Andy
Honorary Member
Just for general curiosity / interest / S&G, I'm wondering how most band meetings are constructed, & typical issues discussed?
Here's a copy of basic minutes taken from our meeting yesterday. We usually have a curry night circa once a year, & this year, it fell 3 gigs in with our new bassist (for minutes reference, that's Rick).
1/ Marketing: Discussed general subject of split act marketing to achieve event focussed presentation, plus current efforts to reach out to event organisers / feedback, etc. Work will continue on the website rework & production of a live draft for all to review as soon as possible.
2/ Need for new band photo’s: Rick suggested shots to green screen so we can add any background / context we want - great idea. I use small scale green screen regularly for all kinds of stuff, but Rick has a large full width / depth setup, so offered to do the shoot at his location. I’m looking into the viability of one or two really good photographers I know for optimum results. It’s a worthwhile investment, as green screen means we can use the same selection of shots in multiple contexts for years to come. Will report back.
3/ IEMs: Agreed need to nail down IEM use policy. Essentially, it’s easy enough when we’re running our own gig (increasingly less frequently), but we’ve never spent time to fully optimise setup to everyone’s satisfaction. At event gigs where we have no control of available gear, it’s not so straight forward without advance notice of Aviom A-net16 via CAT5, as systems vary wildly. IEM also adds time to rapid changeovers in some environments. IEM at events needs a gig by gig approach that we agree / arrange ahead of each event. We plan to have an IEM rehearsal to run through both our in house system, plus imitate a typical event system to test for resilience.
4/ Songs: We had a general discussion around what boxes a new song needs to tick for consideration - both "pop to rock" & rock songs. We agreed its what we can do with the songs to Fired Upize them, rather than how they’re currently positioned. We agreed to continue with Journey Separate ways. Rick produced a list of circa 20 songs he’s researched in terms of popularity / potential, & will circulate that list later.
5/ Tempo: Both starting tempos & maintaining tempo through certain pinch point songs. We talked about how to integrate click support on drums to assist with both of these challenges without impacting the natural energy / freedom of a performance. Tech discussion on intermittent IEM & click assistance integration. I have a Boss DB90 that I’ll selectively test out in upcoming rehearsals. This also rolled into a chat on show organisation to ensure maximum impact / slick song transition. Agreement to rehearse full show / show variants once new song groundwork is done.
6/ Stage dress: Rick asked if we had a policy on stage dress. We discussed that we want to avoid anything with a sniff of cabaret. We agreed a more conscious effort should be made re: uniformity, but that drummers are universally less aesthetically important (JK)
Later,
Here's a copy of basic minutes taken from our meeting yesterday. We usually have a curry night circa once a year, & this year, it fell 3 gigs in with our new bassist (for minutes reference, that's Rick).
1/ Marketing: Discussed general subject of split act marketing to achieve event focussed presentation, plus current efforts to reach out to event organisers / feedback, etc. Work will continue on the website rework & production of a live draft for all to review as soon as possible.
2/ Need for new band photo’s: Rick suggested shots to green screen so we can add any background / context we want - great idea. I use small scale green screen regularly for all kinds of stuff, but Rick has a large full width / depth setup, so offered to do the shoot at his location. I’m looking into the viability of one or two really good photographers I know for optimum results. It’s a worthwhile investment, as green screen means we can use the same selection of shots in multiple contexts for years to come. Will report back.
3/ IEMs: Agreed need to nail down IEM use policy. Essentially, it’s easy enough when we’re running our own gig (increasingly less frequently), but we’ve never spent time to fully optimise setup to everyone’s satisfaction. At event gigs where we have no control of available gear, it’s not so straight forward without advance notice of Aviom A-net16 via CAT5, as systems vary wildly. IEM also adds time to rapid changeovers in some environments. IEM at events needs a gig by gig approach that we agree / arrange ahead of each event. We plan to have an IEM rehearsal to run through both our in house system, plus imitate a typical event system to test for resilience.
4/ Songs: We had a general discussion around what boxes a new song needs to tick for consideration - both "pop to rock" & rock songs. We agreed its what we can do with the songs to Fired Upize them, rather than how they’re currently positioned. We agreed to continue with Journey Separate ways. Rick produced a list of circa 20 songs he’s researched in terms of popularity / potential, & will circulate that list later.
5/ Tempo: Both starting tempos & maintaining tempo through certain pinch point songs. We talked about how to integrate click support on drums to assist with both of these challenges without impacting the natural energy / freedom of a performance. Tech discussion on intermittent IEM & click assistance integration. I have a Boss DB90 that I’ll selectively test out in upcoming rehearsals. This also rolled into a chat on show organisation to ensure maximum impact / slick song transition. Agreement to rehearse full show / show variants once new song groundwork is done.
6/ Stage dress: Rick asked if we had a policy on stage dress. We discussed that we want to avoid anything with a sniff of cabaret. We agreed a more conscious effort should be made re: uniformity, but that drummers are universally less aesthetically important (JK)
Later,