writing and recording without a drumset

The bands I've been in are The Crop, Sangfroid, Passenger Pigeon, (our album is out on Itunes and Spotify pls check it out pls) and Beat juice. one thing they all have in common is the inclusion of a drum set. I have grown accustomed to their presence but now don't have access to one. my solo career has even had one (and or a cajon), but now i'm drumless. I am having to compensate for its absence through slightly unconventional methods.

The last several songs I have recorded have implemented clap tracks, shakers, and a lot of layers to fill the empty space. it has been a hard transition but a quote from Bird By Bird is inpirational in these rocky times "We're taught to improve uncomfortable situations, to change things, alleviate unpleasant feelings." doing this would mean me finding a way to get access to drums when I should just accept my situation and learn to grow without one, to live with the unpleasant feeling of no hi-hat and no snare. I will adapt and evolve in a way that I couldn't with a Drum set. I find that limitation bring about immense growth if you accept them.

Comments

Recording and Mixing notes

the most important part of recording music is getting good takes with instruments and vocals. getting good recordings is the first and highest priority in the recording process. Once good takes are made you want to begin mixing. to mix you apply plugins such as compression, reverb, panning and so on. it is a good idea to listen to music you like, that would be a good example for your mix. I tend to listen to Dave Matthews band for this purpose. last night while listening I came up with some notes that I later applied to a song im working on called Aesthetic. I Equalized the alternating down beat shaker (used as a snare) to the root note of the key the song is in. a minor touch but I think it adds a lot to the mix. I also noticed how Dave's vocals cut through the layer heavy song; there was minimal reverb and decay, so I rolled down both of these parameters which yeilded positive results. It is like Anne Lammot referencing authors she enjoyed, especially her father, you want to read

crazy time signatures and math

Alternate and odd time signatures are my bread and butter; working to make something so off beat resonate well with a listener is the most enjoyable challenge in my life. The above picture is a simple chart depicting a song I wrote for my band Beat Juice. The first line is the part I play and the one below is what Dal plays; as you can probably see, my part is divided irregularly making it nearly impossible to feel the pulse. to remedy this I wrote Dal's part in 4/5, this way both of us will play a total of 20 beats per phrase. by choosing common time emphasis to put over my part, the pulse of the song emerges. I like to compare this to Anne Lamott's experience with writing stories that may not have appealed to people and publishers, but she continued anyway, and that is the true nature of art in my opinion; push through the hate to create something you are proud of.

Frustration

Over this last summer I recorded an LP. As I listen to the finalized mixes I am a little frustrated with my performance, especially with vocals. It sucks to look back and realize that there is no way to fix it. Fortunately my producer Jame McConnell is a beast and is doing his best to fix some of my sloppiness. I know now that I was singing without my diaphragm and have since learned to do so. It has dis-heartened me but at the end of the day I'm proud of the music I produced, despite it's imperfections. It is a snapshot of where I was as a musician the summer of 2018, and if you look past some of the mistakes I believe it is a fun collection of unique songs that at the very least will be an interesting listen. Like Anne Lammot says, you might think something is perfect at the time only to realize later that it could've used more work, but perfection is impossible and as long as you're happy with what you've written, then it is great.

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