Session Drummer

Q: What advice do you have for a customer looking to hire a provider like you?

A: Just to trust me. You are handing me a small piece of your soul to look after, and I don't take that lightly. I understand how it feels and I will handle your project with care.

Q: What was your career path? How long have you been doing this?

A: My music career started to get serious when I was around 14 years old. I was playing with a pretty well established post-hardcore band at the time and it was my first taste of how amazing playing music can feel, both live and recorded, and how many different places it could take you. I played with other bands and studied jazz all through high school into college, where I got a degree in Music Business as well as a real taste of what it was like to be a working musician. That's really where I decided it was time to go full-time. Right out of school, I got a "house session player" gig at a recording studio that eventually led to a tour in Europe and hundreds and hundreds of freelancing gigs thereafter!

Q: Can you share one music production tip?

A: Get your phasing right. Not just on drums, on every instrument. When all of your microphones are in phase, you'll achieve a level of clarity that you just can't get any other way. I take phase relationships a step further with a pretty amazing plugin called Auto Align to really bring everything into sharp focus; I consider it a pretty huge part of my sound.

Q: Tell us about your studio setup.

A: I work in a relatively small space, but I've done a lot of work in tailoring my room to sound the way I want, both in building and placing various types of acoustic treatments to make the drums speak as clearly as possible. I've collected what I believe to be some of the best microphones for drums available over the years, all of which get powered up almost entirely by the creative geniuses at Black Lion Audio. Their fantastic preamps, power conditioners, and out-of-this-world interface modifications help to bring so much clarity to the sounds I capture.

Q: Tell us about a project you worked on you are especially proud of and why. What was your role?

A: The two releases I did with Major Moment. I was brought on as a drummer, but took on a much more impactful role once we dove into production, doing everything from lyric writing to singing. I'm so proud of how those records turned out and probably always will be.

Q: What's your 'promise' to your clients?

A: Your song will be right, and you'll have everything on time.

Q: What do you like most about your job?

A: The pure joy that comes from creating something.

Q: If you were on a desert island and could take just 5 pieces of gear, what would they be?

A: My K Custom 21" Dark Complex Ride, my Sonor Protean Snare Drum, my Sonor SQ1 Kick Drum, a C414 and a Neve 1073. Hopefully a recording interface washes up on the shore!

Q: What type of music do you usually work on?

A: Primarily Rock and Pop and all of their many sub-genres, (Singer/Songwriter, Metal, Indie, Synthpop, you name it). In the world of live music, I spend quite a lot of time playing jazz and country as well.

Q: What's your strongest skill?

A: I try to pull as much emotion as I possibly can out of every song that comes my way. I'm a huge fan of the idea of "text painting" so I pay really close attention to lyrics and try to accent and bring out as many feelings as I can from what the vocalist is singing about and how they're saying it. It's extremely important to me that I get that part right above everything else, and I like to think that I'm pretty good at it!

Q: What do you bring to a song?

A: I try to be as creative as I can in coming up with drum parts. I never want the parts I play to sound "obvious" so I'll always try to find new angles and approaches to avoid musical cliche's. I just love feeling like I nailed a genre or a style while still sounding "uniquely me" if I can!

Q: What's your typical work process?

A: I try to sit with the songs I'm sent for a solid chunk of time before I even pick up a drumstick, getting a feel for arrangements, mood, feel, all of the important stuff. I'll then take the remainder of the day to experiment and "throw paint at the wall" until I find all of the parts I like and a comp that I'm happy with. Once I get there, I'll try to "beat the comp" with a single take performance, at which point I'll pass it off to you for revisions. After I know you're happy with the parts, I'll clean up the tracks with phase adjustments and any edits I deem to be necessarily as well as the first stage of tone shaping. I always want to make sure that when you put all the drum faders at 0 in your session, you're already at a fantastic starting point.

Q: What other musicians or music production professionals inspire you?

A: I admire creative "out of the box" thinkers when it comes to those who inspire me. When it comes to drummers, that means guys like Gavin Harrison, Aaron Sterling, and Mark Guiliana; all of whom I admire for their versatility and creative approach to the instrument. I'm inspired by not only what they play, but also the amazing sounds all three of them are able to pull out of their kits. Same goes for engineers and producers. I've adopted my own philosophy on how to capture sounds thanks to all of the fantastic engineers I've had the pleasure of working with over the years, as well as internet personalities like Eric Valentine and Adam "Nolly" Getgood.

Q: Describe the most common type of work you do for your clients.

A: I primarily perform, record and edit myself playing drums and other percussion instruments for the clients that hire me. I am a stickler for feel when it comes to what I do, and how the song moves is always the utmost important thing.