The Sounds We Made: Ferrier Blog

Almost two months ago, on April 19th, 2012, one of my absolute...

Mon, 04 Jun 2012 13:15:41 -0500

Almost two months ago, on April 19th, 2012, one of my absolute favorite musicians passed away after a long battle with cancer. His name was Levon Helm, and besides being one of my favorite drummers and a tremendous influence on my playing, he was widely beloved as a significant figure in the history of American music, particularly as a drummer and vocalist with The Band. There have been countless drummers who have made a lasting impact on the art of drumming and Levon is certainly among them, but I don’t know that any drummer has ever made such a lasting contribution to American music as a whole.

I won’t attempt to write a biography here, nor will I try to explain the breadth of Levon’s influence; that’s already been done by people far more knowledgeable than me. But when I heard of Levon’s passing back in April, I was deeply moved, even more than I expected to be. I grew up listening to The Band’s music as my father played their records around the house, and one of the greatest musical experiences of my life was seeing Levon perform with his friends at the Ryman Auditorium in 2008. As I’ve reflected on his life and revisited much of his music, it’s made me more aware of his brilliance than ever before, and it’s made me want to attempt to share what an impact he’s made on me.

As a total drum-nerd, I feel like I could carry on an endless conversation with other drum-nerds about the incredible qualities of Levon’s playing: the inimitable swagger of his groove, the weight of his laid-back-but-never-late backbeat, the way he often subdivided the beat in that perfect space between straight and shuffled, the creativity and orchestrations of the drum parts he wrote, and the sound of the wood-hooped, calfskin-headed drums he often used; the list goes on and on. But I think the most remarkable quality of his playing is one that appeals far beyond the drummers that appreciate his music: the way his drumming dances around his soulful, gritty vocal, reacting to it, phrasing around and in-between each line, as if the two were intimately familiar dancers perfectly matching each-other’s steps . And it wasn’t just when he was singing either; you can hear the same dance happening when any of the other amazing vocalists in The Band are taking the lead - he was paying just as much attention to their vocals as if he had been the one singing.

The video above, featuring The Band performing “The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down” from Martin Scorsese’s 1978 film The Last Waltz, is a perfect example of this quality (if you get a chance to hear the original studio recording from 1969’s The Band, it may be an even better example). The feel is simply unbelievable, but I can’t get over the subtle interjections and reactions around and in-between the vocal phrases as his deeply-evocative voice tells the story of a Southerner watching his family’s entire life change forever in the midst of the American Civil War. The vocal performance itself is breathtaking, but I can’t imagine a more supportive accompaniment from the drums; it’s just perfect, and it elevates the impact of the lyrics to another level entirely.

Of all the things I love about Levon, that’s the quality that I most want to hear in my own playing. When we make music in Ferrier, one of our most important goals is to make every musical decision in a way that supports the song and moves it forward, and one of the best ways we can do that is to shape all of our instrumental performances in a way that is constantly aware of - and reactive to - Brandon’s vocal. Levon has been a huge influence on me in this regard, and I love being in a band where all the other guys have been influenced in a similar way, whether by Levon or by other remarkable musicians. It’s something this band is always striving for, and hopefully something we’re achieving more fully as we continue on our journey.

Thank you so much, Levon, for the music and the inspiration. I am forever grateful.

—Jason

This is by far our favorite other “Ferrier” in the...

Mon, 28 May 2012 20:50:31 -0500

This is by far our favorite other “Ferrier” in the world.

Al sure does get a lot of love in this pic, but what about the Billies? Who are they? How many are there? Male or female? Or both? How does someone who is “boppin” conduct themselves? So many questions….

La Casa de Mi Padre & Ferrier

Mon, 28 May 2012 20:45:44 -0500

La Casa de Mi Padre & Ferrier:

We had the amazing opportunity to play a benefit show last week for an amazing organization called La Casa de Mi Padre in El Salvador. This organization helps out kids coming from bad situations and literally redirect the course of their lives. We were honored to be asked to play and help raise money to support the cause.

The link included in this entry is for the La Casa Facebook page. Please take a second to check them out, LIKE them, and maybe even help support them financially.

Here’s a look behind of one of my favorite songs off the...

