
that you really need to beprepared to show up for an
audition.
And then I've had some wherethey call you and you actually
(20:59):
get together before, likewhether it be like in a strip
club or restaurant or a barwhatever to kind of discuss
everybody's opinions about howthey want to play or what the
band's all about.
And those are kind of auditionsthat I really appreciate,
because that way you're kind ofgetting a feel for the people
you're playing with before youeven set foot in their studio or
(21:19):
whatever their rehearsal spotmay be.
Speaker 2 (21:21):
Yeah, I mean, I guess you talk to someone for a few
minutes and you kind of know alittle bit more about them.
Speaker 1 (21:25):
Is it somebody you want to spend time with?
Because, let's face it, in theband.
I don't know if you realize, ifyou've gotten to this point or
not, but you're going to spendmore time with these guys than
your spouse, your friend, yoursignificant other.
Whatever your waking hours,either you're working or you're
rehearsing.
Speaker 2 (21:41):
There's been a lot of lost relationships because of
bands.
Speaker 1 (21:44):
Wow, there's been a lot of lost relationships
because of bands.
Wow, that's a whole differentepisode.
Speaker 2 (21:47):
And I'm sure many of you out there have millions of
stories on that alone.
Speaker 1 (21:52):
But yeah, I've had some good ones and obviously
some bad ones.
The good ones were really good,where everybody just got along
and it just kicked right off.
I know the best scenario was Iwas in Sacramento at the time
again and I was joined thisprogram called Weekend Warriors
through one of the music storesthere.
(22:13):
Unfortunately I can't rememberthe name of the music store.
It was basically musicians thatyou know were seasoned musicians
but having jammed with otherpeople for a while, and they had
these practice rooms where yougo in, all the equipment was
already there, you know, exceptfor guitars and amps and shit
like that.
But I mean, basically there's adrum kit, a PA, things like
that in there, but they wouldmatch you with other people with
(22:35):
the same interest in likegenres and those type of things.
Oh sick.
And that turned out to bereally well and I ended up
meeting a guitar player I endedup playing with in like three
different bands in theSacramento area.
His name is Mike Howard.
You know, kudos to you, buddy,and I miss you.
But that was probably the bestscenario for an audition because
basically they already matchedyou up with people that you had
(22:58):
an interest in.
You know the same type of music.
Speaker 2 (23:01):
You know, and if you hear stories on some of these
other bands, like you know,Motley Crue and some of these
bands that have made a bit, it'sbecause, hey, the guitar player
knew of this singer that hisfriend saw playing Exactly
exactly.
Speaker 1 (23:10):
I mean, it's all about networking, word of mouth
and networking, you know, goingout and watching.
Speaker 2 (23:14):
I mean you're never going to create a band by
sitting on your couch in theliving room.
I mean you've got to go out andyou've got to watch these
people.
You know you should be outthere.
Speaker 1 (23:27):
Exactly Okay.
So my basic, my advice here isokay, you're confident in your
skills.
Now how do you get an audition?
I mean, do you want to getfeedback first on their
approaching?
They want to jam, they want toplay out.
I mean, what is their?
Before you even go and auditionfor them, you get feedback, for
(23:47):
you know really what they'reall about.
You don't want to go there andjust have a totally different
mindset than what they have.
But also, be prepared, beconfident, but don't be
egotistical, because that's likethe worst.
I mean, nobody wants to walkinto a room where he thinks he
owns the world.
I mean, you want to beconfident, but just don't be an
egotistical ass.
(24:07):
Nobody wants that, no, no, anddiscuss with others in the band
their approach, their idea,playing example.
Do you want?
I mean, do they mind if youplay with your own technique, or
do they want you to play notefor note how something's
recorded?
If it's like a tribute band,you know, that's obvious you
probably want to play the partas close as possible.
But, um, if they're an originalband or covers, do do they mind
(24:29):
if you throw in your?
basically your style, I meanbecause, I mean, obviously you
want to play with the structureof a song, if it's an original
or if it's a cover, but do theymind if you throw in different
fills than what the originaldrummer had done?
Speaker 2 (24:46):
Yeah, it's like I've heard it a million times.
You know, if you want to hear acertain song, play it.
Speaker 1 (24:51):
Your damn radio exactly go outside, listen to
your car, see a live band yeah,they're gonna sound.
Speaker 2 (24:56):
They're gonna have their own style of how they play
it and you know, you look at alot of these new songs that are
being covered now and they'reeven better than the original
exactly, exactly, yeah.
Speaker 1 (25:06):
I mean yeah, throw your own style in there if it's,
they're with it.
That's exactly what you shouldbe doing, because I mean, you're
not only auditioning them,they're auditioning you, so it
goes both ways and, like I said,know their dedication level.
Does it match yours?
Speaker 2 (25:21):
Yeah, and when you go in, you know another thing.
When you go in there and youknow, say you're the guitar
player, you know you don't wantto crank everything on tent,
where you're the only one beingheard yeah, exactly you want to
you want to contribute to theband and make the band sound
better.
