Drumber.: Recent Episodes
chris cawthray
Enjoy this excerpt from our most recent show; stay tuned for upcoming dates, and have a great summer!
Get full access to Drumber. at chriscawthray.substack.com/subscribe
Last month, Elite Travelers set up at Annette Studios in Toronto to record some live videos with the most excellent Gary Popovich behind the camera. Having a creative, interactive camera person really levels up the video above cutting between one or two static phone cameras. My intention was that Gary’s single shot would be a performance integrated with the trio, as opposed to a detached observation.
“Paper Tiger” is a song that has been in my repertoire for 20 years, and Rob and I have played it on countless gigs. It was fun to pull it out for this session. The other videos coming from this session are new tracks from our Elite Travelers EP (streaming everywhere), which is now available on vinyl.
For those of you in Toronto, we’ll be playing a vinyl release show at The Emmet Ray on Sunday April 19. I hope you can join us!
Get full access to Drumber. at chriscawthray.substack.com/subscribe
It’s a warm, rainy day here in Toronto and here’s a thematically appropriate song written by Rob Price that will be featured on our upcoming 6-song release, entitled “Elite Travelers”, due to arrive on vinyl and digital this fall!
The video is from a trio show at Young Ethel’s in Park Slope, Brooklyn featuring the most excellent Myles Sloniker on bass.
Stay tuned to this oh-so-neglected Substack for release dates and details when they become available!
Get full access to Drumber. at chriscawthray.substack.com/subscribe
I have been collaborating with dancers for over 30 years as a composer and performer and also an accompanist for dance training and technique. I would safely estimate that the number of dance classes I have accompanied with live improvised music is in the thousands and rising!
Back in the 90s dancer Aimee Dawn Robinson and I met as students at YORK University in Toronto. I was performing with the school’s Dance Ensemble and accompanying classes in exchange for a 4th year credit in a “Fine Art” course requirement. Little did I know that this would be an extremely influential time that opened up a facet of my career that I never considered prior.
Aimee has spent decades making dances all over the world, and we recently reconnected through the social media videos she posts as part of her ongoing Trace Dance Practice project (www.tracedancepractice.com).
Last weekend we met up in London, Ontario and improvised in a frozen swamp. We shot video and recorded the audio and each went home and created our portion of the video seen here. All of the music was created by manipulating my swamp percussion performance recording.
Get full access to Drumber. at chriscawthray.substack.com/subscribe
A couple of weeks ago I gave myself a composition challenge to extrapolate a piece from a brief melodic motif. I think I had been watching and reading too much news, and maybe you’ll recognize the motif. This recording is just a MIDI rendering of the sheet music (imagine a digital version of an old player-piano roll).
Get full access to Drumber. at chriscawthray.substack.com/subscribe
Covers volume 2!
This time it’s a collection of cover songs performed by ¡DO! during a gig at Cliff Bell’s in Detroit, MI on June 22, 2014
¡DO! is Simeon Abbott on Hammond B# organ + Chris Cawthray on drums, percussion, and vocals
The songs featured are:
Adam’s Apple (Wayne Shorter)
Roots Rock Reggae (Bob Marley & The Wailers)
Isobel (Bjork)
Basically Frightened (Col. Bruce Hampton)
The Cure (Keith Jarrett)
Casanova (Roxy Music)
Stir It Up (Bob Marley & the Wailers)
Become a Substack subscriber and gain perks like my COMPLETE music download catalog.
TO DONATE:
via Square Donate $1 Donate $3 Donate $10
pay-what-you-wish via PayPal
SUBSCRIBE HERE
Get full access to Drumber. at chriscawthray.substack.com/subscribe
This episode gathers songs from the CC catalogue about animals. These are all original songs (and one improvisation) inspired by frogs, sharks, kittens, crabs and (th)rabbits.
Thanks for listening!
Become a Substack subscriber and gain perks like my COMPLETE music download catalog.
TO DONATE:
via Square Donate $1 Donate $3 Donate $10
pay-what-you-wish via PayPal
SUBSCRIBE HERE
(photo by Yago Partal)
Get full access to Drumber. at chriscawthray.substack.com/subscribe
Drumber returns with the first part of a series of episodes devoted to cover songs!
Apologies for the inconsistency voice-over audio, technology is often more of an expressway to hell than a stairway to heaven. :)
Thanks for listening!
Become a Substack subscriber and gain perks like my COMPLETE music download catalog.
