Chris DeChiara

drums, percussion, timpani

VA USA

Filtering by Tag: drumming

New release! Iris Divine - Mercurial

May 28, 2022  /  Chris DeChiara

Iris Divine released their latest album recently and it’s another MUST LISTEN. I had the honor of playing percussion on it again and even got an arranging and engineering credit!

Here are some of the reviews coming in:

“The focus on delivering the right riff and rhythm section combination…keeps Iris Divine away from being a mere ‘technically brilliant’ band only for the musician set – logical songwriting skills are paramount.” Dead Rhetoric

“An Iris Divine album always gives you a unique experience, but this time it comes with genuine bounce and swagger. This is an enjoyable album, taking the band in a more commercial direction, and another definite for the playlist. 9/10 Powerplay Magazine

"The musicianship from a trio is quite impressive...Brian Dobbs is also a monster on the bass guitar, playing with the fluidity of Geddy Lee and the ferocity of Les Claypool...an intelligent and sophisticated sense of songwriting. The production is also top notch. You don’t want to miss this one." Metal Temple

Navid was more than happy for me to come up with whatever ideas I had after listening to all the demos. A lot of the guitar and keyboard lines translated easily to mallet percussion (glockenspiel, vibraphone, marimba, and/ xylophone) in my head. The industrial aspects conjured up concert bass drum hits, brake drum clangs, thundersheet wallops, and gnarly sounding effect cymbals. We also experimented with cowbell, rototoms, darabuka, djembe, hand claps, gas can, shakers, bell tree, concert toms, a jazz ride cymbal, extra snare drums, vibraslap, and I’m sure a lot more. Some of the instruments like vibraphone, marimba, and glockenspiel play in unison or in harmony with the keys and/or guitar (the breakdown of “Sapphire” especially), some instruments play their usual role (cowbell and shaker) and some add texture and impact (bass drum, effect cymbals, thundersheet etc).

The idea was to at least HAVE the options to bring into the mixing stage and then cut the fat off. A lot made it, a lot didn’t. Of course the end result is tasteful as a lot ended up being superfluous anyway.

Here is an example of the mallet parts in “Sapphire”-

And here it is in context with the bass, keys, and guitar-

Some more pics-

Here are all the pertinent links. I hope you check out this great new album!

Spotify: https://spoti.fi/3agYpE1

Apple: https://apple.co/3sQ9iTt

Deezer: https://www.deezer.com/en/album/312597437

Youtube: https://youtu.be/E5Za-QWwtMY

Bandcamp: https://irisdivine.bandcamp.com/

CDs and T-shirts: https://irisdivine.bigcartel.com/

CDs outside of North America: https://www.layered-reality.com/.../iris-divine-mercurial/

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categories / original music
tags / rock music, prog music, progressive metal, trio, new release, metal, heavy metal, percussion, percussionist, drums, drummer, drumming, iris divine, mercurial

Sorrow & the Spire-Debut Single and Video

June 10, 2021  /  Chris DeChiara

Last Sept. 2020, I wrote about recording six songs for Sorrow & the Spire, Navid Rashid’s solo EP. I’m happy to announce that the first single, “My Misery Calling,” is officially released with an accompanying video:

Here is a link for streaming audio. Click the pic!

Navid Rashid-Vocals, Guitar
Jeff Teets-Bass Guitar
Chris DeChiara-Drums, Percussion

Special Thanks to Steve Brown (Trixter, Tokyo Motor Fist, Def Leppard) for his dedication to the project and making it sound as good as it does.

Thanks to LJCreative for being so into the project and sweating just as much as we were!

It’s interesting to watch the final video knowing the ordeal that went into setting up the shoot. The venue was Graffiti Warehouse in Baltimore, MD. There were two studios inside and we didn’t know till we were able to start bringing equipment in that we were on the second floor - up two VERY steep and long sets of stairs. Of course, I had to bring the 6-piece DW kit, rack, drum riser, and a bunch of cymbals. Needless to say, it was the hardest load-in of my entire life. And that is with help! As luck would have it, the room we were in consisted mostly of windows…letting that nice hot sun add that special touch. The natural lighting did look good though!

Since we recorded three songs, the drums would have to move to a different part of the room for each one. Sounds easy, unless your drums are on a rack system on top of a drum riser, with uneven wooden floors. Moving the kit a couple feet was an ordeal itself!

