If anyone has to move this thread because it's in the wrong places, I'm sorry. I really wasn't sure where this fit.

Anywho, I've got this problem. I can never find bandmates that I'm satisfied with. I'm not an elitist jackass or anything like that (Maybe I am?), it's just that people will respond to my classified ads who have absolutely no link to what I like whatsoever, and are also typically horrible at their craft. I mean I can give their solo mp3s the benefit of the doubt, but it's usually in a completely different league altogether. I don't want to start any arguments or anything, but I find most music that can be easily defined within a genre to be boring. Just death metal bores me. Just black metal bores me. Just punk bothers me. Etc. There were bands that would fit into those genres that were stepping stones for me to climb up to more complex and interesting music and I still enjoy them from time to time and respect the bands out there. I just don't give them a lot of my focus anymore.

I list a few big influences to me (Converge, Pig Destroyer, Dillinger Escape Plan, the Locust, Starkweather, Agoraphobic Nosebleed, Some Girls, Skinny Puppy, Isis, Pelican, Godflesh, and Meshuggah,) and not once out of the dozens of responses I've gotten over a six month period have I found a single person who has heard of even one of these bands. Seriously, what the fuck? I'm beginning to wonder if I should continue to record music by myself and hire studio guys to play for me live, because that makes me... sad.

So instead of ending this as a rant (I won't lie... it mostly was,) I figured I'd ask you all: What should I do to find competent players who like the stuff similar to my own tastes? I'm dying here.

There are quite a few people from Texas on here, maybe they could link you up with people looking for bands.

I've never had to use classifieds to find bandmates (I got friends that fill those slots at the moment), but I think that if you're posting these "wanted" ads online you should include a clip of your playing so people that are thinking of replying will have an idea of what they are getting into.

Yeah that does sound like a good idea. I never bothered fully recording something in the vein of what I want to do in a band, I've just recorded slower "solo" stuff. I don't really like using classified ads either, but none of my friends can really play, and I've actually had luck with it before.

I've never found musicians that like or even know of half of the main bands I like(and they're pretty big, not obscure as fuck), so I feel the same way. Just keep tinkering away writing songs at home, find yourself a competent drummer, then build your band from their by adding players who fit in.

Sure beats jamming with a bunch of childish retards that don't play the same music you do.

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Hell yeah...I used to jam with 2 of the biggest pot-heads I knew because nobody else really played at the time. A smoke break every few minutes that lasted for at least 15, and them forgetting what we put together from the last jam session........That didn't last long.

Welcome to the joy of advertising!
In all the years of trying to find band members(usually bassists who are notoriously lazy or singers who think they are Dave Lee Roth) I've never once had someone who responded to an ad who fitted any part of the bill. We had a bassist who was in to the Faces wanting to join the band(we were a tech thrash esq band) he'd never heard of thrash metal but thought he'd try out. Oh how we laughed at this 40-something as he tried to follow the double kick with an E pedal!
We had another bassist try out who's bass amp sounded like someone washing their face with a wet duck! We had another bassist who on being asked to come down for a jam actually moved from his home town 20 miles away just to be in a band!! His bass playing skills made Top G Warrior sound like Steve Vai. This guy actually stalked us for a while after we told him he wasn't what we were looking for! In all we had something like 13 bass players in one year, some didn't even turn up for a second practice one was so lazy he didn't turn up because he couldn't be bothered to change his strings!!!!! We had to boot one out as he was painfully un-aware of key changes and another one who never learnt the songs and had to re-learn them at every jam session!

Now singers......you know you're in trouble when a singer begins knotting silk scarves to the mic stand before he's even sung a note. Or thinks they are Axl Rose or writes lyrics so cheesy cringy that even Saxon would blush! Why do singers alway bring their girlfriends down to practice sessions????

We got so dis-heartened after 3 years that the adverts became so silly and python-esq because we were convinced it couldn't possibly affect the quality of people we had auditioning.......we had people turn up who could make balloon animals!!!!!

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HAHAAA! your posts rock.

Mallichae: you are being picky, but you have to be. if you arnt picky, you will end up with a shitty band, or one that you dont want. here is my possible solution.

even if someone hasnt heard your favorite bands, and thus probably wont be playing like them straight away. you COULD introduce worthy prospects to your favorite bands. who knows, they might be interested, and then they might want to play like that. i dont know the odds of this working, but if all else fails...

