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When do you know it's time to throw a song out?
How hard do you fight for one of your songs if everyone else ain't feeling it?
What if you feel real strongly about it, you have a grand vision for it that nobody else is getting or excited about? How hard do you push?
When do you finally give in and let it go? Do you attempt to sneak it back in at a later point? Maybe salvage little bits of it?

what about a song that actually made it through, got played at shows and maybe even recorded? When do you know it's time to let it fade away?

Man, my bandmate does the recycling of songs thing all the time. I always tell him that there is a reason why we didn't finish that song. Having said that we have just finished a new song with a recycled riff, and it sounds pretty good.

As a rule, I find it quite easy to throw riffs or songs away. I think the best bands must have a high level of quality control.

I always mean to suggest having a "one golden vote" rule in the band. You can use this vote to keep a song that no one else likes, or to throw a song away that everyone else wants to keep. And you get one of these every year or something. Might try it.

kill it or let it slide. unless everyone in the band is feeling the idea, they'll never play it w/conviction and it'll never get the treatment it needs to reach what you're hearing in your head.

start a side project for these reject ideas. sometimes it's not necesarily that the song is bad, but it's a bad song for that group of players.

chairman_hall wrote:I always mean to suggest having a "one golden vote" rule in the band. You can use this vote to keep a song that no one else likes, or to throw a song away that everyone else wants to keep. And you get one of these every year or something. Might try it.

That would never really work, whoever dosen't like it would just half ass it and say 'I can't come up with anything for this part' and all that.

nick92675 wrote:start a side project for these reject ideas.

Ok, for anyone in more than one band...how do you decide which band your idea is best for and if rejected by one do you try it with others?

[/missed the point]

Boombats wrote:Wanna make this a C/NC?


Anyway, NC. There is such a thing as a bad idea.

I'm not asking if it's C or N/C to throw a song out. I am asking about the process in which the different musicians here go about dealing with these issues.

Ah.

I would ask the people who don't like the song why they don't like it, and what they would do if they had to make it into a song they do like.

Anyone experience this: one bandmate doesn't like the piece you're working on. Instead of making verbal protest, he or she plays their part shittily and apathetically, until nobody's having a good time anymore? I hate that; it's like raping someone and instead of screaming for help or fighting back, they just lie there and make a stupid face.

go ahead and throw it away.
if it's not fun, and it's not working, throw it out. DA threw out five songs before our first show, and we grew more quickly as a band because of it.

however, sometimes a part just needs a lot of work before it flourishes.

for example (link to DA's old myspace):

1. "Chums"- this song had maybe six or seven different versions live, and we played them all. the studio version here was a different beast, and the last several shows, we played as a quartet, with our friend orion playing a second guitar. this recording is my favourite thing I've taken part.

2. "the Phoenix" - this song started out with just my simple guitar figure that takes place throughout the first 2/3rds. I hated it. It felt stupid, and my bandmates talked me into sitting with it, and it eventually became the best song I think we'd done.

3. "Tos" - this was something I wrote on a four track in 98 or 99. we learned how to play it as a band in 01, had it recorded by 03. the band recording is missing a middle eight from the original four track version. This missing middle eight was turned into our other song, "Toos" and a different ending was created. "Tos" may be the most polished song we did, and "Toos" the most romantic. they all came from the same three or so ideas and took wildly different forms. In my current band, we have a version of "Toos" that is based around guitar instead of keyboard. It goes in a completely different direction too, but it's still the same idea.

4. "United Snakes" - this started out with Caroline playing the chord progression that is the song. i made up a bass line on my keyboard and she switched over to the crazy Juno sweeps, not playing her original part.
the amp clang that punctuates "snakes" in the verse came from a show in canada where we were on this piece of shit stage made longer by extending plywood across it onto a pool table. my twin was rattling on the plywood, and when I brought my foot down while singing "Snakes", it set the amp off. we loved it so much, we added it to the song. When Orion joined the band, we had him play a second drum kit on "United Snakes" live. I think it's the sexiest song we've done.


sorry for this wanky trip down amnesia lane, I know the most about stuff I've actually worked on. I just wanted to illustrate that there are dozens of right answers, it's just a matter of what works for the song. feel free to cannibalize your own work and hang on to the good ideas, or throw shit out if it's getting in the way of you moving forward.


do it.





Faiz

What if a bandmate REALLY loves a track, but you dislike it? Not just regular songs that come and go, this is the person's baby unlike any other. Do you feel like you owe it to them to keep your trap shut and just go along with it because they are so jazzed about it? What if you REALLY hate it?

Marsupialized wrote:What if a bandmate REALLY loves a track, but you dislike it? Not just regular songs that come and go, this is the person's baby unlike any other. Do you feel like you owe it to them to keep your trap shut and just go along with it because they are so jazzed about it? What if you REALLY hate it?

you tell them you are not really sold on the song in the begining, but you give them the benifit of the doubt for at least a practice if not 2-3. Songs can flip on you, just the right part/key change can change a whole song...

also you would want this person to do this for you.