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By Chris Gorczyca
Preface
I’ve done this kind of commentary for Yogi before. We’ve played in other musical situations where recorded work was the outcome and he has some of our reflections contained elsewhere on his site. I have to say that I feel this CD, Any Raw Flesh? is an important turning point for him and his music. I can only offer my opinion about this work, but as far as the things we've done together musically, it is our best recording to date. My drums have never sounded better – and I have played with a number of other artists in different studios around Seattle. The sheer power of the music, as well as its creative flair, offers something different for people who appreciate music that takes chances. It was a privilege for me to be invited to play on this CD and to be introduced to Yogi’s team of professionals including Bryan Beller (bass) and Darin DiPietro (recording engineer). I think there is some enduring music here, and I know he’s just getting started.
I tend to describe my thoughts about individual songs in musician’s terms, never straying too far from the technical issues of Drumland. You’ll have to forgive my one-track mind for that limitation. I might sneak in a comment about the weather or some Zen stuff, but for the most part we’ll be discussing triplets and practice routines.
I Have A Very Bad Feeling About This
Despite how relatively short this piece of music is, I find it to be one of my favorites. The groove doesn’t take long to establish itself with heavy bass and drums commanding the instrumentation of the intro section. This ends with Yogi’s trademark penchant for odd-note groupings. He chose to throw in a pair of 5:2 groups in a bar of 4/4. I had to practice that for some time to get it feeling right. As the song opens up with the accompaniment of the guitars and keyboard sequences, we’re well on our way. Now any fan of a certain science fiction cinematic masterpiece will understand the inspiration behind the lyrics that follow. I’ll leave that to the imagination. There’s a dramatic tempo change carrying us into the last part of the song. Another practice point was the quarter note triplets alternating with the dotted eighth/sixteenth/eighth rest/eighth note combination. They’re very similar, in fact I played one of the quarter note triplets as the dotted eighth figure, but we agreed that it still worked for the feel. Little details that make for some cool moments.
My Love For Lois Is Real
Those of you who have been keeping up with Yogi’s musical adventures in Seattle may be familiar with this tune, I know I am. This is our third recording of this song over a span of seven years. I feel it is the best version, not only for the production quality but also the way the musical ideas settled into very definite parts. The different sections have their own individual characteristics, from straight ahead rock beats pounding out the groove to an intricate breakdown/solo section. This is one of the songs that Yogi considers to be the accessible “hit” and many people who have heard it latch onto it as the catchy rock tune. I’m glad to see that after all the history associated with it "Lois" finally has a place on a fully packaged CD recording.
There Is No More Evil In This World
I believe this is the first track that we recorded for the CD (laying down the drums that is). It was in February 1999. I had been practicing the first three selections that I received from Yogi the previous August or September. I consider this time period as part of my "Three Important Years, 1997-1999." I was practicing like a madman, and Yogi’s material was great for my woodshedding. The process was a religious routine for me. I had a studio in Seattle where I could bang away on real drums for hours at a time and get some very positive results. After a year or so of that I could really feel the growth. As I worked through the fall of 1998 on the songs, "There Is No More Evil In This World" (Yogi is the king of long song titles) became my obsession piece. It is a deceptively simple straight 4/4 time-keeping part until you get to the bridge section that accents every fourth sixteenth note in each bar. That was Yogi’s original drum machine idea. I loved it immediately and we put in some splash cymbal fills, hi-hat rolls, and driving China-type cymbal accents near the end. That bridge/chorus section is my favorite piece of drumming on the CD.
Strange Ways
Originally, this song was recorded at Cydonia Sound (along with "Lois" and "Firefly"). Although Yogi was initially satisfied with those original tracks, it became apparent that Darin was getting a little more presence in the drum tracks, so Yogi made the decision to re-record the three tracks. I put together a tape of my previously recorded versions along with the original sequencer tracks and set to work. My appreciation for Darin’s production technique is heightened by his non-standard approach of “Preserving The Tom-Toms.” This song’s time-keeping rhythmic base is nearly all tom-toms, and many engineers have the “kick-snare” syndrome going on. Tom-toms are very often toned down in the drum mix. Not so with "Strange Ways". So all of you drummers out there, buy drum kits with tom-toms aplenty and record with Darin.
Firefly
As with "Strange Ways", this Darin version has much more impact from the drumming production end. I tried to remain faithful to Yogi’s original programmed drum part because it was a great track with appropriate ideas, and it presented difficult challenges. I guess I am drawn to solving problems of a technical nature when practicing a drum part. I like the feeling of satisfaction when I can say, “I did it!” Of course, that’s never easy. The independence involved in the interlude between the first two verses at 1:04 is a good example. I still think I could have played it better, but this version is far better than my attempts at Cydonia sound. The part is subtle. It’s basically blending side stick/ride cymbal/tom-tom/bass drum/hi-hat in a true four-way independence pattern. Since it’s not a very loud or aggressive part and only lasts for four bars, it can go unnoticed. When it is written out you can see how it pulls your limbs in different directions.
