Producing Drummers

8/9/2019 Producing Drummers

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are often thebutt of the jokes with the attached

stigma that we're not really musicians.We've all heard the one about the drum-

mer w ho locked his keys in the car; it took himan hour to get the bass player out! Ba'Dump

Smash! Or how can you tell if the drum riser islevel? The drool spills out of both sides of the

drummer's mouth. Ba'Dump Bump! Good oneindeed. But seriously folks, drummers are the en-

gine driving th e band, the groovemakers,and the glue that shapes and makes the

music stick together and gets peopleup dancing - or toe-tapping at the

very least. Being a drum mer givesus a sonic vantage point, liter-

ally and figuratively, of our ow n- after a ll, we do sit centrestage most of the time. Andonce we 've established a ba-sic rhythm, we can pick outphrasing that complementsother instruments, accentshooks, controls the dynam-ics, etc. It only makes sensethat some drummers getout from behind the kit, take

charge oft h e musical direction,share their creative vision, and

put their thumbprint on the mu-sic as a whole. This year's percussion

feature focuses on drummers who havedone just that: transcended the notion that

we're no thing more than timekeepers and evolvedinto world-class producers.


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ym ^ ^ H ^ Our first contributor is Grammy^ L ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ Award-winning New York-based drum-

^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ mer/writer/producer/musical director

- Steve Jordan. Jordan's credits as a producerinclude Keith Richards, Robert Cray'sTake YourShoes O^ (Grammy winner), Buddy Guy'sBring 'E m In (Grammy-nominated), John Mayer's T ry and Continuum, Herbie Hancock'sPossibilities, and John Scofield's That's Wliat I S a y - to name a few.His workas both a session and touring drummer is jaw-droppinglyimpressive with such artists as BobDylan,James Taylor, BB King,Sheryl Crow, Alicia Keys, Bruce Springsteen, Eric Clapton,TheRoll-ing Stones - and the list continues to grow. As a musical director,Jordan has worked on high profile projectssuch as Superbow/XXXXand the Martin Scorsese/Antoine Fuqua filmLightning in A Bottle.A multi-instrumentalist and heck ofa nice guy, Jordan is one ofthebusiest and most influential musicians in the industry today, andmy guess is that will be true for decades to come.

Next u p , originally hailing from Chicago and now calling LosAngeles his home, is a man who's making inroads very quicklyin today's music industryKeith Harris has toured the world ex-ecuting pop-rockin' beats as the drummer with the GrammyAward-winning band The Black Eyed Peas since 2003. His talentas a writer and multi-instrumentalist with artists such as MacyGray, Busta Rhymes, MariahCarey, Chris Brown, MaryJ, Blige, andothers quickly expanded into the roll of producer for Eergie, ex-ecutive producer on Juily Black'sRevival, and co-producer on twotracks for Thriller 25 , the reissue by none other than the king ofpop himself. Michael Jackson. Keith Harris is no doubt destinedfor greatness.

As a founding member and drummer of Vancouver's Defaultsince iggg with 1.5 million albums sold and four releases to date,Danny Craig is spending his time in between tours working asa producer and songwriter with up-and-coming bands and art-ists such as Canadian /do/ finalist Chad Doucette,Rake, Sick Logic,and TheTravezty. He is digging his new role out from behind thedrumkitand gives us his perspective on this ever-growing labourof love and leadership.

WHAT DOESA DRUMMERBRINGTO A PROJECT AS APRODUCER,AN D IS IT AGOOD THINGOR A BADTHING?

Steve Jordan; i think the first thing you want to do is break down

a barrier between drummers and other musicians. That's a bigmisnomer. The standard or educated guess would be.'Well, thedrummer would know where the groove is or how to buildwith-in the rhythm," but that's not necessarily it because there are alot of drummers that don't play in the groove at all. There arebass players, guitar players, and keyboardists that have a better

S S IO N 2 0 0sense of groove, so that theory is out the window. It's not wdrummer brings to the chairas a producer; it's what type of mcian and/or songwriter he or she is."