EDIT: i live in texas, i play guitar and do vocals, but i dont play your style

Im a bass player from Texas.

I am the only guitarist of a thrashy metal band with death metal influence. I solo and do vocals on some of the songs.....the bass player sings the rest. Our drummer lags behind because he's not too interested in the fact that all are stuff is very fucking fast. However, we compromised by writing some slow ones.

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i say continue putting ads in record shops, go to shows and try to find people. i usually advise folks to move to a city or possibly to either coast if they are serious about some music from which not much others are even aware of locally. ive been to thru austin tho and they seem to have a strong music scene there. in boston or new york, you wouldnt have much of a problem with your influences finding members.

this is the sort of thing that sucks no matter what. its gonna take time.

be as judicious<hopefully im using this word in the right context> on people as humanly possible, the last thing you want is to be in a band with folks fucking up your shit.

ive never been in a band that didnt have problems with personalities,the stylistic approach towards writing songs,etc.

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The real horror story is looking for singers, we had this one guy who came in, man he gave me the laugh of a lifetime. He said he could sing any way we wanted him to from 80's vocals to Death metal. Haha, so when we began this dude was like hold on hold on let me put my sun shades on. Then he began to sing, words cannot express how awful he was....to this day i cannot understand who in the hell lied to this guy. This was by far the words because he kept saying hey gotta put my sun shades on everytime we tryed a song for him to do in a different vocal range...

We all have the same problems, not enough resouces in the area to pull from especially around here. Drummers are in the shortest fucking supply with bass players comming in second. Singers can be found but you have to really look.

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(New person, whatever you do, do NOT contact the moron quoted above. He is a subhuman, even by metalhead standards.)

Playing with people who suck can be frustrating. However, you can make good music with average musicians - it's just nowhere near as fulfilling as playing with people who share the same kind of tastes as you. Sounds like you're only getting responses from people who suck totally though.

Question: why rely solely on classified ads? Do you not have friends who have similar tastes to you? You might do better online... I think most people here would know at least half of those bands.

That, and be a little bit fucking realistic. Bands like DEP, Pig Destroyer and Meshuggah are JUST PLAIN WEIRD to most people, even metalheads. I remember the panning that the steel-skulled fucktaste brigade on here gave Pig Destroyer once.

If you're writing songs that sound like they were off Irony is a Dead Scene or Prowler in the yard, the vast majority of the world does and always will think you're insane. Don't expect it to be easy.

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singers is the worst dillema by far. they provide the most "identity" to a band, a change of a singer is the most dramatic change for a band, unless the singer is literally a stand-in for the previous one.

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You have to be picky, and patient. I'm trying to get a progressive goth/doom metal project off the ground in a city that's full of death metal, black metal, and straight up prog fans. It took me two fucking years to find a co-writer I can work with. Being too demanding in your ads at the start can be a turn off, like listing a lot of "must" attributes while you really don't have much to show. A humble ad can attract more people.

I must say this is a great classified ad, and it's gotten lots of attention.

Unfortunantly from the wrong type (Requiem).

Yeah I'm a Prowler fanatic. My friends are too (hell even my girlfriend,) but they don't really play. I've even tried forcing/coercing/bribing them but of course there was no success with that. Pretty much impossible to get unmotivated people to be motivated.

I'm thinking of just going to see my favorite bands when they show up here and pass out fliers to canvass for musicians. Or just going AnB with sequenced drums while I do both guitar and vocals.

I really didn't expect such a great response. I appreciate it. I should quit lurking here and post more often.

Band mates are annoying.

I've been in loads of bands all of which have ended just because people are too lazy and shit to bother.

So going solo is the way forward!

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The band I am in was created almost accidently - ma and ma friend started jamming together and eventually found a bass player and drummer (whe were our friends as well)

just start jamming with one person - if it works out then try to find the missing dudes for the band

it worked for me very well

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You asked a real question. We like answering those.

Unfortunately most questions asked are on the Requiem level: "LOL LOOKIT MY BALLZ THIS IZ N)T TEH QU3STION!!!1~1" ... and that usually wrenches the whole 'talking' thing into 'yelling at the retards'.

I'm noticing a lot of bands which use rhythms very well in your list there. If you don't already know how, I'd suggest learning to use a sequencer and program drums, because most drummers would melt just reading the music.

