Drums! I can’t play them. Lucky for me, my good friend and UPTONES bandmate Mikey Stevens, plays them extremely well. I did this record sort of in reverse, relative to your standard guitar-rock type recording method. That is, I recorded the guitars and vocals first, then added bass and drums. The tracks actually sat for a while as I scratched my head thinking, “good lord, how am I supposed to add drums to this?!” I tried doing it myself, with a digital drum-trigger tool called a “HandSonic.” That was fun but I couldn’t get it to feel right. I also didn’t want to program the drums – even though tools to do that are pretty amazing these days – because no, Sam I Am, I do not like them on my rock ‘n roll Jams! I wanted a human baddass drumming person with limbs, ears and a heartbeat. Enter Mikey, whom I have done many UPTONES gigs and recordings with, with his sweet Ludwig drum set from like, 1950 or something. He set it up in Michael Rosen’s studio and played to the tracks, while I played bass. We rocked out and put it all down in an afternoon. Then like magic it sounded like a rock n’ roll record! It was really fun. I like fun.
Mr. Stevens runs Lost Monkey Studio in Hayward, CA, and among other amazing tricks, he’ll add live drums to your tracks and send ’em back to you via the newfangled Internets. We actually did a new one like this just recently, and I love how it sounds! So that’ll be on Peace and Love and Rock and Roll part Deux. Each track, each song in life, follows its own rules, and I have a few new ones in the works that I am excited about, including one, which started with (gasp!) programmed drums! (Huh!?) More on that later 😉
OK, I’m out! Thank you Mikey for the wonderful tracks and years of collaboration in and out of The UPTONES. You rock mieces to pieces.
Ladeeeeez and gents, Peace and Love and Rock and Roll part 1 – is available, only…… HERE!! –>
Downloads:
CDs:
Oh, a picture! I have to add a picture or this wont play nice with the socialnets. OK, here’s Mikey onstage with The UPTONES, in 2008 at the East Bay Express “Best Of The Bay” shindig. He is shrouded in mist and fiery stage lights, but I promise you, that’s him! Bye for now, E
