I've played guitar in a number of amateur and semi-professional rock bands for years. I love it, it's my passion and there's nothing I'd rather do more with my time, but the one thing that consistently bugs me is the toxic competitiveness that exists between fellow musicians.

Soundchecks are the worst. Each band plays while the other bands wait and watch, which turns into a pissing contest with guitarists trying to out play each other when all they need to do is play a couple of chords. And backstage it's a constant one-upmanship of who has the best gear, who's played the biggest gig, who's got more fans.

The majority of the bands I gig alongside are all-male groups, and hopefully I can say this without causing a full-blown gender war, but in my experience the women I play with tend to be supportive whereas guys tend to be competitive.

What I will say is musicians in general aren't a representative sample of society! We tend to be more fragile, or egotistical and feed off the approval of others. So I'm not saying all guys are like this. But in the male dominated rock scene it's a clear issue.

How do you guys deal with this? It feels like you're in constant competition with each other! How do you make it clear you're not interested in competing? Ignoring and not engaging in it is the obvious approach, but I feel like this just ignoring the issue and not helping to create a more supportive environment.