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NAMM 2023! A Monumental Success!

I knew NAMM 2023 was going to be a blast and I was right. The contacts I made this year are even more directly correlated to what my intention was for going.

Thursday morning

Thursday at 10am started out with a chance for me to stretch my legs. I decided that I would walk to the show from the apartment and take in the sites of Anaheim. It was about a 2.5 mile walk to get to the convention center. Since I felt like that wasn’t enough walking, I’d go ahead and walk the entire show floor too..

I focused on stopping by as many percussion related booths as possible to see and test new products. In doing so, I stumbled upon a book signing (Immortal Axes: Guitars that Rock) with veteran rock journalist Lonn Friend. I didn’t get the book because I’m a drummer not a guitarist, but I did enjoy listening to them.

Thursday afternoon

Later on Thursday, I was up on the second floor trying to find the music education area. I saw that the next speaker up talking about songwriting and music production was none other than Brandi Carlisle. I stayed in that room for her entire presentation. It was fascinating.

After that it was nearing the end of the first day and I felt like I had a good lay of the land. I headed back to my Airbnb, fully expecting to find my cohort getting settled in at the apartment.

It was 6pm, he still hadn’t arrived, granted he was driving to Anaheim from Sacramento. This is no small endeavor, you need to commit to an all day drive in the best circumstances. Unfortunately his were not the best circumstances.

Apparently, there was major construction and multiple accidents on I5 ( the primary way to drive from Sacramento to Los Angeles.) He didn’t end up getting in until about 11pm after driving (or better stated, sitting on the highway for what amounted to about 13 hours.) Immediately, that confirmed my choice to fly down as truly the best option!

Friday morning

Friday morning I was up but not out early, as I was now feeling the effects of the previous days walking. Once I realized that I wasn’t going to be able to keep up that level of walking, to the show, through the show, and back from the show, it was time to reinstall my Uber app.

Friday was all about playing drums and cymbals and checking out the newest weird drum gear (and there was plenty to choose from.) My favorite was meeting the guys at No Nuts Cymbal Sleeves and seeing a demonstration of their product. I immediately purchased a set after seeing how I could practically apply them to current set up.

At this point Stephen was hanging out in Lounge 88 ( Pianos and Keyboards as far as the eye could see.) It was like he was in heaven, he spent most of the day there.

Friday afternoon

For me Friday was about sitting in on as many seminars as I could, partly so I could get off my feet, but mainly so I could become educated in the ever changing ways of promoting music.

I sat in on a sync licensing seminar that was very informative. Then on a seminar on using Web 3 Blockchain technology (NFT’s) as a way to sell your songs in a more lasting and meaningful way, than a simple MP3. The next seminar was specifically geared towards helping musicians network better with one another.

After three hours of seminars, I walked the show floor again and ran into an old friend whom I had played a few shows with. Jeremiah, was now a rep for the parent company of Dixon drums. Gregg Bissonette (Ringo Starr’s drummer) is endorsed by them and I had a chance to watch him demo the Dixon’s and chat with everyone there.

As Friday was winding down we were trying to figure out who was going to be playing the concerts on the plaza. As it turned out, the headliner was Big Bad Voodoo Daddy! We were front and center for that show and they were great!

Saturday morning

I thought I was hurting on Friday, but Saturday was way worse. Every muscle and bone in my body hurt. I walk pretty regularly but I don’t walk continuously for 8 plus hours everyday! I didn’t back to the show on Saturday until around 11am, but I as ok with that, as I had pretty much seen everything I wanted to see. The highlight on Saturday for me was meeting legendary drummer Bernard Purdy (inventor of The Purdy Shuffle.) He was there, not to perform, but meet, chat and sign autographs. He is a true legend and as humble as anyone could be.

After making one more round on the show floor and checking to see if I’d missed any seminars, I received a request from another who was developing a new App for drummers and drum teachers. We met and he walked me through his ideas and his App, and I was blown away by what he has come up with! It was exactly what I’d been looking for. He and I will be working together going forward to develop curriculum and I’ll be using his app to start charting my song notes.

Saturday afternoon

Lastly on Saturday I attended a seminar on wearable technology using MIDI as it relates to music. Essentially using gestures to create sound rather than instruments, this was very interesting. The highlight on Saturday was listening to Muzz Skillings (of Living Colour) talk about the drive and intensity it takes to do what you want to do as your life goal, and that everything is achievable if you just put your mind to it. I could not agree with him more.

Until next time, remember I am currently accepting new students and you can reach me right here

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AAAAANNND……We’re Back, Sort Of…

Oof, it’s been a minute, or like fourteen months of basically no live music, and that sucked! But thankfully we are back, not necessarily to normal, but closer to normal than we have been in a very long time and I couldn’t be happier about that. 

