Invisible Material
My other band, Invisible Material, recorded our first EP last night at Freedom Studio in Granada Hills. In this band, I play live drums, which is a new and fun thing for me.
Now you may be thinking, how can Devin be in another band when he already does so much? Ha ha. Well I have to make time for everything in my life but I've always done that so it's nothing new. The thing is, my brother Brandon has been in every band I've ever been in. I love writing and performing with Brandon better than anyone else. He has such a natural sense of music and he's not at all egotistical or possessive of music, and he has worked so hard at it. He taught himself guitar and production and live sound tech type stuff that I have no clue about. Brandon was the brave one who decided we needed to form our first band back when I was in college, and had it not been for him, I don't know if I would have ever made the leap from wanting to be in a band to actually doing it. So, Brandon was in my band Shitting Glitter for over 5 years and was recently kicked out, and unfortunately it was not at all my decision and was for completely personal reasons, having nothing to do with professionalism or the amount and quality of work he had contributed to Shitting Glitter. This was really difficult for me since it was out of my hands, and because I like to try and keep personal issues separate from my music career although I suppose sometimes this is unavoidable. Anyway, Brandon had no choice but to move on and so he started rehearsing with a guy named Robin as the singer/songwriter of Invisible Material and Jasten on bass. So when Brandon told me they had been looking for a drummer I thought, maybe that's something I can do! At the time I hardly ever got to see my brother anymore and I just thought it would be a good way to get to hang out and have some fun.
I liked playing drums for Invisible Material right off the bat, even though I often got frustrated at my lack of skills. However, there was enough promise in my playing that I didn't feel like I was completely worthless. I thought that in time I may even get to be a decent drummer, and I took a few lessons to help me out with some of the basics. Now, I shouldn't make it seem like I'm completely new to drumming. I got a toy drumset when I was a kid and I used to love to pound on that. A few year later, I got an electronic drum pad thing and, in addition to my keyboards, I had a whole little studio set up in my room. I even found this metal pipe that my dad apparently needed for something, but instead I cut it into various lengths, poked holes in the tops of them, and strung them so I would have some chimes!
In junior high, I ended up playing drums in Marching Band since I couldn't march with the Oboe, which was what I normally played. I played the snare drums a few times in parades (if memory serves, I played it in the parade at the Kansas State Fair once), and I played the tri-toms a couple times. They were so heavy!
So, I had at least a little experience with drums but never playing a whole drum kit as part of a rock band. The style of music we play is very much pop rock, very fast and loud, so it's different than anything I've ever done before really.
Last night, we went to the studio to record our first four songs. I was really nervous and hesitant about it because I still feel my drumming is not up to par. We ran through the songs a couple times each with guitar and vocals to record my drums. Once we were happy with my drum tracks on all four songs, we built them up from there, first adding bass, then several guitar tracks, and ultimately vocals. It was really exciting to hear the songs develop at such a rapid pace. We've been playing these songs for about 4 months (since I joined anyway) and this was a whole new way to hear them. They are being mixed today and will be done shortly! I'm very excited to hear the end result.
You can visit my brother's blog (http://buckglitter.blogspot.com) to see some pictures from the session and read more.
Now you may be thinking, how can Devin be in another band when he already does so much? Ha ha. Well I have to make time for everything in my life but I've always done that so it's nothing new. The thing is, my brother Brandon has been in every band I've ever been in. I love writing and performing with Brandon better than anyone else. He has such a natural sense of music and he's not at all egotistical or possessive of music, and he has worked so hard at it. He taught himself guitar and production and live sound tech type stuff that I have no clue about. Brandon was the brave one who decided we needed to form our first band back when I was in college, and had it not been for him, I don't know if I would have ever made the leap from wanting to be in a band to actually doing it. So, Brandon was in my band Shitting Glitter for over 5 years and was recently kicked out, and unfortunately it was not at all my decision and was for completely personal reasons, having nothing to do with professionalism or the amount and quality of work he had contributed to Shitting Glitter. This was really difficult for me since it was out of my hands, and because I like to try and keep personal issues separate from my music career although I suppose sometimes this is unavoidable. Anyway, Brandon had no choice but to move on and so he started rehearsing with a guy named Robin as the singer/songwriter of Invisible Material and Jasten on bass. So when Brandon told me they had been looking for a drummer I thought, maybe that's something I can do! At the time I hardly ever got to see my brother anymore and I just thought it would be a good way to get to hang out and have some fun.
I liked playing drums for Invisible Material right off the bat, even though I often got frustrated at my lack of skills. However, there was enough promise in my playing that I didn't feel like I was completely worthless. I thought that in time I may even get to be a decent drummer, and I took a few lessons to help me out with some of the basics. Now, I shouldn't make it seem like I'm completely new to drumming. I got a toy drumset when I was a kid and I used to love to pound on that. A few year later, I got an electronic drum pad thing and, in addition to my keyboards, I had a whole little studio set up in my room. I even found this metal pipe that my dad apparently needed for something, but instead I cut it into various lengths, poked holes in the tops of them, and strung them so I would have some chimes!
In junior high, I ended up playing drums in Marching Band since I couldn't march with the Oboe, which was what I normally played. I played the snare drums a few times in parades (if memory serves, I played it in the parade at the Kansas State Fair once), and I played the tri-toms a couple times. They were so heavy!
So, I had at least a little experience with drums but never playing a whole drum kit as part of a rock band. The style of music we play is very much pop rock, very fast and loud, so it's different than anything I've ever done before really.
Last night, we went to the studio to record our first four songs. I was really nervous and hesitant about it because I still feel my drumming is not up to par. We ran through the songs a couple times each with guitar and vocals to record my drums. Once we were happy with my drum tracks on all four songs, we built them up from there, first adding bass, then several guitar tracks, and ultimately vocals. It was really exciting to hear the songs develop at such a rapid pace. We've been playing these songs for about 4 months (since I joined anyway) and this was a whole new way to hear them. They are being mixed today and will be done shortly! I'm very excited to hear the end result.
You can visit my brother's blog (http://buckglitter.blogspot.com) to see some pictures from the session and read more.
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