City of Stars EP 13

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You're listening to local programming produced in K, u and v studios. The content of this

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program does not reflect the views or opinions of 91.5 Jazz and more the University of Nevada Las Vegas or the Board of Regents of the Nevada System of Higher Education.

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Hey, this is Ruben with the City of Stars podcast. Here I'm interviewing up and coming artists in the Las Vegas music scene. Let's get into today's episode

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Hello, and welcome to the final episode of City of stairs today I am joined once again by

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Addison.

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Wow, he's so like hesitant?

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I don't know, I wasn't ready for the point. Oh, I didn't know I was introducing myself but it's okay. Yeah,

Unknown Speaker 0:56
that's okay. Well, cuz it's okay. Because now we're gonna be talking

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about drumming, I think is a underrated instrument.

Unknown Speaker 1:05
Alright, it's definitely one of the most important instruments in any song theater, I

Unknown Speaker 1:09
don't hear that often I hear vocals, lead guitar. Well, I don't hear a lot of people talking about the importance of the drummer.

Unknown Speaker 1:18
Well, you know, the drummer sets the pace for the entire song. So you know, if you're going a little too fast, a little too slow. You might mess up your vocalists, your guitarists, bases, anything like that. So it's kind of just like the root of every song. And then everyone plays off the drums. And I just started playing them when I was young, because they were loud. And I could piss everyone off with them. And turned into a ton of fun and was in a couple bands through high school, but we sucked. Well,

Unknown Speaker 1:46
let's talk about that. How was a German in the actual band? Um,

Unknown Speaker 1:50
it was cool. My bandmates were the worst. They used to want to always, like have practice at their house. Yeah, always failed to understand the fact that I have to now pack an entire drum kit into the back of my 2002 Nissan Altima to come to your house and practice. So it just became more and more unrealistic. And bands always just broke up. Yeah.

Unknown Speaker 2:15
Do you remember your band names?

Unknown Speaker 2:18
Oh, one of them was far too late. That's pretty cool. I remember the other one. We were a band for a solid like week and a half. Oh my for the most part, my friends would just come over and like, we would like jam and like the basement? Oh, yeah, about it. But ya know, the first one, like everyone pretended to take it seriously for like two months. And then nothing happened after that.

Unknown Speaker 2:41
Did you take it serious? Yeah.

Unknown Speaker 2:43
I mean, like I wrote, like, the drum parts to all the songs that we had written. It was just kind of playing around. But I was like, Oh, this sounds good. This sounds good with what you guys are doing. And

Unknown Speaker 2:54
it was cool, I guess. Yeah, what was the process of writing your own drum part.

Unknown Speaker 2:59
So usually, we would just kind of, whenever we were writing a new song, we would let my friend Nick. He would write his vocals. And then we'd all just kind of play for a little bit, until some kind of like fit the vibe of the lyrics are just like sounded nice together and go from there. Oh, make additional adjustments. Maybe I find my part. But, you know, my friend Mark wouldn't find his own guitar. So he would keep practicing doing different things every time we played until we found something that sounded good. And once we finally got what sounded the best, that'd be the finished product. Yeah.

Unknown Speaker 3:36
What was what was the important component and writing a good drum part.

Unknown Speaker 3:43
I'm not getting too aggressive because we were like a metal band. So I didn't want to be gone like insane the entire time from the very beginning. So just kind of learning how to like keep your composure play something that's smooth, but still sounds nice. And also isn't too aggressive to start the song out, but make sure to like finish with that aggressiveness.

Unknown Speaker 4:07
Yeah. Sounds great. When you were, you know, playing metal music.

Unknown Speaker 4:13
Were there any like bands or artists as you were like, referred to,

Unknown Speaker 4:17
to help you? Um,

Unknown Speaker 4:18
a ton. Well, like that's kind of the music I grew up listening to, like, from sixth grade on I was going to concerts all the time. Even when I was a little kid like my parents have taken me to a lot of like rock shows. So it's just always been something I've loved. And when it comes down to like the biggest influences. I love the Rev. He was the drummer for avenged sevenfold. That guy was insane. I remember I got to see them when I was really young with my dad and the his drum kit was like the width of my house it felt like and I was just It was insane. Watching him just go crazy up there. And then my favorite bands a day to remember. So going to a lot of their shows. I really like. Just that entire scene of like going to metal shows is great. We'll have to go on these days.

