The band will play on ...

A little about myself and why I'm writing this blog.

It feels like I've been here before; because I have. Three years ago I decided to put together a band - MY band. I've played drums in various bands for years; but always 'someone else's band'. This had never been a completely satisfactory experience, and after the previous project disintegrated, I decided this was the time to build my own project and to play the music that I really wanted to play.

The whole process of finding musicians, losing musicians, and meeting all kinds of crazy people in between, was a soap opera all of its own, and I really wish I'd kept a decent record of the hilarious adventures ... but sadly not.

In the end, the process of putting the band together was a lot more fun than the final result. The band fell apart in late December after only 3 concerts, and I have to say I was left with a rather nasty taste in my mouth. Not one to be knocked down easily, I immediately pulled myself together and started to advertise for new musicians to form 'My Band 2.0'. If it's anything like last time, the story should be worth reading.

As I write this the ball is already rolling, so there may be a need for a little filling in on the story so far. Also, I suppose I should give a little bit of background to the whole thing ...

I'm a 40-something Englishman living in Buenos Aires and teaching English for a living. Music has always been my first love, and I've played drums in bands since I was 17 - originally lots of heavy rock, but as I got older and my tastes widened, other styles crept in. I say that I've been playing for almost 30 years, but that isn't really true; I took a long break through my late 20s and 30s and only came back to my instrument a few years ago. I'm no Buddy Rich, but I can hold my own in an amateur group.

Living the life of an ex-pat can be difficult. One needs outlets for stress, and since I don't drink, ex-pat pubs aren't for me (probably a good thing too!!). At the suggestion of my father and my wife I decided to pick up my sticks again and find some people to play with ... as it turned out, not as easy as it sounds.

Most amateur bands consist of under 25s carrying dreams of stardom; not what I had in mind. By the age of 40, most musicians have either hung up their guitars or made a career of music. Finding people of my age who just want to play for fun is harder than I had imagined.

Then there's the problem of style of music. I want to play Funk or Jazzy-pop, but most people still strumming their instruments at 40+ are dope-filled hippys who just want to play the Blues. Fair enough for them, but bores me to death.

It took a very long time to navigate the age/style/level problems and finally put together a group of (reasonably) like minded people. What I reckoned without was someone else's 'mid-life-crisis-teenage-rockstar-fantasy', which after 2 years of hard work put a nail in the coffin of the band.

Still, as I have said, I'm ever the optimist, and with lessons learned it's time to put that experience behind me and set off on my new adventure ...