New Band Members

I’m listening to Tom Waits, feeling nostalgic and thinking about how much auditioning band members is like dating. You both come into it with certain expectations - sometimes you’re let down, sometimes you’re pleasantly surprised or even excited and sometimes one person likes the other person more than the other person likes them.

There are even the same kind of questions - “What kind of music do you listen to?” “What do you want out of this?” “What kind of commitment are you looking for?” “How serious are you about this?”

It makes sense of course since being in a band is so much like being in a relationship.

With four other people.

Who all know about each other.

When someone in the band isn’t able to make the time you think they should for you, you start to feel a little resentful. When they have another band they’re in you might get a little jealous and when they finally leave for good you miss them. You only reminisce about the good times and forget about all the times they stood you up or didn’t really listen to what you had to say. You also get better at it over time - the more time that passes, the more people that come and go, the less you become jealous or upset over the little things. You look back and think “Oh, I would do so much better now. If only I could go back and give it another shot!”

When I started Please Do Not Fight it was with a collection of songs and a group of friends who were willing to record an album with me. Some of them stuck around after that. Eventually some of them left and new ones came. We wrote and recorded ‘MOVE’ and everything was different. Now things have changed again, people are gone, new people are here and we’re writing a new album and again, it’s going to be different.

In a lot of ways it’s exciting - new talent means new sounds and new ideas and a fresh perspective. People moving on means no one is in the band feeling bored or stagnant or resentful. In other ways it’s really frustrating - a rotating line-up means a lot more time auditioning people and teaching them old songs. It means less time writing new material, booking tours and playing shows. It means constantly adapting to new personalities and new styles of playing. Recently it’s also meant Geoff and I have been learning keyboard parts and even some of each others guitar parts.

I’ve often thought about just making music under my name so that I don’t have to deal with all the stuff that comes with being in a band - I could tour the country alone in my car whenever I wanted. Gas would be cheap, I wouldn’t even need much gear - loading in to shows would be a breeze! When I crashed on peoples floors it would be just me, not me and four other people who all need showers.

The reality is that being in a band is what I love. It’s about the music for me but it’s also about the community, working with others and feeling like together we’ve created something completely unique and special that’s bigger than any one of us. That’s a vibe that we’re really trying to get back to and embrace in a big way after spending much of 2009 being entirely too serious and getting entirely too burnt out. We’re in this to have fun and make something we’re proud of. If it doesn’t fall under one of those two categories we’re not going to do it. Hopefully that will show in the music we’re making.

I’ve also kicked around the idea - what with all the major line-up changes - of changing the band name. You know, starting over. In a lot of ways though it’s always been this way and Please Do Not Fight is it’s own thing. Not a solo project, not a normal band but a group of people who for whatever reason in the moment see something in the seeds of songs I’m creating and are willing to help me improve and grow them. It feels right to continue along this path under this banner.

I’m eternally thankful to everyone who’s been involved in it in the past for getting us to where we are and I’m really excited to see what the Please Do Not Fight of the future ends up looking and sounding like. I hope you are too.

Thanks for everything friends.

-Zen

Then I had me a girl in France
Just wanted to get in my pants
had me a girl in Toledo
Boy she sure was neato
Then I had me a girl in North Carolina
She’s still on my mind

And my doctor says I’ll be alright but I’m feelin’ blue

- Tom Waits