Unknown Speaker 5:15
Yeah. Oh, I can't react sounds really fun. So what's the difference between between live drumming? Like studio drumming? I know it sounds different. But

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do you maybe wear like play differently or?

Unknown Speaker 5:28
Well, so pretty much everything you hear these days, there's no real drums at all. Unless it's a live show. I'm even like most metal bands, they're still using electronic drums. Really? Uh huh.

Unknown Speaker 5:41
So what it's just,

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it's easier to mix a master that way than it is to try to record over the drums and hope everything comes out great when you can just do the same sounds on dielectric is, so are you know, just on your computer, it's all making beats making music is pretty much all digital now. Do you like them? Um, as long as it sounds the same, and they are still capable of going and performing it live and giving the exact same effect. I don't see a problem with it. Okay. Um, you know, like, if I go and see a band live though, and they just kind of blow it like, everyone sounds off and just looks like they're not doing this regularly enough, then yeah, there's an issue there. If you're gonna like make music be able to play your music.

Unknown Speaker 6:32
Have you ever gone to shows like The was performance

Unknown Speaker 6:36
QA? Oh, all the time. So whenever you go to a lot of these like metal shows, you're only going to like see like one band you really like and then two or three beforehand are just going to a lot of the opening bands you'll see are just bad. Now why

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do people have like a like a bat opener? Is it like, that's Oh my God? Is there like a reason behind it?

Unknown Speaker 6:57
Um, I've heard a lot of it has to do with just the venue's because if it's like a bigger band is going to play like a smaller venue out here. The venue might just say like, Hey, these are the people who are gonna have you know, depending on how big the band is, also, they can kind of interject and say like, now, we would rather like these people open for us. Bah, bah, bah. But if they just need to, like build places for people to open, yeah, they'll just the venue a lot of time, we'll just pick Hmm.

Unknown Speaker 7:26
Now what was the key you remember a knee like really impressive openers, you remember? You're like, wow, he's actually pretty good.

Unknown Speaker 7:33
Um, it's a local band from out here actually. Called the guilty party. Um, they were really solid live, actually. And we, my friend, Matt, and I ended up like hanging out with them. Like after they performed they came down into like the crowd and we're hanging out for a bit. They were all like super cool guys. We met the guitarist and their drummer in line out front. Before we even went into the concert, and like, we had no idea who they were. But then when they performed, I was like, Wow, you guys are like, really solid. And they're still pretty up and coming out here. Like they only have like a few 1000 followers on social media. But every once in a while I randomly talk to the lead singer now on Instagram. Oh, yeah. Yeah, he was cool. Sounds like a cool guy. Actually. He was cool. He was super cool. He hung out. We had a few drinks. And then like they ended up leaving shortly before like the end of the show. It's awesome. Actually. It was a super fun show. That's for sure. It was at the Fremont Country Club. Well, yeah. Well, I know. It's super nice venue. It's really small. So like, it's super like you were like, right up on the stage. And I got to see a band that the last time I saw it was like Warped Tour when I was like, 13 It's really cool. Pretty cool. You live in there. And then I got to meet that entire band as well. So really, we had beers with them before and after the show. I found that night we actually got locked in the venue. Because we were hanging out with the band and then we went to leave and like they thought all like people had left so like the doors were locked. We had to go find like an employee and have them let us out. Oh,

Unknown Speaker 9:10
dang, you should just left with the band. Well,

Unknown Speaker 9:13
we were going to they were going to some party on the strip, but it was 2am. And we have kids. So yeah, true. So responsible. It was time to get home. Hadn't been up that late in a long time. You're up that way. Oh, it was fun. Going to shows like that. It's always worth staying up late. Oh, yeah. No, it sounds like you. So

Unknown Speaker 9:41
you know, you grew up listening to heavy metal. What is it that you said listen to it, like love it? What is it about that music? Um,

Unknown Speaker 9:50
probably a lot in Estacada I think that nostalgia plays a big part in a lot of our lives and especially like taste in music. Yeah, once you listen to growing up pretty much will always at least still be there. Whether or not you're still like, looking into music as as genre, like those songs will always still be in your head. So, and then I just think, as time has gone on, we've gotten a lot of really, really good different, like, iterations of metal, or just rock in general. And yeah, cool to see where it's all going. Yeah.