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yeah i just put together a band of one completely sucky guitarist (moved him to bass for now), a competent singer, a freakin awsome drummer (known him for 12 years) and myself. the sortof problem is that we are playing music that..i'll be honest, i dont really like. i want to play freakin metal, but we come out sounding like killswitch with one guitarist and way less skill. meh. its fun to be in a band. im sure im in a completely different situation than you. its fun, but if we broke up i'd be cool with it...this is the first band i've put together that has more than one show though. the singer can do only one type of scream though. i can death (high and low)scream and to the pig vocals, but not while playing most of the time.i settle for mediocracy (sorry for the bad spelling.)

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Yeah I've had a set of V-Drums for about 8 months now. I'm just now realizing that learning to play them the way most people do will make me a decent player and all, but won't get me anywhere in terms of my own music. I intend to start learning how to sequence and writing drum parts out more instead of trying to become some kind of improv drum fill extraordinaire. It makes me happy to finally be discovering my own meaning of musicianship, because it's never just been scales, rudiments, and learning other band's songs. And I guess going at music alone isn't so bad. It's just a matter of self-motivation and then I'll feel all the more better having something tangible because I'll know the accomplishment was all me.

Thanks for the post, mate. Really got me thinking.

Well I think another important part of being in a band is just sharing music. If you feel like you're way ahead of them musically, burn them a mix CD or something. Make them listen to Blood Has Been Shed. The guitarists from Killswitch are in it. They wanted to have another band with a less commercial and more developed sound. I know what you mean, it can be downright frustrating trying to get people into your own stuff, but it can be done if done right. It's a matter of chaining them into what you like. Someone who likes My Chemical Romance is going to be completely repulsed when you have them listen to Bethlehem or something alone those lines, but they might be knocked on their ass when you show them an old Avenged Sevenfold album.

So yeah if you aren't doing that now, at least bring them a step closer. Spread the music. Even if the band doesn't work out, they'll remember you for getting them into some heavy shit for the rest of their lives.

Fucking right you will.

Best way to do that, I would think: set yourself a medium-term goal, like entirely recording and producing your own 3-track EP. I would think if you did something awesome it would be much easier to pull in more professional musicians.

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Listen to him ^

Sending out personally written and recorded demos to musicians really grabs the more serious of the group's attention because it shows you are dedicated and active while showing what you'd actually like to be playing.

Doing it isn't that hard or expensive either: You can download a recording software and sequencer online (I prefer Fruity Loops for drum machines, though I get my samples elsewhere) and if you're looking to really just get the basics done, you can spend about 160$ on a modeling preamp that runs straight into your computer. I recommend looking at this thread if you're not looking to spend much money. He's getting a pretty good tone/quality out of that thing. Just dedicate some time and patience and you'll get more than you'd think done.

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Yes! I'm doing that with my project right now.I'm playing the drums and keyboards, my co-writer taking care of guitar and bass with guest vocalists. The sole purpose of the demo is to pull in permanent members.

i'm the only guitarist so i represent alot of the entire bands sound. i just add alot of metal influenced guitarparts in. thats a step.

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I record all my tunes on the computer, program the drums, record all the guitar and bass parts, do vocals, mix etc.

I recommend Fruity Loops and a sequencer like Cakewalk, it's what I use.
It does give you a great sense of achievment

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To be honest I think your too picky

1°) you have a strange taste, i didnt know most of the bands you mentioned either
2°) sometimes you just have to work with what you have otherwise you're never gonna be in a band. If your bass player sucks, well be lucky, you at least have a bassplayer in your band. Finding the perfect people, well you got to be real lucky to be able to do that.

Peace

the wizard

Heres my 2 cents on this;
Most of the bands you listed as influence for your band is so fucking cliche as far as what the metal scene is now turning into. I myself fucking hate most of the bands you listed that I would rather slap on my sister's Snow Patrol and listen to the song "chasing cars" on repeat.

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The bands in your sig sound like cliche metal to me. If something can actually be defined as "Brutal HardCore Death Grind" or whatever then I think the musicians are thinking to lowly on the scale of collective influences. To each his own, though. I don't know who the fuck Snow Patrol is, but I'll be sure to give them a listen. Thanks.