Keith Harris: Yeah, I think drummers come from a differenspective rhythmically and melodically. Because I'm a keyboas well, it goes hand-in-hand for me because I can either production from a drum loop or start something with mbut the thing that makes people buy music is the drums. Dmers have an advantage in putting the beat together and ming the kit its own instrument as well as a vocal/piano tracall of those good things ...so there is a slight advantage,

Danny Craig: Well, I think drummers like being producedby dmers, I had played on several recordings prior to being in Dewhere the producer wouldn't change a thing about my p

Then on the first Defaultrecord, we worked on a few songs Rick Parashar and he totaliy revamped whatI was playing,I loit ! Aside from that, the more records Iproduce, the more I tryapproach them from a global perspective and not necessfrom a percussive one.l never ignore the drummer, however

M A K I N G T H E S W I T C H F R O M D R U M T H R O N E TO P R O -D U C E R ' S CHAIR IS NOT GOING TO HAPPEN OVERNIGHT,BUT YOU HAVE TO START SOMEWHERE. WHETHER ITBE THROUGH FORMAL TRAINING OR JUST JUMPING INAND BEING A SELF-STARTER - IT WILL TAKE TIME ANDEFFORT. HERE'S HOW EACH OF THESE ARTISTS GOTPRODUCTION...

Steve Jordan: I knew my production career was able to takebecause I trusted myself as a songwriter, and I knew in my and heart what I thought a good song might be and what ma good recording since I love recording. When I started plother instruments, it helped me becomea better drummer, win turn led to being able to make better recordings. I think play one instrument, sometimes you get locked into the from that chair. When I started to play the bass, I realized the bass player needed from the drummer and viceversa. Whstarted writing music.I stopped thinking about what beat Ig o i n gto play ona song as opposed to just playing thesong. Ithit home when I was working on this album with a disco

called Oddity; it had a big record cailedNative New Yorker duthe disco era. It was a real honour to be called for this sesbecause at that time in NewYork, and everywhere, there wateam and the'B'team -and this was definitely an'A'teamworked reaily hard on these rhythm tracks, and I used to actake them home, A lot of people didn't do that, butI was very

1 started playing otlit% L-.-,ed me become, a bet tea* drumimmin turn led to being able to makebetter recordings. -- Steve .)ordan


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sistent. If I could leave with the rhythm track, I would.They would make me a cassette...that wasn't common practice, but I would push for it. These tracks were just fantastic.There was a lot of care taken coming up with these parts. And then, when the recordcame out, the rhythm tracks felt very small and compressed, almost non-existent-thebalance wasn't right - the horns, vocals, every thing, it was terriblel I sa id,'Well,I could dothatl'CharlieConrad was the engineer on that session, and he taught me about gettingsounds and miking instruments, and i was a I ways fascinated by the sound he got on mebecause he got the best drum sound that i'd ever had up until that point.

Keith Harris: I attended Berklee (College of Music, Massachusetts) from '94 to '98 . T U :graduated with a degree in music production and engineering. I started out in highschool messing around programming on keyboards, but once I got to Berkiee it took offfrom there.

Danny Craig: i began producing in 2001 when a friend asked me to heip out his bandwith its songwriting and recording. I've always been a'take-charge' kind of guy, so therole fi t perfectiy and I had a blast doing it! I then began learning as much as I couldabout the craft, hiring pro engineers for my projects, sponging off top producers whomI've had the fortune of working with through Default, and learning Pro Tools and thescience behind engineering. I even built my own studio after months of researching thetopic-thank y o u , Internet!

T H E BIC QUESTION IS: HOW OFTEN DO YOU AS A PRODUCER DECIDETOLA Y DOWN THE D R U M TRACKS YOURSELF VERSUS BRINGINGANOTHERD R U M M E RIN, AND WHAT FACTORS ARE INVOLVED W H E N M A K I N GTHATDECISION?

Steve Jordan: I usuaily hire myself because i'm the cheapest drummer I can get for theproject [laughingj. When I hear a certain thing about the way a track should be ap-proached, I just feel that I might be the best person available to convey that for thebudget that I have. There may be times when I would love to have Jim Keltner play onsomething, but 1 look at the bottom line and i may not be able to afford it. When 1 dohave the opportunity to hire another drummer, I don't hesitate to - but most of thetime, I feel like I have the best understanding of what I'm trying to achieve.

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P E R C U S S IO N 2 0gramming the drums and then going

back and recording live drums. It de-pends on what the situation is and who

the artist is, then we take from there.

Danny Craig: More often than I'd !ike to! Being a recording mu-sician is a lot more difficult than most musicians think. In thestudio, the name ofthe game Is consistency and meter. Withoutthose, I'm afraid you're useless in recording. These days, I preferto use session players if I need to pinch-hit the drums; it's hardto focus on the producing role when I'm sitting behind the kitlistening through headphones. I need to be in the control roommaking sure the overall sound is the way Iwant it.

