Moondog Sessions

It was a bit of a change of pace for me this weekend.  I spent Saturday and Sunday in a recording studio with a group of friends recording a few new tracks and overdubbing some things we recorded last year.  It was a lot of fun and a great time was had by all.

Moondog Studios, Alameda, CA

This is my drum kit.  My dad paid fifty bucks for it when I was twelve.  He bought me the high hat in high school for two hundred dollars and I paid one hundred dollars for the ride cymbal in high school and two hundred for the crash cymbal and stand in college.  That makes the total cost about $450 not counting sticks and heads.  That's a pretty good investment if you ask me.

The drums used to have a sparkly red plastic coating on the outside.  I stripped that all off the let them ring more.  Most drummers don't like that.  They tape the heads and do everything they can think of to dull the sound to a thud.  That's not my style.  I want the snare cracking, the high tom ringing and the floor tom to boom like a cannon.  That's pretty much what these drums do.  The drummers I like the best have a tone that's instantly recognizable.  Their kit sounds like no one else's.  Stewart Copeland.  Max Roach.  Ringo Starr.  Those are my guys.  I've borrowed from each of them but I don't think I sound like any of them.  I'm certainly not in their league.  I sound like me, though, and that's usually a good thing.

Moondog Studios, Alameda, CA

I'm not to go too much into the other members of the "band."  They have their own stories to tell, I'll let them tell their own.  Suffice it to say it was a great weekend with these guys again.  Every time we get together it becomes one of those milestones in my life from which all things either precede or follow.

Moondog Studios, Alameda, CA

Moondog Studios, Alameda, CA

Moondog Studios, Alameda, CA

Moondog Studios, Alameda, CA