News from the alley

For the past few years I have been working (at times) heavily on my double bass technique. Some 8 years ago I had mastered the double stroke roll with my feet in addition to some compound stickings. This was enormous amount of work during a period of one year and a half. I used this technique on an album I did with, David Garfield and Tony Franklin, mixing bass drum rolls into para-diddle fills and solos and I was very happy with the outcome.

Then came the time to play this material live and although it was a lot of fun, I was not happy with the dynamic outcome. The double stroke roll is a soft ‘legato’ rudiment, you can use certain methods to tweak it and make it more of a loud roll, but it’s just not very practical in the long run. So you can step on those doubles and play them hard but I ended up beating myself up to much doing that. I don’t use triggers and although I don’t mind compressors and I actually appreciate them on stage (when used properly), I still want to play my acoustic kit at proper dynamic levels without the help of sampled sounds and such. I have actually come to dislike the whole idea of triggering all together. I am guilty though, I did use some triggering (afterwards) when mixing the album. Not that my drumming needed it but be course the mix consisted of more than 40 channels and my drums were simply taking up to much headroom in the mix.

So in with more stuff

It became obvious to me that if I was to be happy, I needed to master the single stroke roll on the bass drums. And boy this is no easy task and at the age of 40 (back then), it´s even more difficult. To make it an even more challenging task, I decided to come up with a new type of technique which I call ‘The Neutral Stroke‘. So on and of, I have been working on that method through the years. It’s related to the heel-to and flat-foot methods, but it’s somewhat cleaner and more precise. It has similar mechanics to hand techniques known as the open-close technique and the moeller technique, in that it is a clean multi-note method, combining two very distinct strokes in to one action.

Finally I use a clean single stroke roll on the bass drum so I switch between two methods. Both methods are designed to loosen up the heel. ‘The Neutral Stroke‘ is designed for extreme speed playing, where as the Clean single stroke roll is great for lower tempos (up to 200). I’m just starting to apply this stuff and work it in to my playing which is EXCITING to say the least.

Where as the bass drum doublestrokeroll works wonders in Latin, jazz and funk of a more acoustic nature, the single stroke roll on bass drums is an unbeatable skill and only one roll method will be quite limiting, so like I said; Exciting times indeed for me, at the age of 47

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I’m moving in to new rehaursal space in august and I’m excited about starting to work on my drumming, amongst other things. I will also start working on Rodrigo Mendoza’s album soon after that, excited about that one.

My new band will debut on the 15th of september at the 2012 Icelandic Tattoo Expo.

Cheers

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Take a taste of Jan Hammer, Jimmy Hendrix, a funkadelics disco grooves and hard rock guitar riffs, blend it together with Tangerine Dream synths and some Mahavishnu orch. and a slice of 80′s gothic, and you have that surreal dance album that I’m working on.

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I want point out that those are just my own personal opinions and not based on actual facts or laws of nature.  I sincerely hope that you judge my words in this article for what they are, they are a part of my own spiritual understanding of the instrument and are not meant to impose.

To me the instrument should not be studied but within a musical context. I have studied practically hundreds of drummers in my time, most of them simply in the context of arrangements which have always been of high interest to me.

However there are some that I have studied from a pure technical standpoint and those I have pretty much analyzed so thoroughly that when I hear them play, I usually hear and understand every note simultaneously.  To make an analysis of an advanced drummer you need to go through the layers and building blocks of that particular individual.

Some drummers are not meant to be studied technically in my opinion. As much as you may adore Elvin Jones (I certainly do) he should not be studied. Rather you should listen  purely to his nuances and timbers, Elvin played drums somewhat like a painter. He was not a harmonic drummer, he was rhythmic but very tribal, but most of all he had an industrial quality to his use of tonal spectrum and color.

But do not attempt to play his stuff, please don’t do that. Rather listen to his playing for countless hours and years, enjoy it but never count out his measures. Don’t try to sound like Elvin, rather he should inspire you to do your best in your attempt to get to a similar place by your own methods, but it will be a different place, a place where you are one with your own angels and demons, where by some long shot, a Colombian feel turns in to a weird funk-groove or an ambiance soundscape molds it self in to a free-jazz pattern.

99.9% of the stuff I hear on the radio, I know exactly what the drummer will do next. This is not good for me, it means that there is so much cliche going on and so much mimicking. That’s why I liked Mick Fleetwood in the old days. He would pass on a fill going in to the head or a bridge of a song, breaking an almost unwritten law by that inaction.

Instead he would throw in a fill or rather an awkward phrasing where it was not necessarily mandatory or common to do so. This behavior of Mick Fleetwood was very important in the history and evolution of rock drumming. Unfortunately cliches are very relentless and a conscious effort should be made to break away from them.

Listen to Mick Fleetwood, then take this a litle further and listen to the very unpredictable phrasings of Vinnie Colaiuta.  Some of his most advanced stuff should not be studied though; If you hear Vinnie play a 7-3 polyrhythm, don’t try to mimmick that, please don’t do that.

But if that type of stuff interests you, you should come up with a study in metric modulation, ask around and buy some books on the subject and give yourself a few years to work on many different things in that field of drumming, it will make your playing grow and transform in to a less foreseeable process, but don’t pick up one poly-rhythmic idea from someone and then try and put it to use.

