Sheila E on The Next Great American Band - Ratevin

posted by   snehatpr (66)   12 months ago (ratevin.com)

American Idol had earned huge ratings and created many superstars by making public the brutal audition process solo artists go through. Now they're going to do it for bands. The Next Great American Band will put group acts in front of a panel of judges. Veteran performer Sheila E is on the panel and gave prospective viewers and contestants a hint at what she's looking for.

Sheila E Judges The Next Great American Band "You audition as a group and that's the key," said Sheila. "We really want to find the next band and we have to make sure that they come in as a group, as a band and that we believe that wow, you guys play great together as a band. Sometimes bands will come in and they're not together. There's one or two people that you can tell that they want to be a solo artist and they're not playing together with the band. It doesn't look like they belong together. Those are the ones that are not going to make it."

While she is analyzing the group performance, Sheila hopes to be able to give some attention to the individual band members. "We can take the time to. By the time they perform their song, absolutely we have to, in that allotted amount of time, look at every single person individually as well. Look at the musicianship, look at how they're interacting with each other as a unit, as a band. And being able to have them do maybe different types of music, maybe challenge them. If they came in and played pop, maybe we would have them change it and play something Latin or jazz or country. So we're going to challenge them with musicianship because we're looking for the next band."