Friday, December 03, 2010

Kings of Inertia

Folks, I'd like you to meet my drums. Dear friends of mine. I play them when I can, usually at the end of my work day and always with joy. Not wanting to get too philosophical about it, these guys are part of me. Whatever I do in life I'll always be a drummer. I set out to be a guitarist, still in school and dreaming of performing twenty minute solos...the finger dislocation incident brought that dream to a close and with it an introduction to drumming. My most memorable performance, including all the touring I did of British working mens clubs and American Air Force bases (!!!), is easily the one at Glastonbury music festival. Not an organised, official gig I might add, but a mass drum jam in and around the stone circle. It started around mid-day and ended a day and a half later! I drummed all this time, held prisoner by the rhythms and the fact that I'd been passed the lead drum, the one that marks the tempo and underlays everything. I remember trying to pass the drum on a few times but was always persuaded to continue, presumably no one else wanted that responsibility. I wallowed in it!

So...what does this have to do with the here and now? Well, my old mate Gary Smith, who is in the process of starting to get his first album together, has invited me to be a part of his project.
Our method of recording his songs is going to be intriguing, neither of us having a lot of spare time, so we've come up with a dastardly plan, the first stage of which has been completed, namely a rough/guide drum track. This will help Gary to get the feel of the song as he records his guitar and vocal tracks, which will then be added to with a fresh drum track, guitar layers, bass and whatever else he chooses to complete the song. You can find samps of the drums for the first track to be worked on over on his site...allow me to introduce The Kings of Inertia!

Now...back to the Batcave!

6 comments:

Tonio Fraga said...

Hi there. Last week I've bought the "Punisher: FrankenCastle" OHC and I was very surprised to see a variant cover for issue #16 featuring "Cadillac Iron Man".

I was very impressed by that cover, so I must ask: how come that awesome concept hasn't been expanded into a mini-series or something? Seriously, in a moment when Marvel has been putting a bazillion Iron Man spin-offs on the market, hasn't it occurred to you or the company to mine that design?

Somebody make it happen:

CADILLAC IRON MAN #1 (of 4)
Art and cover by Dave Taylor.
Written by whoever (Matt Fraction, Kurt Busiek, Nick Spencer, Fred Van Lente... I don't know, but I'm sure any of the current or recent Iron Man scribes could concoct a terrific comic out of that concept for you to draw).

D.TAYLOR said...

Many thanks for your comments XIII.
You may have answered your own question in saying "...Marvel has been putting a bazillion Iron Man spin-offs on the market...". It could be for this very reason, or it could be that Marvel know well that I'm not free to work on anything else until my Batman book is complete. And who's to say it's not an idea they're keeping for the future?!

Sean said...

Hi Dave
Strangley I know Gary Smith (although haven't seen him for years) but never knew you were mates. Good Luck with the band.
Sean

D.TAYLOR said...

Cheers mate.

boo said...

lovely drumz dave! i'm relegated to yamaha electric kit and headphones due to people proximity - better than nowt! well, ya get to play along with hendrix live in the cans...

tasty batstuff!

D.TAYLOR said...

Boo...cheers ears! Playing along with Hendrix is one of the best kicks in the world. Don't ya just love him!

Very happy you like the Bat flavour I'm using!