Unknown Speaker 10:22
And what kind of journey would you like to get back into? Do you want to get back into like, just heavy metal or

Unknown Speaker 10:32
always play a little bit of everything? Yes, I just sit there and have fun more than anything. Like, once you get used to playing the drums a little bit, you know, what makes what sound so you can kind of just sit there and play around and just be like, Oh, this sounds cool. And then mess with like that. And then do like a little riff off of that and do something else. It's good. Unless you're playing with other people. You can kind of just sit there, do whatever you want through. And if it doesn't sound good, then switch it up. Obviously, you need to be doing something different.

Unknown Speaker 11:03
Yeah. You know. Drumming now, I had a question. I was wondering about it with drumming? How do you play a full set? And not be tired? Like,

Unknown Speaker 11:18
it's exhausting?

Unknown Speaker 11:19
How do you do it is that while you're in good shape,

Unknown Speaker 11:21
um, maybe I guess, but it's, it's exhausting. For sure. It's an entire body workout. I'm gonna like you're using your feet the entire time. You're using your arms the entire time, and you were like flailing. Um, when it comes to doing, you know, just 3045 minutes straight, it's exhausting. You'll be driven in sweat. But there's so much adrenaline that comes with drumming. So that's what keeps you going. Especially when there's like people around you. Like, if you're playing for other people, you just like get like, it's like almost this tunnel vision of I just need to play the music. And then like, you hear people like clap or like cheer. And it's like, super cool. Um, when I was in high school, my dad and I don't know how we went to this little island on I think it's one of the Great Lakes. It's called put in Bay. Um, and it's basically just this big party Island. Like, once you if you take the ferry over there. And once you're there, like everyone only drives golf carts. It's just like bars everywhere, like little like cottages. And my dad's friend had a little like cottage up there. So we would go up all the time. And I was probably like, 16 my dad had, I was just like the DD I was the guy who had to drive him and all of his like drunk ass friends around on a golf cart all day, like, a bunch of different bars. And there was always like two or three other kids like around my age. So we would it would be fun. Like we would have a good time. We would all just like be driving drunk parents around on golf carts. It's a great time when you're 16. Yeah. And of course, you know, beers happened to go missing throughout that. And parents are all wasted. They don't notice that we're also slightly buzzed. Yeah. But we took them to this one bar. And there was a, there was a big stage up at the front. And there's a drumset there. And my dad was just hammered and was like talking to the bartender and mentioned he was like, Yeah, my son here plays the drums. And the bartender was like, oh, god and play.

Unknown Speaker 13:26
I was like, Are you sure?

Unknown Speaker 13:27
She was like, Sure. Yeah, like, go, I have the best time. So I went up there, I sit down. The first thing I realized, though, when I sat down is it was a left handed drum kit, or like it was set up for someone whose left hand. So I was like, okay, that's gonna make this a little bit more challenging. Because instead of like your snare in your hi hat, for me, being on my left side, it was on the right. So I usually play like this. Oh, now I'm having to play like this with like, the opposite hands. And like, that was fine. I played for like a good like, 2030 minutes. And like, everyone was like, just a bunch of like, old people with money in a bar. So they all were like going crazy. They thought it was super cool. They're screaming, I'm like, freaking out. I thought it was awesome. A couple of dudes came up and like put money like, in front of like the drum kit, and I was like, This is awesome. And then eventually, we just kind of left but that one was the greatest time ever in my like drumming careers. I got to play for a bar full of wasted old people. Did you make good money? I mean, like, I think like one dude gave me like five bucks and another guy gave me like 20 but I was pretty good. I said May 25 bucks and got to like, play live music. That's the dream. Hey, they say if you get paid for something, and you're technically a professional, so I can say I'm a professional drummer. Yeah.