Sun, 29 Apr 2012 16:57:01 -0500

Here’s a look behind of one of my favorite songs off the new album. “Don’t You Go Quickly” begins with a simple guitar riff that was inspired somewhere between the Beatles’ “Please Please Me” & the Strokes’ “Room on Fire.” Enjoy!

-WH

Bandcamp & Ferrier

Wed, 25 Apr 2012 16:06:31 -0500

Before Ferrier made the journey into iTunes and other digital media stores such as Amazon, we made our first internet appearance on a site called Bandcamp.

This site is an amazing tool for independent artists such as Ferrier- it gives us an outlet to release music and keeps a much lower percentage of sales than other music stores. It also allows fans the ability to stream a complete album FOR FREE before making a purchase. Pretty unbelievable.

We released our EP (short album) called AN ECHO in 2010 exclusively on Bandcamp. To this day, you can still only stream and purchase this four song debut on this website. So if you want to look at Ferrier’s baby pictures, go listen to this EP to get the full view of Ferrier in it’s infancy.

Earlier this year, we released our first full LP (long album) called WALLS AND SHADOWS. Even though we released this album on every digital music store we could find, we felt it right to stick with out old faithful and release this on Bandcamp as well.

So go check out this awesome site. Listen to our music. Buy our music. Search for some good other music from other independent artists too. We promise it’s a good time.

Since we’re posting behind the song videos, I decided I’d give a...

Wed, 18 Apr 2012 15:21:36 -0500

Since we’re posting behind the song videos, I decided I’d give a bit more in depth “behind the song” explanation of our song Chase Her. I started this song about my niece Haley. She was in town visiting and we were at my parent’s house when she asked me to play the piano for her so she could dance. I started playing the chords that eventually became Chase Her and started making words up to go along. All the while my beautiful niece was dancing next to me “spinning around in her princess dress,” quite literally.

I’m good at making songs up on the spot, it’s a talent of mine. However, they tend to need a good bit of tweaking before you ever get to hear them. This one is no exception. I had the verses pretty quickly, but the chorus took a bit longer to come. So the verses are completely about my niece. But for the choruses I shifted gears a bit.

It just so happened that I was hanging out a lot at that time with a girl that I was starting to adore (now my wife). We had been friends awhile, but the line was starting to get fuzzied a bit. I decided I wanted to pull her over to the other side of that line and make her love me. She wasn’t so sure about that quite yet. So there had to be a chase. It was quite a chase, and this Chorus came from the depths of it.

As Paul Harvey would say, “And now you know the rest of the story.” Stay tuned for more inside info by following this blog or @ferriermusic on twitter. Sign up for our newsletter at ferriermusic.com and purchase the album Walls and Shadows on iTunes. Love,

Journeys, TOMS, and Ferrier

Sat, 14 Apr 2012 10:59:27 -0500

Journeys, TOMS, and Ferrier:

We are so honored to have our song “Go On, Get Out of My Head” used in a promo video by Journey’s Shoes for the TOMS “One Day Without Shoes” campaign. Check out the video to see how the good people at Journey’s helped promote this amazing cause.

Behind the Song video interviews

Fri, 06 Apr 2012 13:36:29 -0500

We recently released 3 video interviews for songs off our debut record WALLS AND SHADOWS. We are so proud of these songs and are happy to give you a behind the scenes look into our process. We have one more video in this series to be released next Monday April 9.

Here is our YouTube page with the videos. Enjoy!!! http://www.youtube.com/user/ferriermusic/videos

The Boss on Pop Music (a history)

Mon, 26 Mar 2012 17:37:36 -0500

As the keynote speaker at this year’s SxSW, Bruce Springsteen gave a brilliantly concise history of pop music: what it is, where it’s been, where it’s heading, and most of all, why it’s important. Citing everyone from Woody Guthrie to Public Enemy, he eloquently and humorously reminded those in attendance why music moves people. It’s worth a listen.

-WH

http://www.npr.org/2012/03/16/148778665/bruce-springsteens-sxsw-2012-keynote-speech

As a supplement to the audio in the previous post, here’s...

