Charlie Clouser AMA

[charlie_clouser]

Me playing auxiliary drums on the Bowie tour was, as you suspected, because there just wasn't anything for me to play on keys on a few of the songs in the crossover part of the set, and once you get all members of both bands up on stage it was a case of creating more visually interesting performances and not, as you said, me just standing there tapping away at eighth notes. Keys are the least interesting thing to watch someone play, so who wants to look at me AND Garson just standing there?

I had played drums since I was a kid but never really kept up my training, so I was quite happy to be just the "spare" drummer. The hardest part was memorizing the order of all the snare fills in Scary Monsters - they actually aren't random, and it would have sounded even more messy than it already did if we were all just playing whatever we felt like at the end of every bar. So there was some math and memorization involved. At the end of just those few songs that I played on I remembered why I switched from playing drums to less exhausting instruments! As with many instruments that I can play (in theory), it's a case of... what's that old saying? My reach exceeds my grasp? In other words, I can come up with and keep track of parts that I don't have the skills or stamina to play at full force and precision night after night. So just whacking along to the snare fills on Scary Monsters was fine by me.

Tech-wise, I used a bunch of my old "gumby-head" Dynacord drum pads and some Dauz "dog bone" triggers going into an old Roland PM-16 trigger>MIDI converter I had lying around, with an acoustic snare that had a trigger on it as well. I used an old trick from a previous band I was in where I needed to play along to a programmed drum part - I had a kick pedal but it wasn't plugged into anything. So I could hammer away behind the kit as though I was playing a full beat, but since my kick didn't make any sound there would be no ugly flams or double-triggering between what I was doing and what Vrenna and Zack were doing, but my brain still thought I was playing a full beat. This is much easier to do than to try and play with just your hands - the foot just can't resist playing along!

[botley]

Me playing auxiliary drums on the Bowie tour was, as you suspected, because there just wasn't anything for me to play on keys on a few of the songs in the crossover part of the set, and once you get all members of both bands up on stage it was a case of creating more visually interesting performances and not, as you said, me just standing there tapping away at eighth notes. Keys are the least interesting thing to watch someone play, so who wants to look at me AND Garson just standing there?

I had played drums since I was a kid but never really kept up my training, so I was quite happy to be just the "spare" drummer. The hardest part was memorizing the order of all the snare fills in Scary Monsters - they actually aren't random, and it would have sounded even more messy than it already did if we were all just playing whatever we felt like at the end of every bar. So there was some math and memorization involved. At the end of just those few songs that I played on I remembered why I switched from playing drums to less exhausting instruments! As with many instruments that I can play (in theory), it's a case of... what's that old saying? My reach exceeds my grasp? In other words, I can come up with and keep track of parts that I don't have the skills or stamina to play at full force and precision night after night. So just whacking along to the snare fills on Scary Monsters was fine by me.

Tech-wise, I used a bunch of my old "gumby-head" Dynacord drum pads and some Dauz "dog bone" triggers going into an old Roland PM-16 trigger>MIDI converter I had lying around, with an acoustic snare that had a trigger on it as well. I used an old trick from a previous band I was in where I needed to play along to a programmed drum part - I had a kick pedal but it wasn't plugged into anything. So I could hammer away behind the kit as though I was playing a full beat, but since my kick didn't make any sound there would be no ugly flams or double-triggering between what I was doing and what Vrenna and Zack were doing, but my brain still thought I was playing a full beat. This is much easier to do than to try and play with just your hands - the foot just can't resist playing along!

Wow, thanks so much for the in-depth answer! I don't want you to run afoul of old contracts or NDAs in answering this, of course, but -- did NIN's set on that tour get recorded properly, to your knowledge? Bowie's record label just put out a great-sounding live album of his set (without the NIN tracks) on streaming sites, called Ouvrez le Chien, from the '95 show in Dallas. Bowie's FOH mixer guy Steve Guest has the credit for engineering, so I assume he was just running ADATs to record Bowie's set, but do you know if NIN's whole set was properly captured that night for a live album or video at the same time? We've seen a little bit of stuff that sounds like it was properly mixed on Closure, and someone leaked part of a "professionally (badly) edited" live video, with the synths WAY up in the mix (see below; your mug behind the kit at 7:45!)... but was NIN's whole show documented like this too? Would love a proper live recording of the "Piggy" rock remix with TR jamming out on bass!

[eversonpoe]

In other words, I can come up with and keep track of parts that I don't have the skills or stamina to play at full force and precision...

me, every time i write a blast-beat section in one of my songs