quit music?
I've been thinking of retiring my bass....or at least, putting it away for a while.
Friday's gig went well, but it got me thinking: where is the band going? And where am I going musically? I really don't have musical aspirations at this point or else I'd be looking for another band. TWC is moving along, getting gigs, and returning to the studio soon. But what does it add up to? It's not like any of us are going to quit our jobs and play full time.
The way I see it, if you're going to be in a band, it should be either very serious or not serious at all. Either you intend on making music a career, or you're content with playing around in a basement. But anywhere in between seems like a waste of effort. It takes a lot of time, money, and work to do typical band-related things. In order to get gigs, you have to have something recorded, which requires money. Then once you start playing at one place, you inevitably want to play at bigger or more important venues. That takes persistence, promotion, etc.
It doesn't help that I'm at a point where I feel that even though the band as a whole might be playing better, I'm stuck in a rut, playing the same types of stuff, or at worst, losing some skill that I might've had in the past. Even our "different" tunes are constrained by musical inhibitions. Maybe part of the disconnect is that the rest of the band members are 10 years older than I am.
I've tried looking for other opportunities in various bands, but that's a big hassle in itself. It's hard to find non-flaky musicians, it seems. I've thought about starting my own band, but unfortunately, I don't have enough original material on my own, don't really know what kind of music I'd like to play, and don't know anyone else who would join me in an experimental music venture. Besides, I'd only end up at this point eventually.
I tend to focus on one activity (and sometimes, one person) at a time. If I'm going to do something well, I have to push everything else out of the way. For the foreseeable future, being in a band isn't high on my list of priorities. I really need to devote some obsessive amount of time to photojournalism because that's what I intend to do as a career sooner rather than later.
That's what I'm thinking now. It's ironic that the reason I got back into a band after a few years was that I was tired of playing by myself and itching to collaborate with others. Now that it's become routine, I'm itching to cast it aside and move on. Who knows what I'll think in the future?