So, I did this session of rock/pop covers a couple weekends ago at Q Division Studios in Somerville, MA. (Awesome joint, btw.) I’m not too proud to admit that I’m always a bit nervous in the studio. I’m not some cool cat like Vinnie Colaiuta or Josh Freese who breezes into a session and cuts perfect tracks with any range of feels the producer desires. No, depending on the situation, I’m always a little on edge, hoping that the engineer approves of my kit sounds, hoping the producer likes what I’m playing and/or how I’m playing it, and hoping I receive intelligible instructions and can take direction. Oh, and hoping that I can hear the damn click and my feel doesn’t suck while playing to it. All in all, it was a relaxed session, and the producer seemed pleased.
One of the tracks was Bonnie Raitt’s cover of Roy Orbison’s “You Got It”. I can’t find credits for this tune, so I don’t know who the drummer is, unfortunately. I’ve heard that blasted song 300 times but never paid attention to the drum track until I had to learn it. There’s some really cool stuff going on, especially with dynamics on the hi-hat. I spent a couple practice sessions trying to get that feel down. On recording day, much to my dismay, the producer only wanted straight-ahead grooves on the tracks. Which is fine: his recording, I am the humble servant. I’ve gotta say, though, it was hard to play a straight beat when I had that lilting, dynamic feel so etched in my head. And, among others, it’s the ability to “melt” into a track that makes drummers like Colaiuta and Freese so respected and in-demand.
But what about that “hidden” groove undulating almost beneath perception in the Raitt track? It’s certainly not true of all drum parts in this genre, but most of the best stuff (or at least my favorite stuff) is incredibly nuanced. I’m not talking about Carter Beauford-type playing, either, where it’s chops galore in a pop context (which I love too). I’m talking about the really slick Steve Gadd, Jim Keltner, Jeff Porcaro, John Robinson kinds of stuff that sounds totally simplistic until you turn up the volume and listen with a mindful ear. Think the ghost notes and linear pedaled hi-hat on “50 Ways to Leave Your Lover”; the inner dynamics of the grooves and fills on “Rosanna”; the intro groove and dynamics of “Higher Love”.
Awesome, complex stuff, right? But that’s not the only way to play those tunes. This is often proven when a band’s live and studio drummers are different people, or when a drummer is replaced and the new guy plays the band’s older repertoire. More often than not, there’s a very new feel. A great example is Manu Katché and Vinnie Colaiuta. Their respective tenures with Sting overlapped, and live they played each other’s studio material. Their styles are markedly different. Did Manu play “Seven Days” incorrectly? Well, he didn’t play all the same fills or the polyrhythmic hi-hat pattern, so… But that wasn’t wrong. In my opinion, what would have been wrong is if Manu had tried to play Vinnie’s part note-for-note.
Ultimately, this all boils down to the point I really wanted to make: There’s no “right” way to play a song, but there are many “wrong” ways.
At any rate, back to the top. Here’s what I used in the studio:
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- Drums:
- Yamaha Dave Weckl Signature 5×14″ maple snare drum
- Grover Pro Custom Maple: 8×10″, 10×12″, 12×14″, 16×20″
- Heads:
- Snare: Evans Power Center Reverse Dot coated / Hazy 300 clear
- Toms: Evans G Plus Coated / G1 clear
- Bass: Evans EMAD clear with thinner ring / Remo Powerstroke 3 smooth white
- Cymbals:
20″ Zildjian K ride, 18″ Zildjian K Custom Fast Crash, 16″ Zildjian K Dark Crash, unknown 14″ Zildjian hi-hats*.
*15″ Zildjian K Light hi-hats denied! I think they would have been perfect for these tunes, but the engineer was dead-set against them before I even tried them. Before the mikes were even set up he subbed in some older, spongy 14″ A hats—I’m guessing; the logos were all worn off. At any rate, I didn’t much care for them. - Sticks: SilverFox JX
- Hardware:
- Pearl PowerShifter single pedal
- Tama Iron Cobra hi-hat stand (too lazy to set up the Pearl Eliminator…!)
- Roc-N-Soc NR Nitro throne
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