Aaron Comess

Tom Reschke · Postby **Tom Reschke** » Wed Jun 04, 2014 7:47 pm

Yep. Pocket Full Of Kryptonite was something I heard as a kid and i wanted that snare and ride cymbal bell sound for years. Maybe I still do. Gotta get a piccolo and some lessons.

amoergosum · Postby **amoergosum** » Wed Jun 04, 2014 9:52 pm

Let’s talk about the track ''Two Princes'', which ever drummer tried to play. It and had a unique feel and sound, what do you remember about that?

I know at the time there was a lot of grunge and rock music around. I always loved rock growing up but I also loved really groove orientated stuff, R''n''B, funk, guys like Bernard Purdie. I was studying with him around the time. I was just a huge fan of that style of drumming. The band, even though we were primarily a rock band had a funk/groove/soul/R''n''B element in our style, so a song like ''Two Princes'', it’s a groove tune. I’m not one of those guys that labour over parts, I tend to follow my first instincts. In other situations that’s a different conversation where you might try things. I followed the rhythm from the guitar and came up with the feel. When we did the recording I remember suggesting we slow the tempo down - we used to play the song a lot faster. We are releasing this 20th year Anniversary of that album at the end of the year and they’re going to release all the demos we did. The demo of ''Two Princes'', I hate it, it’s horrible, it’s so fast and I always felt the song should be slower.

There are certain songs when you find the right tempo, all of a sudden the lyrics come out, it feels right and I think with ''Two Princes'' we really lucked out. It’s one of those things, we got in the studio, found a good tempo, we recorded it, everything just really came together. It’s very simple, there’s not a lot of stuff on it, somehow the sound and feel we got, we just lucked out and found the perfect thing.

That drum intro again was really something from the nature of playing in the clubs. I certainly didn’t do that the first time we ever did it but it’s something that just kind of developed. I would open songs a lot because we would play these clubs and things were loud and you just try and keep the momentum going and somehow that pace kind of stuck. Obviously it worked out great, the way it was recorded, everything just really came out, great song, recorded really well, right tempo, played it great that day and sometimes it just takes a certain luck to get that on the day.

How involved were you at the time with the drum sound because you had a unique, distinguished sound.?

It’s funny because I specifically remember around that time, when we got the record deal, we had a little money to buy some gear, and I wanted to get some new drums. I’d been playing a Yamaha Recording Series, like the Gadd Kit. I still have that kit, I still love it, I endorse Yamaha now, I love their drums. But I specifically wanted to find something a little different, try and find a different sound.

I went up to Manny’s and they’d just got these new drums from Australia called Brady and I checked them out and thought they were great. So I got that kit. Those drums really did have a great sound. I’m a firm believer that the sound comes from the drummer, but the instrument has something and that instrument really has a unique sound. On ''Two Princes'' it’s a Brady Kit with a matching wooden 14x4 1/2 piccolo snare. I only used that snare on that one song, it was cranked up pretty tight, I had a zero ring on it.

The producer engineer, Frank Aversa recorded it in a certain way, we recorded at Power Station in New York, one of the best in the world, in the big room, it sounds amazing. I wasn’t really that savvy with that stuff then, I was 21 years old and I didn’t know a lot about recording, but he compressed it in a certain way, he used the room mics in a certain way. The combination of the way Frank recorded it and Peter Dannenberg, who produced the rest of the record, mixed it, we just lucked out with this really great drum sound. I don’t even know if I could get it again, I don’t even try; I don’t play that snare drum anymore because it will never sound that good again.

Source:
http://www.mikedolbear.com/story.asp?storyID=2790