After such a musical year, between 52 of 28, my first tour, and recording / performing with my other group Scrap Iron Saints, it’s been a challenge keeping the momentum this year. I’m always looking for ways to keep my live performances interesting and fresh, and it had been years since I’ve played drums while performing; until March, I’d never played them live in Las Vegas.
I’ve never liked sitting down while playing live; I’m probably too self-conscious, but I try to avoid most things that could be interpreted as singer/songwriter. Maybe that’s why I never consistently performed live with my drums; I’d been used to standing up for performances, so even if I was doing something somewhat unique it just felt weird sitting down. My old set-up was a bass drum and high hat with tambourine, so for recent shows I ditched the high hat and set the tambourine on the bass drum, so there’s one drum to hit that covers highs and lows. Less involved, so I can stand up and focus more on singing and whatever other instrument I’m playing. (I know there are other ways to do that, but that would involve me finding a band.) There are only so many beats I can handle while performing and it only works with certain songs, so I’m not sure how often I’ll be doing this. But between that and switching out various instruments, I hope I can keep everyone entertained, maybe even convince an audience I’m a band.
It might get crowded:
Don’t forget to hit the drum!
