Let’s see here…just ruminating a bit on the groove I’ve been developing for “Love Don’t Ask” (aka Song 1).

I love the hi-hat pattern first off. It’s based on the paradiddle drum rudiment. I wanted it to skip, to lope if you will. I’ve always been about interesting grooves– especially new interesting grooves. New grooves as in maybe nobody has ever played this exact groove before. The hat pattern is not totally unique, but it’s distinct.

With the snare I wanted to keep one foot in rock and dangle the other in…maybe you could call it fusion. Maybe Latin or world…fusion. Basically, there are three snare hits (possibly more, maybe even fewer) per measure. The backbeat is accented, then comes the offbeat whack I’m feeling around for how to explain. Then comes a cadential-type hit that will turn the idea around. The cadential phrase on the fourth beat, I expect, will have the most variation.

The “A” section groove is made up of four patterns: 3 patterns with little variation built around the elements in the above paragraph, and 1 turnaround pattern.

The kick drum came about as a bit of an accident. Literally, I was programming beats and mistakenly placed the second kick piece a beat too late. But then I listened to it and started to like it better than the way I meant to do it. It spreads the measure out and creates a neat snap-back. Also, it’s pretty unique.

I was also messing around with the bassline last night, testing what I could pull off melodically while not deviating from the pocket too much. It’s definitely not going to be a ZLT line. “Love Don’t Ask” has its own thing going.