Throw Me A Bone
This song was a part of the first CD sessions in February 1999. More of a heavy rock workout, I concentrated on keeping the groove solid and hard. It was so hard that I broke a bottom snare head during one of the takes, a very rare occurrence for me. I never hit the drums very hard until I came to Seattle. We all heard the pitch of the snare change drastically and Darin immediately had me check the tuning. The head was just hanging off the bottom of the drum. Well, it is hard rock after all… Yogi is the first to point out that this tune reminds us of King’s X, and Bryan Beller said simply, “I get it,” when he heard it. I’ve heard people singing along to the end section with the full harmonies. It’s great. Darin made use of his room mics method to get the heavy rock drum sound. There are plenty of cymbal punctuations here – and they aren’t buried in the mix. I think Yogi is a real fan of “in your face” drums, which is why I like working on his stuff so much.
Truth
"Truth" is another creation of Yogi’s with a long history behind it. It will be eight years old this November. It’s a fantastic song and I’ve written about it before. There must be at least two or three recorded versions of it, ranging from Yogi’s original four-track demo to this latest big sounding monster. For me, it’s generally tough to revisit a piece of music that was previously recorded. I suppose there’s some pressure to duplicate the good stuff and improve upon the not-so-good stuff. Sometimes it works, and sometimes… The results of this latest take are the best; once again for many of the same reasons the "Lois" recreation worked. The song was still difficult even though I know it so well. Yogi likes to have end-of-the-world (as he calls them) drum fills near his end sections. “Just go off” is usually the only instruction I receive for these endings. I must confess that I’m more of a planner – almost every fill is written out. Well, not that extreme, but almost! When I have to play what is almost an improvised solo spot, it’s very easy to tear into the same licks. I think Darin and Yogi provided some ideas to keep this track from falling into that pattern. There’s some stretching here, but it never gets too far “out”.
You Fell
When Yogi and I played in a grunge rock cover band a few years ago, I got a lot of practice in bashing away on the kit, a la Dave Grohl. We used that riding on crash cymbals approach to open this song. Then it drops down into an offbeat ride cymbal groove that is almost dead on in its resemblance to the Rush song "Animate." I guess you can’t escape your influences. This song has so many different feels. The verse slows into a half-time eeriness, with the synth patches adding the ride pattern textures. That’s not my hi-hat; I’m just playing kick and snare (an engineer’s dream). I was at a loss for ideas in the “talk to Joan” section. Yogi suggested some floating random hits, no groove at all. Consequently, my part is rather sparse through that section. The ending was pure experimentation in the studio. Darin went for the sixties engineering techniques. We pulled the front head off of the bass drum and used no muffling. We also tuned down my wood shell snare (I think, that would be its only appearance on the CD, the free-floating piccolo did most of the work). These changes provided a big, floppy open sound from the whole drum kit. Darin even did the hard panning reminiscent of the Beatles recordings. It sounds like a different song.
What Have We Here
This is undoubtedly the slowest song I have ever played. I’m sure I wouldn’t have been able to do it if I hadn’t spent all those hours practicing to the original sequences. The hard part was just playing the kick and snare with nothing else, and then adding a little ride cymbal – all of these being set patterns. In the end, everything came together with the other instruments. During the playback of the lone drum tracks, we could have taken a coffee break between the backbeats. I like this one. It’s another example of a real drummer playing pre-programmed drum machine parts. Yogi did such a fine job of creating grooves and ideas that I just wanted to nail his track. He always does unconventional stuff, but nothing that isn’t possible with two hands and two feet. It’s not always easy to do with said appendages, so I practice and practice. The groove ideas on the chorus incorporate tom-toms along with the conventional voices and that was enough to keep tearing me apart when the chorus kicked in, let alone trying to fill in the spaces (what spaces?). It’s a contrast to the coffee breaks of the beginning.
Bryan does some incredible bass work in the ending section of the tune. The sliding notes are the best! One of my favorite memories of this recording was when Yogi and I drove home after this day’s session, our first with Darin DiPietro. We couldn’t believe how strong and clear the tom-toms were. We smiled.
The Imperial March
We all love John Williams, and we love Star Wars just as much. Yogi threw in this little piece of homage to both and we gave it a harder edge to be sure. I wonder what Mr. Williams would think of the slushy hi-hat and distorted guitars. I know he wasn’t too thrilled about his son joining Toto, and this is definitely more grinding than a Toto song. No worries. It was fun – and not short on technical stuff either. Okay, final analysis for technique nuts: The sixteenth note triplets that define most of the rhythmic statements have a twist on some passages. Sometimes, the final note of the triplet is played on the bell of the ride cymbal and the snare simultaneously. Normally the hands alternate producing this sticking – R-L-R-L-R-L. Now for this figure it goes R-L-R-L-R-R/L. This is hard, even at this medium tempo. Jerry Gaskill of King’s X does it too. Try it!
Wow, that was a lot of typing. I don’t type very well. I need to learn to type faster. See, for some words, you have to hold down the shift key at the same time you type a letter. That’s hard, even at my typing tempo… Thanks Yogi!
Chris Gorczyca
2/23/01
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