I M A G I N EFOR A MOMENT THAT YOU'RE THE DRUMMERI N A B A N D THAT IS ABOUT TO CO INTO THE STUDIO, PER-H A P S FOR THE HRST TIME , A N D YOU JUST FOUN D OUTT HE PRODUCER IS ONE OF T H I S FEATURE'S CONTRIBU-TORS. How DOES THAT MAKE YOU FEEL? NERVOUS? ORPERHAPS I SHOULD SAY WAY MORE NERVOUS,AS MOSTOF US TEND TO FEEL LIKE W E ' R E UNDER A MICROSCOPEWHEN TRACKING IN A STUDIO ENVIRONMENT. Is THIS ACOMMON OCCURRENCE, AND HOW DO YOU DEAL WITHTHIS SCENARIO?

Steve Jordan: I've had that effect on people, but I try to minimizethat immediately First of all, it's funny to me that that wouldactually happen, so I make light o ftha t and say,'This isn't neces-sary.'And not only that, I usually really like the way they play soit's always fun.

Keith Harris: No, not really, because they're all my friends [laugh-

ing]. We're all cool, man, and everybody likes to hangout and havfun. That's how we take it. If I did encounter that, I would say,'Hman, we all started at one point. You just do what you do and I'do the rest.'

Danny Craig: I haven't encountered that so much from sessionplayers - definitely from some of the bands' drummers at first,t hough . By the time we hit the studio, however, we've normallyspent enough time together that the vibe is easygoing and every-one is comfortable. I'm pretty easy to get along wi th .

W O R K I N GASA PRODUCER MEANS TAKINGON A ROLETHAT IS NOT UNLIKE THAT OF A PROJECT MANAGER. YOUHAVE TO GET THE BEST FROM A TEAM W H E N W O R K I NW I T HA B A N DOR BRING INDIVIDUALS TOGETHER TOCONVEYY O U ROVERALL CREATIVE VISION W H E N WORKING WITH A SOLO ARTIST.A BOND HAS TO BE MADEBETWEEN THE PRODUCER AND THE A R T I S T (S ) . H O WDYOU FAMILIARIZE YOURSELF, IF GIVEN THE OPPORTU-NITY, WITH THE A RT I S T ( S ) Y O U ' R EWORKING WITH, ANDDO YOU FEEL IT 'S IMPORTANT?

Steve Jordon: Absolutely! On this new Los Lonely Boys record,I went to Texas. Well, first I went to San Fransisco and saw theband play live.When I saw the members play live, I realized ththey really could groove more than was depicted on their previ-ous two albums, and I thought,'This is going to be a lot of fun,'because I knew they were really good songwriters and theycould sing great and play very well. Iwasn't sure about the heavygroove factor, but they played a great gig at the Filmore West andI thought, 'Great! Now ! know what I can get out of them.' Wehad to hang out and get to know each other a little so that the

consistencY and

- danny


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trusted me. When I produce bands, there'ssom ething about the interplay ina bandthat makes it special, and you don 't wa ntto take that individuality away You wantto help by ge tting th e best sound,and youwant to help the person follow the song,but you don't want to change what makesthem them .

Keith Harris: In the case of Ju lly Black, wehad toured on the road for a year and -ihalf and then we got to know one another.Then we started to work. It definitelyhelps to know what the artist is about- her vibe, what she's trying to achieve,and not just go into the studio and bustthings together. It's very im portant toi cy-in on the spirit and the atti tude ofthe artist that you're wo rkingwith .

Danny Craig: By hanging out for the m ostpart. I do ge t heavily involvedin the pre-pro-duc tion process and often the songwriting,too. Ialways need to m ake sure I'm happywith what we're going in with before weeven book studio tim e. Of course, duringthat tim e, there are always a few m ealsand a few beers to loosen everyone up andtake our m inds off the pressure at hand.

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P E R C U S S I O NCreativ-

ity comesa lot easier

when every-one is relaxed.

DR UM ME RS D O GET OUITEPARTICULAR WI TH THEIR O W N

SOUND. As A PRODUCER,WOULD YOU BE AS OBSESSIVEWITH THE DRUM SOUNDSMORE THAN A PRODUCERCOMING FROM A DIFFERENTBACKGROUND?

Steve Jordan: Absolutely I don'tthink that should be different whenyou play live unless the sound ofthe band is a certain way, and youwant it to sound that way throughthe whole night. If you're going outand depicting the sound of a record,why change the snare sound? Mostrecordings are built around certainsounds that become trademarks ofa recording, so why wouldn't youwant to depict that sound whenyou're playing live?