What have I been doing in my time away from playing live shows? Well let me tell you, I have been making music with all kinds of artists using technology in a way that I never have before. its been completely liberating, because up until now I thought to make good recordings (especially of drums) I had to be able to schedule studio time, hire an Engineer, Move and set up my drums, and watch the clock to make sure I don’t go over budget.

NOT ANYMORE! I can now record every performance I play, right here at home, and for the most part they are studio quality recordings. Many have sound better than some of the early recordings I’ve made. (Maybe it’s time to dust off those recordings and try again? nah I don’t think so, but maybe.)

Beyond that I have been teaching steadily throughout the entire mess we were in, which I am extremely grateful for. I don’t think I would have fared nearly as well, without that. And I developed a way to teach drums over Zoom and FaceTime. I much prefer in person, but my video based students have been and still are awesome! Now I just want to see them play live.

Slowly but surely I am getting back to playing live shows with The Pikeys as well as releasing new collaborations with various artists like I was talking about before. It’s all good, and now I look forward to whatever is coming next…

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Day Twenty-something of the shelter in place order…

This past week has been a long year. Thank god it’s finally Mersday, the umpteenth of Zoomtember. I thought this day would never come. That is not to say that the order has been lifted yet, because as you know it hasn’t and we are starting to go a bit stir crazy, or at least I am. It’s Spring Break 2020 and what a crappy Spring Break it is. It feels an awful lot like the past four weeks to be honest.

The best thing that has come out of this so far is my active approach to embracing virtual drum lessons. For a long time I was not interested in teaching virtually, but this situation has forced my hand and caused me to make some quick decisions. It has also caused me to make purchases that make virtual teaching easier. I’m still working on finding the “perfect” setup (if there is such a thing,) but at least my videos are beginning to look better and are a bit more cohesive, as I go. I posted a while back that I was also encouraging the musicians I work with to put out virtual shows as well and so far I can say that Rayleigh Scattering has released two videos of material hat we’ve played regularly and The Pikeys are working on their first one currently. Theirs is a new traditional Irish song, all Pikey’d up and should be a song that we add to our live sets once we return to the gigging life.

Keep on keeping on, everybody, and if you feel like watching my videos they are all on my YouTube Channel.

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Day 12 of Sacramento’s Shelter in place order.

Starting a couple days ago I floated the idea of Rayleigh Scattering doing a virtual music video for our fans during the Covid 19 crisis. Well now it’s day 12 and the audio and video recordings are both complete and we will be releasing the final product soon. This was an exciting thing to undertake because it required me work without a click track and add drums to a recorded version of Breathe, in doing that I also needed to record the drum track as an isolated sound file, so that it could be mixed in with the other instruments and vocal. After that was complete I needed to take a video of me performing the song (alone in my studio) and send both files back for mixing.

At this point all of that is done and now we await the release of Breathe – Live from a distance, by Rayleigh Scattering.

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How Corona Virus Affected Me, and I’m not even sick.

We are living in unprecedented times, the likes of which I can only compare to the hours and days I experienced after 9/11. Sadly, this is far more widespread and will touch and potentially harm a far larger group of people. However, this will not prevent me from enjoying day to day life. Yes, we all need to make changes to our daily norms, through social distancing, and giving each other the virtual “Fist Pump” or “Elbow Tap” instead of a handshake, a hug, or god forbid a kiss on the cheek, and we are all doing that now out of fear of contracting this virus.

My March (which I have counted on as my most lucrative month of the year) has completely fallen flat. I have lost every gig that I had planned on performing, as well as my Soundman gig at a local church. Since I’m a musician and Soundman, I am a contractor, and we aren’t considered employees of any one company. Thus, I may not be able to partake in the unemployment assistance that is being proposed. Does that concern me, absolutely it does, because I am definitely not alone, there are many, many contractors out there in many different professions. Now, simply because we get our income from multiple sources and not a single employer we may be left out of any proposed benefits from the State and Federal Government. That seems a bit harsh doesn’t it.

This ties directly back to Assembly Bill 5 in California that was passed without any input from the people, because it was said that it was an emergency. What it really was, is a pro union bill that forces companies who hire contractors to stop that practice and hire them as employees. Well that sounds great until you actually look at what types of careers are primarily contract based, and have been for decades. Then all of a sudden, this bill needs a ridiculous number of exceptions written into it which after it’s all said and done makes this an absolute farce. Not an emergency, but a critically huge mistake in how it was written in regard to the affects it’s having on the economy. Had the writer of this bill used even a modicum of logic and common sense before pushing this through, she wouldn’t have to add all these exceptions, and risk potential repeal of the bill. Anything worth having is worth taking the time to do it right.

I am going to close on a positive note highlighting why I’m going to continue to enjoy my day to day life. I needed a push to start teaching private lessons in addition to the lessons I teach at the school, and this is allowing me the opportunity to focus very strongly on that. So please excuse me while I go record my first lesson video. Bye for now, and let’s try to stay positive, healthy, and happy.