After a couple hours of shooting each song 3-4 times each, our time was up and we needed to get everything out of the building ASAP. Going downstairs IS easier, but it was still brutal. Dump everything in the alley, do an interview, pack the car, and finally…pizza. I’m not sure pizza never tasted so good. Or water. But thank you Joe’s Squared for being open and for being so damn tasty.

I really hope this project takes off as all six songs on the EP are incredibly strong. Please check out the links above and follow the band if you’d like as well:

www.facebook.com/Sorrow-The-Spire-105463695020899
www.instagram.com/sorrowandthespire

Thanks for the support!

Chris










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categories / bands, cymbals, drums, music
tags / rock music, original music, sorrow & the spire, navid rashid, jeff teets, steve brown, ljcreative, video shoot, baltimore, maryland, dw drums, soultone cymbals, promark drumsticks, drums, drummer, drumming, percussionist, ep, bass guitar, guitars, electric guitar, vocals, trio

2020: The Wrap

December 30, 2020  /  Chris DeChiara

There isn’t much to say about 2020 that we don’t already know. It left a lot of people unemployed, furloughed, relocated, and struggling mentally as well. I’ve been holed up at home most of the time and grateful I have a job that supports me. It still isn’t easy not seeing people as much and I think we’ve realized how much we need human interaction. As great as Zoom is, it’s obviously not the same.

I had the time to put together some projects that would have NEVER have happened if it wasn’t for the pandemic. Not one to sit around, there ended up being a ton of music projects. And reading!

January started with a massive bang as Eyes of the Nile (Iron Maiden tribute) opened up a show at Tally Ho (first time!) to a pretty damn nice crowd. There’s some great footage here. A couple days later, I’d realize that I would be playing there again the following week.

I wrote about this in an earlier blog (RIP Neil Peart 1952-2020), but it was one of the craziest times of my life. I flew to NAMM (in Anaheim), flew back a couple days later (to Virginia), last minute sub gig (on one week notice) for the Rush tribute, Sun Dogs at a sold out Tally Ho Theatre (Neil Peart just died the week before), flew back to NAMM (Anaheim!) the next day, shot a video of Rush’s Limelight for Soultone Cymbals, and flew back to Virginia that same night/morning. This was in a span of 8 days. A couple hours later I was rehearsing a concert with the US Navy Band and Johan De Meij conducting his own works (some of the hardest xylophone I ever had to play). The same week, De Meij also conducted a program of his own arrangements for brass and percussion with Barclay Brass. Some of his timpani parts were a challenge!

A couple more Dr.FU, Eyes of the Nile, and Nowhere Men (acoustic Beatles tribute), and classical gigs later, the pandemic hit. Things got cancelled one by one and while the concerts with the Navy Band all got cancelled (including trips to Norway for the International Tattoo) and Singapore, funerals went on mostly as planned albeit “modified.” We started doing a ton of video productions from home and I contributed audio and video to these “virtual collabs":

  • When I’m 64 (drumset/vibes)

  • Luz for clarinet and percussion (cajon, claves, shaker)

  • Dance of the Rose Maidens mallet quartet (xylophone)

  • 1812 Overture finale (bass drum)

  • “Instruments from a Distance” which was a short percussion demo demonstrating the coolness of percussion:) I played a little drumset, cymbals, bass drum, snare drum, conga, marimba, glockenspiel, castanets, timpani, vibraphone, and tambourine.

  • Double Stroke Roll explanation

  • Stars and Stripes Forever (bass drum)

  • Mahler 2 (excerpt-timpani 1)

I also recorded Pomp and Circumstance (timpani and bass drum) for the virtual graduation for New England Conservatory graduates.

Nowhere Men recorded a bunch of collabs that I edited:

I recorded multi cam drum videos for these great songs:

The band collabs were:

  • Hang On For Your Life (Shooting Star)

  • Dreams (Van Halen-with musician friends)

  • The Evil That Men Do (Iron Maiden-with Eyes of the Nile)

  • Indians (Anthrax, updated with Navid singing and special guests)

  • Learning to Live (Dream Theater, updated with Zink on vocals)

These were fun duets where I played both parts:

I also recorded some albums for some amazing musician friends-

Two of the biggest projects were labors of love-my new book “The Rite of Spring- A Percussionist’s Guide” and my first teaching course called The Single Stroke Roll. I wrote about them already in detail, so check out the links! I also made a list of some of my biggest pieces of advice for musicians called 13 Strategies in Becoming a Successful Musician. I really feel like anyone can benefit from this (for life), so check it out!

