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New show announced! I will be playing at the High Sierra Festival in Quincy, CA with The Family Crest. We will be playing on Saturday the 7th, the second to last day of the 4 day festival – I’ll post more when I get more information.

I had not heard of this festival until a couple years ago when a co-worker (who is really into Bluegrass music) mentioned he was going. Upon some research, not only are there concerts during the dates of the festival, but there are also masterclasses and jams with some of the musicians who are playing at the festival too! The lineup for the festival is pretty sweet too – I’m excited to see some shows while I am up there!

It should be a fun time, bring your camping gear, sunblock, and your ears – we’re going to rock the forest!

I will be doing a short mini tour with The Family Crest in May!  We will be playing up in the Pacific Northwest in Washington and Oregon.

The Family Crest will also be playing at the Great American Music Hall on April 12th with Godnight, Texas for the release for The War: Act 1.

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I was also in Austin, Texas last week for SXSW subbing in with the Super Soul Bros for my good friend Chris Haman.  We played the kick off party for the SXSW Gaming Expo as well as in a booth in the vendor hall of 2 days!  It was a lot of fun – those dudes are always a blast to play with.

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I also got experiment with an electronic set up in the vendor hall as well.  We had to keep the music under a certain amount of decibels so I was told to bring some electric drum pads!

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These Roland SPD-SX are pretty amazing little devices.

In the photo above we have the following Roland pads:

Roland SPD-SX

Roland BT-1 

Roland KD-7 

I was able to build a kit with samples from the directory sample files in Apple Logic (snare drums, tom- toms, and bass drums) and then I built some samples from YouTube videos of Zildjian K Special Dry cymbals and put those into the sample pad as well.  The KD-7 is definitely what made this kit way more comfortable to play.  I was a little skeptical about it due to the inverted kick beater, but it felt like a normal kick pedal!  If you are looking for a kick pad that is easy to transport I highly reccomend this one!

 

The Family Crest has been quite busy as of late!  We will be playing a show to celebrate the release of the new record called “The War: Act 1” on April 12 at the Great American Music Hall in San Francisco.  The show will feature new music from the record and we will be supported by a wonderful band called Goodnight, Texas.  Click the link to find out more information about The Family Crest and Goodnight, Texas!

Here is a link to the Facebook Event

Here is a link to buy tickets for the show!

Also there is a new music video that was released via Adhoc for the new single “Never Gonna Stop“.

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This video was filmed and directed by good friend of the band Keith Lancaster.  Keith is a wonderful and talented cinematographer.  You can find more information about his work at his website: www.siignal.com

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It should be fun and stay tuned for updates!!!

 

At the end of January I am going to heading down to Florida with The Family Crest for a music festival called Twisted Strings.  The festival is held in Fort Myers and will host a bunch of other bands that feature stringed instruments!

From their site:

“The annual, outdoor festival brings together classically trained musicians who fuse their years of musical training on stringed (and other) instruments with the sounds of jazz, blues, soul, rock, hip hop and world music.”

If you happen to find yourself in Florida you should come check out the show.  The festival in on 1/27/18 and we go on at 8:15pm on the main stage!

http://twistedstrings.org/

I’ve been back for about a week now from tour!  We had a great time with The Dear Hunter and Vavá.  Both groups are very talented and really put on a good show!

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We played a ton of great rooms and met a lot of really nice people.  Once I get finished going through all of my GoPro footage I’ll post a video here!

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In the mean time check out my Instagram page and my Facebook page!

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Now for all of the gearheads…

This is the set up I used during the tour.  Nothing fancy here.

For all the drum nerds out there here is the set up:

Drums (Big to small):

The bass drum and the toms are Keller maple shells with a 45° bearing edge and no reinforcement rings.  The rack toms and floor tom are suspended via Gauger Rims and Pearl Air-Suspension floor tom legs.

