The Problem With Collaboration
The problem with collaboration is that other people suck.
I had been happily making music on my own, for about 7 years. It is purely electronic music (I do keyboards and programming). A friend of mine suggested I collaborate, with a guitarist. He even had someone in mind (a mutual friend). I decided it was worth a shot. I wrote a few songs, with guitars in mind. Eventually, the guitarist (actually a bassist) and I entered the studio and started developing the songs. It took around 8 months, as I recall. That was purely because we didn’t have enough cash to do it all in one go – and also because it took us a while to find a reliable vocalist.
Our demo CD contained 5 songs (a mixture of pop, rock and dance music – for variety). We sent it to various record labels, locally and overseas. We felt confident we had a good product, and we were sure someone would offer us a record deal. We kept sending demos, but we didn’t get any responses. We did manage to get some airplay – and one of the songs even entered the chart. At that point, we really thought we were destined for greater things. It was not to be.
I continued making music on my own, and I sent a home made demo to various places. After a short while, I received an e-mail from a producer who owned an independent record label. He offered me an album deal! We met to discuss the details of the contract, and I handed over my tracks. A few months later, I found myself in the studio with the producer and a new female vocalist. We laid down vocals for virtually all of the tracks (I wanted to leave 3 of them, for a male vocalist). It took around 2 months. By the end of the year, the tracks were ready to be mixed and mastered. That’s a good feeling (knowing my work is pretty much done, and I can just leave it to the producer to finish everything).
The album was due to be released, in February 2010 (the producer said it would take about 2 weeks to finish everything). I contacted him in January, to see how everything was going. He hadn’t done anything, but promised he would get going on the tracks without delay. To cut a long story short, he did nothing for the whole of last year. I would periodically follow up, and he would give me his excuses (basically, he was always too busy with other stuff). By the end of the year, I realised nothing was going to happen. I sent him a caustic e-mail, in which I suggested increasing the production rate to one track per year – with a tentative release date of June 2023. He didn’t appreciate the sarcasm (boo hoo), and used that as an excuse to abandon the project (as though he ever had any intention of following through with it).
That cunt wasted everybody’s time and money (not only mine, but also his own and that of the vocalists and other musicians). What sort of person does that? A low-life scumbag, who left his girlfriend and his 2-year-old son and shacked up with some other tart (he has probably already left her and moved on to someone else). He is a complete asshole. He has no scruples, and doesn’t care about anyone but himself.
I continued working on new material, throughout 2010 and 2011 (I just love making music – even if there’s no hope of making any money from it). My bassist friend listened to my new tracks, and practically begged me to be involved with the new project. I thought it would be a good idea to add some guitars. Another guitarist is also interested, and another producer has said he wants to be involved.
Well, I finished all my bits and handed the tracks over to the guitarists – in August. They are supposed to be laying down guitar riffs. They were supposed to be finished, by the end of the year. They haven’t even started. I doubt very much if anything will happen, this year. In fact, I wouldn’t be at all surprised if they don’t do anything next year either. That’s musicians for you: Fucking lazy bastards. I am the rare exception to the rule. I keep working on new music, and have completed around 50 tracks in the past 3 years. I just wish I could find some similarly industrious and reliable musicians and producers. It’s a tall order.
You can lead a horse to water, but you can’t force a musician to do anything.