Early audition recording surfaces :/

Andy

Honorary Member
This surfaced the other day, & in the interests of laying my frailties bare, I thought I'd put it up. It was recorded literally weeks after I came back to drumming from a 20+ year layoff, back in 2009, so it's interesting (at least to me) to hear how rusty I was. To my surprise, it's not as bad as I remember. No preparation, I was asked if I knew this song, I said yes, and was asked to put a driving rock beat to it. Ok, mistakes everywhere, but the vibe's quite good I think.

I'm still playing with the bass player featured here. Anyhow, hope you enjoy, & if you have any audition recordings or stories, please throw them up here :)
 

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it takes some balls to post music of yourself into a public forum for all to see, so i commend you.

do not have anything to share right now, maybe in the future. had right ankle surgery to remove eight pins and two plates near xmas. ;(

have fun!
 
it takes some balls to post music of yourself into a public forum for all to see, so i commend you.

do not have anything to share right now, maybe in the future. had right ankle surgery to remove eight pins and two plates near xmas. ;(

have fun!
Thanks Brian, but I'm always putting my stuff up, warts 'n all. The reason I put this here, is it only came to light the other day, & it's the earliest recording I have of me playing after my 20 year "holiday", and in an audition situation. It's rough, especially the tempo control, but it's better than I thought :)

Anyhow, good luck with the ankle thing, that sounds very nasty :(
 
Ha! There's nothing better than a good old Queen number to revive all these rusty limbs, isn't it? Andy :)

I agree with you, I would be fairly happy if I could play like you did after 20 years away from the kit, certain "automatism" don't go away, do they... some fills are a bit rusty and definitely on the edge, but it does fit this type of music, so you can get away with it, and since it was an audition and I'm guessing that you got the gig, you actually did just that, I know how much you like practicing (10 hrs in 3 years... and that's pushing) so that little classic fill at 3:16 is good considering the enormous time you practice these type of fills :)

I enjoyed it thouroughly, it brought back nice memories for me, I use to play "tie your mother down" myself some 25 years ago :))

Is it the bass player from "Fired Up" in the audition?
 
Ha! There's nothing better than a good old Queen number to revive all these rusty limbs, isn't it? Andy :)

I agree with you, I would be fairly happy if I could play like you did after 20 years away from the kit, certain "automatism" don't go away, do they... some fills are a bit rusty and definitely on the edge, but it does fit this type of music, so you can get away with it, and since it was an audition and I'm guessing that you got the gig, you actually did just that, I know how much you like practicing (10 hrs in 3 years... and that's pushing) so that little classic fill at 3:16 is good considering the enormous time you practice these type of fills :)

I enjoyed it thouroughly, it brought back nice memories for me, I use to play "tie your mother down" myself some 25 years ago :))

Is it the bass player from "Fired Up" in the audition?
Yes, that's the bass player in our band now, so something good came of it.

When I put that groove up, I hadn't played it for such a long time. In hindsight, it would have been easier to have just gone for the original rock shuffle. Crumby fills too, but I was playing safe as I felt right out of my depth. It was the first time I'd played with other musos for oh so long. Nice to listen back to though. I do rather like that groove still, sort of a S.P. Space Boogie "lite" for single pedal :)
 
All the 'Andy-isms' are there. The high and crisp snare, the punchy bass drum. Like you say though, there is a bit of tempo variation in the groove. I'd be very pleased if that were me after a twenty-year break, though! (In fact, I'd be pleased if that were me with no break given what my playing is like at the moment)
 
Well, I think it sounds great...but then you've seen my stuff! Lol Love the song choice here, too...you had me groovin in my chair.
 
Well, I think it sounds great...but then you've seen my stuff! Lol Love the song choice here, too...you had me groovin in my chair.
Why thank you Mary :) I'm glad you picked up on the vibe rather than the detail. I think you can relate to how I was feeling when I played this. Coming back after a couple of decades away is very similar to starting from scratch, in so much as you suffer the same frustrations, only more so. You know what to do, but it just doesn't translate into actions. It would be slightly different given some preparation, but I grossly underestimated how important playing mileage is to getting the micro timing just right. It has to be automatic, almost instinctive, allowing you to concentrate on fitting your stuff precisely to the music. That, & a good degree of tempo control is what's missing in this recording. Without the foundation of the mechanics being automatic, every other element of the performance suffers. I forgot just how much playing 5 days a week polished even my simple stuff back in the day, & it was partially that polish that got me hired. Although I'm a touch better now, I still need a good buffing up to get to that standard, so that's it, more playing for me then :)

I hear you, I loved the hi-hat and ride cymbal fast triplets too, very SP like type of shuffling on space boogie :)
Thanks Henri, although it was scruffy. I can pull that groove off now with no effort, & done clean, it has a great motion. Believe it or not, it's easier to get the job done with double pedals rather than a single, but I think the single pedal version is less "intrusive".

