MCB Interviews Charlie Zeleny
Building a reputation as a top session and touring drummer requires more than playing in the pocket.
Charlie Zeleny's career path has demanded constant dedication and passion for the craft - his growing discography, live show schedule and online video tutorials are evidence of that. Zeleny has toured and recorded with Jordan Rudess, keyboardist of Dream Theater, performed double drums with master drummer Terry Bozzio and is one of the Best Drummers of All Time according to Blender Magazine.
The future looks particularly bright for online session work.
“In 5-10 years I see all the session drummers and other musicians being 90% online since it's so cost effective and efficient,” Zeleny predicts. “So get your Protools chops and rigs up to speed and get as many high profile gigs as possible to be a viable musician in the field of the future.
Building a song via an online session can be a daunting task for an inexperienced producer. For the musician recording from home, it can be equally difficult to the predict what each musician will play on subsequent overdubs.
“Simpler always seems to work better,” says Zeleny. “No matter how complex the music is, you can always benefit from a drum part that leaves enough space for all the overdubs and doesn't have too many unnecessary crash cymbal hits carrying over...giving a lot of groove and fill options to play around with in the editing room is always helpful too.
"There is no substitute for a great producer," says Zeleny. "I find most great producers will inherently edit, mix and master drums to sound unbelievably killer with little to no input from me. But that only comes from honing your production craft and hearing/mixing drums like a drummer would want to hear themselves on record.
More tips from Charlie Zeleny:
- “Setting up great click tracks and being so on the click that it disappears (called 'covering the click') helps lock in tons of overdubs and keep things on track for online drum tracking.”
- “Spend more time comparing mixes to the top mixes of all time and constantly get better at attaining that sound on record.”
- “Once you get that raw sound know how to tweak it in post-production using compression, eq, gating and fx to have the drums sing on the record.”
- “Network and always do the best you can on every gig, tour or recording you do. Thats how you build a reputation and get enough work to stay solvent in today's musical marketplace as a session drummer.”
To contact Zeleny for your next recording project, visit www.CharlieZeleny.com
View Zeleny's drum tutorials at www.YouTube.com/DrumDocZ