Studio Preperation

A few weeks ago I was handed a cd with 9 new songs on it (mostly just guitar, piano and vocals) and was told to 'dream big' for an upcoming studio project. This is an exciting and overwhelming task, a blank canvas so to speak, and I've put a lot of thought into what I'm going to fill it with. I thought this was a great opportunity to share how I've been working and to take some of your ideas if you'd like to share. This isn't a band setting where we've been writing and practicing together for months in preparation for the studio, but many of the same principles apply.

Naturally, my first step was to listen. Not to listen and tap along with the first thing that crossed my mind, but just to absorb the songs and hear what they have to say without the drums. That should undoubtedly affect what I do with my instrument and I think as drummers we often want to skip this step. I was lucky enough on this project to have been given a second disc of fully produced and released tunes by other artists that are in the same sonic realm of the vision for this record. My second step was to listen to and play through these tunes. I learned some of the rhythms and studied a few of the tunes that I liked and that I wasn't up to speed with. This got me in the right mode and mindset to play through the new tunes for the first time and was an incredibly helpful step.

From here I picked up the new tunes and played through them. I tried not to over think and to just play what I heard and keep in touch with the vibe I picked up from the 'example' tunes. I was surprised at some of the stuff I played. Some of it was exciting and some of it didn't work and at this point that's fine. I rolled through them a couple times and tried not to repeat much. I wanted to try out several different things and take in what happened with the tunes with the different parts I was playing, and make some mental notes about those observations.

Another important step was to go back through a couple previous records by the artist I'm playing for. Some of my friends and guys I really respect have played on them and I want to achieve some degree of consistency across records. I'll undoubtedly put my fingerprints on this thing, but channeling some momentum is rarely a bad thing. I also took the time out to put up a mic and record myself playing with the tunes. When I listen back I always hear things that I love and want to hang onto and, conversely, things that don't work that I didn't realize I was doing. It's much better to notice those things on a cheap one take recording than on the finished album!

The last thing, and perhaps this is the most important of them all, is to come up with several different parts for the tunes and understand where they take the song. The feel will undoubtedly change with the different players in the studio so if I go in to practice with the rest of the band with my parts all figured out, something is not going to work. It's not about me and the coolest drum parts, it's about songs and it's about working together to make something great.