Anxious because it was for Matt and Corey. These guys have been supporting the band enormously and I have been waiting for Woody to ask me to be the drummer for one of these projects but he always relies on a Machine. Getting the call for this is a big honour, one that I wanted to put my stamp on.
Woody had already recorded the guitar, bass and some hand percussion for the 30 second track that he sent me. It's a cool, funky, Red-Hot-Chili-Peppers kind of groove that I instantly loved. I listened to it over and over while thinking of drum parts in my head. Only 8 bars of that funky guitar is played, followed by the 4 bar half-time ending. There was so much and yet so little. I had to find a way to play the funk, but stay out of the way of the guitar lick while complimenting the groove. I also wanted my drum pattern to be a challenge for me, something that I would find difficult.
The first week I spent listening and trying things (in my meager spare time), looking for the right pattern. Woody and I scheduled a Sunday evening to record the drums and although I wasn't completely sure what I wanted to do, I figured Woody would help me find 'it'. However, that Sunday started early and was unforgiving. Here's my Facebook post of the days events:
So, as you can imagine I didn't make it to the recording studio, but instead we rescheduled for the next night. So Monday evening came and I cancelled again as I was sore, stiff and tired from Sunday's work. Friday was the next possible night we could get together, and this time it happened. Through the week I was still trying to figure out what to play until Friday afternoon; I was sitting at my computer and decided to open Rhythm Rascal (the Drum app) and build a drum part the easy way. I started with the Bass Drum played on the notes matching the Bass guitar (of course) in that funk pattern. Here's what I came up with:
It seems simple enough when you look at it, and my computer had NO problem playing it so I figured my hands and feet would be accommodating. That didn't quite happen. The problem for me was that both the bass drum and the snare play sometimes on the beat and sometimes on the 'and', but the hi-hat is consistent on the 'and'. It's really just a mind game but to play it smoothly I needed to run through it several times and thus provided the 'challenge' I was looking for.
While driving to Woody's to record the piece, I still wasn't sure if that was what he was looking for, if it was going to fit with the sound he wanted. It turned out that he liked it and we went from there, working out the ending which drops to a nice slow half time denouement, then playing the whole piece through several times until everything sounded great.
Make sure to listen to Matt and Corey's podcasts at http://www.spreaker.com/user/mattandcorey.
The last few weeks have been hard, tiring, busy and most of all - satisfying. I can't say enough about spending time with the tractor, my drums and the animals, they are all part of an enjoyable life for me. All are challenging at times and I wouldn't have it any other way.
What's ahead? - something for Scooby Doom and Shoot the Moon will be releasing another track with accompanying video. Follow @shoothemoonband for updates.
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