You know, if you're one ofthose ego guys and you want
everything about yourself, thenstart your own band with your
own band name and don't evenaudition, just do your project
(25:44):
and speaking of which, that isso huge.
Speaker 1 (25:47):
First thing you should do is like work on the
mix before you guys start,before you start working on a
tune with these guys is likework on the mix before you guys.
Before you start working on atune with these guys, make sure
you're the mix is good, becausethere's nothing worse than than
than doing an audition where themix is just terrible and nobody
can hear each other and justit's not going to work, it's not
going to be a good thing.
Speaker 2 (26:03):
Yeah, if it's really muddy it just sounds like a
brick wall of music going fromoff the walls into each other
and it's like you said, itdoesn't help anything.
Speaker 1 (26:14):
You know, you have no idea what this guy sounds like
and it's just a mess it is okay,and my next little piece of
advice is show up with what youneed.
Example would be okay if you'rea guitar player.
If you break a string, makesure you have extra strings with
you if you can afford it, orbatteries if you have active
pickups or, you know, if youneed them for effects or what?
Speaker 2 (26:34):
here's one.
Hey, if you're a vocalist,bring your damn mic.
What?
Speaker 1 (26:39):
whoever heard of that ?
And then another, another thing.
I mean, if you have a coupleguitars, you may want to bring
both, because they may be doingsongs in standard and some in
drop d, and if, if you don'twant to spend all the time you
know during an audition to, likeyou know, tune or down tune or
whatever, you're doing.
You know, be prepared.
That's the number one thing Imean.
That's my advice is plain beprepared.
(27:00):
Yeah, Okay, so I know we spenta lot of time here, Dan, with
just our experiences, but wereally want to hear your
experiences as well and feedbackabout this episode.
If you don't mind, there's aplace in the podcast to send us
a text, and if you're willing tobe a guest on our show, please
text us your information, andthat information will not come
(27:22):
across unless we put it there.
So if you tell us that youdon't want that public, we
definitely will not put itpublic.
Speaker 2 (27:28):
Yeah, we want to hear everybody's stories and let
their voices be heard out there.
That's what this is all abouthearing advice from other
musicians like hey, I just wentto this audition and this is
what happened.
Yeah, tell us everything.
Speaker 1 (27:42):
We don't want this to be all about us.
We're basically just like Isaid this is all about Garage to
Stage.
We want to give you ourexamples of what we've gone
through, but we also want tohear from you, and we want you
as a guest I mean anybody that'sin any of these situations that
we're talking about, or you'reway down the road and you're
already a recording artist.
Please give us your informationand we'll include you in our
(28:02):
next episode or episodes comingup.
Hey, dana, I think we've givensome good information, hopefully
.
I think we've given some goodinformation, hopefully, and
hopefully we've sparked someinterest, but you got anything
else to say, buddy?
Speaker 2 (28:11):
Yeah, well, you know, like I said, if you want to
leave comments on there, we wantto hear from you, and there's
also another place on thepodcast.
Yeah, so on that podcast, youknow there's a place on there
where you can contribute to thispodcast.
We you know, we're juststarting out and we would really
love to hear from you and wewere also like you know if you
got a couple extra bucks everymonth that you want to
(28:32):
contribute to support thepodcast, we would appreciate it.
Speaker 1 (28:36):
Yeah, and that'll help us get some, uh, the guests
that we're really lookingforward to getting on as well.
Speaker 2 (28:40):
So, yeah, and then coming episodes, we're going to
start giving stuff away.
You know we're giving awayguitars.
Speaker 1 (28:50):
Exactly Cool, we will get there.
Speaker 2 (28:51):
So for all of you that are listening, stay in
touch, leave comments, leavesome money.
We'll take gold if you got it.
Speaker 1 (29:00):
I mean, we're here, platinum, it all works All right
.
Well, dana, I think this hasbeen a great episode.
I've had fun talking.
Hello and welcome to Garage to Stage.
My name is Rob WardrumsFranklin.
I am your host today and myco-host is Dana Thunderbase
Franklin.
First of all, I want to thankall those of you that listened
to our trailer and hopefully itsparked an interest in what
we're going to be talking abouttoday, which is basically the
very first scenario.
(00:21):
It's called Getting that BandStarted, and there are basically
two different scenarios we'regoing to be looking at today.
There's one you're basicallyyou're the one putting the band
together, you or maybe a friendor somebody you've been jamming
with, and you're like basicallytaking control.
You're the one doing theauditions.
You're the one that's likesetting a direction for how you
(00:42):
want the band to go.
And the second scenario isbasically you audition for an
established band or a band maybethat's just starting out.
So, uh, my co-host here, mybest friend, my co-bandmate and,
uh, my, like I said, my bestfriend here is going to kick off
, uh, kick off the firstscenario.
(01:02):
So, dana, let let's hear whatyou've got to say.
I'll tear your eye out overhere.
Speaker 2 (01:07):
Thank you for the introduction.
I appreciate that.
