I once heard that a band cannot have more than one, at the most two, leaders. By leaders, I mean someone who provides the creative direction of the band. For instance, George Harrison was obviously a very talented musician, but he was in John and Paul's band. Sure, he got a song or two on each record, but The Beatles' sound was created by John and Paul. They were merely making concessions. Hell, they even let Ringo sing a number or two.
A more recent example is Radiohead, where the creative direction is driven by Thom Yorke and Jonny Greenwood. Two very talented musicians (each play guitar, piano, and "laptop"- or computer generated sounds) that each have their own style (Thom Yorke's solo work on The Eraser and Greenwood's score for There Will be Blood) but come together to create complex, beautiful, and often times downright weird music. For a five-piece band that's been together this long, it's amazing that they are still touring and producing high-quality music. It should come as no suprise then, that the other band members cede to the whims of Thom and Jonny. Ed O'Brien is a very talented guitarist, but he spends many songs shaking a tambourine if that's what Thom or Jonny decided the song calls for.
Another recent band that has not held together as well is Wilco. I believe singer/guitarist Jeff Tweedy and the bassist (his name escapes me) are the only band members from the A.M. sessions still playing together. Through the first four albums, the band's sound was driven by Tweedy and multi instrumentalist Jay Bennett. Eventually they butted heads too much and Jay was asked to leave. Although they've made four successful records since, many believe they are no longer the same band.
The John/Paul, Thom/Jonny, Jeff/Jay combos all tell me the same thing: it is not enough to have to talented leaders, they have to push one another to create the best music possible. Which brings me to my favorite band (apparently) no one has heard of, Margot and the Nuclear So and Sos. Their recent release, Rot Gut, Domestic and their previous album Buzzard have some great rock songs on there that I quite enjoy. Yet, I am ultimately disappointed. Why? Because their first two albums were amazing, specifically the Animal/Not Animal sessions. To this day, Animal is one of my absolute favorite albums that I own.
There were more horns, more cello, more open spaces for singer Richard Edwards' voice, and more creepy yet beautiful soundscapes. There isn't much information about the band online so I can only guess as to what happened. In a recent interview, Edwards mentioned that the earlier sound was the product of "everyone wanting their say" on each track. Since then, the size of the band has dropped from 8 to 6 and the sound has become more rock and less adventurous. I had a theory about what happened, and decided to do some research.
According to Wikipedia, Edwards started the band with Andy Frye, a producer and multi instrumentalist (hints of Jonny Greenwood and Jay Bennet here). After the first two albums, Frye left the band and my guess is that control was left to Edwards. Again, this is only conjecture, but Frye was probably the one pushing Edwards to perfect the sound they created in the studio for those albums.
I see this all the time in the business world, people want total control and won't abdicate to another leader who challenges their views. Unfortunately, two alphas working toward the same goal usually produces fantastic results. I don't know what Thom Yorke and Jonny Greenwood have done to make it work for so long. I just know that equal input from everyone does not work. It waters down the whole process.
Everyone talks about how important it is to have leaders, but it's just as important for those leaders to have followers, ready to swallow their pride and play their role and, if they're lucky, another leader to push them toward greatness.
