So the big thing for me is rhythm. It’s arguably (in my mind) more important than melody and harmony, and at least as important. When I was learning guitar, I had to break myself of “grabs,” those stock moves you do with your hands that take over for thinking creatively. At the same time I started to break myself of rhythm grabs. Just using a beat wasn’t good enough. I wanted to reinvent the wheel every time.

That brings me to my current study of the drumming rudiments. I’m into the drum kit. I always joke that if I had to do it all over again, I’d be a drummer. It’s not far from the truth though! When I was doing the drum parts to ZLT, I pictured myself at the kit and physically what I would do to play the groove. There’s a connection between music and movement that ravers and other dancers surely get, but that passes over a lot of heads…

The drum rudiments are akin to scales. What’s very different to me is that they’re not about moving pitches; they’re about moving hands. I don’t even have an electronic pad yet– although it’s on my wishlist. But there’s something to be said for thinking in terms of the kit. And it’s easy to tap just about anywhere if you really want to play a double paradiddle-diddle.

In talking about the next project, I’m going to use Song 1 and Song 2 (no copyright infringements with Blur, I hope). Song 2 is the disco Latin jazz rock track. Song 2 is the psych-folk. Song 1 obviously needs a unique groove. It could end up with multiple sections too. In fact, my latest thought is that I’ll release two versions of Song 1: one the way I actually played it, and the other a remix of myself with a stronger dance feel. To make it “easier” to finish this project, Song 2 will do the same damn thing forever. But that’s just what I always hoped. It doesn’t that extra trickery. The tricks it needs are melodic ones.