| Some of the more common questions asked... q: How are all the guitar sounds
heard on the Overcurve recordings derived? What amps,
guitars, etc?
a: It's the result of using different amp tones and guitars
on just about every song. Most electric guitar work is
tracked through Line6 POD's or amps. In some cases I'll use one sound and two different guitars to thicken the track and
give it a little extra. I'm a fan of doubling
guitars and having a nice stereo image but I don't necessarily
have a formula - most of the time the tone is whatever fits the
song and what I hear in my head. -jd
q: I understand that you played everything on your solo CD.
Is there a reason why you didn't involve others in the
recording?
a: I never intended Soul Divided to be a 100% vanity recording
but the fact is that the way I write often leads to a fully
recorded song. I work up the arrangements as I write and
rarely do guide tracks that I throw away - in other words, many
times when I track parts, I intend them to be "keepers".
When we started work on Tilt, I held out a number of songs we
had played together previously live and in rehearsals only because the production and recording of
them had reached a state that was so close to finished I couldn't see throwing away
the work just to replace it with other performances.
I figured we'd just do another batch of songs and that's what we
did. All the stuff I had already recorded ended up on Soul
Divided with one exception - the song Longer is on both CD's.
The summary is that Soul Divided came about because of my
writing method and often my over-eagerness to translate the
parts I hear in my head to tracks quickly during the excitement
of creation and improvisation. -jd
q: How long have you been playing drums and what kind of kits
do you use (or have you played)?
a: I've been playing drums for over 30 years
and in that time I've had about 5 drum kits. My first
kit was a 4-piece sparkle-blue Stewart set that my parents
bought for me from my first drum teacher for $80. I ended
up selling it to my high school band department for $100 :) when I
bought my first kit - a CB700 5-piece. I eventually got a Pearl Export 5-piece, added Roto-toms and then
blended some of the CB kit into it for a double-bass monster
that I used for a number of years. Eventually I sold that
kit and found a used Tama 5-piece that was used on all the
Dart recordings. I also built out a MIDI-trigger kit that
was used for some of the songs on the first Overcurve CD.
After I parted with the Tama I picked up another
Tama kit - a black 7-piece Imperial Star that I used on a lot of
the
Overcurve recordings. That's also the kit heard on Julia's CD
and on most of the Tilt tracks. I never took it out live -
it was setup for recording entirely and mic'd to the hilt.
I parted with the Imperial Star in mid-2005 and got my dream kit - a Tama Starclassic
9-piece. It remains as my current kit and is also setup
for recording. It appeared on a few Tilt tracks and a lot
of Soul Divided and it's what
you'll be hearing from now on . I should also mention that
I use all Zildjian cymbals and several of those have been with
me since that CB700 kit... Good tone can last a lifetime.
-jd
q: Any advice for someone who wants to play all the
instruments?
a: Yes! Don't! (Just kidding.) Seriously, I
went down that road more out of necessity and the
frantic pace I work at when I get "in the zone" of
writing and creating. It's
not an inexpensive venture and although I
love approaching each part in the mindset of that instrument, no
one survives in a vacuum. Collaborating is still one
of the most rewarding things but for me, when no one else
happens to be around, I have enough instruments and abilities on
them that I
can find one that will suit just about any mood I happen to be
in. It has also provided me with a lot of diversity in my
writing - songs may start with a rhythm pattern, bass line,
piano part, acoustic guitar or electric guitar. It's nice
to have options. You might be close to the mark if you say
that I have MIADS (Musical Instrument Attention Deficit
Syndrome) :-) -jd |