In my case I use a small percentage of the rhythmic llusional stuff I have studied (consciously), but unconsciously those eliments are at play to a much greater extent, what happens through your evolution (quite a few years in my case) is that your own sense of time becomes more and more wacko and you are able to stretch more, but on the fly and without throwing the whole band out the window.

As much as I see Elvin (and this is my personal view) as a painter, I see Vinnie as an energy sculptor. He molds different energy’s and time compression with an awesome spectrum of dynamics.  Only a part of his stuff should be studied and the rest left to the pure enlightenment of witnessing his imagination, whereas Elvin should not be studied at all, only enjoyed to the extreme.

Below is footage of an old friend of mine Dave Stanoch, my mentor and teacher, showing what can be done with Metric Modulation and mixing together different styles at the same time. Dave is one of the baddest players in Minneapolis and he has an excellent book on Metric Modulation, ‘Mastering the tables of Time‘

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A couple of years ago I published on youtube.com some instructional video clips. Although I was meaning to add more clips I haven’t gotten around to it.  Still here’s the whole class in one clip which lasts about 25 minutes for those interested. Enjoy.
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The album; “Black Matter” is moving slowly but surely and everybody’s parts are piling up on the multitrack.

As you can see this is a pretty amazing bunch, there’s Rodrigo Mendoza my partner in crime in Mexico City, Anthony Long (Rob Strong, Jimmy Slevin), Percy Jones (Brand X, Brian Eno), Derek Sherinian (Dream Theater, Planet X), Tony Franklin (The Firm, Pink Floyd).

Tony Franklin is on 2 songs and Percy Jones as well.

Derek Sherinian is one of the hottest keyboard players in the world of progressive rock and heavy fusion music. Known as ;

“The Caligula of the keyboards“.

This album is going to smoke some serious arse, I promise you, but most of all I’m very happy to have gotten to that place in my career where I can work with pretty much anyone I please on that high level, it wasn’t always so and it took time and work to get to that place, my work just feels really good now and natural and I know it’s be course I did earn it.

Many years ago I would look up on the fusion and progressive elite and think to my self, “I can do this better than this dude”, I was wrong, it’s a very different reality as anyone knows who has done it. The preparation takes years and years, a lifetime really. You also must have the work ethics and the spirit of a prize fighter.

Drumming today is a highly technical art-form and as such, it is very physically demanding not unlike ballet. So I have given up smoking and I’m happy to say that I’m getting stronger and recovering from some serious problems I was having after 30 years of heavy smoking. Drumming is so much easier now. Anyway that’s it for now, talk later.

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It seems this album is taking forever. Take it outside, was an album that took a long time and incredible amount of work but this one is going through a whole different game, namely the economic crises here in Iceland.

As much as I feel I´m doing my best work, I have very limited time for it and limited funds as well. So many things come in to play when the seriousness of living kicks in. Progressive music tends to take the backseat.

But this will simply take the time and effort that is necessary, be it 5 years even (worst case). I like putting out different rough mixes and demos since I know that people find the process quite interesting.

So here is a piece in the making; Sonic Empire with a preliminary drum track.  Keys; Derek Sherinian. Percy Jones on bass.

This album has a lot of political discussion on it from people like Max Kaiser, John Perkins and such. Human speech is very rhythmic and I like to make statements with music.

It may not be the way to go if you are looking for the typical media participation in a publication, however my music is progressive avant garde, so who cares, I will make it the way I see fit.

So this is a snapshot of “Sonic Empire” in the making, Gunnar Waage Band; Gunnar Waage-Derek Sherinian-Percy Jones;

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It´s great fun working on this album. Ewery day is fresh and new when it comes to making music. Yesterday I did something I have never done before, I played a 12 bar drum break in 3/16 time at 120 bpm. Not easy but great fun and I found that to be quite comfortable (by the way this was on a scratch track and I’m using a Roland V for those).

I use quite a bit of odd time concepts in my 4/4 playing like most cats do, however using a 3/16 grouping as your time grid while staying in 4/4 time is quite challenging, I will be doing more of that in the future.

peace

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I have a number of things in the works now, I have gotten quite involved with politics lately here in Iceland and I’m starting a political Newspaper in connection with that. But I am also starting a new album that will be in the works for some months.

I am working with Derek Sherinian from Planet X and I’m very happy with Derek’s work so far. What an amazing keyboard player. Derek has worked for a number of years with Alice Cooper, Dream Theater and the likes but the one band that to me is the most astounding is Derek’s band “Planet X”. Those guys are really knocking down walls as to what can be done in music. The drummer in that band is Virgil Donati so Derek is quite used to some heavy avant garde drumming.

I will keep you updated on this, there has been talk about Tony Franklin(Derek Sherinian, The Firm) playing bass on this album and I hope it will happen. Tony played on my last album “Take it outside” with David Garfield and I was extremely happy with his work, he just brings such a different vibe and sound to the table.

Until now I have been working with some of Tony’s bass loops for my compositions but like I said I really hope he jumps on board for this album as well.

I will do an instrumental version of this later with a new drum track. Here’s the song

Anyway, that’s it for now, talk soon.

g

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