Unknown Speaker 14:46
Well, you're a professional because you know what you're doing.

Unknown Speaker 14:47
I don't know about that. Like I could definitely be much better but I still think it's super fun. But Mason, a drum set when he was like Maybe like nine months old. So yeah, yeah, yeah, a little baby drum set. And I will get them another one. I also just bought the wireless drum set sticks thing. So yeah, play with those for sure. Have a blast with those.

Unknown Speaker 15:16
Did he like the drum set when he was?

Unknown Speaker 15:18
He loved it. It was one of his favorite toys. Oh, really? Oh, yeah. Well, he just likes it makes noise in general. So just like you. Oh, yeah. Now he's definitely his father, that's for sure. Almost to the tee. But he didn't get asked for her jumps. She wants one chair. Key, I knew we'd love it because he likes to hit things with other things. She just kind of that little girl just minding her own business and just has the time of her life doing it. You've seen just kind of wanders around smiling. Yeah, she's like, in her own little world, honestly. So I'm like, I don't even know if she would want the drum set. But maybe.

Unknown Speaker 16:01
Now, what do you think is like, bathroom. Or they could ever be such a thing.

Unknown Speaker 16:07
I'm like, if you can't keep rhythm, yeah. Drums are very, very important in like, keeping the entire like, like I said, pace of the song as well as just if you don't have rhythm drums are not for you. And unfortunately, I don't think it's something that can really be taught. You either are capable of holding rhythm or not. I'm sure there's people out there who have taught themselves but yeah, that's, that's a big ask. Cuz I've heard a lot of people, you know, when you have a drum set grown up all your friends when they come over? Want to try playing the drums? Yeah, like, everybody's like, that seems fun. Yeah. And a lot of friends that just kind of so much. And you're just like, oh, okay, now like, maybe try to do something good.

Unknown Speaker 16:59
And that's involving rhythm,

Unknown Speaker 17:01
Oh, 100%. Because you could just bang on a drum set a whole bunch, and it's just not gonna sound good. It's just gonna sound like drum noises. Whereas if you can actually think of like a beat that you want to try to make, kind of differentiate between what drums you're hitting, whether it's, you know, just counting the four is probably like the biggest part of playing the drums. And if you aren't doing that, like the whole time, essentially, you're not going to be able to sound great as well, when you're learning. You know, of course, when you start getting into like, faster, counting the four doesn't help as much, but usually, so like a basic rock beat would be on one through four, you hit your hi hat. So then on one, use your bass drum. So then it's like, it's added on three, you'd hit your snare. So it's 12341234. And then that's just like a basic rock beat. And it sounds great. I tell so many people, like you can make yourself sound like you're good at the drums by just learning how to count. And then you can speed that up a little bit because it's

Unknown Speaker 18:18
and then, you know, maybe do that like a few times, and then just go around all the drums real quick, and then come back to it. Like you can sound like you know what you're doing. But without that rhythm. It's just gonna be BUM BUM BUM BUM BUM BUM BUM. Yeah, it's a jumble. Exactly. So counting for the real big one.

Unknown Speaker 18:36
What was your favorite like, part of the drum? Is it like the snare or the kicks or,

Unknown Speaker 18:43
um, I love my bass drum, because I spent a lot of time learning how to play the double bass. So instead of just having one foot pedal hitting your bass drum, I had two. So they each had their own. And it makes like,