16×20 8-ply Bass Drum

14×14 6-ply Floor Tom

8×12 6-ply Rack Tom

8×10 6-ply Rack Tom

6.5×14 Ludwig Acrolite Snare or Ludwig Black Beauty

Drumheads:

Toms – Batter: Remo Coated Ambassador

Resonant: Remo Clear Ambassador

Bass Drum – Batter: Evans Clear EMAD1

Resonant: Evans Coated EQ3

Snare Drum – Batter: Remo Coated Powerstroke 3

Snare Side: Remo Ambassador Hazy Snare Side

Ludwig 20-Strand Chrome Plated Wires

Gibraltar Tone Control Muffler

Cymbals (Left to right):

All Cymbals are Zildjian A Series

14″ New Beat Hi-Hats

18″ Thin Crash

21″ Sweet Ride

19″ Thin Crash

Electronics:

Roland SPD-SX

Roland RT-10S

Roland RT-10K

Roland BT-1

Percussion:

LP Mambo Bell

Hardware:

DW 6000 Series straight cymbal stands

Gibraltar Lightweight Snare Stand

Canopus Lightweight Hi-Hat Stand w/ Remo Quick Lock Hi-Hat Clutch

Yamaha FP-7210A Bass Drum Pedal w/ DW Bass Drum Beater

Pearl Roadster Round Throne

I have been working with The Family Crest since March of this year and I did a national tour with them during the summer with Family and Friends from Athens, Georgia and Trevor Sensor from Sterling, Illinois.  I was filling in for their drummer Charlie Giesige who had just left the band.  When we got back to the SF Bay Area, I did a string of one off dates with them at the Google campus in Mountain View, Apple, and the Ottawa City Folk Festival up in Canada – opening for Jack Johnson and Nathaniel Rateliff & The Night Sweats.  Then this past weekend I got to be a part of the new music video that they are filming for their upcoming album release entitled “The War”.

Here are some photos/videos from Ottawa City Folk Festival

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https://www.instagram.com/p/BZCjP3-gig4/?tagged=thefamilycrestband

But having done all of this as a freelancer/honorary member of the band – or an “extended family” member – they recently asked me to join the band.  So now I am an official member of The Family Crest!  I am looking forward to building and growing with them artistically and musically.  This band is a pleasure to play with, travel with, and work with.  They all work exceedingly hard and are all world class musicians.  Keep an eye for new stuff related to this group and look for them on the various social media platforms!

https://www.instagram.com/thefamilycrest/

Tweets by TheFamilyCrest

(I had no idea a twitter link would post like that lol)

https://www.facebook.com/thefamilycrest

https://www.youtube.com/thefamilycrest

Here is to a beginning of a new era! #yee

Also don’t forget to check out the support tour with The Dear Hunter!

My blog section has been a bit quiet since 2012.  This ends now!

Here is a quick update from 2013 to now:

I have been keeping busy playing locally and nationally with different groups. I’ve been freelancing, doing sub work for bands like the Super Soul Bros or the Family Crest, playing Italian Opera, jazz, funk, R&B, taking lessons with wonderful teachers, practicing, and the occasional recording session.

 

Pasquale Esposito

From late 2013-2016 I played with an Italian Opera singer named Pasquale Esposito.  We played all around the Bay Area and did a national tour in support for his PBS Special Caruso: The Voice of a Legend in 2015-2016.  His music even brought us down to Peru for the Vida Peru Benefit concert in 2016!

Home

The Bad Ones

In 2016 I got to record with my friends the Bad Ones at 25th Street Recording in Oakland.  We successfully ran a Indie-Go-Go campaign to raise a little bit above 10K to record, produce, and release a full length album.  The album was released by First Orbit Sounds Music in 2016.

http://the-bad-ones.com/

http://www.firstorbitsounds.com/home.php

http://25thstreetrecording.com/

The band continues to play around the Bay Area, primarily in the the South Bay.

The Family Crest

I filled in for a headlining tour with The Family Crest summer of 2017.  This band is wonderful to play with and full of very talented musicians.  We were out for about 5 weeks (24 shows) touring the southern , eastern, mid-western, and western parts United States with Family and Friends from Athens, Georgia and Trevor Sensor from Chicago, Illinois.  You can find more information about all of these bands at their website:

http://www.thefamilycrestfamily.com/

http://familyandfriendsband.com/

http://www.trevorsensor.com/

Here is a link to a feature we had on the Paste Magazine website.  This is an show that we did a Paste headquarters in NYC and a photo feature when we were in Portland.

https://www.pastemagazine.com/articles/2017/06/photos-a-day-in-the-life-of-the-family-crest.html

Still learning!

I also took lessons with Tommy Igoe for about a year and a half.  Definitely taught me a lot about drumming and life.  We discussed linear drumming, jazz drumming, rudiments, hand technique, and much more.  If anyone is looking a world class teacher that will challenge every piece of you existence send an email to this guy!

http://www.tommyigoe.com/

Be on the look out for more dates!