2015 - Full Steam Ahead

For all the posts I've made about Nashville - what goes on here, what it's like, how it's different, etc. - I really haven't made any posts about what I'm actually up to in Nashville. You know, in terms of like...music. Well, I've been here four months so I guess it's about time I clue you in.

I'm the new drummer for Slipknot. I know, I know - most of the internet believes it's Jay Weinberg, son of E Street Band drummer Max Weinberg, but that's just how good a job we did at hiding my real identity. Currently, we're on tour in Europe, and I'm having a blast!

But when I'm not thrashing about with them, for the past 2 months I've been working with a band who moved to town from Kansas City the same time that I did. We were lucky enough to connect and really click in terms of style, influences, and personality, and it's been an exciting time playing with them more days than not, firming up arrangements, and tightening the sound of the group in preparation for some serious studio time in the coming months. The plan is to live-track as much as possible in order to fully capture the energy of the band, and that's a different way of how I've usually worked in the past. My album Over The Edge, for example, was strictly multi-tracked piece by piece - first we did drums, then bass, then guitars, keys, horns, and so on until all the instruments were there. Live-tracking requires a lot of preparation and practice beforehand to do it right, but I'm excited for the challenge and the opportunity.

I'll post more about the band and what we're up to as things continue to progress, but the plan is to be doing my first Nashville studio sessions less than six months after moving here - not bad when you consider I knew only one person who lives here, he is not in the music industry, and I haven't even seen him because he had his first kid right after I arrived.

Onward and upward, baby. 2015 - full steam ahead.

P.S. No, I'm not really the new drummer for Slipknot. C'mon, people, get your heads in the game!