So okay, so say you're a guitarplayer, bass player, drummer,
vocalist, keyboardist, anybodywith a musical interest and you
want to start a band and you'relike where do I start?
How do I get this going?
Well, first thing, obviously,is going to be where are you
going to do this?
You're going to have to figureout a location.
(01:27):
You know you might bepracticing in your room, but mom
and dad are going to be like,oh hell, no, you're not bringing
no drummer in here, vocalistand whole band set up.
So you know, maybe you can moveit to the garage if your
parents are really supportiveand have the room.
But more than likely you'regoing to have to find an
established practice spot, be ita room somebody's renting out,
(01:47):
office space or, as moststarting musicians and we've
done numerous times, storageunits.
You got to find a storage unitthat has electricity, somewhere
where it's a safe environment soyou don't have to worry about
anybody ripping your shit off.
And, as we've found is probablythe best case scenario is get
something that's climatecontrolled so you know nothing's
(02:10):
messing with your guitars andyour amps, your speakers and
everything that you're leavingin there.
So, once you get that locationand you figure out where you're
going to be doing this at, yougot to figure out it's like,
okay, how am I going to getpeople?
What do I need to do to locatepeople?
(02:32):
You know there's differentsites you can get on.
You know you can.
Of course, you can advertise onpaper.
There's social media nowadays.
You know there's still a paperaround.
You know I there might be.
I'm not sure you know it's adigital people.
Speaker 1 (02:43):
It's on your phone everything's's on your phone now
.
That makes sense.
That makes sense.
Speaker 2 (02:46):
So you know you've got to find other people that
are interested.
You know there's sites calledlike Band Mix where you just put
in, you know the local areawherever you're trying to form
the band in, you know, andthey'll ask you all kinds of
stuff for your level, your levelof commitment, what you've done
before, how many gigs have youplayed and you know, et cetera,
stuff like that.
(03:07):
So you know that's a good startand you start finding people.
Maybe you know some friendsthat know friends and you know
you just start connecting thatway with other musicians.
Speaker 1 (03:17):
Okay, man.
So you've got a hold of thesepeople.
Have you set up a time and alocation to get together with
these guys and jam and see whatit's all about?
Uh, where do you go from there,man?
Speaker 2 (03:28):
Well, you know, when you talk to the people, you you
gotta, you gotta have a base ofwhat, what you're going to jam
to.
You know, is this going to be a15 minute blues jam, you know,
to see what everybody's about?
Or you want to lay down acouple of songs like hey, you
know, this is the songs thatwe're going to plan on playing.
(03:49):
You know, learn this.
That way you've got an idea ofyou know what the song is
already supposed to sound likeand you can kind of judge them
off.
What you already know.
Um, so there's differentscenarios you can do with with
auditioning, with that.
But you know, you got to askthese people ahead of time what
kind of music are you into?
Is it the same genre?
You just say, hey, we want tobe a rock band.
Well, how many categories doesthat fall under?
(04:10):
Way, way low Are you going tobe an ABBA-type?
Speaker 1 (04:14):
soft rock band or.
Speaker 2 (04:15):
Bee Gees yeah hell no .
But for those of you out therethat like that kind of music, we
do not discriminate.
Well put.
Speaker 1 (04:24):
Good disclaimer.
Speaker 2 (04:25):
Or do you want to do something you know, like acdc,
iron maiden, you want to dosomething that's a little bit
more, more heavy, and you know,or then you got, you know the
black sabbaths and the tool, andyou know so many different
types of rock out there.
So you gotta, you know yougotta find people that are into
the same kind of music that youwant to do.
And then you know, of coursethere's always the talk of well,
are we going to be a cover band?
(04:46):
Are we going to do alloriginals or a little bit of
both to get out there and play?
There's so many differentthings you guys all need to talk
about.
And of course, you've got todecide on practice times.
How much are we going topractice every week?
Speaker 1 (05:02):
So true.
Speaker 2 (05:03):
What's everybody's level of commitment.
I, you're going to practiceevery week, so true, you know
what's everybody's level ofcommitment.
I mean, how many times have webeen in bands and people like,
oh well, let's practice in acouple of weeks for like a
couple weeks?
Or you mean like 10 times inthe next couple weeks?
You know some people a littlebit more committed than others
and that might tear apart theband or it might not even make
it to audition.
Speaker 1 (05:20):
Once you talk to people about that I know we
first started we were kind ofcontrol freaks too.
We were doing everything fromgetting a business name uh, go
down to the courthouse and get abusiness name checking account
start working on logos andt-shirts and stickers.
The whole works before we evenestablished band.
Speaker 2 (05:35):
Oh yeah, we even had.
I mean, we had a contract forthe club owners.
Speaker 1 (05:38):
Exactly, we did, we did, we were carried away.
What are you getting?
Speaker 2 (05:41):
paid, but these are the type of things that you need
to think about, especially ifyou want to be the leader of a
band or if you're the one thatwants to really start out this
band.
That's another thing you got totalk about with everybody.
