Life is GOOD!

What an amazing year 2011 that was! I'm sitting here in my flat in London thinking about all the fantastic people I've met, and the wonderful jobs I got into. (Thanks AW...!!!)

A lot of stuff has happened since my last post in April. I am now Peter Grant's drummer (petergrantmusic.com) and will be touring his new (and IMHO brilliant) album beginning spring 2012. About two months ago, I recorded Mick Hucknall's christmas single "Happy This Christmas" (iTunes link) and two weeks ago, I was recording the first half of Mick's new album - and as if this wasn't enough, I've actually played a gig with Simply Red last week. So YES, life is good!

The picture on the right shows a little bit of the beautiful back drop (hand painted) and the very good sounding Giannini drums (hand made) for the SR gig. Thanks Andreas and Philipp from Giannini Swiss Drums for the kit!

"das Zelt" with Kirsty

Hi y'all

Last week was lots of fun! I was playing with Kirsty at "das Zelt" in Zurich.

Line up:
Kirsty Bertarelli v
Claudia Fontaine bv
Leyla Stuber bv
Kilian Haiber keys
Eric Mandango guit, tattoos ;-)
Dave Troke b
me, myself and I dr

On Monday, Claudia, Aidy (Hall), Dave, Tom (Nichols), Steve (Lyall) and me flew from London with the 8.50am Swiss flight to Geneva. Listening to Aidy on how busy Heathrow would be on a Monday morning, him and I got there at 6.50am. Well, this airport might be busy on some Monday mornings, but on this one it was like a ghost town. Check in and security was done in 10 minutes (rounded up) and so we found ourselves 2h early having breakfast at the airport. (Thanks Aidy for having me get up at 5.30am... ;-)
A driver was waiting for us at Geneva airport and drove us to the rehearsal room at Dynamec Studios in Gland.

Everything was already set up, so after a sound check we were ready to play.
To your right, you see Eric with his new (and removable...) tattoos. Funny man, I tell you.

From l to r, me, Aidy, Dave (the three brave amigos)

On Wednesday evening we boarded a bus that took us to Zurich and after a good night of sleep, we were ready for soundcheck. We were, but the desk for the stage sound and in-ears wasn't...
After the fastest swap that I've ever witnessed, we were ready to rock n' roll with a new one... give thanks to our engineers Neal Allen and Graham White!!!

Seconds before the gig.

A Giannini Swiss Drums set in London

OK, truth be told, I was going to stop blogging. I never kept a diary in my life, and it's not really fast work to keep a blog going. But then another Swiss drummer by the name of Laurent N. sweet talked me into continuing it (it is kinda nice to know, that somebody out there is actually reading this) so here it goes:

A couple of days ago I decided that it was time to get my drums and my car up here to London. So I packed my beloved Giannini drum set and the even more beloved missus in the car and, like a happy family, we drove off from Basel to Calais, where we booked a hotel room for the night. The next day, we got up early to catch the 8.10am ferry to Dover. (To the right, you see a picture of me with the white cliffs of Dover in the background.)
We arrived in London at 12.30pm and I had an appointment with the lady, who's renting me her underground parking space at 6.30pm, so plenty of time for us to relax with my flat mate.
At precisely 6.25pm (I'm Swiss... always early) we arrived with my car at the gate to the parking space. Of course, the lady wasn't there yet (Londoners and time...;-), so we parked the car in a public parking space and waited. 6.45 came and went, so I tried to call her: voicemail... what the... 7pm, called again, and yep, again voicemail. Shortly after I got an sms from her telling me that she's in the hospital and didn't know if they will let her out that night... nice!

Problem was, we had to fly back the very next morning because I had a gig in Switzerland the next day, soooo where to park the car?
I've sent her an sms telling her the problem and after not hearing back from her we went to my favourite restaurant in London called "Chez Manny". I definitely needed a juicy steak and a pint! Ivo and Carl, who both work at Chez Manny's, were kind enough to cheer me up (2nd photo) and the steak and pint (photo number three) did the rest, so I felt better. After talking to AW and he telling me, that it was ok to leave my car at the studio for a couple of days, I got an sms from the parking-lady. She told her mum to go to her apartment, get the fob-key and to leave it on the front tire of her car. YES! I texted her back to ask if it was parking space number 30, as I remembered, and she said yes, as is written on the keychain. So I got the key, looked at the keychain (parking space #32), opened the gate, drove into the car elevator, and, you might have guessed it already, there was a car parked on 32... it can't be, it just can't f'n be true!!!!!!!

