indie band seeks drummer bandmate

Minneapolis MN

Description

Salutations! We are an indie/folk/emo/pop/rock group looking for a drummer. We have been together since 2020 and have had some incredible musicians join us touring across the country 3 times, recording 2 albums and creating lots of content. Although we have really appreciated the beautiful souls that have played with us along the way we are now on a more long term search for a drummer who would be an amazing fit for our group, as a committed member moving forward. Not just on a musical level but also a personal level, someone with a similar life path, goals, and outlook. We're not rushing into any commitments but are hoping on finding someone in the coming year. While we audition players we'll be paying a hired gun rate to them for gigs. I'm born and raised in the SF bay area but am mostly nomadic. Our female singer is from LA but has been mostly nomadic since covid, and lead guitar lives in LA. Ill be spending more time in Minneapolis and LA this coming year in order to network, meet and play with potential future bandmates. Please read on to see if you feel like we would be an amazing fit for each other. After playing with so many different musicians, we've had the luxury of narrowing down some common goals, qualities and mindsets that I think need to be aligned for long term success. If you believe you're on the same page, that's amazing, let's definitely chat and see where it goes. We're a fun loving group, but we also try to be real as fuck— with ourselves and each other. We get into deep shit on those long drives... We end up conversing about/move through the world considering human equity, climate change, our futures, mind altering experiences, relationships/community care, family, healing trauma/trauma informed relating, politics, intersectional feminism, and of course music. We're constantly encouraging each other to learn, grow, and heal. We’re also always chatting about how the next show can be better in terms of musicality, performance/stage presence, tech, merch etc. We're not in it for fame, we simply love sharing music, meeting/inspiring people, and traveling. We’re trying to up our game as a band as well as in our solo careers as artists, trying to make a living from our crafts without losing the joy and becoming jaded. We all have our own influences but here’s some just to put down a few of my main ones: Bombay Bicycle Club, Fleet Foxes, Alt-j, Local Natives, Arcade Fire, Novo Amor, Tame Impala, Wye Oak, Young the Giant, Muse, José Gonzalez, The Head and the Heart, Blanco White, Andy Shauf, Phoebe Bridgers, Maggie Rogers, Nick Mulvey, Hippo Campus, As Tall a Lions, Annuals, Circa Survive, Nirvana, The Killers, Coldplay, Death Cab for Cutie, Fruit Bats, Portugal the Man, Radiohead, Rainbow Kitten Surprise, Shakey Graves Our debut album was written mostly by me from 2016 to 2019 so a lot has changed since then. I had a huge phase of listening to and writing music like 2000s alt rock and emo so that flavor is definitely still embedded in the music. Even our second, upcoming album (singles?) which was also written mostly by me already feels old. And as I've started to write with other band members in the last two years, it’s got me really excited to collaborate more and step out of my own compositional head. All of our current music has been engineered and co produced by our good friend who has a big influence on the instrumentals as well. You: -We're looking for someone who can vibe with our current style but also bring their own elements to contribute and who pushes us to experiment. With drummers I often feel pressure to write mostly exciting music, but truly we enjoy creating a whole landscape with our recordings and concerts. That means lots of space, builds and peaks. Sometimes parts of songs call for percussive elements, samples, or silence instead of a kit part. If you play multiple instruments it's nearly guaranteed we'll be incorporating that into our live sets, electric or acoustic. -The drummer we're looking for will have significant experience on stage, in the studio, and ideally experience in front of the camera too. If you haven't toured or done a ton of videos/content it's not a deal breaker, but we have an expectation that you would dedicate time to getting used to being on camera and educating yourself about what tour life is like. Being able to play along with Ableton click and cues, play sets with seamless execution, singing background vocals, and overall leading the band through the set and in transitions. -Off the stage we're looking for someone who has a down to earth and modern idea of what it means to be a professional musician playing and promoting original music. That means 50% music, 50% business. Content creation, branding, marketing, promotion, social media, sync licensing, etc. An ideal band mate would be able to talk equally to fans, collaborators, and industry folk and work with us on building our fanbase, brand, business. -Being on tour, extended recording/writing sessions and spending a lot of time with us in different situations means that everyone has to be communicative, flexible, resilient. Being an experienced traveler willing to couchsurf, cook, clean, drive, explore, fail, problem-solve are all incredibly important. -We’re California based, but I have been traveling since 2019 and as I will be moving around in search of potential band mates, but also new friends, communities, bands, and part time homes. An ideal bandmate would initially be willing to travel for gigs, touring, extended songwriting residencies and recording sessions. -Another big variable that's generally very difficult for musicians trying to come is being able to have a great balance of financial stability matched with time flexibility. Online jobs are almost necessary unless your in person work has insane flexibility with time off or working remote. Personally I'm self employed, teaching music online to 12-20 students on average which I even do during tour to help pay expenses. I imagine the vast majority of people reading this have to think this level of commitment is insane. I wouldn't argue with you but I will say that this is exactly what we've been doing for the last three years with this group and plan to continue for the foreseeable future. I know the person who me and the band are seeking for this project is one in a million and I'm happy patiently waiting to meet that person and in the meantime jamming with + meeting tons of new friends =] If we're lucky enough to find someone that fits in our band family, then I really believe we have a extra shot at doing something great. In the meantime we have a couple good friends who are great touring musicians but don't necessarily fit this idealistic long term position. So if you think this might be you, don't worry about having all the stress of being a perfect match right out the gate, let's just jam, get to know each other, have some fun, play some shows and it will all work out if it's meant to be and we all really want it. If all this resonates with you, then we'd be very excited to share all our music, old and new with you to see if it vibes. Looking forward to it!! -Fish