Are they comfortable withhaving one person as a leader,
like we've been in some of theseother past bands, it's like, or
do you want to make it more ofa democracy where everybody
decides on?
You know, they, you know?
(06:02):
Do you decide on, hey, whattype of songs we want to do, and
you know all that type of stuff.
Speaker 1 (06:08):
Okay.
So all right, you're jammingalong and maybe you're making
mistakes.
They're making mistakes.
How do you handle a situationlike that when you're doing an
audition?
I mean, are you going to like,say, well, you know that wasn't
right, or are you just going tolet it go and discuss it at the
end?
Or how do you?
How do you handle, basically,how everybody's playing?
Speaker 2 (06:24):
well, you know criticism being in part of bands
just like.
You know this is like being ona sports team or anything else.
You got to be able to takeconstructive criticism.
You know good and bad.
You got to be able to give it.
You got to be able to receiveit.
You know, not everybody's goingto be on your same level.
You know you're ready to starta band, maybe you're feeling
really comfortable and you'reready to hit the stage.
(06:45):
You know, right off and you'relike, okay, let's learn these 10
songs in the next few days.
And the other person's likewhoa, you know I, you know it'll
take me months to learn 10songs.
So you know you.
You talk about level and Iguess the first 10 minutes that
you're playing with somebodyyou're going to definitely know.
You know where they're atcompared to where you know
you're at.
And now your main question isyou know, how do you can handle
(07:09):
it?
Well, I'd say you'd be up frontwith everybody, you know, right
there, and then, instead ofsaying, oh well, we'll give you
a call and say, hey, you knoware you into this type of music,
you know, yeah, okay, hey, Itotally agree with everything
you said.
Speaker 1 (07:25):
There's one thing I want to put out there, though
Pitfall you want to kind ofavoid, I know, if you haven't
played with a bunch of peoplebefore, you're going to be real
excited about playing withsomebody else and you're going
to be a little on theunjudgmental side and say, okay,
well, that sounded kind of cool, let's keep going.
But I think in the long run,you really want to.
(07:47):
You want to really think aboutthe position you're in right now
.
Do you want to keep auditioningor are you just real excited
about this first place personyou played with and then go from
there?
Speaker 2 (07:53):
yeah, that's very true.
We've definitely been in thatscenario where it's like you
know, it's just been you and meplaying for a while.
We're like, okay, let's findsome drummer or some guitar
player, Not a drummer.
Speaker 1 (08:03):
I hope yeah.
Well, no, I'm just kidding.
Speaker 2 (08:05):
Let's find a guitar player or vocalist and all of a
sudden the first guitar playercomes in.
You're like, okay, that soundscool because you haven't played
with anybody in a while.
Yeah, exactly, all of a suddenyou go back to, maybe listening
to recordings, you know, andthat's another riff that you
want to put in a song.
Speaker 1 (08:23):
Well, back in our day we couldn't afford to record
anything because we had nothingto record on.
Speaker 2 (08:27):
Yeah, things are a lot easier now.
Speaker 1 (08:29):
That's for sure that's very true, okay, okay.
So let's say, everybody justauditioned, it went well.
How do you proceed?
I mean, what would be your nextstep, do you think?
Speaker 2 (08:42):
Well, next step you know if you're feeling like
everybody's egos and attitudesare all in line and you don't
have one person, that's goingoff the deep end and you know is
going to go crazy on you, youknow your next thing is
discussing.
You know really practice timesand that's where the level of
commitment comes in.
You know if it's sounding goodand you're like you know what
this project is badass, let'skeep it going there.
(09:10):
You go.
You know, and you got peoplethere.
Like I said before, you knowmaybe you know between work and
family or whatever they gotgoing on in their life, they can
only commit to one day a week.
You know, can you?
Can you do that, or are youlooking for something that's a
little bit more serious?
You know that's a that's a bigsubject that everybody's going
to have to decide on right fromthe beginning.
Speaker 1 (09:25):
Okay, man, hey, can you discuss basically our first
three bands, Because we wereReno-based at the time and we
basically what the scenario thatDana's talking about right now?
Basically we went through thatthree times and if you could
discuss a little bit about whatwe did and how it morphed into
what it was?
Speaker 2 (09:42):
Okay yeah, our first band.
I believe we called it Pyrite.
Speaker 1 (09:47):
Exactly.
Speaker 2 (09:49):
It was you and me.
We had this cool house with acool-ass basement.
Speaker 1 (09:52):
And we were writing all the songs.
Speaker 2 (09:54):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (09:55):
Being just a drummer and bass player is unusual.
We were writing everything.
Speaker 2 (09:58):
So we were like, okay , well, we got this tight and
we're doing good, let's form aband.
And talking about where youfind people, it's like you know,
ours ended up to where.
We went to this local guitarshop and, like Rob said, it was
in Reno, I don't know if it'sstill there.
It's called Bizarre Guitar andyou know, we knew this guitar
(10:21):
tech that was in there all thetime.
We'd always talk to him andknew he was a good player, and
We'd always talk to him and knewhe was a good player and it's
like, dude, you need to be in aband.
