December 9, 2013
This
is Chris back with some of what I believe I brought to the table on
EBLC. We’ll not use the Mutant Pop song order. We’ll go with the
original intended order which comes out Friday with Stardumb.
Here’s side one:
1.Fearful Symmetry: This sounded like the albums “hit single” to me so that’s how I treated it. I enjoyed using two snare drums within one song. On the louder section (where a guitar solo might be in another type of music) my right hand alternated between the ride and china cymbals. While doing this, the stand holding both cymbals rotated causing you to sometimes hear more ride and sometimes more china. I was able to fix it during the next quiet part and save the take. I love it because it’s one of those things to let you know it’s a human playing an acoustic instrument. I remember the ending with the counting ride bell being my idea. And I love that ending not because I claim it, but because it’s a real ending and fits beautifully.
2.Gemini: Some deliberate double punctuations throughout the song–two splashes here, two crashes there–all in following the concept of a Gemini. There were also a ton of ghost notes on the snare that were lost in the big drum room. Although playing that way still had an effect on the finished product. In my mind a rock being skipped across the surface of a pond represented the stick on the snare head.
3.Wide Open: Surprise surprise- everyone wants me to play a cross stick/rim click on the first verse and this was after everything was up and running in the studio. Magically, for this track, I was playing a snare drum with wood hoops that possessed a tremendous cross stick sound. The bridge builds with increasing flams on the snare toward riding on the crash while trying to simultaneous keep up a lot of big fills as it nears the ending.
4. Cigarette Buzz: Smooth and flowing in places, punchy in others. On the second half of the verses Dave opens up some and we rock harder.(Feels great to hear and even better to play) The kick drum follows the vocal phrasing very closely throughout the song.
5. Typical Tattoo: How the hell do I keep this first part from sounding like The KKK Took My Baby Away? I think that put me on overdrive switching up the drum parts so much throughout the rest of the song. The verses change from riding the toms to big crashes on the backbeats. The chorus has a up/down beat switch that increases as the song progresses.
6. Captured: The flow of this one feels like an unstoppable conveyer belt. Lots of 8th notes on the kick drum. Sometimes there’s heavy work going on, sometimes it’s more delicate things. It speeds up and slows down but the machine always trundles on. This ending was my idea. We used a click that was accidentally set a a little fast but it worked out fine.
7. All That I Have Left: The kick hooks in with the vocals and guitars at the end of each phrase of the verse. There is a type of switcharoo build played on the bridge.