Music Journal on JmsDnns

DNB From Scratch

Sat, 22 Feb 2025 00:00:00 +0000

I have listened to drum n bass for a long time. For me, it always felt like the punk rock side of EDM. I learned of it during the 90’s when it was still rudimentary but still had a distinct direction. I had never seen engineering done the way dnb producers did it back then. Inventing new subgenres and seeing how far they can be stretched out creatively is a lot of work. I bet it didn’t feel like work, tho. I bet it was an amazing time.

Learning With Covers

Mon, 11 Nov 2024 00:00:00 +0000

I have been teaching myself how to record music for several years. To get started, I figured I should do a bunch of cover songs where I play drums, bass, the guitars, and sing to quickly create a bunch of data for me to learn with. Once I got the hang of it, I would switch to recording my own music. This is what I did to learn how to record so I could then record the music I wrote for American Food.

A Guide To Making Good Demos

Sun, 10 Mar 2024 00:00:00 +0000

Sharing music can be a complicated task for folks who play guitars. We can easily use something like voice memos to capture us playing a guitar, but the song we have in our heads is usually big enough to include drums, a bass, and maybe a second or third guitar. Learning to play instruments and how to write music were already huge undertakings, so it always makes sense to me when musicians don’t also know how to produce music.

Finished Tracking 3 EPs

Fri, 08 Mar 2024 00:00:00 +0000

I am very pleased to say I have completed tracking for the first releases by American Food! It has taken a lot of time and effort to get through everything, especially if you consider the time I spent learning how to do things I hadn’t done before.

I feel very lucky to have friends who are both excellent at music in some way and willing to give me helpful feedback. I need to thank my old friend, Marc Allen, for helping me improve as a drummer, for giving me a good foundation of knowledge about how to record music, and for being the second drummer in one of the songs. I need to thank Michael Schorr for helping me pick which drums to buy and for helping me learn how to tune them well. I need to thank Dave Palaitis for all the feedback and tips he gave me as he heard each mix, explaining how to fix issues I didn’t know I had. And, I need to thank everyone on the Snowsuit Discord for the endless discussion about everything music.

The Penny Royalties

Wed, 03 May 2023 00:00:00 +0000

I played drums in a Nirvana cover band for Halloween back in October 29th, 2016. We wanted to celebrate the 25th anniversary of Nirvana’s Nevermind. After years of being a huge fan, I was thrilled to finally perform some of Dave Grohl’s drumming.