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Editorials

ONE-MAN BEDROOM PROJECTS AND INTER-CONTINENTAL BANDS: WHEN IS A “BAND” ACTUALLY A BAND?

 Thursday, March 18th, 2010 at 2:30pm by

slice the cakeAre inter-continental bands the new thing?

Last month I wrote about RXYZYXR, a Swedish band using the power of the Internet to search for a vocalist regardless of location. Just the other day reader Owen W. emailed us to tell us about Slice the Cake, a really talented progressive death metal band whose members span three two continents and three countries. To my knowledge the band hasn’t ever played together in the same room, and even if they wanted to they couldn’t; Jonas Johansson (Sweden) handles guitars, bass and drums on the admittedly awesome-sounding recordings that he produced, so the band hasn’t even got a full lineup in place. But this “band” is undoubtedly quite good, at least on record. Slice the Cake are absolutely worth paying attention to; please check them out.

With stories like this and myriad one-man bedroom projects releasing quality material these days, it begs the question… when is a band actually a band? If a group of guys (or girls) calling themselves a band have never actually played together in the same room are they accurate in calling themselves a band? Should a band who’s never played a note in front of an audience be taken seriously?

What happens when a one-man bedroom project hires musicians and makes a real go of it? In some cases you’d probably call it a true band (Nine Inch Nails, Periphery) but in other cases you might not (modern Guns N’ Roses, any singer-songwriter whose band constantly fluctuates ala Tom Petty, Butch Walker, Bruce Springsteen etc). What about one-man bands who adamantly stick to their one-man band status (Keith Merrow, Chimp Spanner) and never touch a touch?

I suppose it all comes down to semantics and how you define “band.” I’m curious to know what you all think. Weigh in below.

-VN

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  • Bob

    Too bad their name is “Slice The Cake” (full disclosure: I’m still clicking the link because of the progressive death description).

    • JeerySmith

      It’s a joke name that parodizes all the goofy deathcore bands whose names are basically “[Verb] the [Noun]” (Trigger the Bloodshed, Kill the Client, etc.). One of the dudes in the “band” posts regularly on the Andy Sneap forum at ultimatemetal.com.

      • jtquake

        Salt the Wound, except I really liked them.

        Vocalist reminds me of John Davy with a little of Maurizio Iacono (Kataklysm).

        Overall solid sound.

        I’m fine with them being inter-continental. Slim chance I’d get to see them live anyway, so I’m fine with their music being digital-only (not live) as long as I get to hear it.

      • Scourge441

        It’s -core bands in general, not just deathcore.

        Escape the Fate
        Haste the Day
        Becoming the Archetype
        Protest the Hero
        Pierce the Veil
        blessthefall
        Scatter the Ashes
        Poison the Well

        Granted, some of them are awesome. Like Swallow the Sun.

        • http://www.facebook.com/people/Tre-Watson/506737562 Tre Watson

          after the burial… FUCK.

  • http://www.myspace.com/thestarsthrewdowntheirspears Tim

    I certainly wouldn’t call one person a band… I guess call it a project, if you don’t want to just use your name.

  • Chris

    Good questions. I’ve been writing songs mainly on my own lately with the intent of recording them with a few guys I know. We don’t plan on playing any shows, just writing/recording. I guess I’ve been referring to it as a project, not a band, but could it be considered a band?

  • dread

    Thrones not only are a band, they also totally fucking rule.

  • yetzer hara

    Remember the “band” Twilight from a couple years back? The USBM “supergroup”? That band/album was both critically acclaimed and well received by fans.
    There are tons of one-man grindcore and death metal projects. Putrid Pile and Insidious Decrepancy both play shows alone. Actually, I think Sean Whittaker has a full band for ID these days, but he used to get up on stage by himself with his drum machine, and go to town all by himself. Nerdy glasses and all. It takes guts to do that in front of discriminating death metal audiences.
    Is Burzum not a “band” because it’s all Varg? Same thing could be applied to any number of one man black metal bands.
    What about East/West Blast Test?
    I’m sure there are countless others.
    Basically, I don’t think you can define a band by geographic closeness or playing live. This is metal. There aren’t any rules or boundaries.

    • DethByAudio

      awesome part at the end
      “This is metal. There aren’t any rules or boundaries.”

  • http://www.myspace.com/synthetikillband Synthetikill

    I actually like them very much. I dont think you have to play live to be considered a band by any means, I see it for the musical aspect and how well the individuals write and compile their parts. I am in the same situation right now with my project so I get what STC is doing. And if people dig them who cares if they ever play live as long as they keep belting out this crazy shit.