And more:

  • Virtual masterclass for DMV Percussion Academy

  • Virtual masterclass for UMASS Lowell percussion studio

  • Friday Night Live live stream with Herr Metal and live show at Middle(metal!)burg Barn

  • Live stream (and podcast) with the all new viola duet “Violacentric” playing three Bach Inventions (marimba and viola)

  • Two live shows (the second closing out 2020 on NYE!) outside the State Theatre with Nowhere Men

  • Multiple podcasts with the metal folks at Somewhere in Time

NOT musically related, I got through these books:

  • I Will Teach You to Be Rish

  • Far and Wide (Neil Peart)

  • Far and Away (Neil Peart)

  • Random Acts of Kindness

  • The Infinite Variety of Music (Bernstein)

  • Sebastian Maniscalco autobiography

  • Liberty: Life, Billy, and the Pursuit of Happiness (Liberty Devitto)

  • Rules of Thumb

  • Bulletproof Diet

  • Leonard Bernstein autobiography (Burton)

  • Crime and Punishment

  • Confess (Rob Halford)

Homeownerwise, I had three trees cut down and a new roof put on!!

And finally, I want to share an excerpt from my current reading (The 12 Week Year). This hits the nail on the head for me:

In most areas of life, we have very little control over our outcomes - especially when dealing with other human beings.

We can try to INFLUENCE our outcomes. We can change what we are doing and see how that impacts our desired outcome. But we can’t control our outcomes.

So it’s critical to pay attention to and know what you do have control over, versus what you don't have control over.

By knowing this, you can both make smarter decisions, and have healthier reactions in all of life’s situations.

Here are some things you can control as we head into the new year…

You can control what time you get up in the morning.

You can control how much effort you put into today’s work.

You can control whether you ask for help when you need it.

You can control what percentage of time you let yourself be distracted throughout the day.

You can control what opportunities you pursue, and what energy and effort you put into realizing them.

You can control having the right equipment and supplies around you, and how you take care of them so they’ll be ready when you need them.

You can control your training and preparedness for whatever you will be taking on.

You can control where you focus your emotional and intellectual energy and intention.

You can control how you treat others.

You can control what you bring to any given situation.

You can control your decisions and actions.

You can control your mindset.

You can control you.

At a foundational level, you control your thinking and your actions, and that is about it. But that is enough, IF, you are intentional with it.

If you’ve made it this far (Bueller…Bueller…??), thanks for reading and Happy New Year!!!

-Chris

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tags / drums, drumming, drummer, percussion, percussionist, pandemic, collabs, quarantine, videos, studio, home studio, dr.fu, herr metal, violacentric, timpani, books, self published

New album by D.J. Sparr

October 08, 2020  /  Chris DeChiara

 

A couple months ago I was asked to record some songs for D.J. Sparr’s new album - Hard Metal Cantüs. Well, it’s finally out on Innova Records, the label of the American Composer’s Forum.

D.J. is an amazing guitarist and composer whom I met years ago when he was a soloist with the Great Noise Ensemble, where I was principal percussionist from 2005-2015. We also played some of his pieces and would perform together; he’s one of the few people I know that goes from classical to rock in a heartbeat.

One of the pieced that we played back then, “Folios,” was reinvented by taking electronic percussion/drums and performing them on acoustic drums. Now dubbed “The World Within,” I had to find a way to take a multilayered midi drum part and record all the layers myself. There were sections that were literally impossible to play, so I would record just snare and bass drum, then maybe hihat alone, or just splash cymbal chokes. For one song I used regular hihats to my left and a stack (a lot tighter) to my right, playing the complete hihat part divided between the two sets. Another hip-hop flavored song brought out my new Grover 5x10 snare and it received many rim shots.

The sounds were then manipulated and processed so that some of my drums don’t sound anything like how I recorded them-like completely different instruments. Very cool stuff. There’s elements of Zappa, Cowell, EDM, R+B, and Hip Hop.

If you’re interested in checking it out, head to the link below!

https://www.innova.mu/albums/d-j-sparr/hard-metal-cant%C3%BCs

“The album closes with a look inside. The World Within is our internal place, the world within our own mind…which if you learn to control, you become irresistible. Here we go from the outer worlds to our inner world. And then of course, even the worlds that are within ourselves. It is here that Sparr's rock-funk wah-wah guitars take the highest voice in the polyphonic tapestry. It uses the same musical processes as the previous works, but with hair tied up in Zappa-pig-tails accompanied by snare-cadence rock drums, a studio string section, Austin Texas Bass, and a wall of guitar amps.”