And so we told him we wereforming something and he was
actually the first one that camedown.
His name was Neil, by the way,neil Schlocker, if you're out
there he came down and came toour basement.
Speaker 1 (10:43):
And we started jamming.
I think it was to Dockin' Songor something like that, I
believe it was Breaking theChains.
Speaker 2 (10:47):
I think it was the Dokken song or something like
that.
I believe it was Breaking theChains, yeah, something like
that.
And after we played that songwe were all looking at each
other like, okay, this is sick,and we must have played that
song 15, 20 times and otherstuff and jamming.
And then that turned into wefound another guitar player, I
think someone that you workedwith, and then we looked for a
singer and all this stuff.
Speaker 1 (11:05):
That's the struggle right there Found a vocal, a
good front man for the project.
If you have a vision and youcan't find a vocalist that fits
that vision, that's a.
That's a difficult spot to bein and we've been in it more
than more than once or twice.
Speaker 2 (11:18):
Yeah, yeah, you know, to find a good vocalist that
you know doesn't want to be themain leader or had that ego and
the attitude that goes usuallywith being the front man, you
know, not a bad thing, causethere's amazing front men out
there that you know.
The reason they are what theyare is because of their ego and
their attitude, exactly Um.
But you know, once you'veestablished all that um, then
(11:42):
you start doing the band thingand, like I said, our first band
we started out as a cover band.
I mean, we must have learned 40or 50 songs.
Speaker 1 (11:53):
Oh yeah, because in Reno the clubs are open until
like 2 am.
You're playing until 2 am, soyou're starting at 9 and playing
until 2.
So you've got to have somematerial, definitely.
Speaker 2 (12:03):
But the level of commitment that we were all at.
We we were practicing a lot,you know.
We learned those 50, 60 songsand probably two, three months.
Then we were ready to go outand start playing exactly those
are good days.
Speaker 1 (12:15):
I miss those.
Oh yeah, oh yeah.
Speaker 2 (12:17):
Hard work, but good days then that that pyrite band
actually, you know, morphed into, turned into our first original
working band, which we changedthe name to Vices.
Speaker 1 (12:31):
V-I-C-E-Z, by the way .
Speaker 2 (12:32):
V-I-C-E-Z.
Yeah, vices, which, of course,is a bad habit.
Speaker 1 (12:35):
Don't look for it on social media, because back then
there was no social media.
Speaker 2 (12:41):
Everything we recorded was on cassette tapes
or a camcorder.
Speaker 1 (12:44):
Yeah, from boom boxes .
Speaker 2 (12:46):
The recordings were pretty sad and ugly compared to
nowadays.
Speaker 1 (12:52):
Okay, matt from Advices.
Speaker 2 (12:54):
What happened Well, Advices, like I said, we started
playing out all over the place.
We were doing, like I said, thecover songs and I think in
those three or four months weput together one original song,
which was kind of sad because wewere so concentrated on doing
the cover songs.
Speaker 1 (13:09):
Back then you pretty much had to just to get into the
clubs.
I mean they wanted, you know,the girls had to have something
to dance to.
Speaker 2 (13:14):
Yeah, exactly.
So you know we did do the oneoriginal song but you know,
after a while we're like youknow we want to do just original
music.
I'm tired of playing otherpeople's music.
We felt comfortable with ourplaying tour.
Speaker 1 (13:30):
Plus, we set our sights high.
We wanted to be more than justa local band.
Of course, we had the dream ofbeing worldwide.
Speaker 2 (13:37):
It's just like any solid musician would be.
It's like you don't want tojust play.
All of a sudden you're goingfrom your garage to your playing
clubs and then you're like,well, okay, this is cool playing
in front of 10, 50 people, butyou know, now I want to do 500,
a thousand two thousand twentythousand, you know and you know,
with that dream.
So our, our band vices actuallyturned into our third band
(14:01):
called monolith, which was, youknow, in my opinion, our most
successful band.
Speaker 1 (14:06):
Oh, definitely For the Reno area.
We were pretty popular at thattime and a lot of the club
owners actually at one pointwere calling us when they had
openings, instead of us havingto call the club owners.
Speaker 2 (14:17):
Yeah, it was nice to get to that point where, you
know, I mean, we were playingevery weekend you know, by
choice, you know we could haveplayed every weekend and then
sometimes even on Mondays andTuesdays, off days.
But yeah, and that band, youknow, when we got that one going
we did just we started out withjust writing original music,
(14:39):
which you know you and me wrote90% of the stuff which you know.
In most bands it tends to gothat way.
You'll get one or twosongwriters and you know it'll
kind of gravitate towards theirwriting most of the stuff until
someone else in the band is likehey, check this out, you know.
You know I want to throw thislittle piece in.
You know, the more people thatcan contribute, you know, the
better your sound, I think, is.
That way everybody's a littlebit more interested in it and
(15:01):
you're getting a.
