u/SarethGavage

Hey there, been on this group for a few weeks and learned a lot from different posts. So I'm going through a period of pretty intense isolation (moved to new country and partner has had to go home for personal stuff, but will be back soon)

I've really struggled to make connections in new country (Thailand) and am experiencing loads of cultural, language, me problems. It's also ever so hot (accidently moved to one of the hottest provinces D'oh) I have 2 dogs for company but yeah been having a lot of neurodivergent ups and downs. stopped drinking 6 months ago (yay) but also has been very raw emotionally

I don't really know what options there are locally and online therapy seems very expensive. But I'm looking for online spaces to join. Free would be great, having been doing smart recovery and that's helpful, wondering if there's something neurodivergent equivalent. I find posting on reddit quite hit and miss, mostly from trying to promote my art and not getting anywhere

I do find chat gpt pretty useful for this type of stuff. I know it's probably frowned upon and I definitely get into arguments with it. I'm pretty aware of not giving too much personal details, try and keep it a bit vague. but I appreciate the non judgement. so anything like that would be cool. Thanks!

Sorry this is long.... there's a tldr at the bottom.

So I'm kinda shopping around for different things, y'all may of may not be able to help

I think essentially what I'm after is a producer, but I'd also love to work with other musicians. Anyway let me regail you with my tail of woe...

So I'm a pretty active songwriter, I have an album being mixed at the moment. I wrote everything on it and performed everything. All guitars, bass. vox (scream + clean) programmed drums. this is actually my 2nd album, but the first one I've kinda moved away from now. It's still online but I'm not particularly happy with it. I mixed that one too, so did everything everything . but yeah that one could really have done with extra ears on it. Probably gonna take it down soon

I also have a 3rd album of songs that I wrote for my final year project in University. That albums kind of sitting dormant and has most of the elements of the songs there, but could also be expanded on to double album (there's a lot of scope to expand stuff and I had a lot of ideas)

I'm just working on the writing of another album. this will be the 2nd album release (if this makes sense) in my project. (the other 2 albums are kind of dormant) so I've got about 10 / 11 songs for this and also have extra songs started that would probably go on an album after. I've recently moved to Thailand and had to sell or leave most of my guitars at home. I had a bass in the UK to write with, but can't afford one atm. So working with a bass player would defo be cool

So in case it's not obvious, I write full compositions. I put a lot of effort into writing interesting bass and drums. I'd say the drums are what usually let's me down. For my release that I've just done, the decision was whether to pay a drummer or a mixer. I think the mixer has definitely pushed the project as a whole to better levels, but I kind of feel the drums are the achilles heal. Saying that I am proud of the drums I've written, they help make the songs more interesting

I tend to overwrite the drum parts and add too many fills. in my recent work I've put a lot more effort into letting the drums take a back seat and be more supportive.

anyway, basically I'd love to work with a real drummer, but I know that can be really tricky to find, especially with no budget. so it's kind of something that's on the dream list, rather than practical. Saying that, I tend to not bother putting myself out there for worry of shouting into the void. So trying to change that, would absolutely be down for collaboration with other people.

On my current album I'm writing  most of the guitar parts, though there's room for some more leads. I'd love to work with another lead guitarist to add colour to my sound. I tend to always write with twin lead guitars and vary my solo playing, but I think my sound would really benefit from another guitar style

vocally I'm open to mixing it up. I'm not the world's most amazing vocalist but I do try various styles and work to create a unique sound. I also live somewhere very quiet, so don't have as much time to practise vocals.

vocally I love when bands have multiple vocalists, especially for live gigs. so I'd love to have another vocalist that can compliment my style, but also build on it. I'm not really a frontman per say, and when I've been in bands before where I've done that role I've not felt overly confident, but this was maybe 10 years ago.

I like the idea of a producer (or somebody with those skills) somebody who can direct the music and see my vision, but suggest variations. I'm looking for proper critique to push my songwriting to higher levels

I'm wondering if this is something you can find on a collaborative level? Whenever I see producers they are usually associated with big bands and presumably demanding big paychecks.

I'm shit with finances and even worse at converting creativity into money (I'm also a visual artist) so this project is very much a passion project for me. It's something I've put years into at this stage though and I know if I continue with it that better opportunities are possible in the future.

But yeah dragging somebody else into a passion project is what I'm struggling with the most.  I've really struggled to meet musicians since being out of uni and not being in bands that play gigs.

from my own perspective I'm just all over the place! Neurodivergent (as probably obvious) and really lacking in confidence to attract people. Both things that make finding band members / collaborators difficult (of course it's very difficult anyway)

Tl: dr- looking for collaborators for passion project, open to people for different roles. Don't need a lecture on how difficult it is to find people, very aware of that :)