I have had the great pleasure of spending the last several weeks recording drums with my longtime friend and excellent drummer Matthew Tobias over at Empty House Studio. Perhaps the name was originally accurate, but it’s not so much now:

Anyway, I’m even more excited about the project after getting Matt’s tasty drumming goodness all over my songs. We ended up doing 18 songs of drum tracks, which leaves a few for drummers on the road, but mostly covers it.

“Why do drums in Omaha?” whines a nearby naysayer. “Doesn’t recording stuff locally conflict with your vision of a roadtrip album?” With that naysayer I must patiently disagree. These are intended to be Pan-US albums. Last I checked, Omaha is in the US. Also, this is Matthew Tobias we’re talking about here. I’m quite familiar with his playing and trust him to play what the song wants. He handled the odd meters and other craziness with aplomb, as I knew he would.

The main reason I did drums first is so everyone else that I record will have a solid foundation to build on. Matt’s drumming has a way of making rhythms persistent and alive in a way that no loop or click could possibly produce. So, it will theoretically be much easier for all the other players to add their parts now, as opposed to recording to a loop or a click.

“Well, okay,” says the converted naysayer (now yaysayer). “Tell me more about this ‘Matt.'” I’ve known Matt for quite a long time — I was always pleased when he would play at our church with some band or another, then later we played in church bands together for probably several years. Matt played drums for my performance prep* concert up at NCU, and through the years has been a consistent influence on me with his professionalism and thoughtful playing. It is inspiring the level of detail he brings to drumming. From time to time I would get some drum lessons from him.

Matt was very easy to work with. You don’t have to tell him anything twice. He is adept at building songs and devising consistent and interesting drum parts. Of course I already knew this going in, but they say in recording you’re only as good as your last project. Well Matt, breathe a sigh of relief: this project = also good. The bar has not been lowered.

I only wish I could work with musicians like Matt all the time. But, it’s also good for people to have something to aspire to. With that, I leave you with an action shot of Matt VIGOROUSLY MIXING:

* Performance Preparation is a two-semester class, at the end of which every student is responsible for producing and performing a half-hour concert.