The audition didn't end up happening. She had a head cold or something. I think the last three singers we've auditioned and/or hired had head colds at least once and had to reschedule their auditions with us.
Meanwhile, our last scheduled gig happened. With Angela officially out of the band, Yvette subbed, so it was Jess and Yvette, as it has been many times in the past year and a half. Honestly, all three girls have gotten to be pretty good singers and decent front persons. Not great, but pretty good.
So with no gigs on the books and a singer to replace, and singers lined up to audition, an interesting question comes up. Are we auditioning for one position, or two?
It seems that JT has been feeling more and more frustrated with this band. We should be better, we should be playing better places, we should be building a following. Instead, we fuck around with these greenhorn singers who can't front a band and hold us back from our true potential. Musically, we're as good as any band he's ever played in. But our singers are amateurs and it's not just disappointing, it's downright embarrassing, and he's sick of it.
Umm... where in the fuck did this come from? Not that he doesn't make some valid points, but that's beside the point. John and I have been pretty happy with the upward trajectory we've been on for the past year and a half. Return gigs to decent venues, actually building a following, nothing but onward and upward. Yep, we have another personnel turnover to deal with. We've done it many times before, and always come out of it stronger. Anyway, John and I thought we were doing pretty good, we find a new singer, we continue. JT thinks that this is the perfect opportunity to find two really strong, experienced, professional singers and really go to the next level. We couldn't do that before. We didn't have the power to pull singers from working bands to take a chance on us. But we're out there now, people have seen us. We have three singers who've come right out and said that they want to join our band, and they're all going to be auditioning.
So it's an interesting question. What if we audition all these singers, and when you rank them all, including Jess somewhere in there, what if Jess is third (or lower)? What if we really do find two very strong singers who are willing to work together and work with us? Do we say Good-bye to Jess? Unceremoniously dump her because we've found someone better, when we weren't even looking for it? That's cold.
We discuss this in a private meeting, just John, Jerry, JT and myself. The "core" of the band. Lead singers and lead guitarists have come and gone, but we've been with the band since the beginning. The way we left it was: We get through the auditions. We evaluate them all. If only one seems a good fit, we offer them the job. Problem solved, we move on. If there are two who are both good enough, both better than Jess, then theoretically, following the rule that "the band comes first", we consider hiring them both. Because let's face it; Jess has been in the band three years now. She's had time to learn, watch others, refine her craft, etc. This is possibly the best she's ever gonna be, and she's still pretty green, pretty amateurish. Personally, I don't have a huge problem with Jess because she more than makes up for it with energy and enthusiasm. Yeah, she's goofy and awkward sometimes, but it's fun. The audience responds, positively. We do get plenty of compliments on our singers, both of them. All three of them. We also get comments, not so loudly, from folks in other bands and others whose opinions carry some weight, that our singers need some coaching, some help. If there's an obvious weak spot, it's our front line. Also true.
So anyway, what we decide is that if there are two who are better than Jess, it depends on how big the gap is between the top two and Jess. If the top two just completely smoke and it's no contest, John will have a tough call to make (in more ways than one). I'd like to see the band improve, but mostly I'd like to see it improve because the current personnel get better, not by replacing them. At this point, as with many times before, I am but one voice out of many. As far as I know, my job is secure, as long as I choose to continue. And that's all I can count on, for now. JT is all in with this band; he quit his other band (which sucked anyway) to go all in with us. That actually means very little to me.
This Saturday is the first round of auditions. Two singers (neither of whom have backed out yet, so that's a good sign), one at 10:00 AM and one at 1:00 PM. We play through some songs, we chat, we get to know each other, we play some more. Then we do it again for the other singer. We'll probably share a lot of comments afterward, not being able to really wait until after the next round of auditions two weeks later. Also, the top two candidates (based on online videos) are the two we're seeing this Saturday.
This should be interesting.