Unknown Speaker 18:57
that's called rolling, right? You'll

Unknown Speaker 18:58
be rolling a little bit. Yeah, rolling is more for like, on the actual like, drums themselves. But like, when I was taking my drum lessons, as a kid, I had a bunch of sheet music that was just for learning how to, like play my snare drum. So it would be you know, like 11231. So I had all my sheet music from just learning how to play on my snare, kind of just learning the difference between like eighth notes, 16th notes, everything like that. And one day I told my drum teacher, I was like, I want to learn how to play the double bass. And he was like, great. So this week, all of that sheet music that you have for your snare drum. Do it with your feet. Wow. And it took me a long time to get good at it. Because being able to match like good rhythm with just your toes is very challenging. Oh I bet and like also like getting my left foot used to hitting the same way my right does cuz my right foot I was very confident with my bass pedal. I had been using that the entire time I'm playing the drum. But my left foot I was only really using when I wanted to tighten my high. So it's a lot less like it's a lot less of this and more just like adding or removing pressure instead of like actually like stuff. So trying to teach this foot to now match this one versus do its own thing was really challenging. But it sounds really cool. So once you learn it, it's awesome. Yeah.

Unknown Speaker 20:33
Did you add like any other like thing to your junket? I see sometimes the airline more symbols or Tom Well,

Unknown Speaker 20:44
so I had a pretty basic kit. I had the two times on top of my base I had a big standing Tom my snare I had I had a ride a crash, and then a cowbell. A little combo love the cowbell. You gotta have a cowbell. It's just necessary. Got a fever. Yeah, needs one Calvin. Like, everyone can agree though, that the cowbell just sounds great. Yeah, it's awesome. And I really also liked my ride cymbal the most I think, because I like a lot of jazz drums. I think jazz drums sound really cool. Just like the very like quiet mellow. Like I just, I know, I'm like more of like a rock music fan. But like when it comes to the drums, just playing jazz drums is so fun.

Unknown Speaker 21:32
I heard it's kind of hard. It

Unknown Speaker 21:33
is. But it's very, it's much more relaxed. So you're kind of just sitting there like having fun, a lot more than like, when you're like just going crazy. Trying to keep up

Unknown Speaker 21:46
with like rock music, metal music. It's very fast paced drums.

Unknown Speaker 21:52
Regardless of like, the aggression level, like it's still like very fast paced. Whereas with jazz, it's a lot of just like, slower, more like melodic, like hitting everything. So you can kind of relax a little bit more. It's just fun. But the most fun is just playing with other people. My gift someone like one of our friends plays guitar. Yeah, just let them play. And then just kind of match the energy that they have.

Unknown Speaker 22:17
Yeah, super fun. We could jam out soon once you get your junk drumsticks. Yes, sir. Me, me, me. Now, when your drumming? Did you get a lot of good or bad criticism? Because, you know, I've seen in bands, people like don't talk to the drummer, or it's out to the drummer a lot. Like, oh, you should be doing this or,

Unknown Speaker 22:44
um, my bandmates. And I we never really like already, or like gave each other too much criticism more. So just be there. Like, that sounds good. Or like that's not it? And we would just kind of just take that as if it sounds good, great. If not, then I'm just gonna switch it up. Yeah, so it wasn't really a lot of, I guess, worry there. Um, I got a lot of friends who tried to give me like, criticism, and then would just be like, wrong. So well, I've been in drum lessons since I was 10. So by the time like, I really started, like playing in front of people was like, probably closer to like the end of middle school, like, high school. So by that time, I'd already been in lessons for like years. So I'm, I people would give me criticism, and I'd be like, Okay, well, like that's not how the instrument works, but alright. Yeah, I appreciate the feedback. Well, definitely send it up to the higher ups and let them get back. But, um, the worst part about having a drum set as a high schooler is the fact that the movie stepbrothers exists. Oh, no, almost every single one of my friends at some point or another has put their back on my drug test.

Unknown Speaker 24:02
I don't know why people do that. There's

Unknown Speaker 24:04
a movie that made that a very popular play and yeah, that's that's just something that if you want to get it yep, we all do. That's just gonna happen. We just got to understand that if you own a drum set and you are between the ages of 14 and 17 Your friends are going to put their nuts on your drumset

Unknown Speaker 24:36
I'm sorry, I don't make

Unknown Speaker 24:38
I don't make the rules. I just adhere to them. And I can say that at least a good six or seven of my friends. violated my poor drumset

Unknown Speaker 24:50
I feel bad for them.

