Remote Session Drummer

Q: Is there anyone on SoundBetter you know and would recommend to your clients?

A: Vas from Hilltops recordings is a great mixing engineer to check out. He's been really focused on dialing in his skills to deliver an exceptional product.

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

A: I'd say the Porcupine Tree cover of "Fear of A Blank Planet" that we did in early 2021. My role was drums and audio engineering. I am proud of it because while it does not reflect what I can achieve now, it was a cover that was a HUGE step above my previous recordings. I couldn't tell you how proud I was of it, especially since I had not touched a microphone for a few months. It all came together so well. Regardless, you have to celebrate the small wins, right?!

Q: What are you working on at the moment?

A: Primarily on building my own self as a remote session drummer and doubling down on social media to go with it. I am confident in my skills and now it is just about strategizing and putting myself out to the world.

Q: Analog or digital and why?

A: I have an analog compressor, but digital is here to stay with me. The Universal Audio stuff really emphasizes this, given how well the plugin simulations sound. Digital workstations/plugins are incredible and allow you to create so much with them. There's always a sweet spot for the analog gear to live in, but digital is absolutely ahead of its time compared to what it was even just 5 years ago. Plus, I don't need to drop thousands of dollars to have multiple 1176's in my mix.

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

A: My promise is to give my absolute best on each set of tracks to ensure that it meets the clients' needs.

Q: What do you like most about your job?

A: Being able to be as creative and engage with any many musicians as possible to continously create new music together. To be able to do this from home as well is an absolute blessing because it just saves on so much time and cost compared to renting out a facility.

Q: What questions do customers most commonly ask you? What's your answer?

A: "Why do you charge higher than some session drummers?" - If you actually break it down, it's actually well priced, especially given how many hours can go into learning the song(s), adjusting the setup as needed, changing heads, recording, any editing needed, and mixing the tracks per the clients' needs.

Q: What's the biggest misconception about what you do?

A: That it is easy as simply putting mics wherever and hitting 'record' when engineering drums. It needs to be said that drums are a challenging instrument to record that takes time, commitment, and the right mindset. Even after spending so much time dialing in my sounds, it is a skill that's continously evolving.

Q: What questions do you ask prospective clients?

A: Are the song(s) well written and ready for drums? What exactly are you looking for in terms of style and influences? What's your end goal? What's your plan on releasing each project so that I can help promote the song(s)?

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

A: The more pre-production elements that you can provide to me, the better. For example, scratch guitars, bass, demo drums, tempo map, click, time signatures, etc. Lots of people do not take the time to prepare ahead of time which can diminish the end results. Take the time and it'll make it so much easier on my end.

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

A: Not surprisingly, my drums are what can probably fulfill my needs. Unless taking a generator counts then I'd probably take a few interfaces to say that I recorded on an island haha.

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

A: So, drumming and audio have been on two different avenues. I began playing drums at age 10 (currently 27). I officially became part of an "actual" band back in 2014 with my guys in Aeonic Impulse. I say "actual" since it felt like a serious band as compared to just a casual jam group. I felt excited to have been a part of something special with the band and poured everything I can to help support it. Even through a few lineup changes, we still pushed hard to make a name for ourselves in our hometown of Los Angeles. Skipping forward, the year 2020 happened and it did unfortunately hinder us, but as of now with our remaining members, we are still working to finish our second album, as well as finding a new bassist and vocalist to join us. Now this is where the audio career really came into play. Throughout the years, I had always messed around with doing rough live recordings of Aeonic Impulse to help capture any ideas we had. Around mid 2020 came the opportunity to contribute drums for covers with other musicians internationally, as well as doing a few covers with Aeonic Impulse before some of our members left to focus on life. Around mid 2021, came the opportunity to take over a space and finally set up my acoustic drums again after so long. I also saw it as a perfect opportunity to convert it into my own home studio and take audio more seriously. I went ahead and built acoustic panels, installed theatre curtains, and did whatever I can to get the room to sound its best given how small it is. Afterwards, came purchasing the microphones, preamps, literally everything I can get my hands on. Since then, I spend hours constantly dialing in better sounds in an effort to deliver the best recordings possible so that I can offer remote session work, and even have a proper place for my band to record in. You can say I've been dabbling with audio for a few years, but only have taken it more seriously within the past two years. Nonetheless, it is a never-ending journey towards soaking up as much learning as possible.

