Bl@@dy musicians - just venting...

Alcove Audio said:
So I just smiled and played back the recording of our entire conversation at the beginning of the session where she adamantly refuses to take off her bracelets. Game. Set. Match.

Her manager tucked an extra $100 in my pocket before they left. They did return to do about six songs, which she recorded sans bracelets.
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You are my new role model
 
8salacious9 said:
I managed to finally break free from the devil herself yesterday, secured payment and a contract to say she was happy and that I will only provide copies of the final product no amendments to footage as she has now signed it.

The woman your dealing with isn't who I'm thinking of is it ? :s lol
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When I first read OPs post I was thinking, is this guy having another rant about his gospel singer. Then I realised it was a different person. London musicians seem quite the task to work with.

Musicians I have worked with, particularly solo ones, are always concerned about their looks in videos
 
MileCreations said:
When I first read OPs post I was thinking, is this guy having another rant about his gospel singer. Then I realised it was a different person. London musicians seem quite the task to work with.
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Think there must be something in the water.

I've met some interesting types. One of the most interesting was for a cover band shooting a vid (live recording) they could send out in order to create bookings. One of the backing singers (stunningly gorgeous, great voice, good musicality) kicked off and went absolutely ballistic.

She was shouting and yelling at the band and management. Her particular bone of contention was that no-one had sent her the lyrics.

The lyrics were 'ooh, ooh, ooh.'

Annoyingly, that one was a freebie to someone I know and now I am going to return in order to re-shoot the freebie.
 
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Alcove Audio said:
Use a fish-eye effect and turn her into a blimp.


I've had similar problems from the audio side. Here's one for laughs.

An up-and-coming singer with a pending deal comes into the studio I'm working at. She has bracelets on both arms from wrist to elbow. She goes into the vocal booth, I play the track and ask her to sing a bit so I can get levels. Her bracelets are jangling so loudly that I can barely hear her vocals. I ask her to remove them. She refuses. I ask why. She explains that they're a intrinsic to her image. I calmly explained that no one can see her when all we are doing is recording her voice. She says that "they will know." I asked who will know. She says her fans will know if she is not wearing her bracelets. I said, well, that's for sure; but they won't be able to hear your voice over the noise from your bracelets. It went round and round like that for ten minutes or so. I finally said "fine, it's your dime."

We recorded lead vocals, doubles of the lead vocals and several layers of background vocals. JANGLE, JANGLE, JANGLE!!!!! Every single take just adds layers of jangling, to the point there was jangling and music, with just a hint of vocals. Her manager comes in after about fiour hours and asks to hear the track. I played it for him. Hey literally screams at me "what's with all the effing noise?" I said those are her bracelets; she refused to take them off. Her response? "He never told me to take them off." So I just smiled and played back the recording of our entire conversation at the beginning of the session where she adamantly refuses to take off her bracelets. Game. Set. Match.

Her manager tucked an extra $100 in my pocket before they left. They did return to do about six songs, which she recorded sans bracelets.
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your my favourite indietalker :)
 
MileCreations said:
When I first read OPs post I was thinking, is this guy having another rant about his gospel singer. Then I realised it was a different person. London musicians seem quite the task to work with.

Musicians I have worked with, particularly solo ones, are always concerned about their looks in videos
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Ghetto musicians are much better to work with!
 
8salacious9 said:
Ghetto musicians are much better to work with!
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Okay, this one is bad and good...

A fairly (regionally) well known rapper comes into the studio I'm working at. He hands me a CD of the track he wants to work on that night. I load it up into the DAW. He tells me to put the entire track on a loop and to BLAST it. As I'm setting it all up he rolls the biggest damned spliff I've ever seen and pulls a quart of malt liquor out of a paper bag. Then he tells me that I can leave and he'll come get me when he's ready to track vocals. I put the exhaust vent on, start the track and leave the control room.

About 45 minutes later I he comes out and tells me he's ready to track. The spliff is now a pile of ashes in the ash-tray, and the quart is empty. I figured that I was in for a long evening with a waste case.

He went into the booth and did everything I asked to get good levels (took about three minutes). Then we went through the whole track twice without stopping. From there we did each verse no more than three times to get a great performance, and only two times to get the choruses tight.

From there he asked - surprising the hell out of me - if I had any cool ideas. Surprised me? It shocked the hell out of me that a black ghetto rapper would ask me, a 40+ year old suburban white dude, to contribute to a rap track. We spent about 90 minutes experimenting and having fun with the track.

We did this routine every other night for a month - an albums worth of material - which he also asked me to mix. A very bizarre but gratifying experience.
 
Y'all are just hooking up with the wrong musicians. Don't be filmmaking whores. Be selective with who you work with. I love my musician friends! :yes:
 
Gosh, I wouldn't take the tack of agreeing with her that she's fat and ought to go on a diet. Better to suggest that she's lovely just the way she is, and try to work from there. When you say that you've told her to go on a diet, you sound rather like a bad boyfriend.

And aren't there a lot of music videos in which the musicians never appear? Does she have to be in the video? Is it too late to get actors? Does the song have a narrative?

Man, I feel sorry for you, and do not envy your having to deal with her. But, it's worth it for us to rememeber how, unfortunately, image matters a crapload, even in the music biz. Maybe especially in the music biz. Just the ugly reality. So, she doesn't sound like she's being anywhere near reasonable. On the other hand, I suppose we can hardly blame her for being paranoid about it. However, we can blame her for being unprofessional and inconsiderate, and making you suffer for it.

After all, there's a reason why Milli Vanilli were fronted by two (alleged) charlatans: those two (alleged) charlatans were studs and easy to look at, more so, apparently, than the actual musicians?

Tough situation. Good luck.
 
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