<------->

After a nervous breakdown or two, I texted her again and this time she wrote back pretty quick (15 min) telling me it was space number 30 and the number on the keychain was wrong (!). On the last picture, you see one happy camper with his car finally parked.

Dan and the Sultan

I spent the last four days rehearsing with Dan Sultanov, a Russian singer, who just finished his first album at Sphere Studios and is now looking for a record company. The line up was/is:

Dan Sultanov - vox
Anthea Clarke - b-vox
Ciaron Bell - keys, b-vox
Lael Goldberg - guit
Jack Stevens - bass
Swiss Bloke - drums 

The rehearsals took place at the Joint close to King's Cross. Since I still don't have my drums up here (soon to change) I had to rent some drums from the place. They don't come cheap, I'll tell you... £108 for the four days (£3 per hour - no discount for four days renting). I'm thinking about buying a couple of kits and renting them out... there's a fortune to be made.
Well, anyway, SAT, SUN &MON rehearsing, and yesterday a couple of run-throughs for filming and for the guys of the rec company. The thing went down pretty smoothly! So now we wait and see...

Had a beer with Andreas Vollenweider later in the evening. What a nice guy!!! ...and his next album is gonna be great! (The one and only Walter Keiser on drums) Go have a listen once it's in the stores.

In The Studio

My first studio job in London is history.

The task was to record one song for PG in a very big and nice studio. The room was booked 'till 6pm by another customer, so the plan was to set up the drums (a beautiful '64 Ludwig champaign sparkle set) and start recording at 7pm. I arrived at the studio at 2pm, since AW wanted me to fool around with the mpc 5000. He's a big fan of this drum machine and he might need someone in the future to program some beats.
At 6pm, I started to set up the drums in the big room and at about 6.45 GG came over from studio 2 to do the soundcheck. The poor guy was in the middle of a mix, clearly overworked, but still did a fantastic job!
Well, we were ready to roll... everyone, with the exception of the computer... first Pro Tools didn't like the session, so we had to bounce it all to a new one. After that was done, it kept searching for a bt-mouse and crashing in the process... after a while, we found out, that the mouse/keyboard was broken (what are the odds), and after replacing it, everything was fine and ready to go. So at 9pm we started to record...
The song we recorded was somewhat of a power ballad, with a double time part at the end. AW wanted me to play with a Ringo-ish feel. Thank god I did my homework on that, and after three takes, it was done. AW laid down the bass (two takes) just five minutes before beer o'clock ;-)
I can't wait to hear the track once it's mixed and mastered.

My first Bank Account

Since I'll be making loads of money in London ;-) I was in need of a bank account.
If you want a bank account in Switzerland, here's how it works:

1. You enter the bank of your choice
2. You choose an account plan that fits you
3. You sign...
4. ...that's it. 5 minutes and off you go

Well, in England, I first had to make an appointment. I brought my passport as well as some proof of my address in Switzerland (bills and stuff). After a couple o' minutes of waiting, I was asked to see Bart in the office (Would you please follow me, sir). Passport and "proof of address" ready, I followed this gentleman to the offices where I was seated at Bart's desk. Hmmm, I just wanna open up an account, not apply for a loan or anything.
Bart turned out to be a very nice polish fellow, who guided me through the process. To make a long story short, after 75 minutes, I ended up with an account, but not before I told him my whole life story, my plans for the future (short term, medium term, long term - you get the idea...), my insurances I got in Switzerland, and so on. This bank now knows more about me, than my next of kin!
Well, anyway.

Tomorrow, I've got my first studio job, recording for AW and PV. I'm very excited and looking forward to this. I'll post some pictures when I get to it.
Whoops, look at the time, gotta go

My first job

After a week in London, I flew back to Switzerland to get my cymbals and my stick bag. I couldn't take my cymbal case into the cabin, so I had to leave them at the check-in desk... scary!!! My first audition was scheduled for Friday, 11th, for an already quit successful artist. He's looking for a guitar player (preferably female) and a drummer (f/m). I was booked to audition for the band as well as to accompany all the guitar auditions. I did a good job, if I may say so for myself, but there was this very cute, tall, blond girl, who really knows how to play drums... As I write this, I'm still waiting for them to make a decision. (still confident, but you never know) - well, anyway, let's talk about London for a change...
One thing, I didn't expect, was how friendly people in London are. Growing up and living in the countryside (Landei, as we say in Swiss-German), I thought the typical Londoner or any city dweller must be kinda rude. But then again, all the guys and gals I already knew from London are very nice people... prejudice is a "funny" thing, and I thought I was immune...