  • Lordassenfroth

    a band is a group of people that perform together, other wise id say its a project

  • Discipleofthewatch

    Ihsahn and Dreaming Dead are good examples of the miniscule bands.

  • Steve O

    Slice the Cake is awesome.

    And they have a bassist (Magero over on ultimate-guitar.com). Jonas only does guitars and drums.

  • Octillus

    If it’s just one guy, it’s a project. If it’s one guy who has session members, but it’s still just him, it’s a project.

    If there’s more than one guy doing it, and they just happen to be across countries and what have you, and they write stuff together, they’re a session band. The only thing that’s different is that they don’t have to be in the same studio anymore.

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Byron-Ward/797615124 Byron Ward

    That music sounded kinda cool….

    Any idea where I can actually get hold of their music? Any relevant link sent me to a picture of a child being shit on… (by a bird no less).

  • 10000 Gays

    STB are pretty sick

    All they would need is to hire/recruit a drummer/guitarist (probably drummer?) for touring… and I guess meet in person

    also, vince, really think you shoulda proof-read this one

  • NoNameNoSlogan

    name is gay…music is okay. Also one or two members of a band/project is nothing new, get with the times.

    • Anselmowitz

      Yeah this, dig the music, Name sux balls tho. Wouldn’t have given them a second glance if it werent for this blog post.

  • c-grind

    dude im digging this band! sounds pretty raw

  • kmfcm

    Sure they’re still a band. This is simply the result of everyone’s local scene sucking.

  • P-E

    Slice The Cake is my favourite band from this genre, and I know Jonas and Gareth worked SO HARD to get this done.

    I applaud them.

  • Owen

    Jonas and Gareth are both sound dudes as well as awesome musicians – each in their own right.

    And yes, this was my email haha, so thanks for putting this out guys.

  • Magero

    Holy shit. I’m pretty psyched about this article. Thanks a bunch to everyone who said something positive, and a huge thanks to MetalSucks for even putting it online. We’re just a bunch of dudes writing and playing what we like hearing, and we just happen to live on seperate time zones haha.

  • http://spinelanguage.wordpress.com/ spinelanguage

    Bedroom projects are absolutely not bands if the people recording together have never physically played together. I have several projects going right now (Kongregation, Rape the Dead, Soul Cycle) with a writing buddy of mine, Mark Hawkins, and we’ve never met each other before. We have had several people from all over the place “audition” to be part of each project as well, mostly vocalists. One of those was Ville from Mors Principium Est on a track for Kongregation, “Optical Illusion”. We probably would have never had an opportunity for something cool like that if we were a legit band trying to find a real full-time vocalist.

    Our projects:

    Kongregation (features a track with guest vocals from Ville of Mors Principium Est): http://www.myspace.com/kongregation
    Rape the Dead (old school inspired death metal): http://www.myspace.com/rapethedead
    Soul Cycle (newest project, 4 songs finished and still writing for it; melodic modern metal): http://www.myspace.com/soulcyclemetal

  • lybrium

    Thank you Vince for writing this article! Yes, I think these projects should be taken seriously whether it amalgamates into a live performance or not, quality music is quality music, the fact that we have the technology to collaborate over thousands of miles instantly, is incredible, and awesome. Earth for the win!

  • Gareth

    awesome as fuck
    cheers to metalsucks for some pimpage :)
    and i believe the intention is that at SOME POINT in the future we meet up and play this shit live properly
    also as soon as jonas gets his ass into gear and finishes the artwork the ep will be out on cd and vinyl, and it’ll be out on amazon, itunes and spotify (and some other places soon i think) but you can buy the ep from the bandcamp page linked previously in any file type if you’re impatient for the physical product.

    once again, thanks to metalsucks and everyone who complimented
    \m/

  • Chimp-O-Neg

    ooo – this STC is actually pretty good.

  • http://www.metalmaniacs.com Mike Riddick

    I believe the best example of a multi-national band is FOLKEARTH, organized in Lithuania, but featuring members all over the globe. It somehow works. Amazing stuff.

  • http://www.facebook.com/bannisterslash Bannister Slash

    Who gives a fuck about the band’s name… this rules. I actually went and bought the album (thanks for the link EdSW). $7….pfft.Totally worth it to support a project this cool.

    Thanks for another solid suggestion, MS.

    Oh, and speaking of one man “bands,” Cloudkicker, anyone?