Q: How would you describe your style?

A: A mixture between Mike Portnoy and Gavin Harrison. Progressive, some heavier rock moments, all while doing my best to adhere to the song. I am a hard hitter, but can definitely carry loads of dynamics when needed. I am a huge fan of ghost notes, given how much space they fill in. I love to infuse a lot of energy to help bring the songs that much more to life.

Q: Which artist would you like to work with and why?

A: So many to choose from, but as of now, Steven Wilson. Maybe it's because I've been on such a Porcupine Tree craze, but I always felt that there is so much to dig in and learn when it comes to his writing and production approach. He's definitely a prime example of writing and releasing an album that is inline with what he is chasing after. One day, he can write a pop record, next it's electronic, next it's drone, next it's rock, so on and so forth. On top of that, he has done so many incredible mixes that I would love to lean into how he creates such immaculate and balanced mixes. Nonetheless, he is definitely a creative person that would be great to work with.

Q: Can you share one music production tip?

A: COMMIT! COMMIT! COMMIT! So often, we are constantly doubting ourselves and doing "shootouts" in hopes of finding the "one trick" that will make your productions "sound better." That mindset gets you nowhere. Stay committed to what works and focus more on achieving the best performance possible from each performer.

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

A: I primarily work on Progressive Rock / Metal music, though I have been exploring and attempting to work on other genres. This includes Indie, Psychedelic Rock, Ambient, and even Pop / Rock. I try and stay open to absorbing as music as possible so that I can continue to grow my skills and ear.

Q: What's your strongest skill?

A: Dialing in and capturing big sounding drum tracks out of a small room.

Q: What do you bring to a song?

A: I bring passion, energy, and commitment to each song. My performance is equally as important as the clients' track and can make or break the final outcome. No matter how big or small, every small detail along the way is important to ensure that we meet the goal of moving the listener.

Q: What's your typical work process?

A: I typically like to get a feel for each track that is sent by listening to it a few times and taking notes along the way. If the client does send me any references, I'll give those a listen to further achieve the sounds needed. After breaking the song down, I like to go straight into playing along to it through the best of my abilities. This is how I find my best ideas and learn the song that much faster. I'm not too structured as I play what I feel is best for the song, while feeding my drummer self. Basically, I don't read charts and follow them. I learn by ear, take notes, play, and continue to build up on it until I find a performance that fits. I will then prep the drums with the appropriate tunings and cymbals to further supplement the song that much more. This is not something I spend too much time on as I feel that the drums are always set for various situations. Afterwards, I will go ahead and fine tune any part of the recording chain to ensure that everything is in place. Thankfully, I have everything connected and routed at all times, so it is a matter of turning everything on and hitting record. After completing a few takes that I am happy with, I will comp takes into one for the final product. I'll typically nudge and fix any small discrepancies to clean up the performance, unless the client needs the tracks to be quantized and locked in. Typically speaking, the raw tracks will go to a mixing engineer, though I have had many that ask for the drums to be mixed prior, to which I can do successfully. If any revisions do need to be made, I will go ahead and make the revisions needed to accommodate the clients' needs. That's it, really. I'd say that I have everything dialed in.

Q: Tell us about your studio setup.

