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Josh Grigsby of Houston Calls
WritingThis record was a long time in the making. Once it's released it will have been 3 years since our debut full-length. Some of the songs are from almost a year and a half ago, and some of the songs are from mere months before we embarked on touring out to the studio. I would say our writing process is pretty typical - Tom (Vocals, Guitar), Jose (Guitar, Vocals), or Okie (Keys, Vocals) will usually bring in a rough idea or ideas or even a full skeleton of a song to the practice space - and at that point we'll all splice the parts together and flesh out somewhat of a song. I think that's my most important role as a drummer - song organization/impact - and sometimes making sense of parts that don't quite fit together. But this writing process has definitely produced some of the best material to date and with the addition of our new guitarist Jose, he brought a completely new dimension to these songs, and I am really confident in what we've come up with.
Pre-ProductionI definitely think this was the absolute most important step for this record. We had become so jaded in writing for such a long period of time - that we didn't know single from not single from filler track from absolute shit. We enlisted the expertise of producer Mark Weinberg (ex Crumb, Gratitude) who has also produced the likes of Matt Nathanson and Ace Enders. We took 7 full days dissecting all of our songs and re-arranging them so that they make sense and are definitely the best they could possibly be. The prepro set up was just taking both guitars and the bass direct, using a small keyboard cab, one vocal, and one room mic for the drumkit. It was something we didn't get all that much time to do on the last record, and for sure made the songs that much better.
TrackingTracking is straight up nuts. I get so many different emotions when tracking drums - excitement, nervousness, relief, anxiousness - it really is a nutty thing to do as a drummer. Totally different than any live drumming. This time around I used my own 3 year old C&C Custom Drumkit and snare. Those drums SING live and in the studio. My head choice was the standard Remo Emperor coated on the toms, Emperor-X coated on the snare, and an Evans EMAD coated on the kick. I obviously rocked my choice of Vater Virgil Donati's Assault drumsticks as well.
I normally play the 1 crash and 1 ride set up - but we added in a crash for tracking to bring another cymbal tone into the room. It took me a little over 2 days to track including drum sound time and tuning and etc etc. As a drummer, I feel that two HUGE things that demand attention when tracking are patience and vibe. Patience is key when playing and letting yourself realize that you will never get something on the first take - you have to get into the groove of things and make sure everything is consistent throughout, and it definitely can get tedious at times - but is really a good test for a drummer. Vibe is also something that has to be felt when tracking. For me I know that during the second day of tracking - due to distractions, last minute rearrangements, and other small things - we cut the day short because the vibe in the room was less than desirable.
Anyways, thanks for reading my scatter-brained blurb about our new 'yet-to-be-titled' record that will be out this summer on Drive-Thru Records! We'll be out on tour as well June-August with A Change of Pace, We Shot the Moon, and You, Me, and Everyone We Know. Look forward to seeing you out there.
Check out www.houstoncalls.com for Houston Calls news and tour dates...and be sure and keep playing the best sticks out, Vater.
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