Studio Drummer – Into the Present

*THAT BRINGS ME TO THE PRESENT*

My studio experience has been of great use even in live gigs that I do to this day. 

For example:

I do the Calgary Stampede Grandstand show otherwise known as ‘the greatest outdoor show on earth’ to 22,000 people a night.  It’s is a very intense show musically and features a live band of 30 or so hand picked musicians.  It is played totally live although the show also runs a pre-record of the same music simultaneously. 

We do the recording about 6 months prior to the show. The reason that there is a pre-record is that if the weather suddenly turns, which it can quickly do in Calgary, they have to stop the live aspect of the band in the show since someone can get electrocuted.  To the audience the band still appears to be playing though and the show suddenly goes to pre-recorded tracks seamlessly without the audience knowing it.

This is where my studio experience enters because for the entire show I am playing to a click track.  This is how the pre-record and the live show are synchronized together.  In fact aside from the conductor I am the only musician who is being fed the click track.  So in essence I am running the entire show of 30 musicians and literally hundreds of dancers and performers in front of 22,000 people a night! 

*SO DO YOU NEED TO BE CONFIDENT AND COMFORTABLE WITH A CLICK TRACK?  YES!*

And we will address this issue as well as many others in this book.

*REGARDING YOUR OWN MUSICAL JOURNEY.*

You should decide for yourself what your influences, loves and goals are surrounding your music.  I would say that if you don’t really have a spiritual connection to music, for example, if music doesn’t move you by exciting you, making you cry, making you remember nostalgically different events then perhaps you should rethink your ambition.  However if music does do all these things spiritually for you, which I assume it does, and you are deciding to pursue this further then it’s time to move on.

*YOU NEED TO LOOK AT WORK ISSUES.* 

In the area in which you live in you need to start evaluating where and what the work is and how best to pursue it.  How many live venues are there?  How many recording studios are there?  Where is there a perceived need?

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Studio Drummer – My Insights

*MY INSIGHTS:*

Being exposed to all types of music, including melody and harmony are more connected to being a successful drummer than most drummers realize.  This is true especially if you are going in cold to sessions and attempting to efficiently interpret a producer or songwriter’s music, all the while striving to bring your musicality and sensitivity to the material.

Of course the term ‘sensitivity’ to the material can also mean that your ‘interpretation of the music’ means that you shred your butt off.  However it may also challenge your lighter touch such as your use of space or brush usage etc.

This gets into the fine-tuning of song interpretation which we will discuss.

I was 14 when I seriously started playing drums. My personal road involved

many private lessons and some great teachers, as well as many, many hours of practice.  I start gigging professionally when I was 20.  The first gig I did was in a little pub and I look back and remember how nervous I was before that gig.  It’s funny to think about now.

From that point on I played in many local bands for a number of years doing 6 nighters, which unfortunately don’t exist anymore at least in this part of the world.  It was great experience and taught me many things that can only be learned ‘on the job’ from the repetition of doing long term gigging. 

Simultaneously when I was 22 I had the very good fortune of connecting with a small recording studio/record company.  The quality of the productions, which were all pressed to vinyl, was very low.  However that experience was invaluable for me.  This is where I first started to hone the craft of studio drumming.  The first projects I played on shone a blazing light on my lack of experience and my inconsistencies!  Even more blatantly it showed up my complete disregard for the music and my constant overplaying! 

But we all have to start somewhere and for me this little studio and all the projects I did for no charge of course, were my humble introduction to the art of studio playing.

A very long-time friend, a recording engineer that I met at that studio became one of my best friends and one of the most honest mirrors and helpful critics of my playing.  He was the first to point out to me that my meter and my time were in great need of study and practice. 

Hah!  That’s putting it nicely!  I remember his real words were “Your time sucks!” 

From those meager recording projects I was involved in, I could now clearly hear the issues I had to resolve in my playing.  My buddy made me an electronic metronome, which in those days was not something you could walk into a store and buy.  It pounded out an electronic pulse which was a painful spike to the ear drums but the device worked like a charm!

