New dates! This is going to be a fun show! See you in September!
For more information/ tickets visit the Same Same But Different Festival website.
Tickets go on sale on May 11th at 11am.
Tour Update!
Greetings from Portland! Tour started on Saturday in LA at The Moroccan Lounge with Veers and Brother, Sister. We had a lot of fun sharing all of the new music with everyone who came to the show and getting to play at a new-ish venue!
We continue the tour tomorrow night at the Doug Fir tomorrow night with Goodnight, Texas. Tickets and details below:
May 9 / Portland, OR / Doug Fir Lounge^
Tickets: http://ticketf.ly/2HG4XZ6
May 10 / Bellingham, WA / The Shakedown^
Tickets: http://bit.ly/2HMxP1Y
May 11 / Seattle, WA / Tractor Tavern^
Tickets: http://bit.ly/FamilyCrest5_11
May 12 / Spokane, WA / The Bartlett^
Tickets: http://ticketf.ly/2peH0kU
May 13 / Eugene, OR / HiFi Music Hall^
Tickets: http://ticketf.ly/2FU9EOo
* w/ Veers
^ w/ Goodnight, Texas
See you there!
High Sierra!
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!
New 2018 Dates!
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.
…
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.
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!
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!
New Music Video/ Record Release Show
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“.
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
It should be fun and stay tuned for updates!!!
Twisted Strings w/ The Family Crest
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!
Tour is Over!
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!
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!
In the mean time check out my Instagram page and my Facebook page!
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
Well… It’s Official
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
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/
(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!
Update!
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!
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!
Thomas Pridgen!
The Mars Volta’s Bedlam in Goliath has some excellent drumming. Thomas Pridgen lays it down on this album. Every track has some really great licks and grooves, but I was especially blown away by the drum fills from the beginning of “Wax Simulacra.”
I searched the internet for a long time to see if anyone had transcribed the fills and I couldn’t find one. Either there were drum covers on YouTube that were adding their own fills on top of the original or they were only close to playing the actual fills but it wasn’t entirely accurate.
So after all of my searching I decided I needed to figure it out, so I slowed it down and transcribed it! I think I’m pretty accurate on the rhythms and the orchestration of the fills.
This transcription is definitely a good exercise for moving around the kit, playing linear patterns, playing at a fast tempo, and inverted paradiddles/alternating between inverts and singles. Plus there is some pretty awesome stuff in here to keep in your arsenal.
(Sorry about that big gap, I couldn’t export the image without the rest of the page.)
Here is a link to the PDF
Enjoy! Feel free to drop a line if you have any questions.