You're putting together a uniquesound with just you individuals
as opposed to one personwriting everything and all of a
sudden you're like, oh okay,well, I know these guys, I can
tell just from that guitar riffbecause they're kind of in the
same.
Speaker 1 (15:15):
And I've got to kick out a kudo here for a guitar
player we had at the time.
We'd had multiple guitarplayers, but one we had at this
point in Monolith.
If you're out there, sammy, youwere the best.
I mean you were, uh, when wewrote songs and one in
particular called fool's gold.
We me and dana had an idea forthat song.
We knew the direction we wantedto go with it and he just, it's
(15:37):
like magically, just fell intothe song where we needed it yeah
, and now that's you know, andthat's going back to the
auditions part.
Speaker 2 (15:44):
That's you know.
Someone like Rob said with thatguitar player we had in Sammy
Martin, you'll know, not onlyare they going to be able to
make you sound better, butthey're going to help you create
your unique sound.
And he definitely did, andthose were good times.
Missed that shit.
Speaker 1 (16:05):
Yeah, me too did, and we, those were good times.
I miss that shit.
Yeah, me too.
And speaking of which, uh,you're gonna hear some pre, mid
and post uh music in in ourepisode here, and that's
basically from this band,monolith.
Uh, you're gonna notice, therecording is, you know, less
than optimal, but, uh, you haveto remember this was back in the
days when you're lucky to havea four truck recorder, and this
was actually done at a live show.
(16:25):
uh, all the segments of it weredone at a live show through a
camcorder, so it was difficultto even get somewhat of a good
mix, even through some software.
Oh yeah, okay, it's time forwhat we're going to call special
segment.
Oh shit, special this isbasically between Dana and
myself.
We're going to talk about whatwas either the funniest or the
worst thing that happened to you, either on stage or in practice
(16:48):
.
And for me personally, I'm justgoing to do a progressive kind
of thing, like my earliestmemories to like the most recent
.
So, dana, let's, let's shoot itoff with you, man.
What was like the funniest orworst thing that ever happened
to you?
Practice?
Speaker 2 (17:01):
I mean, I guess this could be funny and worse.
Speaker 1 (17:03):
I mean, I guess this could be funny and worse.
Speaker 2 (17:05):
You know, back in the day in Reno, when we were doing
a band, it was you, me and thisguy named Brian Wenzel.
He's a guitar player amazingguitar player.
Speaker 1 (17:14):
He's a guitar, god, it's outstanding.
Speaker 2 (17:16):
We were fortunate to play with him for a couple weeks
until, you know, when he hadhis own manager that took him
off to a band inzona back in theday.
But but when we were, when wewere playing, it was in the
middle of winter, probablydecember, january, and of course
it's colder and shit, snow'sflying, yeah, and we got the
storage unit that's, you know,pretty close to railroad tracks,
or no, not the railroad tracksby the airport yeah, yeah and um
(17:39):
, you know, like I said, it'sdecember.
This is not a climate controlledplace, so we're in there
freezing our ass off.
I think we're playing songs andpracticing in between putting
our gloves back on trying tokeep our hands warm enough to
play, and if we tried to recordanything, of course we had to
wait for the airplanes to landor take off, because we were so
(18:00):
close to the runways.
Speaker 1 (18:02):
Or that heater that sounded like a jet airplane.
Speaker 2 (18:04):
Yeah, we had this heater in there, heater that
sounded like a jet airplane.
Yeah, yeah, we had this heaterin there that it literally
looked like a jet engine and youknow, as I don't know if it's
propane or something.
Speaker 1 (18:12):
It was propane and oh yeah, it stunk really bad.
Oh yeah, I mean five minutes ofthat.
Speaker 2 (18:16):
Oh yeah, we're just we're thinking of all kinds of
crazy stuff to play, becausewe're you know, we got some
definitely fumes going and we'rewe're hiring shit just from the
remember this is like a 10 by15 like storage unit at the time
.
Yeah, so we're going fromfreezing our ass off to all of a
sudden it's 100 degrees inthere.
We turn that thing off and 10minutes later retune all the
instruments yeah, so it's youknow that good old days, cool.
Speaker 1 (18:39):
Well, mine was uh, basically, uh, very like one of
my very first bands uh, this iseven before me, and dana, this
was a.
It was actually a prettysuccessful band for for the time
.
But we were playing thisoutdoor party and there had to
been probably 150 people there.
Everything was going reallyreally good.
But another thing about reno itgets really really windy and at
(19:02):
the time I had this reallycheap piece of shit drum set and
with the single bar, you know,uh stands.
So, needless to say, halfwaythrough this, the set we were
doing, the wind picks up and mycymbals are blowing off and over
to, you know, just blowing over.
So by the time we got done withone song, I only had my ride
because that was the only onewith a double brace stand.
(19:23):
So that was my first anddefinitely embarrassing, but
there's nothing I could do aboutit, so I just played through.
Speaker 2 (19:29):
Playing some air cymbals, huh.
Speaker 1 (19:31):
Exactly Okay.
So I'm going to kick off thesecond scenario we discussed.