I spent many hours working out with this new tool.  I practiced everything I could with my metronome at every tempo. Fills that were giving me trouble I would spend hours working on until they were comfortable and sat perfectly.  This time in my development proved to be critical.

I became a part of a recording act at the age of 24 named Idle Eyes.  Here all my existing studio experience and long hours of practice paid off.  As I go on to mention elsewhere in the book the recording all took place on 24 track 2-inch tape machines back in the world of analog recording. 

No punching into tracks!  Complete full takes!  At times it was very stressful but we had a hit album and toured extensively on it doing very large shows. 

We did a second album and again hit the road touring.  We played with some great acts such as Bryan Adams, Toto, Tears for Fears, Loverboy, Sheena Easton, Kenny Rogers, Tom Cochrane etc. and played the opening gala concert for Expo 86 in front of Prince Charles and Lady Diana.

But as bands tend to do we had our disagreements and broke up in late 1986.  Part of my reason for leaving was that I didn’t want to spend my life on the road.  That can become very tired very quickly from my own experience.  I wanted to be more involved in session work.  I had done a fair bit of session work up to this point so I focused my attention on pursuing these ambitions further.

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Studio Drummer – My Journey and Yours

MY JOURNEY AND YOURS…

To start, I would like to speak about my own beginnings and then in a sense talk about our mutual musical journey. 

Like many of you I was raised in a very musical family.  Both my parents happen to be very musical.  My father is a classically trained singer with a Royal Conservatory degree in singing. He also plays piano, accordion and brass instruments.  My mother, brother and sister are also very musical.

My parents wanted to raise their children to appreciate music.  They played classical music mostly and taught us to sing 4 part harmony at a very early age.  I feel this is vital as to why I personally became so spiritually connected to music and ultimately wanted to pursue music as a career.

I also played brass instruments for many years prior to playing drums.  I am also a published songwriter now for 10 years and have written and recorded many of my own songs.  This has also been invaluable to me in my career as a studio drummer.

Stay tuned for more on this topic…

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Studio Drummer – Speaking Personally…

*FOR MYSELF*

I’ve spent much time exploring subtleties and incorporating different styles, influences and specific player influences into my playing.  I’ve taken influences from all of my favorite drummers.  The most influential for me have been Steve Gadd, Jeff Porcaro, Carlos Vega, Vinnie Coliauta, JR Robinson and Paul Leim.

Throughout my journey and in a continuing sense I try to assimilate influences from any and all great players.

If it moves you then utilize it, put your own spin on it. 

Chances are it will be effective and, better still, it will sound LIKE YOU, not like your specific influence from whom you borrowed it.  It will sound like you because it is being interpreted by you.  It is not a carbon copy of what your mentor was playing. 

This is where your own personal musical style begins to emerge!

*BUT FRAME THE HOUSE PROPERLY.*

Every home must have a good foundation.  This foundation has to be present before you can add the beautiful finish work to the house.  The same analogy exists in this case.

Build your foundational skills first and keep them front and center.  Then the artistry will become accessible and you’ll be able to utilize your full drumming and artistic vocabulary.

 Finally,  if you do the work the break you’re waiting for may be right around the corner!

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Studio Drummer – What Do I Bring? … One More Time!

*And I have to say one more time!…THE SONG ALWAYS COMES FIRST… ALWAYS!*

Within the parameters that are laid down by the material and production direction you have to make your mark in a truly musical and artistic fashion. 

And this comes from learning to really and truly listen. 

Learn to listen in a new way, in much more depth to the subtleties of texture and musicality!

This takes time and experience and it also takes a true desire to learn and deepen your musicality.  Start listening to all the greats.  Take something from each player.  If you can’t find something unique about their playing you probably either haven’t listened closely enough or you haven’t listened to enough material.

I also mention Stuart Copeland again in this same fashion.  He’s such a highly distinctive player that he’s immediately recognizable.  One can only imagine the amount of time and attention that went into his hi hat abilities. 

You need to look for and develop the same distinctive uniqueness in aspects of your own playing.

Listen, Listen, Listen!  Make notes of the individually unique features that your ear discerns from different players and work at integrating these qualities into your own playing style.

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