Humdrum

Humdrum: So let’s get started with your early influences. How did you get started playing drums?

Preston Lane: I started playing drums about 14 or 15 years ago. We always had instruments in the house like bass guitars, guitars, stuff like that and my older brother first started playing drums when I was really young. I guess being the younger brother I wanted to kind of follow in his footsteps so I started playing drums a little bit.

So he decided if you’re going to do this I’m going to do something different and learn the bass. Then we started jamming more and so we’d try to be competitive. He would play drums still and I’d try to one up him all the time. Just try to be better and better, I mean, I give a lot of credit to him how we learned and grew.

Humdrum: You guys must have been a kick ass rhythm section...

Preston Lane: It’s still funny to this day when I see him, we always have a music room. He’s got a music room in his house and I’ll see him and hook up with him and stuff and we’ll start jamming like it’s back in the old house when we were growing up. It’s a lot of fun.

Humdrum: What drummers did you like when you were growing up?

Preston Lane: The Police’s Stewart Copeland, I’m a big fan of Dave Grohl, Taylor Hawkins,  even Carter Beauford of the Dave Matthews band,  so I guess it’s a wide variety but mainly just rock drummers I looked up to, just solid, in the pocket rock drummers.

Humdrum: Are there any newer guys you’re into?

Preston Lane: I don’t know, I still enjoy those drummers, you know.....Taylor Hawkins from the Foo Fighters is still pretty influential.

Humdrum:  You’re not the original drummer of Seabird. When did you join the band?

Preston Lane: It started happening about the first of this year. They were starting to pick up more and more dates and were still looking for a drummer. They auditioned several guys and I auditioned with them and I think the first date I did with them was South by Southwest down in Texas. Then from there they kept on asking me to go out on tours. I think this year was the take off year for the band where it just kind of blew up, you know, really starting to gain momentum and I guess they like me and so they kept me around.

Humdrum: How was it stepping into an existing situation, learning the material etc.? Was it difficult?

Preston Lane: It wasn’t that difficult. The only part that made it difficult was that he (Aaron Hunt) is a different style player than I am, so I tried to pick up as much as I could from what he was doing. Growing up I used to listen to cd’s and try to mimic whatever anybody was doing, so it was sort of a throwback to that, just sitting there listening to it and just sort of jamming to it figuring out what he was doing and how he did it.

One of their biggest complaints on that record having it recorded was not really being able to kind of pick out the drum parts or guitar parts, bass parts, it just seemed like it was not mixed well for them. So on this new record that we’re doing it seems like we’re really taking steps to make sure that you can really define what’s being played instead just a whole bunch of craziness happening.

Humdrum: Are you guys still working on the new record? Have you done your parts yet?

Preston Lane: Yeah, we wrapped it up about two weeks ago. We did six songs here in Nashville and then we went to L.A. and we did another four and then we came back here and did two more.

Humdrum: How was the experience making this record?

Preston Lane: We recorded with Paul Moak. He’s a great guitar player, great piano player and it was just a relaxed, chill environment. He had so many instruments set up around his studio, he’s got like 30-40 guitars just hanging on the walls that anyone you can just grab and start recording with and he’s got all these different organs and pianos that are all mic’d up so you really don’t have to worry about setting it up, it’s more like this thing sounds cool here let’s dial it in and go for it.

Humdrum: How about the drums?

Preston Lane: He had a small drum room but he had some big sounds. I think he’s worked on it a lot to hone in on a good sound for a smaller room. We used a Gretsch kit, and it sounded great. When we went out to Burbank to record with Aqualung (Matt Hales) we used Ocean Studios, it’s like a legendary studio where everybody’s recorded. It was a big jump because it was like a warehouse style room, tall ceilings. I think they used 18 or 19 mics just for drums.

Humdrum: How does the band go about writing and how much input do the other members have on your drum parts?

Preston Lane: I’ve only been with the guys for a few months and we’re still trying to feel each other out as far as that goes, I think anyways. When we started preparing for this album it was more or less, Aaron (Morgan) the lead vocalist/piano player, he came to us with demos that he did, whether they were three minute demos of a completed song or a minute and a half demo of a verse and a chorus and then we’d kind of go off with those ideas and say, what kind of feel do you want for the song, what do we want to get out of this, does it want to be upbeat, totally take one direction or take to another direction.

