Luke Anderson
Throughout that whole album there are so many drums samples , and for the first time I didn ’ t actually think about it like “ Oh man , their drummer must not have been able to do it .” But rather I thought about it as textural form or sonic landscape that couldn ’ t be created by live drums . That track made me think about samples in a different light . It has nothing to do with an inability to play , it ’ s a texturized sonic landscape that they ’ re trying to create that may need to come from a processed sample , while leaving space for the acoustic drum kit to be used too .
When I was living in Germany , the indie rock band I was in at that time dove heavily into electronic layers . I ’ ll never forget the energy it brought to live shows . We would even have sections where I would stop playing on purpose so some industrial four on the floor beat with a weird , reversed tambourine would play , then I would go sing BGVs . It brought this element and layer that wouldn ’ t naturally be there if we just had an acoustic kit .
Growing up in Washington state , I was a huge fan of Death Cab for Cutie . I ’ ve probably seen them live ten times , and their drummer is phenomenal . Then suddenly , their lead singer releases this album as a band called The Postal Service , and it ’ s fully programmed drum samples all the way through . And I loved it ! That album reminded me not to box yourself in by insisting it always has to be real drums all the time . You see that across the board , not just with drum samples . There was a point at which people hated sampled pianos . And then slowly people start to open up to it , seeing the quality and flexibility in it as an option . For anything new , it takes someone to do it well to show the rest of us that it is an amazing tool , not an opposition to the “ old way ” of playing music .
I remember people seeing triggers on a kit at Elevation . At the time we didn ’ t even use the triggers for samples , we were using them to side chain a gate opening up . But the funny thing was for some people , the sight of a trigger was perceived as bad . But it ’ s not bad ! What if you want to have a different snare sound for each song ? You can ’ t bring 12 snares on the road . But you can pre-record exactly what you want , and the inspiration of what you accomplish is still completely authentic and real . Now instead of being confined to one sound or comically swapping out snares every song , you can use a sample and create that layer . You can be just as picky playing live as you were when you wrote the songs with a specific sound and snare in mind . It opens up more possibilities in regard to making amazing production happen in a live context .
I love the fact that a group with a small budget or without access to a big studio to record drums in , those people have access to this amazing sonic tool . I remember being in a band and spending a good amount of time and money to rent a room so we could record our own samples and then use them on an album . We didn ’ t have enough money to really record amazing drums well in a studio for the album , so we just sampled my kit , and then doubled the recorded drums with samples . It sounded like we recorded in a room that we didn ’ t record in ! It wasn ’ t because we couldn ’ t achieve the sounds we wanted in the real studio , it came down to a funding issue . Samples were the way we were able to accomplish what we wanted for that recording in our circumstances at the time .
Drums samples for me is a way that allows you to be inspired and creative , thinking beyond