Pet peeves?

Anyone have any pet peeves when working with other musicians? Not just the normal “drummers who can't keep time” and “guitarists who have to tune constantly” things, but more off-the-wall stuff? I probably have more than these two, but these are my biggies:

It drives me nuts when guitarists and bassists don't trim down their strings, leaving the big, long, dangley ends hanging off the tuning pegs. It's like a mullet for your headstock.

Guitarists (never seen a bassist do this, yet… who leave their clip-on tuner on the headstock while playing. Not sure if leaving it on or turning it off is worse - if you turn it off just take it off!

What drives you nuts?

Singers who say, “Oh, I cant do that song, its not in my range” when they really just dont want to do it!




mind you, I drew the line at The Power of Love by Huey Lewis and the News…not on my watch bub

This. My old band, our lead singer never actually come out and said that but it was plain as day that was his problem. He had two singing styles – a somewhat grumbly whisper he'd use on verses, then a strained “growl” he'd use on choruses. It was like this for every song. And he'd borrow lyrics from other songs, too.

Ask the dude to hit a high note or try a different key and he wouldn't even acknowledge the question, becuase HE was the singer, and HE chose how to sing each song. He also owned all the recording equipment so if you happened to have pissed him off during a particular songwriting session, he'd under-mix your track.

Fucking lead singers, man…

People smacking the strings with their plucking hand

My old band was a hodgepodge of different people. Guitar player that was all over the place. Anotehr guitar player that was classical trained. A drummer that played electronic drums and a singer that tried to hard to sound like Amy Lee. Than there was me, the glam metal rocker. I joined the band as a favor to the singer and almost right away hated the band. They were some kind of noise called Hardcore music. Anyway, me and the lead singer became the business side of the band only she made stupid decisions and argued with me. The only reason I stayed is because the first show they did, I was paid $300.00.
We tour for a year and it was a fucking nightmare. When we went into the studio she attempted to produce and engineer the record and knew nothing of what she was doing. She fired the producer, who became my producer without them. I remember John C telling me “She's a fuckin clown with a dumb ego.” I left the band before recording began and the band fell apart. Her ego was terrible and she always said “No Glam” of course my answer was “Up your and @$!# off.”

Lead singers and Egos.