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December 27, 2006
Soul Brother #1
In the late 90's I hit paydirt when one of my bands was hired to compose music for a global media campaign for a major computer hardware company. My fellow bandmates were generous enough to give me a few points as composer which translated into a few thousand dollars. In what may have been perceived as a foolish move to anyone with a financial brain, I invested this money in me (ie. my talent) as I took time off my slacker job and spent the next few months in the woodshed practicing at least ten and up to 14 hours a day.
I was motivated and driven like no other time in my life. I was disciplined in how I spent my precious time as I felt that I had several holes in my skill set and I was determined to overcome them. I practiced slow and perfect training my body to feel what perfect time felt like as I'd pound out the most simple beats with a metronome pounding in my newly purchased pair of metrophones.
I'd reward myself for this tedious work by sitting down on the disgusting couch in my practice space and transpose the grooves of James Brown. I had three albums that were my focus: In the Jungle Groove, Funk Power 1970: A Brand New Thang and James Brown's Funky People Pt. 2. I'd play each song over and over again until I had correctly notated each groove. I would then take it to the drumset where I'd do my best at playing the groove and then finally I'd plug in and play along with the CD.
To this day I still rely on what I learned from that process. There have been songs I have recorded where I subconsciously play one of these grooves. When I auditioned for Cake a few years ago they asked me to learn a song from James Brown's Funky People Vol. 2 (Marva Whitney's What Do I Have To Do To Prove My Love To You). Thankfully I already had it in my back pocket.
Thank you James and RIP.
Posted by patatomic at December 27, 2006 10:05 PM
Comments
You auditioned for Cake??
I had no idea.
Posted by: erat at January 2, 2007 12:36 PM