Posts Tagged: remote sessions

2020 Summary

December 12 drums, lydia evangeline, miles horn, music, recording, remote sessions, samuel lane, samuel nicholson, session, the factory No Comments

2020 was a difficult year for everyone, particularly musicians and creatives. My last live gig before the pandemic hit was on 12th March, and like everyone else I struggled to stay afloat for the rest of the year. Fortunately I was able to continue teaching online via Zoom, and I did more recording than ever, both remotely and in studios when restrictions were briefly eased. Here are a few highlights from the projects I was able to get involved with in 2020.

Lydia Evangeline

When lockdown began I was unable to access my usual studio and rehearsal spaces, and eventually resorted to setting up my drums and recording gear at home in my tiny flat. As well as working on a series of Corona Collab videos (https://www.youtube.com/watch?list=PLF-CthqlVBKVVs9VUlByko_mV_4X0T2dX&v=VLkQQRk3hhw), I got called to track for a few different artists. One of these was Lydia Evangeline, whose producer Matt Fury asked me to play on the song ‘Strange’. I was really happy to be involved with this one – Lydia’s songwriting is great, and musically it was right up my alley: the reference was even Phoebe Bridgers, one of my favourites. The song was released in July, receiving international radio play and almost 100K streams – not bad for drums recorded in a living room!

Samuel Nicholson

In September I was fortunate enough to play on an album for Samuel Nicholson, another great singer/songwriter whose previous work I love. We recorded it at 123 Studios in Peckham, a lovely spot with some amazing gear, and tracked nine songs live as a band over two days. This was pretty intense, but fun, and I’m really happy with how they all turned out. I used the studio’s 1966 Ludwig Super Classic with my 1954 Leedy & Ludwig snare for the entire record, just tweaking tuning, dampening and changing cymbals on each song. Here are a few clips from the sessions:

Vineyard St Albans

I’ve been part of the worship team at Vineyard for several years now, usually playing on Sundays to a congregation of hundreds, but during lockdown we were forced to start recording acoustic sets remotely. I produced several of these at home with my wife, but in the summer we moved to doing socially-distanced full-band sets at The Factory studios in Harpenden. These were all recorded and filmed by Eduardo and Leidy Vieira, both of whom are super talented and generous with their time and gifts. It’s been a pleasure not only to serve our local church but to play regularly with great musicians and friends in the absence of gigs. Below is a recent set with Samuel Lane.

Miles Horn

Towards the end of the year I also started working out of The Factory for my remote sessions. It’s a killer room and I think I’m getting my best sounds yet – I’m really grateful to Eduardo and the rest of the team for letting me use the space. My first project there was an EP for Miles Horn, who I originally played with back in 2013. It was great to catch up with Miles and work with him again on some new tunes, and I’m really looking forward to hearing the finished record.

Here’s a quick video showcasing some of the sounds from The Factory, going from completely raw to mixed then adding some overdubs. Get in touch if you need drums or percussion on your music!

I’m so grateful to everyone who hired me or made music with me in 2020; it’s always appreciated but now so more than ever. Hopefully 2021 will bring better and brighter times all round.

Corona Collabs

June 6 coronacollab, groove, recording, remote sessions, studio No Comments

While the world has been in lockdown during the coronavirus pandemic, like many musicians I’ve been finding alternative ways to get creative and continue playing with others.

Unable to access my usual studio space, I set up drums in the living room of my small flat just outside London – I’d never attempted this before due to space and noise concerns, but was left with no alternative during lockdown. It worked well and sounded surprisingly good, so I recorded and filmed a few grooves that eventually turned into a series of Corona Collab videos.

I sent the audio files to some of my favourite players in the UK and US, who tracked their parts then sent them back for me to mix and edit (with the exception of the first video, which was put together by Hunter). I didn’t specify anything musically, leaving it up to the musicians’ own judgement and taste; I’m super happy with what everyone played and how all the grooves came together.

Although I knew all the guys involved, each video features a combination of musicians that have never played together before in person – it’s been really fun to bring people from different worlds together and see how our styles blend. I’ve been missing playing live and doing traditional sessions over this period, but this has been a really fun creative outlet and method of collaborating which almost certainly wouldn’t have happened otherwise.

Huge thanks to Hunter West, Harry Phillips, Matt Aston, Ross Spurdle, Jude Smith, Matt Dinnadge, Charlie Thornton and Jack Shepherd for their time and playing: they’re all amazing musicians and worth checking out and following. All four Corona Collabs can be found below.

2019 Summary

December 12 call me loop, drummer, drums, emily mae winters, emily stratford, joe blustin, live, london, longfellow, marc james, remote sessions, session, studio No Comments

I had another busy year, continuing to work on some of my regular long-term projects as well as getting involved with a couple of new ones. Here’s a little of where 2019 took me.