All the 'Andy-isms' are there. The high and crisp snare, the punchy bass drum. Like you say though, there is a bit of tempo variation in the groove. I'd be very pleased if that were me after a twenty-year break, though! (In fact, I'd be pleased if that were me with no break given what my playing is like at the moment)
Cheers Duncan, yes, I just went back to my default sound of 20 years ago, although I found my tuning skills were just as rusty as my playing skills :)
 
Andy - sounding good! I definitely thought it was grooving. That's the good thing - even if you back off from the set for a while and lose some of the technicality from your playing - if you've got the groove then you've got the groove!

I understand your frustrations. I went from playing 1 or 2 hours a day, 5 days a week (at uni) to 30 mins a few times a week, all the way down to 0 hours a week for a year! Hideous!

I'm back on the wagon with a few hours a week, and though the groove is there the speed and some of the accuracy isn't.

Still, I think that for a 20 year break that audition was pretty banging! I know people who practice regularly who aren't as good as that!

Good on ya ;)
 
Andy, I didn't click the link because I was thinking of "surfaces" as floors or walls and figured it would just be some tech talk about dealing with acoustic surfaces when going on auditions haha

Killin' for such a long absence! It sounded like you were happy to be playing again - lots of enthusiastic energy.
 
Killin' for such a long absence! It sounded like you were happy to be playing again - lots of enthusiastic energy.
Thanks Pol, & yes, probably a bit of over enthusiasm, especially towards the end of the slide solo section. What a speed up!!!

Well, I think it sounds great
Thank you, & a big welcome to the forum :)

Still, I think that for a 20 year break that audition was pretty banging! I know people who practice regularly who aren't as good as that!

Good on ya ;)
Well, I hope there aren't too many ;) I had played for a few weeks before this was recorded, but only a total of a few hours. The first time I stepped on a kit after such a long break, & couldn't play a damn thing, really, almost zero retained ability ;(
 
Believe it or not, it's easier to get the job done with double pedals rather than a single, but I think the single pedal version is less "intrusive".

Yes Andy, it's more an easy approach with a double kick or pedals, however, I'm not sure a double bass pattern would be the best choice for this song, you did the right move by playing with a single pedal :)

While I still love to hear double bass drumming in may genre of musics by those, like SP, who are master at using them, nowadays I prefer to play with a single pedal, it feel more in line with my current approach to drumming, back to the basic with a less is more attitude :)

Having said that, I still have my old faithful Camco double pedals, you never know, just in case... :)
 
This goes to prove that once it's in you, it's in you. Any issues you pointed out are so negligible as to not even affect things IMO.

My only issue is with your snare tone. I have TBH, it doesn't do it for me, too boxy sounding. Is that your Piccolo? Not fond of the P tone, it doesn't carry enough for me. I realize the recording is quick and dirty, but I can still make out the snare tone. My apologies if you prefer the tone, you know me, just being honest about what I hear. I never heard a piccolo that I even liked. I like to hear some shell sustain and overtones with the snare. I get all head, no shell and no overtones from this recording.
Otherwise, your playing...you would never know you took 20 years off.
Do you play your flams with both notes at the same volume?
 
Do you play your flams with both notes at the same volume?
Mostly yes Larry, but not exclusively, as I use them mainly for statement style accents. When I'm using flams for groove, or in groove tom fills, then I usually ghost the left. My ability to lead with the left & ghost the right is very poor. This clip, of course, isn't representative of how I flam now, thankfully:)

My only issue is with your snare tone. I have TBH, it doesn't do it for me, too boxy sounding. Is that your Piccolo? Not fond of the P tone, it doesn't carry enough for me. I realize the recording is quick and dirty, but I can still make out the snare tone. My apologies if you prefer the tone, you know me, just being honest about what I hear. I never heard a piccolo that I even liked. I like to hear some shell sustain and overtones with the snare. I get all head, no shell and no overtones from this recording.
Yeah, with you here Larry. It was the Pearl FF piccolo, but fitted with a reverse dot head. All head & no body. The rest of the drums were some cheap 80's Rogers shell set I kept for a couple of months. The cymbals were some nice old HH hats from my old days, plus some used XS20 pies I picked up cheap with the Rogers.

This goes to prove that once it's in you, it's in you. Any issues you pointed out are so negligible as to not even affect things IMO.
Otherwise, your playing...you would never know you took 20 years off.
Thank you Larry, but I can hear a lot of rust rattling around there. That said, the vibe is perfectly acceptable, & in the overall scheme of things, pretty close to what I'll generally see in bar gigs. You know me & vibe, it trumps everything.

Having said that, I still have my old faithful Camco double pedals, you never know, just in case... :)
I use doubles now Henri, but not in this clip. Actually, the only bit of playing I'm happy with here is the double kick to hands stuff sprinkled though the performance. My use of double pedals now is very limited indeed, but I do keep them to hand to take care of my infrequent leg disfunction so I can finish a gig :( :( :(
 
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