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6/6/2005
FIVE MINUTES WITH MALCOLM CROSS
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Mapex News
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Mapex Artist Malcolm Cross is having a busy year. The third Minibar album is due out soon and the band has been rehearsing with singer/songwriter Pete Yorn for his upcoming album release and subsequent summer tour. Malcolm, originally from London and now residing in Los Angeles, was thoughtful enough to sit down for an interview with Mapex News to share his thoughts on some of the insight he’s gained throughout his relatively short, but very active drumming career.
Mal, you’re a highly in-demand session drummer, yet you spend a lot of time with Minibar and Pete Yorn. How can you juggle both and still stay at your peak performance?
Don‚t let anyone tell you that you have to choose between a band and a session career. It’s a careful balancing act, but done right, both activities will feed and invigorate each other. Being in a band showcases your individual talents in a great way which can lead to separate job offers; the technical and stylistic demands of session work helps your band play better and hopefully be more musically inspired.
Which brings me to why I‚m here at Sage and Sound Recorders [Hollywood studio used by the likes of Weezer, Switchfoot and Alanis Morissette] with Pete Yorn. He’s a fan first and foremost of my [indie Brit-Rock] band Minibar and then us as individual players. He cut his last two records pretty much single-handedly (he’s a drummer, too) and now for number three he wanted to capture more of a “live band spirit.” Historically there have been some great singer-songwriter/band collaborations — Bob Dylan and The Band, or more recently Beck and the Flaming Lips, and now, Pete Yorn and Minibar!
How long have you been working on this project?
We’ve actually been in rehearsals since last year, kicking song arrangements around, doing some low profile shows — so now we’re ready as we’ll ever be to cut these suckers. This isn’t our first trip to a studio either, having worked together on the Shrek 2 soundtrack with a frenetic cover of the Buzzcock”s “Ever Fallen in Love.”
However, a first for me has been working with producer Don Fleming [Pixies, Hole, Sonic Youth, etc] which has been a treat. Don’s a gent who loves drums and who isn’t afraid to wield a drum key in search of tom nirvana! His attitude is; get the drums sounding great in the room first, then set up mics.
His ideal tom sound is a pure note, with a quick decay; he doesn’t want too much sustain partly because he likes using a fair amount of compression (ringing toms + compression = endlessly ringing toms!) There were some oddball mics of note used — for the snare bottom an Electrovoice RE15 "the trashiest mic we could find" and a bunch of cool (and character-full) vintage ribbons as overheads (namely a pair of Coles and RCA D77s.) Budding engineers out there will notice alongside all the fancy vintage stuff a tried-and-tested SM57 on the snare top - something that everyone can afford and that always sounds good on snare drums (and guitar cabs!)
So, Fleming had a pretty good idea of what he wanted going into the studio?
The playing directive was “keep it light; leave room for dynamics.” Fine by me, since powerhouse “wood-chopping‚” isn’t really my bag. In my opinion, overplaying drums can produce a dead, strangled tone; lay off a bit and they really open up (same with cymbals — hats and rides lose definition when trashy; crashes respond better to a faster, lighter stroke.)
Also it’s generally a good idea to leave “somewhere to go‚” for that guitar solo or playout section; all loud all the time gets boring to listen to. Take note all you drummers with blistered hands and bloodied drum heads — loudness‚ is a relative concept in recording where volume is defined by a fader level; equally, quieter drums can be gated, compressed and distressed into a full-on sonic assault! Great feel and good sounds are what count.
Do you use a click track?
Since we were going to track the rhythm section all together, we went without a click but had a metronome reference from Don (who’d noted all the ideal tempos the previous night at rehearsals) before each take to keep us in the ballpark. During the take, he could keep an eye on the metronome and take note of any undesirable tempo changes. He doesn’t mind a little breathing — a bpm or two — just not too much. Again, there’s no substitute for knowing the material. We’ve had a year to play this stuff in so the session went pretty smoothly.
Will your tracks end up on the finished record?
Right now it’s too early to say whether these recordings will make it to the final LP. Pete has done numerous sessions already and there’s always a ton of in-house politics when there’s a major record label involved. But with luck they will; just hearing the tracks in a raw unmixed state, they sound absolutely fab.
Either way the new record should come out later this year, so if you love rock and roll keep your eyes and ears open for Pete Yorn and Minibar in stores and on tour in 2005.
Malc’s kit: Mapex Orion Series 12" rack, 16" floor, 22" kick; Steel Black Panther snare (14" x 5.5"); Remo coated ambassador heads, Attack Powerstroke 2 on kick; Mapex and Janus hardware; Mapex “Big Cat” Tigers print throne. Malc also plays Zildjian cymbals and sticks.
Thanks to Jim Wright for the drumming photos, used with permission.
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