Hot Tub Sessions Vol. I

/

Last week, Brass Queens released our newest album, Hot Tub Sessions Vol. I, a collection of all-original music. We recorded it over two sessions at Atlantic Records with engineer Joseph Pomarico with mixing by Ian Kagey at Renaissance Recording.

Stream the record below or wherever you get your music. If you like what you hear, please consider buying the album, available on CD and vinyl here (it takes 230 streams for an artist to make $1 on Spotify).

Here are some pics and a video from the Atlantic Sessions:

arriving at atlantc

the dw house kit

me with the greatest to ever do it, mr. john bonham

Kaatsbaan

/

THe begginings of my setup

I just returned from a 4-day artist retreat at Kaatsbaan Cultural Park, a 153-acre artist sanctuary in Upstate New York. I had somehow never heard of this magical place until I was asked to collaborate on a new work there with Suzzanne Ponomarenko Dance.

Morning commute

The property is stunning and reminiscent of one of my favorite places, Storm King, with its rolling hills and sculptures scattered throughout the property. We spent our days in a gorgeous studio (with windows!) and our nights relaxing — one evening we watched Center Stage together. Everyone should have the opportunity to watch a dance movie with a group of actual dancers!

View from artist housing

Other than playing a few ballets and drumming for dance classes, I’ve never developed a dance piece before. It was a really interesting process: I was essentially watching the five dancers and trying to find music that complimented their movements. Alongside pianist/bassist Meghan Rose, we found moments for musical meditations and grooves both joyous and dark.

gotta stay caffeinated

The full piece will be presented at Triskelion Arts in Brooklyn on May 3 & 4. Maybe I’ll see you there!

Artist housing at night. for sure haunted.

Workshop Season

/

It’s officially summertime, which means workshop season is upon us! Earlier this month, I worked on a new musical adaptation of the play/film Prelude to a Kiss, which will receive its premiere at South Coast Repertory in Costa Mesa in spring 2024. I was brought on to the project by Wiley DeWeese who was the music director of The Lightning Thief. Along with guitarist Mike Rosengarten, we worked closely with composer Dan Messé to bring his vision to life. Here are some setup shots of the drums in the beautiful Baryshnikov Arts Center, as well as a view from the rehearsal room during the surreal smoke situation from the Canadian wildfires.:

Next up was a workshop in Washington, DC of My Joy Is Heavy, a new show by Shaun and Abigail Bengson, commissioned by Arena Stage. The Bengsons are some of the most talented people I’ve ever met, so I will gladly do anything they ask of me! It was also a dream come to work with Tony Award-winning director Rachel Chavkin, who I found out is a fellow Marylander! Speaking of Maryland, I was able to meet up with a few percussion friends as well as my two eldest nephews while I was in town. It was a treat! Apparently I did not take any pictures of my setup (drum set + SPD), but here is a photo of the program that was handed out during our two presentations:

Now I’m off for a week of work at Berklee Powerstation with my friend Julianne Merrill, followed by a much needed trip to the Hamptons for July 4. Until next time!

Hound Dog

/

For the last few weeks I’ve been working on a brand new play presented by Ars Nova: Hound Dog. We are currently in previews and open this coming Saturday. Here’s the official blurb:

In Melis Aker’s world premiere play HOUND DOG, a young musician returns from abroad to her hometown of Ankara, Turkey to look after her widowed father. Forced to reckon with the family and community she left behind, an investigation into her grieving parent’s strange pilgrimage to Graceland unravels into a sonic mirage of memory packed with humor, nostalgia and the love we cultivate across generations.

I’ve made a lot of new friends on this show and get to play with a really excellent band, including lead singer Sahar Milani, guitarist Maya Sharpe, and Mel Hsu on bass.

Here are some setup shots:

I’m playing a delightfully acoustic setup: 5-piece Gretsch kit with darbuka, triangle, tambourine, and wood block.

The view of our lead singer, Sahar Milani, from my seat. We are on the second story of the set that has windows that open up to reveal the band.

Of course I need the Miller Machine to make this show happen!

The array of sticks I’m using

Me with Maya Sharpe and Mel Hsu. We are the Flaming Sultans!

Out Today: Her Sound, Vol. 3

/

The final installment of Ethan Carlson’s Her Sound project is out today! These 3 albums (more about the first two here) were a great professional achievement for me, as I tracked every single percussion instrument—and there were many—by myself.

