New music from The Du-Rites on Friday June 12th! The “Jheri Curl” b/w “Du Vibrations” 7” (and digital) will be for sale on our Bandcamp. It’s both greasy and funky! Here’s a brief video clip of the making of the b-side, “Du-Vibrations.” See you in two days!
Here’s a routine I use to warm-up sometimes. It’s essentially a fun montage of well-known/classic drum riffs that I run through to get my brain going. From Kool and the Gang to Paul Simon to Al Green to Lou Donaldson, there’s some iconic drum grooves in there that have helped define music over the last 50 years. I cite some of the original nuances as well as adding my own transitions and idiosyncrasies to glue it together. Enjoy.
It’s gonna be a very greeeezy summer. Fire up your activator and make your way to the Soul Train scramble board for some new Du-Rites funk. “Jheri Curl” b/w “Du-Vibration” 7” drops in June! Pre-orders begin at The Du-Rites Bandcamp on June 5! Streaming/digital on June 12. Stay tuned!
Sat down with Hip Hop Has Soul (h3soul.com) for a video interview about my time in music from the beginning through now. Watch part one of the two part interview on YouTube:
Did a quick interview with DJ Skeme Richards of Nostalgia King about how I’m operating musically during the pandemic and the age of social distancing.
After 4 drum break libraries and 6 years of frontin’ on producers requesting one shots, “social distancing” has inspired me to take on the arduous task of curating a library of high quality one-shots from my arsenal of drum sets, snare drums and assorted cymbals and percussion. The engineering, nitpicking, gruntwork and trial and error of creating a one shot library requires time – a lot of it. And with our current global health crisis keeping all of us indoors, I was finally able to laser focus and put in the necessary undistracted hours to come up with 100 killer sounds for your beat-making/composing needs. 31 snare drum sounds, 17 kick sounds, 21 hi-hat/cymbal sounds, 9 tom and percussion sounds + a bonus folder of a 22 of the kicks, hi-hats and snares run through an Akai S-950 sampler for a 12-bit sheen (courtesy of sound designer, Bullyfinger) – it’s all there!
Chopping up drum breaks isn’t for everyone, and part of being a working drummer is catering to the needs of the artist and producer. Combine that understanding of drums from the perspective of the drummer, engineer and producer – you get The Wild World of One Shots! Now I can go spend April working on boring yet essential practice pad exercises. Enjoy.
Buy The Wild World Of One Shots exclusively at THE DRUM BROKER
While we wait for our next 7″ to be pressed (should be out in May) and the world’s gone mad with Coronavirus hysteria, Pablo and I camped out in our home studios to put a new tune together. “Pigeon Spikes” should hold you funk fanatics over till the next 7″ – and it’s a taste of where album #5 is going.
And watch a video below of us putting it together. Enjoy.
January and Februrary were writing and adjustment periods for all bands I’m in, but things are picking back up. Ben Pirani + the Means of Production are back at it in rehearsal and we ended up jamming the other day. New music and back on the road later this year. Here’s a taste…
I was interviewed by Plus One Me about a lot of different things but mainly drumming, teaching college, my outdated studio gear, the economics of drum break records and a SXSW gig gone wrong that changed my entire musical path!
Enjoy.
Here’s about 65% of The Du-Rites live show from our gig with The Skatalites at Brooklyn Bowl last weekend. Enjoy and hopefully we’ll be in your town soon!