Being in a Band Is Apparently a Full-Time Job

I always thought being in a band involved playing music.

Apparently, it involves group messages, photographs, logos, blogs, song lists, rehearsals, travel arrangements and trying to find one weekend when everyone is available.

The actual music seems almost incidental.

Our band, Dog Latin Musical Collective, sounds very impressive on paper. We have guitarists, ukulele players, a cellist, violinist and percussion. In reality, half of us are trying to remember which song we agreed to learn, and I am hoping nobody notices that my ukulele contribution remains largely decorative.

Distance doesn’t help. Some of us live in Geelong, others in Melbourne, Queensland and Western Australia. A casual rehearsal therefore requires the organisational skills of an international summit.

Then there are the promotional photographs and the blog, which I manage because I am apparently the least musical and had to make myself useful. We now have logos, mugshots and criminal aliases despite not yet having played a proper gig.

Being in a band is about 10% music and 90% administration.

But I bloody love it. I love the ridiculousness, the laughter and the excitement of hearing a song slowly come together.

One day, we may even get around to playing some music.