Play-Along Drum Tracks

I'm excited to introduce a new video series I've started work on recently, called "Play-Along Drum Tracks." Play-Along Tracks are different drum beats in different styles and at different speeds.

The hope is that different musicians (including my many students) will find these useful for practicing. I've always found that playing along with a beat can make practicing, or just jamming a much more enjoyable experience.

Although the beats do occasionally include percussive elements, I'm trying to keep them free of other instruments, so the player can choose the notes/keys he or she feels is best. 

This is an ongoing series, and the plan is to keep expanding it over time. I encourage you to try a few out and see if you enjoy them! If you do, please let me know if there is a song (or songs) that you like the drums for that I can emulate and include in the series.

For a complete list of all the Play-Along Drum Tracks, including descriptions and bpm's, please visit the link below.

Related links:
www.christopherbright.com/play-along

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Right now I'm listening to:

Right Back To You (Electric Youth)

Asleep In The Arms Of The Sea

On February 15th, after several years of recording and countless ups and downs, Glider released a new album called "Asleep In The Arms Of The Sea." As the drummer for Glider, having the album finally released is especially exciting, especially since there were times when all of us in the band thought that the album would never be completed. To celebrate it's release, I wanted to take a few minutes to look back at a few of the memories I have of creating the album...

The oldest emails I have concerning the album date back to march of 2007, but I'm fairly sure we started tracking in 2006. At that time, we were recording at a pretty aggressive rate and sending demos and bounces back and forth, trying out different ideas. It was definitely an exciting time.

We had a practice studio in Santa Ana as well, and we spent a lot of late nights there writing, as well as demoing songs onto an old video camera. When we would leave the lockout and go back to Rory and Brian's, Rory would take the audio off the camera and make us all CD's to listen to.

I also have a vivid memory of being at South Coast Plaza and getting a call from Brian. He said he had come up with a name for the album. He wanted to call it "Asleep In The Arms Of The Sea." I remember really liking the name a lot.

Long story short, our momentum slowed, and the years passed with no release in sight. Rory moved to Santa Cruz, Brian and I started playing in other projects, and the album was left in a state of limbo. We tried a few times to get some momentum to finish recording, but it never seemed to stick. Every ever so often, I would come across a song or a CD-R full of Glider demos and I'd listen to it and wish that we could find a way to put the album out.

In late 2012, we decided to give it one last try. Then we got some bad news. The hard drive that we had used for recording the album had broken. Needless to say, it was pretty devastating, but as we each spent time listening to copies of the songs we had that were "in progress," we felt that it was actually very listenable in the state that it was in. Ultimately, we made the decision to release it as a "snapshot" of where it was, and where we were intending to take it. 

We all went through all of our old Glider recordings (on CD-R's and our computers) and finalized a track list. Then, we sent the songs up to Rory and he mastered them in his studio. What resulted is something we're all very proud of, and very proud to share with you as well.

Related Links:
Glider - Asleep In The Arms Of The Sea (Bandcamp)

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Right now I'm listening to:
Glider (Asleep In The Arms Of The Sea)

NAMM 2013

I recently had the privilege of attending the 2013 NAMM show in Anaheim. As always, it was an exciting event! Here are some of the highlights:

- Abbatron's new "Genesis-Pure" instrument cable. Abbatron makes the highest level of cable components on the market, and have raised the bar with the Genesis-Pure. It's currently being blind-tested and is consistently coming out in 1st, and at 1/4th the price of the leading competitor.

http://www.abbatron.com

- Getting to meet/chat with Fabrice Gabriel of Slate/Eiosis fame about his newly relaunched "Air EQ" plugin. It looks quite strong and I think it will be a huge asset to my recording/mixing. I believe Fabrice was saying that it should ship in march.

http://www.eiosis.com

- Getting some hands-on with Steven Slate's new Raven Mtx and Mti touch-screen production consoles. They are aimed at really speeding up your workflow, and will work will all major DAW's. The price-points are also very reasonable. I believe these will be sold exclusively through GC-Pro.

http://www.slateproaudio.com / http://www.gcpro.com

- Farmer Foot Drums. These have to be seen to be believed. They are handcrafted drums/percussion instruments that are mostly played with your feet. They are absolutely perfect for solo musicians who are out gigging. They had a great sound, and seemed very well-built.

http://www.footdrums.com

- Ukuleles everywhere, as far as the eye can see.

- Standing 3 feet away from Jordan Rudess of Dream Theater as he demo'ed Synthogy's Ivory 2 virtual instrument (which is amazing, by the way). Musicians like Jordan are always very inspirational to see, because they show the rest of us what's the level of what's possible, and encourage us to keep pushing ourselves to move forward.

http://www.jordanrudess.com / http://www.synthogy.com

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Right now I'm listening to:
Don Ho (Moonlight Lady)

The Break Up Season - Friends & Rivals

Many years ago, I was in a band called "The Break Up Season." We played throughout Orange County, CA, including local hotspots such as Koo's Cafe, Chain Reaction, and The Galaxy. Before disbanding, we were working on an E.P. that was going to be titled "Friends & Rivals."

Several years later, I came across some old band CD's and tapes, and got to thinking about The Break Up Season. With the help of Rikio Ahara, I was able to track down some instrumental cuts from our Friends & Rivals recording sessions.

What results is a snapshot of what the vision for Friends & Rivals was, along with two acoustic demo tracks. 

The Break Up Season was:
Rikio Ahara (bass, vocals)
Christopher Bright (guitar, vocals)
Nathan Gammill (guitar)
Jeff Olson (drums)
John Tu (guitar)

Related Links:
www.christopherbright.com/the_break_up_season 

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Right now I'm listening to:

Circa Survive (Violent Waves)

Video Archives: James And West @ Surf City Saloon

In 2008, I played a few shows with James And West at the Surf City Saloon in Huntington Beach, CA. I recently got a hold of two of the shows, and am presenting them here in the playlists below...

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Right now I'm listening to:

The Narrator Is Lying (Self-Titled Release)

Video Archives: James And West @ DiPiazzas

On May 7th, 2010, I played drums with James And West at DiPiazzas in Long Beach, CA. It was a fun set, covering material from all 3 e.p.'s. Below is a playlist of the full set, from start to finish... 

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Right now I'm listening to:

James Iha (Look To The Sky)

Songfacts

I recently had the opportunity to participate in an article that songfacts.com was putting together about the day-to-day life of the "middle class musicians." The article has been finished and is now online, for your viewing pleasure. It's an interesting behind-the-scenes look at how working musicians spend their days.

You can check it out at: http://www.songfacts.com/blog/writing/middle_class_musicians/

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Right now I'm listening to:
The Smashing Pumpkins (Machina)