A: This is the most unique part because of what I have been able to achieve out of my space. It is much smaller than you might think, and yet I have found a way to make each recording sound big and filled with ambience, especially considering how treated it is. Being creative with my space has been key towards achieving the sounds I hear in my head. Even then, I constantly strive to improve my sounds so that they continue to meet a professional grade standard. I track on a set of Tama Starclassic Walnut/Birch kit which has been my recording kit for over 3 years now. They have the bright attack, yet warm and rich lows which have proven to be versatile for many situations. On top of that, I use MEINL Cymbals simply because they have dark, complex, and incredible sounding tones to choose from. I use Remo drumheads as they quickly give me the sounds I am looking for. I take no compromise in making sure that my drums stay in tune and in excellent shape. Aside from a great drummer, a set of drums are only as good as the condition it is in. From time to time, I will experiment with different tunings, but my sound is pretty consistent across the board. I strive for a balance between punchy and musical sounding drums. They're a dynamic instrument, so I want to always bring the best out of the shells. Onto audio, this is where the real fun is. I track through the Universal Audio X8p, Apollo Twin X, and Audient ASP880 for a total of 18 channels available at my disposal. 14 of which are typically used for each session depending on the needs of the client. I love to compress my room tracks through my Heritage Audio HA-609A stereo compressor. It really brings out the energy from the drums and makes them sound that much bigger. I use various microphones from Shure, Sennheiser, Audix, Audio Technica, and Lauten Audio, which definitely covers a lot of ground. Everything is tracked inside of Reaper (*shocker, no Pro Tools*), which is my DAW of choice. It is super flexible and incredibly powerful. In addition, I monitor all of my audio through my Adam A7x speakers which have been superb. As far as plug-ins, I use mainly stock Reaper plugins along with offerings from Universal Audio, Waves, and Black Salt Audio. I don't like to get so caught up with chasing after the newest piece of software to which I believe limits your creativity. Use what you can and learn to master each tool. Get the sound right at the source and you will find that everything comes into place more easily. Otherwise, my bandmates have their gear in here in case I ever decide I want to learn other instruments, haha.

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

A: Gosh! There's so many, especially within the past few years ever since I've grown my musical palette. Recently, it has been Gavin Harrison from Porcupine Tree. His style and rhythmic design behind the drums is world class and definitely a skill on its own. The ability to write such comprehensive parts while still being able to serve the song is not easy, and yet he executes it with ease. In addition, I grew up around Mike Portnoy (ex. Dream Theater, Sons of Apollo, Transatlantic), in which he absolutely set the standard for Progressive Metal drumming. His ability to play and transition among a various amount of odd time signatures is incredible, all while still having fun. He never fails at showmanship and always ensure that his fans receive the best performance possible. As far as music production professionals, let's start with Jamie King (Between the Buried and Me, The Contortionist, Trioscapes). Jamie has always had an old-school mentality with production while still adapting to the needs of today's recordings. He does so in a way where he focuses on a sound that is modern, yet organic sounding, and authentic to the artistry of each client. His recordings have always been about making the listener feel like they are listening to the band live. Needless to say, his productions and techniques are unique compared to most professionals. Next, we have Jordan Valeriote (Silverstein, Nick Johnston, Intervals). Jordan has produced and mixed many top selling modern records, which I'm sure you have listened to once at some point. He is also the founder and owner of Hardcore Music Studio. I've been fortunate to have been taught under Jordan through his Pro Production System, and needless to say, he is a VERY knowledgeable individual, both in producing and business. He commits to doing whatever it takes to make each song sound its absolute best with no excuses, a form of dedication that does not come easy. These are only a few of many musicians/production professionals that continue to help keep me disciplined and focused on attaining my goals, both musically and in life. Nonetheless, I consider those who leave an everlasting impact, an inspiration.

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

A: I mainly focus on remote drumming session work for my clients. Having the ability to record live and organic drums from home allows me to be involved in many projects and continue to be musically creative. I also have learned full audio production through Jordan Valeriote at Hardcore Music Studio, so from time to time, I will produce or mix a song.