Okay, you're going to auditionfor an established band and one
just starting out.
I'm older and have a little bitmore experience in this area
than Dana because he was moreinvolved at the time with, you
know, building up his businessand you know spending time with
family, which is totallyunderstandable.
(19:51):
But basically I went through afew different scenarios in this
scenario.
Um, I've auditioned for bands.
I've got to tell you, one of myfirst ones was a guitar player.
This was in the Sacramento area.
Um, I auditioned for this bandI really really respected and
the guitar player I knew from adifferent band and at the time I
had just moved to Sacramentoand only had an apartment.
(20:14):
So basically, I really didn'thave a way to practice.
I didn't know about the rubberpractice pads you could put on
your toms at the time and playin a scenario like in an
apartment.
Anyway, what I did was justlike listen over and over and
over again and basically youknow tap on books or you know
kick my foot to the floor tryingto learn the material.
But I showed up at the auditionhonestly unprepared.
(20:37):
Were you nervous as shit?
Oh, you're always nervous.
I mean, I don't care how longyou've been playing, you're
always going to be nervous.
And so I basically I tanked, Itanked it.
And not only was I embarrassed,but it just made me understand
that you really need to beprepared to show up for an
audition.
And then I've had some wherethey call you and you actually
(20:59):
get together before, likewhether it be like in a strip
club or restaurant or a barwhatever to kind of discuss
everybody's opinions about howthey want to play or what the
band's all about.
And those are kind of auditionsthat I really appreciate,
because that way you're kind ofgetting a feel for the people
you're playing with before youeven set foot in their studio or
(21:19):
whatever their rehearsal spotmay be.
Speaker 2 (21:21):
Yeah, I mean, I guess you talk to someone for a few
minutes and you kind of know alittle bit more about them.
Speaker 1 (21:25):
Is it somebody you want to spend time with?
Because, let's face it, in theband.
I don't know if you realize, ifyou've gotten to this point or
not, but you're going to spendmore time with these guys than
your spouse, your friend, yoursignificant other.
Whatever your waking hours,either you're working or you're
rehearsing.
Speaker 2 (21:41):
There's been a lot of lost relationships because of
bands.
Speaker 1 (21:44):
Wow, there's been a lot of lost relationships
because of bands.
Wow, that's a whole differentepisode.
Speaker 2 (21:47):
And I'm sure many of you out there have millions of
stories on that alone.
Speaker 1 (21:52):
But yeah, I've had some good ones and obviously
some bad ones.
The good ones were really good,where everybody just got along
and it just kicked right off.
I know the best scenario was Iwas in Sacramento at the time
again and I was joined thisprogram called Weekend Warriors
through one of the music storesthere.
(22:13):
Unfortunately I can't rememberthe name of the music store.
It was basically musicians thatyou know were seasoned musicians
but having jammed with otherpeople for a while, and they had
these practice rooms where yougo in, all the equipment was
already there, you know, exceptfor guitars and amps and shit
like that.
But I mean, basically there's adrum kit, a PA, things like
that in there, but they wouldmatch you with other people with
(22:35):
the same interest in likegenres and those type of things.
Oh sick.
And that turned out to bereally well and I ended up
meeting a guitar player I endedup playing with in like three
different bands in theSacramento area.
His name is Mike Howard.
You know, kudos to you, buddy,and I miss you.
But that was probably the bestscenario for an audition because
basically they already matchedyou up with people that you had
(22:58):
an interest in.
You know the same type of music.
Speaker 2 (23:01):
You know, and if you hear stories on some of these
other bands, like you know,Motley Crue and some of these
bands that have made a bit, it'sbecause, hey, the guitar player
knew of this singer that hisfriend saw playing Exactly
exactly.
Speaker 1 (23:10):
I mean, it's all about networking, word of mouth
and networking, you know, goingout and watching.
Speaker 2 (23:14):
I mean you're never going to create a band by
sitting on your couch in theliving room.
I mean you've got to go out andyou've got to watch these
people.
You know you should be outthere.
Speaker 1 (23:27):
Exactly Okay.
So my basic, my advice here isokay, you're confident in your
skills.
Now how do you get an audition?
I mean, do you want to getfeedback first on their
approaching?
They want to jam, they want toplay out.
I mean, what is their?
Before you even go and auditionfor them, you get feedback, for
(23:47):
you know really what they'reall about.
You don't want to go there andjust have a totally different
mindset than what they have.
But also, be prepared, beconfident, but don't be
egotistical, because that's likethe worst.
I mean, nobody wants to walkinto a room where he thinks he
owns the world.
I mean, you want to beconfident, but just don't be an
egotistical ass.
(24:07):
Nobody wants that, no, no, anddiscuss with others in the band
their approach, their idea,playing example.
Do you want?
I mean, do they mind if youplay with your own technique, or
do they want you to play notefor note how something's
recorded?
If it's like a tribute band,you know, that's obvious you
probably want to play the partas close as possible.