 
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tags / drums, percussion, percussionist, drummer, drumming, edm, frank zappa, hip hop, home studio, dj sparr, guitar

Navid Rashid Solo EP

September 17, 2020  /  Chris DeChiara  /  Source

In the past couple weeks, I had the great pleasure of recording six songs by Navid Rashid for his upcoming EP. Navid sings (and I play drums) for the Iron Maiden tribute, Eyes of the Nile. He also plays guitar and sings with his own progressive-metal band, Iris Divine. They even let me play a whole lot of percussion on their latest album, Static and the Noise. Check it out, it’s an AMAZING album. Here is the video they made for the song Taking Back the Fall. Listen for the trash can at the beginning…

It’s always a great experience to be hyper critical of your playing even if it means being disappointed. Preparing for an orchestra audition and recording in the studio/stage are the best experiences for improving your playing. While these songs aren’t “technically challenging,” the studio environment (my basement in this case) means playing to the best of your ability knowing the final product is forever. It doesn’t matter how “simple” or “difficult” a song is when you have to balance so many aspects of getting what will be the final take. One bass drum note that’s out of place or a fill that’s not perfectly in the pocket can throw everything off. With modern technology, it’s too easy to edit things, shift notes, etc. but in this case, I’m way too stubborn to do that if I can help it! 90% of the performance is unedited with a couple punch-ins that were needed later in some songs. If you’ve played what feels like the best take for 3 minutes and the hardest part of the song comes up, then MAYBE that will be a punch-in if things don’t work out.

Here are some observations/considerations during the recording; mostly a journal so I don’t forget in 5 years…! Maybe they’ll help someone on their next recording:

  • What will the most effective part I can come up with?

  • How can I get out of the way yet still offer some personality/edge?

  • What snare drum should I use and how should it be tuned for the specific song?

  • Should the kit maintain its same tuning through all six songs (that would be a yes in this case)

  • If I felt I got the take, I would do one more just in case. Sometimes that extra take was the one.

  • The click was never one tempo throughout any song, so there were always playing adjustments, a lot of times during a bar of a fill; not usually at the beginning of a new section.

  • I experimented with a different charting system for fun. I went through the song once and outlined the form-no notes, then went through again writing out what I’d basically play in another form outline. The are a lot of ways of transcribing, but this was a fun and new way of doing it.

  • There were a couple spots I had to overdub a fill or in one case, an outro-ad lib-over-the-bar-line-play-what-you-want section. That wasn’t gonna happen in one take! That was a first and a blast to be creative and have carte blanche for a minute or two. There may have been a Portnoy lick or two!

  • I filmed each song. What will Navid do with the footage…?

  • Added some percussion-tambourine and…sleigh bells. Even with the tambourine, you have to think when playing 16th notes-accent 2 and 4? 1,2,3,4? Playing perfect 16th notes with the same amount of space between each note is harder than it seems. Luckily I’ve had a lot of practice in that area!

  • No one was in the room with me, so I wouldn’t REALLY know how things went till I listened back after the fact (critical ears engage). THEN, I’d sent to Navid to get feedback/yay/nay and go from there. Some songs took longer than others to get the right groove down, fills, etc

  • The demos had a drum part programmed, so it made it easier to use that as a template. Maybe half the parts stayed and half were changed a bit. Figuring out the bass drum parts might be the hardest thing for me. Luckily, Navid has crazy musical sensibilities and a lot of it was very effective to begin with.

  • My Presonus interface adopted a connectivity issue. With two songs to go, I couldn’t do a single thing for almost 2 weeks :(

Using the Tama Superstar kit that is locked, loaded, and record ready. Used different Soultone Cymbals for different songs and made use of different splashes and their great FXO series (the ones with the holes in them). The lines used were Extreme, Custom Brilliant, Gospel, Vintage (the 16” china killed!), and Explosion.

I used the Promark Todd Sucherman model sticks till the last two songs. The gig I had before finishing up found me breaking the most sticks I’ve ever broken-three!! That’s what happen when you use someone else’s kit and the drums are higher. Rimshots! So, I used the Joey Waronker model for the rest of the session and really enjoyed them!

