Auditioned for a band today, could use some advice from people with experience

[TheGreatPretender]

A little bit of background, I was in a band a few years ago that didn't really go anywhere, and I've mostly just been working on my range and stuff like that, trying to keep my voice fit and in shape. Every once in a while, I'd go on craigslist and see who's out there, looking for a vocalist and if I see something that seems like my style would work for them, I'd look into auditioning.
So anyway, these guys are looking for a vocalist and they have an album out, they're signed to a local label, they have management, and a bunch of songs for a new album they want to record. They're older than I am, maybe by 15 years or so, and have had much more experience than me.
So I auditioned for them, and they understand my lack of experience and gave me their CD so I can familiarize myself with their songs and want to bring me in next week and jam out some more with me, when I have a bit more confidence with their material. So they're willing to work with me, and give me the opportunity to develop my chops. Finding a good vocalist (at least around here) is very difficult, since people either don't have the voice, or are very flaky, so I'm sure that's a part of the reason they're willing to work with me. But anyway, sounds great, right?

Honestly, I feel like I'm getting cold feet here. I mean, usually when I search for bands looking for singers, I expect to find somebody looking to put something together, start writing songs, eventually play some shows locally, and see where it goes from there. Here are these guys with a label and an album, saying that there are prospects of like, going away for 6 months to perform on a cruise ship.
And I mean, obviously, they could be full of crap, or their management could be making false promises, but honestly, I think I'd be more relieved if that WAS the case. Learning songs, writing new ones, being in a creative space, performing locally all sounds great. But the idea of quitting my job and leaving everything behind to stay on a cruise ship for 6 months terrifies the crap out of me. Certainly not something I even imagine myself being ready for.
But at the same time, who's ever truly ready for something like that when starting out? If it doesn't happen, fine, life goes on, but if it does, it could be a real opportunity to do something great. So I don't know. What do you guys think?

[Skeever]

Why not try it out? What else are you doing?

[TheGreatPretender]

Yeah, you're right. Given the opportunity to sleep on it, I'm feeling a lot less anxiety about it now. I'll just focus on learning their songs, come in next week, and see how things go.

[Ultimetalhead]

Very few people have the opportunity to do something like quit their job and live on a cruise ship playing music for 6 months. There will always be jobs, there will not always be cruise ship musician jobs. Do it, and if it turns out to be a bust, then at least you've had some form of experience with another band (no such thing as a bad one as long as you're growing as a performer/musician/person/etc).

[TheGreatPretender]

That's the one thing I keep telling myself. And I know there are probably people here reading this and going, "Dude, you're such a dumb ass, that's the dream!" But maybe it's not even that that's troubling me.

Honestly, I'm involved in a number of things right now, like film making, game design, martial arts classes and things like that, and I honestly don't know if I'm able to dedicate the kind of time these guys require.

They want to start booking gigs in January, and they're basically saying I'd have to learn all their songs, like, he called me this morning to check if I'm working on learning their songs. They're basically just waiting for me. At the same time, it really doesn't seem like they just have a whole lineup of vocalists knocking at their door, so without me, they can't do anything anyway. I feel like that's putting a lot of pressure on me, to learn this material in such a short amount of time, but the thing is, I have a life and a lot of things going on outside this band, and I can't just abandon everything else just and let everyone else down. It would be completely different if all I had going was a part time job and the rest of my time I could just dedicate to learning the stuff, and being a part of a band, but with all the other things, I have commitments and other people depending on me.

The real issue is that I think if I commit to this particular band, I might be biting off more than I could chew, and spreading myself too thin, and no matter how fun it is making music, and doing creative stuff, I'm the kind of person that if I don't get the opportunity to just relax and distract myself with some leisure time at least one day out of the week, or if I deprive myself of sleep too much just to make up for all the things I need to accomplish, then everything I'm doing, none of it will be fun for me anymore. I'll just be exhausted and sick and running on fumes and not enjoying my life at all. It happened before.

So yeah, I'm still mulling it over. I'll just put in whatever time I can this week to learn a few more of their songs and if they feel like I didn't put in enough time and didn't get as comfortable with the material as they expected, then that's just going to be an indicator that maybe I can't accomodate their needs. So it'll really be on them, whether to let me go and look for someone else, or keep me around and bare with me and my commitments until I catch up, or until they find someone to better suit their needs.

[kirksnosehair]

It sounds to me like they want a lot more than you have to offer right now.   Just a suggestion, but if you're ultimately going to just bag it and not sign on with them, the cool thing to do is let them know about it ASAP so they can at least try to get someone else.

[TheGreatPretender]

Yeah, I let them know. They were really cool and nice about it. Hopefully it works out for them.

[kirksnosehair]

You did the right thing, man.  There will be other opportunities.