As all good things must come to an end, so did the band I was just in. What I basically did today was put down the dying animal that was Ripp Tyde. The last 3 months have been riddled with problems none of the members nor I wanted to face. One of the big things was we have no money. None of the members had jobs, and only one other person besides me was making an actual effort to fund the recording. We had figured an album, which was our original plan would cost us $1,000, and that mean $200 a member. Eventually I had to cut that down to about $140 a member due to some members saying they couldn't get that much money. Then it went from an album, to another five song EP. Every band in AZ does EP, and they always fail. Look at what we did with our first EP. Nothing. It was a go big or go home mentality when we started, but now we were accepting less as more and bring very satisfied with it. This frustrated me dearly. I saw this chance as the only possible one we may get to record an album. I wanted to take it while it was there, because it might have just passed us up if we didn't take it.
When it came down to the money, this is what really got me. It was Tony who got me to lower the price down to $140 so he could afford it. Then Shawn stepped forward saying he had no way to get that kind of money, meanwhile he spends cash on cigarettes every weekend, normally 1 or two packs. Do the math per month, $10 a weekend, that $40 a month. The weekend following Warped Tour we decide to go from an album, to another 5 song EP. Why because of money. Now we were lowering the price per member again. Tony wanted to throw in about $90, and suggested I may have even over estimated on the recording budget in the first place, and Shawn was going to throw in about $55 according to what he said. Tony told me he had about $840 in savings, and told me that the $140 was great. No what does he do with that $840, gives guitar lessons once a week, and buys meaningless books. Doesn't want to invest into the band. I was still going to put $200 in, Darren had his part, Dan I don't think he would have made it.
My last ditch effort to try and persuade them to go back to their original plan came today. I basically stated that, it's album or bust because we have seen what an EP can do. They basically were adamant about not being able to conjure up the money and I then walked out and left.
It wasn't just this that had me wanting to leave the band. The maturity level of the band was so low. I mean, it was bad. We acted more like 12 year old at times, when we needed to really act our age. We had three anti-socials in Tony, Shawn, and Darren. Which does not bode well for being in a band. Dan was in his own little party world, and meanwhile I am stuck between the real world and a delusional rock n' roll dream that did have some legs at times. I couldn't take it, also the claims of intellectualness by Tony, just because you read all the time doesn't make you an intellectual, you have to pay attention to the real world dude. Shawn's constant complaining thinking that he was the most important person in the band, and the band had to revolve around his health woes in practice and not. Darren and Dan never complained. Darren I believe was the only other one driven in the band to do something. I lost faith in that though after he told me about 6 weeks ago he wanted to do something else.
Now here I am, the one that wants to really do something spectacular with this band surrounded by people that were less than motivated. Tony was the one that told me that they were all of a sudden not motivated to do a full length record. So my motivation was now long gone. What did I do the last two weeks I was in the band. Didn't go to teh studio with them to play with controls in studio, and left practices early. Why stay for something I no longer want to do.
This had been brewing for about the last 8 weeks or so. It actually goes as far back as March. I really was thinking of doing this sometime back there. I waited too long I think. I was not having fun with the band anymore. It felt weird to be in it. This was the right move, The last two year of being in Ripp Tyde have been hell. I think about all the bad things that have happened to me since joining this band in June of 2008. In a way things were almost down hill from there in that year.
It's time for a new band, and I am out on the hunt. I'm hoping I can find some dedicated people that aren't going to take it as a joke. I didn't, but they did. Until next time..-SS.
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