The Origin
On my 11th birthday I recieved my first drum kit, a second hand "CB Drums" kit. This was the first instrument I'd ever been put infront of up to this point, and as you can imagine I was very excited!
Paired with this drum kit was also lessons with a teacher. As you can imagine, my parents knew they were going to be having a racket in the house, so it may as well be a groovy racket. My teacher, John Hicks, taught me from the ground up in styles such as pop, rock and jazz. From there I did grades in drums obtaining grade 8 which taught me a lot about the different rudiments that can go into patterns when playing.
Bands
In the beginning, I played with school and friend bands ranging from rock to jazz, but the band that was the most fun and gave me the best early experience was the Wigan Youth Jazz Orchestra where I played under the leadership of Dave Little and occasionally Ian Darrington. Here I honed my jazz playing skills and also the skill of following a conductor which isn't as easy as it seems. While in the band we played loads of gigs in lots of places, but the most notable events would be either the numerous Wigan Jazz Festivals where we shared the stage with professional musicians from around the world, or the Bavarian and Czech Republic tour we went on performing in numerous places along the way through the two countries.
I also played in a concert band that gave me experience in a different aspect of band playing. While playing jazz is great for making grooves, concert bands play music that involve style and tempo changes in one piece of music. This kind of music makes you pay attention to the conductor a lot more and the music that you are reading. It is important to form a good relationship with the conductor so you can communicate efficiently without actually talking
After playing for a good few years, I started getting calls for band to fill in for people when they were on holiday or otherwise unavailable. I usually get recommended by people I have played for/with in the past because I can fit in easily with a band. Also, my ability to sight read music comes in handy as this does not require practice before I play a gig.
Being called into bands to fill in is one thing, but playing in bands as a main player was the next step and at one time, I was a regular player in 7 bands at once! Sometimes for one off show bands and other times for a regular playing band aiming for pubs and events
But then COVID rolled around and no one is playing music music together anymore. I still had the itch to play music, so me and my keys friend decided to learn and record some full band recordings where I played bass and drums and he played keys and sang
After COVID was all said and done, there weren't as many people wanting to play music after the forced time off, but this then formed a new band which became my most favourite band to play in to date; Outlier
With Outlier, we mesh very well as artists and are able to really live in the moment of always keeping our performances fresh. We play venues ranging from pub to restaurants to cabaret bars and like to tailor our sets and musical choice to match the bar we are playing in. We also offer a hand full of yet to be recorded original song which have always gone down well in the venues that have heard them
Recording and Youtube
Once in a while, I make drum covers of songs that I like for Youtube. The process usually involves me listening to a song and thinking how I can riff over the top of it adding my own style to the song. I'll practice for a few days/weeks before I am happy with what I have for the song before I start recording.
The equipment I use for recording has changed slightly over the years. At the start I used my electric kit for recording, then moved on to microphones for my acoustic kits. Likewise, the technology has changed to match my needs starting with an analog stereo mixer and moving to a digital interface. My equipment is listed at the bottom of this page for reference
Additionally to my own solo recordings, I also do full band recordings with Outlier which requires more cameras, more tracks and a bit more set dressing. Eventually, we got to the system of me doing all the video and recording work and the keys player would do the mixing and mastering of the audio and I would cut the final video (Sounds like I got the butt end of the deal). With this, we produced a handful of videos for our band's YouTube portfolio
Finally I have also been lucky enough to take part in some professional band recordings as an artist which came out very nicely. In the future, I want to record some of Outlier's original songs in a sort of live band take similar to Snarky Puppy recordings
Current Gear
Drums
- Yamaha Stage Custom: 10"TT, 12"TT, 16"FT, 18"BD
- TR Custom Pre-International: 12"TT, 16"FT, 18"BD
- TR Custom Stacker Kit: 10"TT, 14"FT, 20"BD, 12"SD
- Roland TD30kv
Snares
- TR Custom 14" x 6.5"
- 1968 Premier Royal Ace 14" x 5.5"
- 1963 Premier Royal Ace Piccolo 14" x 4" (Refurbished)
Cymbals
- Hi Hats: Meinl Byzance Sand Hats 14"/Meinl Byzance Extra Dry Hats 14"
- Crashes: Meinl Byzance Vintage Crash 20", Meinl Byzance Dual Crash/Ride 20"
- Ride: Meinl Byzance Sand Ride 20"/Meinl Byzance Extra Dry 22" (w/ Rivets)
Sticks
- Pro Mark American Hickory TX5AW (Wood Tips)
Recording Equipment
- M-Track Eight Audio Interface (Multitrack)
- Shure SM57
- Samson 7 Piece Drum Mics
- Behringer BA 19A
- Audio Technica AT2020 (Vocal)