Studio

I had several sessions with my pals over at The Bookhouse this year, playing on records for various singer/songwriters. It remains one of my favourite spots in London, with a cosy vibe and some lovely gear. Tom and Ian are both great engineers, and having worked together for a while now things run really smoothly.

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Back at @thebookhousestudio tracking with @chrlsbsh on my lovely Luddy

A post shared by S I M O N T R E A S U R E (@treasuredrums) on Feb 15, 2019 at 1:17pm PST

In June I tracked drums for Marc James‘ next album at Old Chapel Studios in Chichester, a studio I’ve wanted to visit for a long time. Although I’ve played live with Marc for years this is the first time I’ve recorded his stuff, and it was a super fun day. The live room at Old Chapel sounds incredible, and we used a nice variety of gear including the studio’s 70s Ludwig and a few snare drums. Looking forward to hearing the finished product.

Towards the end of the year I found a new spot to run remote sessions from, my friend Phil’s home studio. I’m really pleased to be collaborating with him; we’ve pooled our resources and between us have loads of cool drums, percussion instruments and recording gear to put to use. Below are some examples of the sounds we can get using different gear, tuning and mix techniques.

For rates and more info get in touch via simon@simontreasure.com

Live

One of my favourite shows of the year was in May, when I filled in for Matt Ingram at the launch of folk artist Emily Mae Winters‘ album High Romance. Matt produced and played drums on the record, and it was a pleasure to learn his parts and replicate all the different tones and textures. It was also nice to return to The Water Rats where I played my first London show 10 years ago!

I continued playing with Call Me Loop throughout the year, with several London shows, a couple of festivals and in October her first headline mini-tour of the UK. We hit Glasgow, Manchester and London and had a blast, with great crowds and shows all round. Below is the hybrid setup I’ve been using on the gig.

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Had a blast on @callmeloop’s mini headline run last week. Here’s a cheeky rig shot from Glasgow

A post shared by S I M O N T R E A S U R E (@treasuredrums) on Nov 3, 2019 at 9:56am PST

Releases

A few things came out this year that I was involved with. Firstly, Joe Blustin‘s Where Else EP that we tracked last summer, a mix of great worship songwriting and indie/electronic production.

Emily Stratford put out the two songs that we recorded at Livingston Studios in October 2018, produced by Sam Holmes and James Mottershead and featuring some lovely guitar work from my friend Harry Phillips.

Finally, my band Longfellow‘s eponymous debut album was released after a very long wait. Making this record in Brighton at Toy Room Studios was one of the best experiences of my career so far, and I’m really proud of both my playing on it and the album as a whole.

You can check all of these out on my discography playlist below.

Thanks to everyone I worked with this year for trusting me with your music; I really appreciate it and look forward to more in 2020.

2017 Summary

December 12 drummer, drums, festival, gig, holiday oscar, istanbul agop, LOOP, lucio & dina, marc james, music, recording, remote sessions, session, simon treasure, studio, tour 1 Comment

This time I thought I’d just pick a few of my favourite moments from the year.

Favourite Gig

Playing with Holiday Oscar at Bestival in September was a real highlight. Everything came together for this show – the vibe was super relaxed and fun, the band gelled together with minimal rehearsal and the crowd responded really well, singing along by the end of the set. I loved recreating Charlie’s songs live and choosing which kit/percussion parts to play. I ended up with different implements in each hand for every song, using a mixture of sticks, brushes, mallets, tambourines and a shaker as in the above track.

Favourite Tour

https://www.instagram.com/p/BVNiuZHFDzd/?taken-by=callmeloop

In May I went on a short European run with LOOP supporting Jonas Blue, hitting Cologne, Amsterdam, Paris and London. As well as playing drums, I edited the above tour video. It was amazing to play in new countries and some great venues, my favourite probably being Luxor. We sustained a few technical issues, but these were all overcome and the shows went great. Tickets for LOOP’s first headline show on 17th January available here.

Favourite Session

I recorded drums for Lucio & Dina Santana’s album Amor/Love in July. We tracked 11 songs in an 8 hour session (including setup), which is the most I’ve ever done. With the exception of one song I hadn’t heard any of the tunes before, so it was a case of listening to the demos, briefly discussing parts, doing 2 or 3 passes then moving on. Despite the time constraints it was a really rewarding session and I’m pleased with how the record came out. Stylistically it ranges from CCM pop/rock to more acoustic songs and even bossa nova on one track. My ’70s Ludwig kit sounded perfect in the room we used, and it was great to work with Marc James again, this time in the role of producer.

I’ve also done more remote session work this year – get in touch via simon@simontreasure.com to talk about recording drums for your project.

Thanks to everyone I worked with in 2017, looking forward to more next year.