Selling cover music to a crowd staring right at you and demanding truth and emotion and insisting you take them to a place in their past...
...is difficult.
Through my ravings I've said playing cover music isn't great art - and it isn't. I compared it to a paint-by-numbers version of the Mona Lisa - and it is. Cover musicians didn't create "The Exorcist" - we just decided to adapt it as a musical for people to enjoy their memories while we entertain them and keep them happy.
Still, if you're going to perform music that's important to someone, you'd better make it as real as possible. Music is life's signposts and markers, intimately intertwined with our emotions, events, places, times and people. Simply put, cover music evokes memories and is a guide to our past.
Heavy, right? Reality, though.
As a cover band musician, listeners depends on you to help them revisit an event, or a friend, or place or time, or an emotion. If you can't convey truth, they won't respond. They won't trust you. I mean, face it - we've ALL heard crappy cover bands doing plastic versions of songs - sure, the basic chords are there, but where's the "oomph?" The realism? The honesty?
The answer is simple, but the technique is hard. The musician HAS to find something in the song he or she can relate to, then tap into the emotion and apply it to the performance. For example, I'm furious about our government's hypocrisy and broken promises. I tap into that when singing "Pink Houses." I remember myself as a spazzy kid running around laughing myself silly and causing trouble for "I Wish." I'd tell you where the inspiration comes from for "Let's Get it On," but I don't want to name names.
My drummer pulls every drop of emotion out of "Can't Get It Out of My Head" due to events occurring in his life while we learned the song - and you FEEL that in his playing, from his tripleted fills "pulling" against the song's time to the openness of his backbeat. His drumming's filled with tension, then spaciousness and ultimately release. It's probably my favorite "drumming" song in our list, and it gets me every time.
As a singer, one of the greatest compliments I've received is when a listener - be it someone in the crowd or someone in a band - told me my singing gave him or her "chills." That's amazing to me, and it proves that tapping into MY emotion helps make cover music a communal, sharing experience.
You know, I often think of cover musicians as actors. We know how actors earn a living - a screenwriter creates a script. The actor studies these flat, two-dimensional words on paper and, under the director's instructions, makes the words come to life. You have to believe the actor lost a lover in a car accident, or is possessed by a dark spirit, or pushed his body to the breaking point in order to save the world.
Bringing life to words on a page, written by someone else - that's an actor's passion.
Bringing feeling and emotion to a tired song, telling a story and taking lives back to another place - that's the blessing and calling of a good cover musician.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
1 comment:
I love the analogy of cover musicians as actors. I can't think of how many times I've felt demeaned by someone because I play in a cover band as opposed to playing in an original band. I've played in many original bands over the years. I've served in the capacities of hired guns and full-fledged band members. I have no problem playing in original bands or cover bands. As a full-time musician, I can't afford to be choosy when it comes to providing for my family. I teach, perform and do recording sessions to put food on the table. For some reason though, the same people (the ubiquitous "they") that expect me to play for free though would never think to ask another craftsman such as a plumber or electrician to perform their services for free, seem to have no qualms about belittling a big part of my chosen profession.
When it comes Oscar time, it never ceases to amaze me who wins and who gets looked over. Tom Cruise who is a huge superstar and a great actor basically has been playing the same character since "Risky Business". Each time I see one of his movies, I don't see a stretch. I see someone being safe and relying on something that has worked in the past. Then there are actors like DeNiro, Duvall, Depp and DeCaprio (hows that for some serious alliteration!). Each time I see a character that one of the aforementioned actors has created, I'm amazed at the depth and difference. Johnny Depp was a musician hoping to make it big in LA and by chance landed his first role in the original "Nightmare on Elm Street". Looking back over the roles from Edward Scissorhands to Gilbert Grape to Jack Sparrow, I defy anyone to find a handful of similarities or resemblances. I'm pretty sure Tom Cruise didn't have to stretch too hard from Maverick to Cole Trickle. My absolute favorite actors are the unsung character actors. Guys like William H. Macy before he got really famous. Actors whose characters take me places.
The point I'm trying to make is that playing in a cover band may be tantamount to a paint-by-numbers Mona Lisa. However, the fact of the matter is that in addition to helping people relive fond memories through music, we create memories by playing weddings and corporate functions. Original artists are great at what they do. No one can do Tom Cruise or Clint Eastwood like Tom Cruise or Clint Eastwood. How many artists can draw upon their chameleonic nature and become something different for different events, roles or songs? We aren't in a tribute band. Tribute band members must copy every detail of the band they are attempting to pay tribute to. We are a cover band playing dance music from the 40's to present day. Yeah, that's easy. It is also easy pleasing a hotel conference room of people with a 50 year age gap. Guess what? We do it every time. How do we do it? We are professional, we care and we take nothing for granted. Sure we have fun and have some laughs. But never at the expense of creating an unforgettable event for a newlywed couple or a CEO that wants to thank his employees.
I'd rather go on making a comfortable living playing cover music honestly and from the heart for an appreciative crowd than go back to touring incessantly for the "art" of it.
End of rant.
Post a Comment