M A I N TA I N I N GA BALANCEBETWEEN LIFEAS A PRODUCERA N D KEEPINGYOUR D R U M -M I N G CHOPS UPTO SPEED HAGOT TO BE DEMANDING. HOWDO YOU M A N A G ETO KEEP BOI N CHECK, AND WHAT SORT OFPREPARATION DO YOU TAKE BEFORE HEADINGOUT ON TOUR?

Steve Jordan; I've been doing it lonenough that certain things arein me. Now, that doesn't mean I dpractice. I stay warm and I stay activein that way. The main thing for mewhen I'm playing is to be in physi-cal shape. Before and during the EricClapton tour, I worked out everyday. was a very physical show, so I madesure. If I didn't work out, I didn't feconfident that I could go through twhole show with the kind of dominant approach that I wanted to take,

wanted to be really powerful. Anycardiovascular thing works; ellipticalrunner, treadmill, or some weights,not necessarily to bulk up, just tomaintain some kind of strength and

it's v e ^ mport^ant to Rey in onthe ^'pMt and the attitude of theart;ist that YOUJF

k T L 1

Keith Harris: I think that I am . It all depends on the project. Some-times, I want it to sound 'horrible,' if that's the right way to say it,because it depends on what kind of effect or sonic sound you'retrying to bring. You don't always want the best-sounding kit ormic; it sounds too clean. If you're doing a hip hop track, you kindof want it dirty and a tittle distorted. When I have the proper bud-get, yes, I'll get very picky, but if it's a scenario where money is notas available and the project has to get done, I'll do what I have todo to make it sound the way it needs to in that amount of time.

Danny Craig; Than other new producers? Definitely. The big, es-tablished guys know what they want and pay attention to everydetail. But the'newbies'don't, necessarily. The main thing, how-ever, beyond the tones is the song. If the song is a hit, then itdoesn't reaily matter what the drums sound like.

definition.Also, I didn't want to look iike some overweight kindof weirdo on stage [laughingj. I wanted to be tight, together, ahappening. I did yoga as well and a iot of ab work.

Keith Harris; It's the greater of two evi Is,you know? Which do ywant to be, a great drummer or a great producer? Both requirea iot of time, but for me right now it's really about getting theproduction thing together. Once The Black Eyed Peas gets backon the road, then I'll be playing for another five years straight.keep my drumming chops up, I'll play on stuff just to make sureI keep my technique fine so it will sound good on tape. Whenstart rehearsing the new songs, i'll start listening to some differ-

ent things to get some new influences to play over the songs.That's pretty much when I'll go into drum mode.


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*^'*"v

P E R C U S S IO N Y 0Danny Craig: When we're preparing to tour, we get on a five-

day-a-week rehearsal schedule for at least a couple of weekswhere we spend equal time rehearsing the set as we do jam-

ming. When we jam, we totally wank, and that definitely helpsthe chops! When a band rehearses, it needs to do more than just gothrough the motions ofthe set, I am constantly analyzing my groove, my technique, andmy consistency while I piay.You need to be aware of what you sound like overa I!,and notjust play your parts.

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Steve Harris: I always urge all musiciansespecially drummers, to learn how to geta drum sound; learn about recording, micplacement, and what mies work well withdifferent parts ofthe kit. It's very impor-tant that you empower yourself so you'renot dependent on somebody else. I don'tfeel i can't learn from a younger player, I'always listening to new stuff. I don't trybe'contemporary'I just try and be honest,you know?That will ALWAYS keep youtemporary,

Keith Harris: Forme, I follow the three'PPrayer, Practice, and Patience, I come froma not-so-wealthy family on the south sideof Chicago, man. No silver spoon in mym o u t h . Everything I've got I've earnedthrough prayer, practicing, and just beingpatient and waiting for my opportunityto come, I think if anybody follows thosethings, man, they'll succeed. You have tohave the right attitude. Don't pass any

opportunity up. If you really love whatyou do, you'l l do it no matter how muchit costs. You go in with a positive attitudand the three 'P's, and you can't help buto be on top,

Danny Craig: Yeah,learn how to sing aplay guitar!

Jordan. Harris, and Craig have many of thesame attributes that make them success-ful producers. The first is not only havingthe credentials as fine drummers, but be-

ing multi-instrumentalists, thereby givingthem perspective from each bandmem-ber's role within a song. Second, they'vehad to gain the confidence and skill set ofoperating in a studio and knowing how toobtain or capture the sounds they're look-ing for. Probably the most important fac-tor is being a good listener when it comesto music. They have become songwritersthemselves, and knowing what makes agood song become a great song, maybeeven a hit song, is the best quality a pro-ducer can have,

C h r is Ta y l o r -M u n r o i s a


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Producing Drummers