Jon Leaving SPG: The Non 4am Version

Buh-bye, Biscuiteers!

So a lot of Steam Powered Giraffe fans have been taking sides and making commentary on the whole The Jon is leaving forever and ever and ever DRAMA!!!!!!!!! ... thing. So to those people who are blaming Bunny Bennett and David Bennett (I don't know why just them, I consider Steve Negrete, Michael Reed, and Sam Luke part of the band as well) how about I put it for you another way:

I sort of think of being in a band more like being in school, than a 9-5 sort of job. At a nine-to-five, you get paid over time if you work past closing hours, but normally when you leave work you are DONE for the day. That's it. Pick it all back up tomorrow.

With school, as with a band, or indeed any creative endeavors, it is not enough to just show up for the allotted time. If we draw the comparison, that class time is the same as rehearsal/performance time, then what I mean to say is that it is not enough to simply come to class or practice with your shit unprepared. If that is all anybody ever did, school would go more slowly, and bands would get hardly anywhere seeing as they would have almost no new songs and it would take them a lot longer to learn their parts. When you are part of a creative group you must do your homework. You must learn your parts, you must go to the study sessions (aka: collaborative meetings), you must put in the effort to succeed.

Recently, I found that 5 three-credit courses was just too much for me to handle with my part time job. I simply could not finish all of the homework, and understand what I was doing or learning. It was a choice between learning the lines and going on stage without knowing what I was actually saying (being utter crap at it), or going on stage for a shorter period, but knowing what I was saying, why I was saying it, and how to spin it with feeling (just being really good at it overall). I decided for the latter, and I feel like that is what has happened with Jon Sprague and Steam Powered Giraffe.

Now, I have no intimate knowledge of this band, I am simply going by the explanations given by Bunny, and what I got from a perusal of the extremely long and blatantly honest post from David. As far as I can pick up, Jon was doing the best he could, but was stretched too thin. He was doing the required reading, but not coming up with creative and interesting insights to share in class and maybe couldn't make it to the extra curricular study sessions. In the end, the class was moving too far ahead and requiring more and more work, leaving Jon in a sticky position of having to drop something too far into the semester after the drop point.

I'm really hoping that this is making some semblance of sense. The issue is obviously far more complex than how I have phrased it. This is simply how I relate to the issue, by framing it in terms that I can understand.

I would also like to note that this is totally NOT the first time that SPG has changed their lineup...

The original SPG automaton line up.

The previous SPG automaton lineup.

Oh yeah, by the way people who have been following this blog since my last post, I have dropped my last class of the week, 2-D design. It is not what I wanted to do, but the class was super intense and I have already put in more time and effort into my other classes, making me more invested in keeping them, and getting good grades. Wish me luck! (And Jon too!!)

The new SPG automaton lineup.