I switched between a 5” Ludwig Supraphonic and a 6.5” PDP snare and they both sounded killer. Pictured is the Supra. The trusty tambourine has no name, but she sounds sweet! I use her all the time in the Beatles acoustic tribute, Nowhere Men. Bright, articulate, and blends right in.

Here’s a snippet of “One Million Reasons”

Hopefully the whole product will be done by the end of the year. Can’t wait for you to hear it, so stay tuned!

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tags / drums, drumming, recording, home studio, ep, chris dechiara, navid rashid, heavy metal, rock music, tama drums, soultone cymbals, presonus, studio one, final cut, home recording

Michael Colgrass (1932-2019)

July 28, 2019  /  Chris DeChiara

In 1995, I was a sophomore at UMASS Lowell. My teacher and percussion ensemble director, Jeff Fisher, decided to do a “mini-Colgrass festival” that semester. Half of the program would be dedicated to some of Colgrass’s percussion works. Of course, I never heard of Michael Colgrass. I say “of course” because I was such a late bloomer to the classical world and wasn’t until college where I developed as a serious player, played mallets, and learned about classical percussion. Before this, I didn’t know a thing except playing drums in a band. Not that that was a bad thing and proved to be invaluable down the road, but…anyway…a friend and I were asked to perform a snare solo from his Six Unaccompanied Solos for Snare Drum. Considering I never played a “legit” solo in my life and the rest of the program were ensemble pieces, this felt like quite the honor. Here it is, hair and all. And getting out of there as soon as possible after for some reason…

When I was at UMASS Lowell in 1995, Jeff Fisher, the percussion ensemble director programmed a "mini Colgrass festival" consisting of one half of the program dedicated to Michael Colgrass's percussion pieces.

During the concert, Jeff mentioned a story about Colgrass freelancing in NYC. He was walking down the street and didn’t know whether or not he was coming or going to/from the gig! It was soon after that he decided to become a full time composer. This story stuck with me for some reason.

Three years later in 1998, I was a student at the New England Conservatory and the wind ensemble I was in was preparing Colgrass’s “Urban Requiem.” The piece was a beast to prepare-each percussionist’s station of instruments in specific locations around the stage. Mine consisted of 3 separate stations-a steel drum part (an instrument I never played before and included solo part with clarinet-that was hard!), general percussion, and a drumset station in front of the conductor where you were basically part of a jazz/bop combo later in the piece. I don’t remember if I knew that Colgrass would be there or not, but lo and behold, there was the man himself at one of the rehearsals. The story I heard years ago permanently etched in my brain, I enjoyed getting the chance to ask him about this. If it were today, there would be a selfie involved. I left Jeff a voice message telling him that I told Colgrass the story I heard years ago 3 years ago. He was floored that I met and told Colgrass this, but mostly that I heard and remembered the story at all!

Later that year at NEC, I learned about Colgrass’s book, My Lessons with Kumi (maybe he told me?) which was all about performance anxiety. Since I was playing recitals and starting to take orchestra auditions, I needed all the help I could get. I used a couple of the tactics inside, but mainly enjoyed the great “Karate Kid” like read.

Many years later while a member of the US Navy Band, I was performing a lot of “new music” on the side. In 2007, I finally had the chance to perform some movements of Colgrass’s “Variations for 4 Drums and Viola” with my friend Rebecca Kletzker-Steele. “4 Drums” (rototoms) has been a staple in the repertoire and I’ve been itching to do it forever. We played it on a couple occasions and was a blast to put together and perform. Check out the “Finale” here-

Even though I didn’t have a lot of experience with his pieces and our meeting was brief, his music was introduced to me while I was developing my classical musician skills. Many years later, it’s time to honor him and break out some of his music again! Where do I start?

RIP Michael Colgrass (1932-2019)

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categories / music, percussion, drums
tags / composers, percussion, percussionist, music, drumming, drums

Welcome.

August 06, 2017  /  Chris DeChiara

Finally, a website! With social media taking over, it didn't seem as mandatory to have an actual website anymore. But it's time!
And this blog-a place where I can ramble about mostly drums and drumming. Maybe it will spark some conversation, maybe not. But this will be the place to jot down thoughts about performance, teaching, gigs, equipment (otherwise known as Gear Porn), and general musical observations. Maybe it'll be some kind of Drum Therapy...if you have any critiques of the site, general or video ideas, let me know.
Thanks for visiting and have a look around!
 
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categories / drums
tags / drums, gig, percussion, blog, website, drumming, drummer, sticks, mallets