When I was asked to record Vol. 1, I had one single USB microphone and could only use my weekly allotted slots at a studio space that I shared with others. I made it work. It wasn’t easy. In fact, it was downright frustrating. So frustrating that it was the impetus I needed to invest many, many dollars into recording equipment and my own studio space that I can use around the clock. These two improvements were game-changers. It was still incredibly difficult to perform and engineer at the same time, but I could now record at my own pace with much higher quality gear.

I’m really proud of this project, and of Ethan, and of producer Ryan Scott Oliver who I’ve known for quite some time. Give a listen below!

That's a Wrap: Between the Lines

/

I had the great pleasure of subbing for the wonderful Adam Wolfe on an off-Broadway show called Between the Lines for the last month+. I first met Adam in 2018 while he was playing percussion for another off-Broadway show. We both come from an orchestral background and really value applying our knowledge in that realm to the theater world.

Between the Lines features a massive percussion setup, including drum set, several mallet instruments, hand drums, and electronics. While there were certainly some technical passages in the show, the hardest part was getting down the “choreography” of the book: knowing when and where to pick up which mallets, when to flip pages, which conductor camera to look off of for queues, etc… Learning this show really taught me that my MM stands for Mallet Management in addition to Master of Music :-)

Here I am with my wife and the set of BTL. I was so excited for her to see the shows because there are few things she likes more than musical theater and books, and this show is a combination of the two!

I had a blast learning and playing this book and will certainly miss the show. I am hopeful that it lives on in one way or the other after it closes this coming weekend.

Up next: Hound Dog at Ars Nova.

The Ballad of Cyclic Change

/

On Saturday, I played a Juneteenth concert at the Ballad of Cyclic Change, a multimedia collaborative art project with interactive sculptures by Kathy Creutzburg, Mirabai Kwan Yin, Jake Elkin and Aya Harota.

Mirabai is an old friend of mine: her husband Ric Becker was my very first NYC/Mannes friend. Shortly after meeting, we formed my first NYC band, Just Puppets! Ric played trombone and percussion alongside me, Jess Tsang (another Mannes alum), and Jake Elkin, in a contemporary program of Braxton, Rzewski, and more. We got out there, especially on one of Jake’s compositions for electronics and spoken word. It was a wonderful and weird way to spend a beautiful Saturday morning in one of Manhattan’s many community gardens.

More on the installation from the artists:
Inspired by the biogeochemical cycles and how they mirror cycles in human lives, we built acoustic kinetic sculptures from upcycled everyday materials and created musical compositions using the sculptures as instruments. By connecting human stories of transition to nature’s cycles we encourage people to feel connected to their planet.

The Miller Machine

/

About this time last year, I was asked to make a promo video for the Miller Machine. My video was cut together with videos from a bunch of other amazing percussionists, which you can watch here. Today, I am happy to share with you my full video that I created with the help of my wife (and cat). We had a lot of fun making this!

If you aren’t familiar with the Miller Machine, you are probably not a percussionist who performs in musical theater. Easily one of the most important percussion innovations of the last 50 years, the Miller Machine allows you to play triangle without having to fumble around for a beater. This is especially handy during a quick change situation. For example, you can be playing timpani with your fluffiest of mallets and execute a perfectly sounding triangle note a beat later without having to put down your sticks and grab a triangle beater. It’s easy to position in any type of setup and is small enough that it can fit in your stick bag when you’re on the go. If this could be of use to you, head over to Billy’s site and grab one for 10% off your first order!

SPD fun!

/


I got the Roland SPD-SX out for the first time in awhile today and had some serious fun rocking out with it and my Busta Rhymes playlist. Am I prepared to go on record saying he's my favorite MC? And what is happening with the Pussycat Dolls??? This song slaps! Anyway, I have a few different percussion samples going on the SPD and a trigger running into it from the acoustic bass drum. Hybrid drumming is always a blast!

New Year // New Digs

/

I began moving into my new rehearsal space just down the block on Monday night. It was a reminder of how much schlepping gear and moving in general sucks! Thankfully, my wife helped me out and we were able to get all of my “essentials” over there in two trips with our car.

I spent Tuesday morning setting up drums, the afternoon decorating and practicing, and all of today setting up mics and my new audio interface. It was an intimidating task, but I’m really pleased with how the recording setup is panning out (nice pun), though there’s a lot of work to be done on getting the drum sounds dialed in, which I plan to tackle tomorrow. Once I’m feeling good in that department, I’m going to get to work on recording a cover of a new song that I’ve really been enjoying playing along with. Stay tuned!