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| Modern Drummer Blogs |  |
Ben Hansen of Street Beat
2010-09-01 
Hey, MD readers! My name is Ben Hansen and I’m the founder and musical director of Street Beat, a high-energy urban drum and dance performing arts troupe merging African, Cuban, Latin, West African, and jazz concepts and utilizing junk, household items, and found objects for drums and percussion. We also feature modern “street” choreography, including break-dance, hip-hop, parkour, and tap.
Dancing and drumming are the most ancient art forms, and they are absolutely wedded together, two sides of the same thing. We are practicing this primal, tribal art and transplanting it to the modern urban landscape.
I was born in Copenhagen, Denmark, and started playing drums at the age of nine. I’ve studied with a lot of great teachers, learning many different musical styles and techniques, and also attended the Rhythmic Music Conservatory. I’ve been pounding on things almost since I came out of the womb. But Danes aren’t generally known for being boisterous and loud. They’re famous for being quiet…and melancholy. So, after disturbing the peace and taxing my neighbors’ patience for twenty-four years, I came to America, land of joyful noise.
I moved to Los Angeles in 2002, recording and performing with guys like Grammy winner Robert Reynolds of the Mavericks, guitarist Andy Walo from Junior Wells’ band, and Mitch Perry of Edgar Winter fame.
The genesis of Street Beat was initially as a student outreach project for the Los Angeles Unified School District, designed to teach kids self-reliance and teamwork through drumming. The challenge was that there was no money for drums at all. So how could I do this in a way that would still be fun and exciting for the students? And that’s how the teaching tool of Repurposed Percussion was born, based on the theory that one can make music with almost anything, which is exactly what we did.
The birth of Street Beat as a theatrical act commenced in 2007 when I expanded the troupe to its current ten-piece configuration and took it on the road, touring all over the U.S., including Alaska. We take our drumming cues from cultures worldwide and mix them all into a gumbo of our own. I believe art should inform, but it also ought to taste good. One critic described us as ‘an urbanized journey through percussion,’ which sounds about right, but we’re also a tribal journey through the urban age.
For more on Street Beat, go to www.streetbeattheshow.com or www.facebook.com/streetbeattheshow.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=qNsI1AQ9Q0Q
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J.R. Hardee Of Paper Tongues
2010-08-30
Hey, guys, this is J.R. Hardee from Paper Tongues! I’ve been playing with Paper Tongues for three years, but I’ve been tappin’ them old skins since I was three feet tall. I used to drag out all the pots and pans from my mom’s kitchen and make a drumset out of them. Now I play a Yamaha Maple Custom Absolute kit, and it’s sweet because it actually sounds like drum tones instead of the annoying clanging of metal on metal. We all have to start somewhere, right?
I didn’t grow up taking lessons, but I had a natural sense of rhythm from my pops, Ricky Dean, the percussionist/BBQ god, and my poppy Gary, the fishing drummer. Poppy now plays steel guitar and is the proud songwriter of hits such as “Margarita Momma.”
Though I never took lessons, I always looked up to and studied the underground hip-hop community, Carter Beauford, and Jeff Buckley’s drummer, Matt Johnson. With all the amazing opportunities Paper Tongues are getting, I hope to truly inspire kids to play drums as much as these players inspired me.
I’m going to exit now due to the fact that I’m writing this on my iPhone and my thumb is getting tired. I’ll post more down the road. Thanks for reading and hopefully I’ll see you out at a show. Play with your heart and soul, stay in control, and rock ’n’ roll!
Photo by Brad Moore. For more on J.R. Hardee and Paper Tongues, go to www.papertongues.com.
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Mike Fuentes of Pierce The Veil
2010-08-27
Hola, MD! Mike here from Pierce The Veil, currently on this year’s Vans Warped Tour. I’m writing this from the back lounge of our bus in Phoenix, AZ, hiding from 110-degree heat. (This is our second Warped Tour, our last was in 2008.) Here’s a list of what I’m currently playing on this tour: Truth drums, 8x14 maple snare, 8x14 brass snare, 22x24 kick, 6x12 rack, 16x16 and 18x18 floors; TRX cymbals, 22" BRT Ride, 14" ALT hats, 20" LTD crash ride, 20" MDM crash ride, 6" T-Bell, 20" Grille, 20" BRT China. I recently switched drumheads from Remo to Evans, mainly because the Evans HD Genera Dry head sounds amazing on my Truth brass snare. 2B Vater wood-tip all day!
We just released our new, sophomore record, Selfish Machines. We’ve split up the set on Warped Tour, playing three songs from our first record and three from our new record. The three off Selfish Machines are the fastest and most aggressive songs on the record, which becomes somewhat of a challenge for me playing live. I strive to play as tight as possible, so it’s been exciting playing the new songs live and receiving an awesome response from the crowd.
We recorded with producer Mike Green, and I was lucky enough to track at Ocean Studios in Burbank, CA. It was the largest room I have ever played in. I tracked with a combination of vintage and new mics. We used three different mics on the kick drum as well as a number of room mics placed strategically throughout the room. Our main goal was to make our instruments on this record sound real, and I definitely think we accomplished that. I used four different snares on the record. I smashed a $6,000 overhead mic while tracking and it completely exploded, luckily an engineer on hand was able to repair it and I was able to finish tracking all twelve songs in ONE DAY!
If you come to a Pierce The Veil show, expect to see me going all out every night, no matter if there’s five kids watching or 500,000. We put a lot of time and meticulous thought into our live set, so our fans get a memorable and exciting experience. Pick up Selfish Machines in stores now! I love you all, and I’ll see you soon.
For more on Mike Fuentes and Pierce The Veil, go to www.myspace.com/piercetheveil. To download a clip of the band go to is.gd/cM3a4. Photo by Adam Elmakias.
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