Fri, 16 Mar 2012 23:10:00 -0500

As a supplement to the audio in the previous post, here’s a glimpse at some of the equipment involved in creating our sounds: Ableton Live, and the APC40 MIDI controller. If it looks like it can fly a spaceship, it’s because it can…

(*NOTE: to play the audio associated with this post, click the...

Fri, 16 Mar 2012 23:03:00 -0500

(*NOTE: to play the audio associated with this post, click the “Posted X hours/days ago” link at the bottom of this text field. You will be directed to a full-page post with an audio clip. Take the time to do it- it’s awesome.)

Given that we, the boys of Ferrier, love making sounds so much that we name songs and blogs after the process, I figured I’d post a little insight into how some of our sounds get made.

One of my favorite sounds on Walls and Shadows appears in the opening track (You I’m Running From), and was actually created from the very first sounds you hear on the record, the electric guitars of Mr. Will Harrison. As I was looking for a specific sound to appear in the bridge of the song, I decided to sample Will’s opening guitar melody and manipulate it Ableton Live, one of the most amazing sound creation tools I’ve ever seen, and my go-to application for music-making. By slicing the guitar signal into 16th-note fragments, then adding a chain of effects, then playing patterns of slices using a MIDI controller, a sound began to emerge that seemed just right for the bridge, and it ended up making its way into the second verse and the last chord of the song as well.

Take a listen to hear the progression of the sound from guitar riff to finished track. Enjoy! - Jason

A trip into the Ferrier past..... "An Echo"

Wed, 14 Mar 2012 18:33:22 -0500

A trip into the Ferrier past..... "An Echo":

Our debut full-length album “Walls and Shadows” was released last week. But what happened in Ferrier before this record? Well wouldn’t you like to know?!?

Check out the above link to Bandcamp to buy our 2010 EP called “An Echo”. It features 3 tunes not on W&S and even has an early version of “I’m Sorry”. These tunes are only available on this site for a limited time, so get it while you can!!!

After over a year of hard work, we finally released our record...

Thu, 08 Mar 2012 17:10:55 -0600

After over a year of hard work, we finally released our record “Walls and Shadows.” Then you, or at least some of you, came out to celebrate with us at 3rd and Lindsley on March 5th. This picture is a small peek into my (Brandon) side of things. We’ll be hitting the stage again sometime in April. To know exactly when sign up for our email list HERE. And if you can’t wait until then to hear our new album, you can buy it on iTunes, HERE. Until next time,

Here is a box of our CDs. Can’t tell you how stoked we...

Sun, 04 Mar 2012 20:23:11 -0600

Here is a box of our CDs. Can’t tell you how stoked we were when these arrived last Wednesday. It was like Christmas.Can’t wait to start spreading the music and getting these in people hands. -jh

Here is a screenshot of our new website. It’s purty. Check it...

Sun, 04 Mar 2012 20:19:10 -0600

Here is a screenshot of our new website. It’s purty.

Check it out at www.ferriermusic.com.

We got the physical copies of our album in the mail today!!...

Thu, 01 Mar 2012 10:44:48 -0600

We got the physical copies of our album in the mail today!! CDs!!!!!

Now this record actually exists. Anybody want one? -jh

Promo Video for CD Release Show- talking dog!!!

Wed, 29 Feb 2012 18:40:52 -0600

Promo Video for CD Release Show- talking dog!!!:

We shot a video today for our upcoming CD release show next week. It took about 3 minutes to shoot. It would have taken 20 seconds but we kept laughing. And “we” includes our videographer/video editor for the bit.

Special thanks to Buddy the Dog for being such a good sport about the whole thing. He is a total pro.

Disc art for “Walls and Shadows”. See it first,...

Wed, 22 Feb 2012 20:50:21 -0600

Disc art for “Walls and Shadows”. See it first, here. The only other place you will ever get to see it…. on an actual CD. Sorry digital music listeners- gotta come to a show and buy the real deal to hold one in your hand.

Twitterers: Follow us. Here. Please

Wed, 22 Feb 2012 20:46:33 -0600

Twitterers: Follow us. Here. Please

Facebookers- Like us. Here. Please.

Wed, 22 Feb 2012 20:45:25 -0600

Facebookers- Like us. Here. Please.