by Ryan Thomas
Last week I wrote about the difficulty involved in arranging a song independent of other musicians — testing out and altering arrangements takes a lot of time and effort because of the need to record and audition each set of parts. But beyond inconvenience, there are other major disadvantages.
As a musician, I think it's easy to get sucked into a sort of narcissistic black hole in which one falls in love with his own playing and songwriting. I am loathe to admit this but there was a point many years ago in which I became frustrated with my then-bandmates and wished I had a cloning device so that I could create a band comprised entirely of, well, me. While this would certainly be interesting to see, I have since learned to better appreciate these other musicians who, though sometimes frustrating, have opinions and ideas that are valuable and often complimentary to my own.
Chemistry
When a person works by himself, he's constrained by his own ideas — he can only create what he can imagine, however vast or confined. At the very least, the addition of another mind and playing style adds another universe of imagination and experience to the process. Bandmates provide someone to bounce ideas off of. They critique flawed ideas and encourage and inspire more-developed concepts. But even more valuable is the prospect of synergy.
A peculiar resonance can form between two or more bandmates exchanging ideas. My bands have created compositions and textures that I could never have conceived by myself. This synergy comes in many forms. In my recording project with Ian Francis, called English Breakfast, we sometimes start with a ridiculous lyric and partial vocal melody that sets the tone of the song, and then begin writing musical parts that fit the idea. We've worked together long enough to know each other's strengths and capabilities but are able to push each other to create the wildly over-the-top parts and arrangements that are the project's goal. The below clip illustrates the result of each of us goading the other into refining our parts and the song into something ever more ridiculous. This is something that simply would not happen on my own.
Another example of this synergy can be found in my current band's (The Machete Archive) song, "VII." This is one of my favorite songs to play because of the way the parts fit together. And my favorite moment in the song is probably this one (below), which just seemed to fall together. I can never write textures like this on my own — it is simply the product of three very different musical minds working toward a common goal. And I think the end result is very exciting.
Sociality
The final thing that one misses out on while writing music by himself is not musical at all, rather, it is the social aspect of being in a band. Unlike the cloistered, self-indulgent nature of making music by yourself, being in a band forces you into social situations that create friendships, opportunities and experiences. You not only become close friends with your bandmates, but you meet their friends as well. And like any relationship, each experience in a band teaches you how to be a better bandmate and social participant.
Finally, the biggest disadvantage to writing music solo is the lack of a band with which to perform it. A band that writes its music together has a built-in medium for music performance, where the musician that simply records his music winds up with disembodied recordings that may never be played live or heard by anyone. And unlike a band of "hired guns" that could conceivably be put together to play an album of one person's music, musicians who help write a song have a sense of ownership in the music and a vested interest in its proliferation.
The Best of Both Worlds
There are real pros and cons both to writing solo and as a group, which is why I feel quite fortunate to have the ability to work out all of my obsessive, controlling urges on my computer while experiencing the advantages of being in a band in my group. It's akin to having your cake and eating it too, which seems too good to be true. But as is so frequently quoted from Ecclesistes, "For everything there is a season, and a time for very purpose under heaven." I couldn't have said it better.
Ryan Thomas is a songwriter/musician who plays in a band and writes and records alone. Coincidentally I'm not well versed in the Bible, I just know the Byrds song and play "Civilization 4." Let me know what you think in the comments.