TO DONATE:
via Square Donate $1 Donate $3 Donate $10
pay-what-you-wish via PayPal
SUBSCRIBE HERE
Get full access to Drumber. at chriscawthray.substack.com/subscribe
A shorter episode devoted to a single track, “KIMONO MOON”, released in October of 2021.
Here’s the original liner notes from the release:
Kimono Moon - Miniatures Vol.1
This is the first volume in my Miniatures project: unique, short pieces that contain a depth of composition and exploration that belies their brief running time. (I am also hoping that these "small" songs will get a full listens from my audience; let's face it, getting eyes or ears on content for more than 30 seconds these days is a feat!)
This song is the soundtrack to a sci-fi dream, featuring the incredible Bruce Cassidy on EVI (electronic valve instrument). Bruce is one of only handful of EVI players on this planet, and is widely regarded as one of its masters. I am beyond humbled to have his contribution to this song, and am honoured to call him a colleague and a friend.
The rest of the band is made up of two of my longest-serving (suffering?) bandmates, Nikku Nayar on electric bass, and Simeon Abbott on electric piano and synthesizers. Simeon also did the lush and cosmic mix on the track. PUT ON YOUR HEADPHONES!
I played electronic percussion, triggering 808 samples from a KMI BopPad through Ableton LIVE.
Everyone recorded at home and there are no loops or sequences, all playing was live-to-track. Simeon and I collaborated remotely on the mix, and I created the artwork and the accompanying poetry.
-CC
kimono moon
The collision of asteroids Platorum 6 and 31
Gave birth to a pair of criss-crossing debris fields.
Still warm and sparking from the impact,
The skies over the southern hemisphere were never the same.
At night sailors and spacers alike gather on the beaches of Otad
To bathe under the Kimono Moon.
credits
released October 8, 2021
composed by Chris Cawthray
recorded at home by the musicians
mixed and mastered by Simeon Abbott
produced by Chris Cawthray for Coagulated International
Simeon Abbott: electric piano, synthesizer
Bruce Cassidy: EVI (electronic valve instrument)
Chris Cawthray: electronic percussion
Nikku Nayar: electric bass
artwork produced by Chris Cawthray
cc1026
all rights reserved
Become a Substack subscriber and gain perks like my COMPLETE music download catalog.
TO DONATE:
via Square Donate $1 Donate $3 Donate $10
pay-what-you-wish via PayPal
SUBSCRIBE HERE
Get full access to Drumber. at chriscawthray.substack.com/subscribe
CC3 live at Shapeshifter Lab August 3 2018 photo by Scott Friedlander
I’m back with episode 2 and the conclusion of the guided tour of “BROOKLYN 2018” featuring songs by Van Morrison, The Shirelles, and me.
Thanks for listening, consider subscribing! - CC
Become a Substack subscriber and gain perks like my COMPLETE music download catalog.
TO DONATE:
via Square Donate $1 Donate $3 Donate $10
pay-what-you-wish via PayPal
SUBSCRIBE HERE
Get full access to Drumber. at chriscawthray.substack.com/subscribe
Introducing my new podcast, Drumber.
This past week, the service that I had been using (Bandcamp) to publish my music for purchase was sold to a video game company with strong ties to the Chinese government.
It wasn’t a hard decision to decide to move on. What is difficult is where to go next? There are very few uncorrupted venues to offer music for sale these days. Music is being devalued at an alarming rate, used as a loss-leader for advertising and tech, and generally a race to the bottom with respect to the economic viability of making music professionally.
Furthermore, the majority of music is listened to on portable, digital devices, and the prevailing method upon those devices is a streaming service. This results in almost zero revenue for all but a fraction of a percent of recording artists. I do have content on those services, but no where near the amount of content I had published for sale on Bandcamp. My view of the releases that are available for streaming are that they are advertising; my hope is that it may pique someone’s interest to Google me and then dig deeper (and pay for) my catalogue.
So, I am using the podcast format to share some of my music, starting with “side A” of my latest release, Brooklyn 2018.
I hope you like it. If you do, consider donating!
Or better yet, consider becoming a Substack subscriber, and gain perks like my COMPLETE music download catalog.
TO DONATE:
via Square Donate $1 Donate $3 Donate $10
pay-what-you-wish via PayPal
SUBSCRIBE HERE
Get full access to Drumber. at chriscawthray.substack.com/subscribe