But, um, if they're an originalband or covers, do do they mind
(24:29):
if you throw in your?
basically your style, I meanbecause, I mean, obviously you
want to play with the structureof a song, if it's an original
or if it's a cover, but do theymind if you throw in different
fills than what the originaldrummer had done?
Speaker 2 (24:46):
Yeah, it's like I've heard it a million times.
You know, if you want to hear acertain song, play it.
Speaker 1 (24:51):
Your damn radio exactly go outside, listen to
your car, see a live band yeah,they're gonna sound.
Speaker 2 (24:56):
They're gonna have their own style of how they play
it and you know, you look at alot of these new songs that are
being covered now and they'reeven better than the original
exactly, exactly, yeah.
Speaker 1 (25:06):
I mean yeah, throw your own style in there if it's,
they're with it.
That's exactly what you shouldbe doing, because I mean, you're
not only auditioning them,they're auditioning you, so it
goes both ways and, like I said,know their dedication level.
Does it match yours?
Speaker 2 (25:21):
Yeah, and when you go in, you know another thing.
When you go in there and youknow, say you're the guitar
player, you know you don't wantto crank everything on tent,
where you're the only one beingheard yeah, exactly you want to
you want to contribute to theband and make the band sound
better.
You know, if you're one ofthose ego guys and you want
everything about yourself, thenstart your own band with your
own band name and don't evenaudition, just do your project
(25:44):
and speaking of which, that isso huge.
Speaker 1 (25:47):
First thing you should do is like work on the
mix before you guys start,before you start working on a
tune with these guys is likework on the mix before you guys.
Before you start working on atune with these guys, make sure
you're the mix is good, becausethere's nothing worse than than
than doing an audition where themix is just terrible and nobody
can hear each other and justit's not going to work, it's not
going to be a good thing.
Speaker 2 (26:03):
Yeah, if it's really muddy it just sounds like a
brick wall of music going fromoff the walls into each other
and it's like you said, itdoesn't help anything.
Speaker 1 (26:14):
You know, you have no idea what this guy sounds like
and it's just a mess it is okay,and my next little piece of
advice is show up with what youneed.
Example would be okay if you'rea guitar player.
If you break a string, makesure you have extra strings with
you if you can afford it, orbatteries if you have active
pickups or, you know, if youneed them for effects or what?
Speaker 2 (26:34):
here's one.
Hey, if you're a vocalist,bring your damn mic.
What?
Speaker 1 (26:39):
whoever heard of that ?
And then another, another thing.
I mean, if you have a coupleguitars, you may want to bring
both, because they may be doingsongs in standard and some in
drop d, and if, if you don'twant to spend all the time you
know during an audition to, likeyou know, tune or down tune or
whatever, you're doing.
You know, be prepared.
That's the number one thing Imean.
That's my advice is plain beprepared.
(27:00):
Yeah, Okay, so I know we spenta lot of time here, Dan, with
just our experiences, but wereally want to hear your
experiences as well and feedbackabout this episode.
If you don't mind, there's aplace in the podcast to send us
a text, and if you're willing tobe a guest on our show, please
text us your information, andthat information will not come
(27:22):
across unless we put it there.
So if you tell us that youdon't want that public, we
definitely will not put itpublic.
Speaker 2 (27:28):
Yeah, we want to hear everybody's stories and let
their voices be heard out there.
That's what this is all abouthearing advice from other
musicians like hey, I just wentto this audition and this is
what happened.
Yeah, tell us everything.
Speaker 1 (27:42):
We don't want this to be all about us.
We're basically just like Isaid this is all about Garage to
Stage.
We want to give you ourexamples of what we've gone
through, but we also want tohear from you, and we want you
as a guest I mean anybody that'sin any of these situations that
we're talking about, or you'reway down the road and you're
already a recording artist.
Please give us your informationand we'll include you in our
(28:02):
next episode or episodes comingup.
Hey, dana, I think we've givensome good information, hopefully
.
I think we've given some goodinformation, hopefully, and
hopefully we've sparked someinterest, but you got anything
else to say, buddy?
Speaker 2 (28:11):
Yeah, well, you know, like I said, if you want to
leave comments on there, we wantto hear from you, and there's
also another place on thepodcast.
Yeah, so on that podcast, youknow there's a place on there
where you can contribute to thispodcast.
We you know, we're juststarting out and we would really
love to hear from you and wewere also like you know if you
got a couple extra bucks everymonth that you want to
(28:32):
contribute to support thepodcast, we would appreciate it.
Speaker 1 (28:36):
Yeah, and that'll help us get some, uh, the guests
that we're really lookingforward to getting on as well.
Speaker 2 (28:40):
So, yeah, and then coming episodes, we're going to
start giving stuff away.
You know we're giving awayguitars.
Speaker 1 (28:50):
Exactly Cool, we will get there.
Speaker 2 (28:51):
So for all of you that are listening, stay in
touch, leave comments, leavesome money.
We'll take gold if you got it.
Speaker 1 (29:00):
I mean, we're here, platinum, it all works All right
.
Well, dana, I think this hasbeen a great episode.
I've had fun talking.
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