OK, here we are at the second installment in our Bandleader Series. Last month we touched on the reasons why anyone would want this illustrious position in the first place. This month I'll cover a few reasons why you might want to think twice about taking on the title of Bandleader.

The #1 Reason You May Not Want This Job: Responsibilities - you are running your own business!

Time

If you decide to run your own band, the first thing you can plan on is a lack of free time in your life. Being responsible for the band, as well as making sure the band is always working will require a huge "time" sacrifice on your part.

...On The Phone...

You'll constantly be on the phone with agents, club owners and band members, and too many others to list here, making sure everything is running smoothly; booking dates, scheduling rehearsals, ironing out problems, coordinating road trips, discussing wardrobe, researching gig information, getting directions to clubs, relaying directions to clubs to your band members, interviewing new players, and much, much more. You'll have to be calling these people constantly to stay on top of things. These people will be constantly calling you to make sure that everything is running smoothly. Yes, it's quite possible that you will, at some point, hate your phone!

...Set-up and Load-out...

As the leader, there is a good chance that you will be either owning a bulk of the P.A. and production gear, or be in charge of renting or hiring someone to take care of those details. As the leader, there is more than a good chance you will be spending a lot more time on stage than any other member, making sure all P.A., lights and other gear is set up, checked and positioned for your ultimate stage show. You may have to arrive at out-of town gigs a day early to set up all your gear. Also, depending on how you run your band, you may be the last one to leave the club after the gig, because of the fore mentioned reasons. You have to make sure all your stuff gets packed up and loaded out.

...Stress...

Please Beware: When you're a bandleader, stress is something that can take up a lot of your time. Depending on how you handle stress, it can cause you to lose sleep at night, as well as spend a lot of your free time worrying about problems and just all the aspects of keeping the band running smoothly. You, as the leader, are responsible for other people's income and livelihood, as well as your own. This is a great responsibility. Some people thrive on this energy, others I've known have been broken down by it.

Paperwork

Any musician who is self employed understands the part that paperwork plays in their life. When you are the bandleader, you not only have to take care of your own paperwork (receipts, records, tax info, etc...), but you also are responsible for keeping records on everyone who works for you, all the contracts for every gig, and all the commissions paid to your agents. You have to keep track of all your player's social security and mailing information and how much you pay them on each gig throughout each year. If you use a lot of different players, this alone can create a lot of extra paperwork and record keeping. Be prepared and keep up with the record keeping. Once you get behind, it can be a major undertaking to catch up.

Working with "flaky" people

Unfortunately, being a professional musician often puts you in situation where you are working with "flaky" people. When you are a bandleader you can count on greatly increasing the number of flaky people you will be dealing with.

Agents have been know to be some of the flakiest people in the business. There are some good ones out there, but even the best of them can be somewhat aggravating to work with at times. Your agent will be trying to keep you satisfied while keeping their best interests protected, which is smart on their part, but can often leave you in a bind. Agents may not always give you all the information for a gig, because they may think it might scare you off, and not want to take the gig. Then you get to the gig and find out all the gory details, but by then you decide you might as well do the gig. This way the agent fills the room and makes his commission, you do work but it might not be something you would have accepted if you had known all the facts up front. This is just one brief example, and there are countless scenarios I could go into regarding the flakiness of agents, but that could be enough information for ten articles alone, so we'll leave it at this for now. Just beware.

Club owners are another group that can tend to be flaky. Again, they keep their own interests as priority. This obviously is smart for them, but as with the agents, this may not always work out for your best interests. Club owners often view bands simply as an expense, and there's not always a lot of loyalty felt for the bands. As good as your band may be, there are a lot of other bands out there that the club owner can choose from. So if the club owner does something to make you mad, they aren't really that concerned because they'll just use different bands instead of yours. Now, if you are the bandleader, your are the person in your organization who has to deal directly with all of this.

Ok, we're down to the flakiest group of people you'll be dealing with... MUSICIANS! This is not meant to hurt anyone's feelings, but it is simply a warning. If you're going to be dealing in a business in where you'll be responsible for a number of musicians, be ready for some headaches and a lot of babysitting. The good side of this is that it often depends on what level you are working on. The higher up you are in your working status, the more professional musicians you'll be working with. For the most part, if you're working better gigs, you'll have a more professional batch of players to work with. The lower the status of your gigs, the flakier the musicians. Of course this is not always true... It's just a guideline to give you something to think about.

Hopefully these brief descriptions can give you enough insight do determine if the "bandleader" thing is really for you. Always remember that the more you put into something, the more you get out of it, and even though you'll have to deal with all the evils mentioned here (and more), it could be exactly what you're looking for.