NO FOR THE LOVE OF GOD DON'T!!!!
Snow Patrol are terrible! Imagine Coldplay on a real big downer, you know really mardy, unhappy, your puppy just been kicked in by drunk violent step dad after he's just raped your kid sister kind of low...Snow Patrol are that but 100 times more miserable. It's music for people who live in a city where it never stops raining. They are dull and arse! It's emo music for house wives!

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They're nearly as bad as Keane!

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i think your present course of action is to find a drummer first. make drummer specific ads that are......a little open ended as far as what you expect thier background to be.

drummers are more transparent toward musical styles so maybe you can lure in someone who can play but just hasnt played the particular style.

your style oer whatever may be seen as an interesting challange for someone who has more traditional drumming influence.....drummers who follow Donati, Weckle, Bozzio and so forth.

a quality recording is a good idea, something that can be hosted somewhere online so it can be previewed.

with a drummer you can gig, and perhaps others will want to join.

my last 2 bands was like this, me and a guitarist, gigged at dive bars and recruted more members based on the live show.

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i just wanted to add that ive been totally turned off by ads that were way too fucking demanding and just plain bullshit from bands that played decent metal. had the ads been a little nicer i may of replied and been interested.

being picky is one thing, requesting a drummer have double kick experience and have something of an understanding of the influences is one thing<dont expect to find a drumming version of yourself complete with a shared vision of all your material>, but citing dozens of obscure bands<that like, you of course should of already owned thier entire catalogue to even fucking bother to reply> and demanding of drummers to be proficient in blasting, playing at a certain bpm<love it when bedroom guitarists throw around drum lingo with inflated stats> is like trying to find a formula 1 stock car racer to be your taxicab business or something.

drummers are few and far fucking inbetween and most other styled drummers would actually be down for something different<i sense a certian envy towards extreme music from the more aloof,sometimes bitter jazz/fusion drummers> if like, the ads dont totally hold them to this retarded standard<this is very common, especially boston bands off of craigslist>. so when looking for a drummer and finding someone who obviously isnt specialized in single stroke bombast,and odd counts,technical grindcore stuff, there is gonna be a learning curve when they have to change thier practice routine to work on the things necessary for your material.

just a forwarning, there can be such an arrogance of what guitarist expect, and very few people are willing to do it cause the bar has been set impossibly high.

be more picky upon a persons general attitude and thier ability to learn<some folks simply dont progress from the skillset they already have because they lack discipline>rather than the skillset they already have when you see potential for them to learn.

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HAHAHAHA i love that description. Honestly, Ive kinda grown outta death metal. It gets pretty fucking boring so sometimes I end up listening to shit being play on KROQ or Armenian music.

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you gotta face it if you cant find people you like for your band you have to do it i can't find a bass player so i got a bass icant find a singer so i sing record some stuff with just yourself and make it awesome then show it to people

Cunt! Just because I live where its always grey doesnt mean I listen to snow patrol.

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hmmm...so my shitty band had a show after about 4 practices. we arnt metal. we dont have audio up but we have a video of our first song. i'm debating whether to put a link up or not. i'm a little ashamed as bad as that is...

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Getting a band together is hard. I have been waiting 6 years to start one. I finnally got people together. Now not all of us like the same stuff but we are all very open minded. That's the best type of musician. Now myself I am a bit picky my bassist kinda wants to do really technical stuff and I want to do old school simple Death Metal and the drummer is caught in between. However I think recently we have come to an understanding and we are going into the studio very soon.

My advice is fool around yourself and record. Or post some videos of you playing on youtube and then in the add give them the link. Showing you are not just talk. Go to shows, ask around and place adds. But while you are doing it record yourself. Look at Muhhumad of Necrophagist he did the first album all himself. Try doing that. Record the album all yourself and if you need help with vocals or anything ask people on the net. And get a little e-band (Internet based band were the band members are all around the world, send each other things and mix it down), people will hear and then you'll find people who are exactly what you are into.

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I envy alot of you for even finding people to play with. Now I can't complain, cause at least I now know two bassists and two guitarists with whom I can jam.
The fun thing here, however, is the fact that I often didn't, and still don't, know a shit about what they're playing or how to do it. What I did was say the truth "I'm not all that good", listened to their comments and brushed up on what didn't work.
My conclusion on this is that good attitude is just as important as skill from the start.

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i wish i had jam buddies

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Keep looking, they exist. I don't know how many people I talked to before I found these guys. But both to ^ and to the threadstarter, probably the best thing you can do is to try to find someone through the personal connections you already have.

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