Drumming for The shadow of Ketil Vestrum Einarsen

I think there is this Idea that all ones ideas should be these isolated Icebergs of immaculate beauty and artistic clarity. I wish it was like that. I am a lot simpler than that. Im more of a creative plumber than anything else. A lot of my computertime nowadays seems to be spent chatting away aimlessly with either Ketil (Vestrum Einarsen) or Jacob (Holm-lupo) in Norway. We bounce ideas and snippets of songs. Trying to figure out where we are going with his whole music thing. The other day Jacob sent me a link to the first UK album.

The dreaded 80s octoban

I hadnt heard it since the early 90s. I was surprised to hear how extremely dated it sounded. Bill Bruford was doing his early rototom stuff and it just had that weird feel and sound to it. Another thing that is really interesting about Rototoms is that sound pretty awful acoustically but record really well...When recording ideas for Ketils album Im letting all of these influences, sounds and ideas bleed in. Ive consciously broken up my playing using very few cymbals. I very seldom hit single hits on the snare drum and I avoid the 2 & 4. This opens up for using small tight drums that cut thru and are tonal and sharp....remembering my conversation with Jacob about UK I decided to get rid of the Hihat and throw in a 12" Rototom there instead. I do all the 8 note stuff with shakers and tambourines instead so that it can be edited sharper for effect.

A tambourine pile

Yesterday I recorded the drums for the third track on the album...weirdly enough called #3 for the timebeing. I started thinking about my childhood and the drummers I liked and as a kid I loved Duran Duran. Roger Taylor was my favorite drummer. He always looked like he was struggling. But always overdubbed these cool accents on rototoms.

One of my childhood heroes with a rototom.

The track starts with a really quiet opening section so I decided to do something extreme for a prog song....played brushes. I love the sound even though I am always struggling when recording. It has to have that feel. Then I started thinking of another of my favorite drummers Stewart Copeland and brought out one of my Octobans and built the 16th note rhythms around that configuration. As I am avoiding the snare on the 2 and 4 I built a sort of tambourine pile on the hihat stand that plays that part. 

So it all came from hearing a bit of UK and thinking about what drummers I liked as a kid. 

Today Ill be working on a new Tom Doncourt track and the Akaba album will be mastered at Cutting room.

NP: Björk - Biophilia

4-3-2-1 We have liftoff....I think?

When my wife was a kid she was fascinated by space. As a four year old she set her goals fairly high. She was going to be the first person on mars. She didnt take the mission lightly and started working on the project with all the feverish energy of a four year old. She built a spaceship, made maps of mars and packed food that would keep her alive on the journey there and back.  

On the day of the launch she assembled her family only to realize to her dismay that her space shuttle was too small. It was only about 50 cms high and there was no way she would be able to fit inside. The mission was aborted. My wife was devastated. With her heart broken she went to her room with her sandwiches and sulked.

The best recordingsessions are pretty much like this. You plan and build and make up grand plans how its all gonna work out. In your head there is no doubt. How far can it possibly be to Mars, right? There is no end to the potential in this recording. This one will change everything. That feeling is unbeatable. A lot of times you see the records being released and you have a noisy liftoff and you see how it soars in the sky and leaves the place where it was made. Other people see it and hear it. People might like it or hate it. The worst people have educated opinions..."Your spaceshuttle is great.....but".

And sometimes you end up alone in your room, tears rolling down your face with a package of sandwiches and a vehicle you cant even fit in.

Oddly enough I like both endings to the mission.