Unknown Speaker 24:52
I feel bad for my drums.

Unknown Speaker 24:56
What did your your parents think about You ticking the drums because it's pretty loud.

Unknown Speaker 25:02
Are they hated it? Oh, yeah, my, my grandma's zone and bought me my drum set. And it was kind of greatest for my birthday. I think it was, yeah was my 10th birthday. And I found a shitty XL drum kit on Craigslist. The guy was selling it for like 200 bucks. I was like, grandpa, this is what I want for my birthday. She was like, oh, okay, like, that's a great idea. I would love for you to like, play an instrument. She decided to not run it by my parents. So we just like went to like the stranger's house. And like loaded a drum set into the back of her like, little sedan. Yeah. And she then was like, alright, well, do you want lessons? Right? And I was like, yeah, so I went on Craigslist again and found a guy for drum lessons. And like, we just should call them and like, had the appointment booked. And then we got to my house. And I just remember, my dad looked furious with my grandma. Because like, obviously, his 10 year old son just now has access to the most noise on the planet. Yeah. But he was like, Alright, whatever. And he was like, as long as he sticks to the lessons and like, only plays within a certain like, timeframe. That's fine. Well, I didn't stick to the lessons, but I did not adhere to the timeframes. Because I would, I would just tell them all the time, you know, like, hey, like, I had my lesson today, I want to, like practice what we're doing today. So I don't lose it. And he'd be like, god dammit, okay, like half an hour. And like two hours later, come downstairs and be like, Alright, you're going to bed.

Unknown Speaker 26:50
So

Unknown Speaker 26:53
they didn't love them. I can say that for sure. And then decent electric drums kids didn't really come out until after I was already like at high school. Oh, really? Well, not at like a price point that I could afford. Like they had them. But I just didn't have them when I was in high school, like,

Unknown Speaker 27:14
so it was just expensive than

Unknown Speaker 27:16
it is driving is a very expensive hobby. Especially if you want to get like a good drum kit. Oh, yeah. I mean, you could be looking at a few $1,000. Like,

Unknown Speaker 27:26
really? Oh, for sure. All day. And so it's like,

Unknown Speaker 27:31
it's not necessarily that easy to get into. I guess. Now there's a lot more options, right? Yeah, you can go buy like a decent electric drum set for two or 300 bucks. And you're solid. Um, I still prefer the actual sounds and feel of like a real drum kit. Eventually, I will probably get another one. I don't know. With like the kids and everything though. I'll just probably share Mason a white one. So that'll make it easy for me. Just be one at the house. Cuz like I said, I took lessons for long enough. I could just print out sheet music and just teaching Yeah, kind of play. Oh,

Unknown Speaker 28:10
Avi Q.

Unknown Speaker 28:15
Learning isn't that hard necessarily from I guess baseline standpoint. Yeah. Like, it's pretty quick to teach somebody how to play the drums, it just all comes down to their ability to actually execute.

Unknown Speaker 28:29
Mm hmm. So it's, it's not that hard to learn for.

Unknown Speaker 28:33
It's really not, it's, it all comes down to your ability to actually do what you need. And like keeping that rhythm, being able to like, make your body move in the way that you need to, you know, like a lot of drum playing is done with your arms crossed. So, if your bottom arm is moving too fast, you're just gonna keep hitting yourself and you're gonna sound horrible. Yeah. So it's, it's a lot of like disciplining your body to actually do what you need it to as well. So the as I said, like at a baseline level, learning the drums isn't that hard or learning to be okay, the drums to be good is a completely different thing that comes with years and years of practice and music theory helps a lot, you know, knowing what sounds good with what what sounds good where. But from just an overall standpoint of if you wanted to sit down at a drum set, and the sound of a sound like you know what you're doing, you've probably learned it in a month. Oh.

Unknown Speaker 29:45
Thanks for listening. Catch us again every Wednesday at 6pm on the rebel nine 1.5 HD two

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