Grateful Dead Music Forum

so about 2years ago me and a childhood friend started a band, he picked the lineup out of friends he had. we have been going strong for 2 years now but they were tired of me conflictiing with the band over the direction we were going in, and they said i didnt fit the bands style(i wore tye dye and birkenstocks no matter the occasion) and they wanted to be simplistic punk band. The main problem with me getting kicked out is all the original songs we played were mine, and i had them all sign contracts that go with each song that say they are my property, but now im scared to play them in shows because people will just think im stealing their material, and how do i tell my former band they cant play my stuff?

Man the way I see it. If they kicked you out then screw em man. Id tell them "if im not good enough for you then neither is my material!" and thatd be the end of it. Besides man just get up there and shred it like they never could and people will forget all about them doin the songs and start focusing on you.

man i try to imagine you in your birkenstock and tye dye surrounded by punk rockers.... lol
maybe you should be glad that you were kicked out, do your own thing

just keep doing what you do ... play your songs ..if they play them as well ... who cares ... just dont allow anyone to record your stuff in the studio ... just be you and keep on keepin on and don't worry about it ... karma will take you there Cheers

I had a similar situation 5 or so years ago. The band I was in decided to all split up. We had two key song writters the rhythm guitar player and me (bass). I was still friends with most of the band and I went to go see the lead guitar player's new group play a gig. He played 4 songs that I wrote, and all of them where altered a little in tempo and one was dropped a half step to give it a pretty heavy sound. They didn't sound the same becuase this was an "industrial rock" (whatever that means) band. However it was my words and pretty much my music. I told him after the show I wasn't that cool with him playing my tunes, and he was respectful enough to apologize and promise he wouldn't as soon as they had some more material. There drummer got thrown in jail two months later for illegal gun possesion. They broke up and now I don't have to worry about it.

So he should plant weapons and get his former band members
busted?

weedar wrote:So he should plant weapons and get his former band members
busted?

Funny....sort of.

But chubbypony, just keep doing what you do. Play music. Inspire. You wrote the songs, that means they're yours man, and nobody can take that away. One way to take care of it if you're really concerned is to copyright your songs. Type copyright.gov into Google or some other search engine and you'll find what you need to get started. Basically it requires you making an audio file of your songs on a cd (even if you have one already recorded w/ your old band, that'll work), filling out some forms, and maybe type up the lyrics and chords/riffs/etc. that go with the song. It costs $$ to copyright, but not much...I think it was around $40 or so last time I checked, but I could be wrong. Maybe it was $40 per cd....I can't remember. It also takes a good chunk of time for the process to be finished...4-8 months, as I recall.

But other than that, just keep on keepin' on. Keep writing music, keep practicing. You'll hook up w/ another band. Check www.craigslist.com in your area - there are always folks on there looking to jam.

Good luck.

It can be one of the hardest things. Especially amoungst friends. Good luck to you and I hope you find another group of musicians!

Bands....
They turn strangers into friends and friends into enemies...

thanks for all the help guys. ive entered myself in a battle of the bands next friday that my old band is in just to prove to everyone who the leader and real musician was, wish me luck

chubbypony wrote:thanks for all the help guys. ive entered myself in a battle of the bands next friday that my old band is in just to prove to everyone who the leader and real musician was, wish me luck

Hmmmmm good luck! Could be interesting...