What's Happening at the Studio?

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Idea: Running log of studio sessions

Doing this will keep my momentum up on musical projects, and help me to gain clarity, in a musical and creative sense. I hope to log every session here, regardless of duration or ‘productivity’ of the session. I’m sure this will go through plenty of edits as I continue to build on this site and write more. Below is my first entry into the “What Happened at the Studio” series.

What Happened at the Stew: April 29, 2019

I got to the studio at around 11pm after a long day or traveling around Manhattan for work, grad school, and wedding preperations (I’m getting married in 4 days at the time of writing this) I was burnt out from the day and all I needed was sleep. However, Duddy was at the stew so took a walk over there. I took some time to straighten up the drum-area, I left it pretty sloppy after my last session, cables everywhere. Duddy and I jammed, guitar and drums. There was one microphone to the left side of the drums, near the ‘K’ hats, and one near Duds’ amp. I had the Dream FX cymbal on the 14” Ludwig Acrolite snare. This Dream FX cymbal gives the snare drum a nice sound. It Muffles the head for a nice thud, and you get the cool jingle effect.
As we started playing, my mind wandered and felt clear. I wasnt thinking about any plans, school or work. Nice. Duds’ was rocking the green Line 6 pedal and going wild with loops and playing them in reverse, it made for a psychadelic vibe. I was building up the four to the floor beat, with plenty of space to experiment with the hats on the left and right side. The two hat sounds with the Dream Fx snare cymbal made for a nice sounding kit, I even added another small tambo on the right side hats for even more jingle.
We ended up playing a tune called “Glitch Face” which we used to play some years back, brought back memories. I put up the 24” ride cymbal and played that for a a few minutes. That thing sounds great. I love a minimal setup with muted sounds, but there is something so amazing about the 24” ride (the one I got from Joe Piazza)

Conclusion

A short, late-night session with Duddy turned into a good bout of nostalgia, stress relief, and good vibes to end a crazy Monday.

What Happened at the Stew: June 10th, 2019

Pre-Stew: Manhattan for DM meeting in the afternoon led to bonus time with brews and card games. (Exploding Kittens, Citadels) After the slightly buzzy 8p ferry ride I went over to the stew to meet Pasq, MZ & Jah.

All we did was jam! Marios on bass, Duddy on Guitar, I’m on Drums. Just like the olden days of the garage and ‘Ullie Deuces’ (10 years ago this July…) It was a nice ~warm~ hot July evening jam. I have the Ableton session that Pasq recorded. I want to listen and upload chunks of it (or the whole thing) to add it to this post.

I was using the Tama burgundy kick, Ludwig snare w/ Dream FX, two sets of hats (Custom Dark K’s on the left, Vintage New-Beats on the right) two floor toms (Slingerland, Zimgar) and the big boy 24” ride (Vintage Joey P Zildjian A)

Here’s a photo of the kit

What Happened at the Stew: June 12th, 2019

Walked in, played some solo drums. Practiced with Joey P. Few coldies because Friday. Chopped it up with Joey on the pads, then on all 3 classic kits.
Gretsch, Sonor, Ludwig, all decked out with the rarest cymbals… All such beautiful sounding and unique sets. Hope to keep learning from JP.

What Happened at the Stew: Feb 13th, 2020

A mid-month Thursday. Which means its time to pay stew rent. Pasq, Mario and I took that opportunity to get right to jamming. I started by playing double stroke rolls on both hi hats while opening and closing the left hat. I thought it generated a driving, buildup to all the jams to come. When things built up enough I was focusing on clean grooves, being mindful of each hit and fill. We played for a while, I would lose focus sometimes while my mind wandered. I had to remind myself a few times to listen closer and keep my mind focused on the music. I found myself worrying about work, of all things. I would find myself getting caught up in something I said over an email to colleagues and cringing. Just to look up and realize I had lost the flow of the music while my mind wandered to things I had no control over at that point. I have to remember to use this studio and my music as a creative outlet and try not to let things outside my control bother me while I’m in the moment of creating. At some point I dropped into a ‘Weekapaug Groove’ type drum beat and was pushing the tempo pretty fast. It was fun to throw in some clean single stroke fills and experiment with style I don’t usually go for. I was also thinking about the gospel drummers from Faith in Action, and trying to incorporate some of those relentless-fill and crash type beats. Overall very fun night of music but I realize my mind was wandering. Excited for another session soon.