I don't know if this is the right place to discuss of these problems, so I apologise first-hand should anyone take offense at my newbishness to this forum. 
For some background info about myself, I'm a portuguese mixed malay, in a way I have this weird accent that comes out from nowhere sometimes, and a deep voice too. I'm heavily associated by my friends as a Brandon Flowers of The Killers (A little shake,vibrato and falsetto at times), Julian Casablancas of Strokes (Except from the screams, my comfort range projects a voice like his), Franz Ferdinand (The accent) and Muse's vocalist (Pulling a long note, always ending with vibrato)
My comfort range can be estimated through songs like Someday by The Strokes and Smile Like You Mean It from Killers. I can't reach high notes, I "screeched" at times and I just suck at interacting with the crowd.
With the problems with me addressed, now onwards to my role in the band.
We formed in late 2007, I was in ITE back then when a friend of mine intro-ed me to this guitarist, Mr A, while they're finding peeps to form a band.
We played covers at first, made two originals before we had our first gig in mid 2008. But that is besides the point, I'll just list the major problems that has been bugging me all this while. The main problem is the conflicts I kept having with Mr A because of our views.
- Sometimes when we play covers, he tends to choose the ones that favors good guitar parts, which sometimes I felt he disregards the whole band image especially the vocals where the high notes were way out of my range.
- To be fair, I sometimes agree to the song choice but asked to be played let's say one or two frets lower; using reasons like the people listening won't notice unless they're actually listening to the original song while watching us. But Mr A disagrees with reasons like "the song won't sound nice" and "you have to try, don't give us bullshits by saying you can't."
- Prior to point two, I'm actually able to reach higher notes by straining, but sometimes the note were too high that I have to resort to falsetto (which sometimes spoils the mood of the song) or scream it out hoping it turns out for the better rather than screeching. As a result, I sometimes end up with tension in my vocal chords or worse still, a cramped jaw.
- There is no hype coming from them when it comes to performing/jamming. I always mention about how stage presence is very important when it comes to live gigs. I was the only one who does the walking and little dances and actually feels the song while I play, for the others, they rather focus their eyes on the guitar/bass throughout the gig and just standing there, that bugs me.
- I'm having a major problem with the upcoming gig for countdown right now. We're gonna play cover of "Always where I need to be" by the Kooks which I really need them to go a fret lower. Instead, they "lied" to me that they already gone lower when they're playing frets the same as the original.
When I kept persisting, Mr A gave me that "either we play it like the original or we scrap the song", even when they seen for themselves I actually damaged my voice twice while we were rehearsing the song.
With all that said, there are friends who told me its better to find a new band rather than wasting time fixing ego clashes, and I too find that maybe what they need is a different breed of vocalist. That's when I found my side-band, although they're all younger than me, I actually felt the responsibility as a frontman. They actually cared about my range before they attempt on anything, and we're finalising our first original together as well.
Again, I apologise for this rant if it deems to be offensive to some, I hope I can get a breath of fresh air here.
For some background info about myself, I'm a portuguese mixed malay, in a way I have this weird accent that comes out from nowhere sometimes, and a deep voice too. I'm heavily associated by my friends as a Brandon Flowers of The Killers (A little shake,vibrato and falsetto at times), Julian Casablancas of Strokes (Except from the screams, my comfort range projects a voice like his), Franz Ferdinand (The accent) and Muse's vocalist (Pulling a long note, always ending with vibrato)
My comfort range can be estimated through songs like Someday by The Strokes and Smile Like You Mean It from Killers. I can't reach high notes, I "screeched" at times and I just suck at interacting with the crowd.
With the problems with me addressed, now onwards to my role in the band.
We formed in late 2007, I was in ITE back then when a friend of mine intro-ed me to this guitarist, Mr A, while they're finding peeps to form a band.
We played covers at first, made two originals before we had our first gig in mid 2008. But that is besides the point, I'll just list the major problems that has been bugging me all this while. The main problem is the conflicts I kept having with Mr A because of our views.
- Sometimes when we play covers, he tends to choose the ones that favors good guitar parts, which sometimes I felt he disregards the whole band image especially the vocals where the high notes were way out of my range.
- To be fair, I sometimes agree to the song choice but asked to be played let's say one or two frets lower; using reasons like the people listening won't notice unless they're actually listening to the original song while watching us. But Mr A disagrees with reasons like "the song won't sound nice" and "you have to try, don't give us bullshits by saying you can't."
- Prior to point two, I'm actually able to reach higher notes by straining, but sometimes the note were too high that I have to resort to falsetto (which sometimes spoils the mood of the song) or scream it out hoping it turns out for the better rather than screeching. As a result, I sometimes end up with tension in my vocal chords or worse still, a cramped jaw.
- There is no hype coming from them when it comes to performing/jamming. I always mention about how stage presence is very important when it comes to live gigs. I was the only one who does the walking and little dances and actually feels the song while I play, for the others, they rather focus their eyes on the guitar/bass throughout the gig and just standing there, that bugs me.
- I'm having a major problem with the upcoming gig for countdown right now. We're gonna play cover of "Always where I need to be" by the Kooks which I really need them to go a fret lower. Instead, they "lied" to me that they already gone lower when they're playing frets the same as the original.
When I kept persisting, Mr A gave me that "either we play it like the original or we scrap the song", even when they seen for themselves I actually damaged my voice twice while we were rehearsing the song.
With all that said, there are friends who told me its better to find a new band rather than wasting time fixing ego clashes, and I too find that maybe what they need is a different breed of vocalist. That's when I found my side-band, although they're all younger than me, I actually felt the responsibility as a frontman. They actually cared about my range before they attempt on anything, and we're finalising our first original together as well.
Again, I apologise for this rant if it deems to be offensive to some, I hope I can get a breath of fresh air here.