Some of it was my own input, some of it was Aaron or Ryan (Morgan, guitarist) and we’d just come to an agreement. This is the direction the song should go and we just went for it.  A lot of the songs on this new record were handed to me in this fashion... maybe a week before and we were tracking it a few days later. So there wasn’t a whole bunch of time to prepare or hone what you wanted, it was more or less this is what’s going to fit for the song, it’s what’s going to work and let’s lay that that down.

Humdrum: Seabird is pretty piano driven, do you find yourself focusing more on what the piano is doing as opposed to the guitars or bass? Some of the influences you mentioned and I’ve heard some tracks from another band you’ve been in that are more guitar oriented...

Preston Lane: Yeah, it was definitely a different approach than I’ve done in the past and I really feel like if anything it stretched me, because when you’re dealing with rhythm off of piano it’s totally different whether it’s like starting the song or how you want to get in and get out.  It was a little tricky, but it was fine.

Humdrum: What’s your set up like? I heard you just recently became a Risen endorser.

Preston Lane: Right now I have a Gretsch kit, it’s a 22” kick, 12” tom, and a 16” floor tom. I’m excited about this new kit I’m going to be getting from Risen, they’re going to make me a 24”x14” kick so it’s going to be a bigger drum and a shallower drum at the same time and I’m going to do a 13” rack tom and a 16” floor tom. So a little bit bigger size for the rack tom. When we recorded we used a lot of 24” kicks and we used 13” rack toms pretty much the entire time and it sounded great. I kind of fell in love with that sound.

Humdrum: Yeah I don’t think I’ve ever had the chance to play a 24” kick before...

Preston Lane: Yeah, it’s very nice man, you can’t tell a big difference in the feel of it. Kicking into it because you really don’t have to change where it’s going to hit too much as far as where the pedal goes, but it just sounds much bigger and fatter.

Humdrum: What kind of cymbals do you use?

Preston Lane: Right now I have a mix of Sabian and Zildjian. 14” Zildjian New Beat Hi-hats right now. I’m borrowing a Sabian 18” crash cymbal from a friend of mine and then I have a Zildjian 20” medium ride and then I mix it up and throw different stuff up all the time for my other crash. Usually it’s a Zildjian 19” medium crash. To me, that’s the next step to decide which direction to go down.

Humdrum: How did the relationship with Risen come about?

Preston Lane: I was contacted by Shine drums and they said they were interested in endorsing me and that’s what kind of what first sparked it. I talked to Spaun drums, and they were interested and wanted me as well. and then I talked to Taye Drums, and they were interested.

I ended up going to Risen because we played a few shows with a band called Needtobreathe, and they were already good friends of the band and I got to know Joe (Stillwell) their drummer and had several different drum conversations with him about his drum endorsement with Risen. They seemed to care a lot about the artist and Keith over there has been super cool to me and I’m looking forward to working with the guys over there. They seem really down to earth.

Humdrum: Cool, nice to hear....moving away from the actual drums themselves, do you think there’s a spiritual side to drumming?

Preston Lane: I do. I think you have to give your all to a song. I think an audience can tell when you’re bored with a song or sick of a song and I think if you don’t give everything you have and to me giving everything you have is not just physically giving everything you have but you have to play the song.

Humdrum: Do you play any other instruments besides drums?

Preston Lane: Yeah, I’ve played guitar for about 11 years and even in some of the bands I’ve played in in the past I’ve played guitar.

Humdrum: Do you write stuff too?

Preston Lane: A little bit, nothing that’ll end up on an album or anything.

Five Totally Random Questions With Preston Lane

What’s the strangest thing you’ve ever bought online?

PL: Nothing strange, just drum stuff usually.

Have you ever been attacked by a wild animal?

PL: No.. (laughs)

What’s you favorite pizza topping?

PL: I guess I would say extra cheese.

Earliest childhood memory?

PL: Going to Disney World, going on the rides.

How would you rate your Humdrumonline experience today?

A)    Kick drum, B) Snare, C) Tom or D) Tambourine.

PL: Tambourine’s cool. I’ve been dealing a lot with tambourines lately especially for this band. We played around a lot with them on the new recording.






Mike Flaherty - Drummer (and Director of Content for Humdrum online)