Stunt Drummer
Stunt Drummer has long been a fixture of the Portland underground, known for a sound that thrives on the edge of collapse. Their second album, “Warm Up, Tiger,” was released on April 17, marking a shift toward a more integrated style of collaboration. By weaving together contrasting musical backgrounds into a single volatile identity, the quartet has produced a record that mirrors the unhinged intensity of their live performances.
Recently, guitarist and vocalist Erik Becker and bassist Ethan Schee discussed the experiments that defined their most ambitious work yet.
YY: How do the different musical influences and disciplines of each band member influence what we hear on the new record?
EB: Is this a trick question ha ? The songs jump around from this to that as one can hear, we didn’t premeditate so much, it just happens. Things happen, we work on them, we edit, we eat and go forth.
ES: We’ve got a bunch of similar “north star” type influences that anchor what we do. Mostly though, it’s a lot of frantic diving into an idea and seeing if we can all ride it together. Throw it all in the fire-pit and see what melts and what explodes.
You've previously compared your songwriting to a "delicious goulash," where individual styles blend – which track on "Warm Up, Tiger" was the most difficult to balance so it didn't lean too heavily toward just one person?
EB: I don’t think any of them really, we are a 4 parts equal goulash band. We cross paths enough with our individual tastes that I think we do a pretty good job of everyone kind of knowing what they play (or don’t play) and how it feels within the song. And if not, someone will yell at someone and tell them to fucking stop, no just kidding, we are adults and handle matters within respectable conversation levels.
ES: Everything on the record is a product of each of us individually making it our own. That’s probably why it sometimes sounds so “all over the place.” When things don’t fit for whatever reason the song usually fizzles out and is replaced by something where we’ve each got our own flag to stick on the hill.
Given that you often "chisel away" at longer jams to find the right length, what is your collective criteria for deciding which "accidents" are worth keeping?
EB: Pretty much just the ones that sound good and make sense. Sometimes even after a song is “done” and after we keep playing them, we decide that we can play this one or that a little longer because it just sounds that fucking good to us and the general population should listen longer.
ES: We keep a continual dialogue going about song parts and what we’re thinking of them, so they’re rarely ever totally done, we can always make changes. That said, our sensibilities all lean toward songs with a solid beginning, middle and end. Things can get as weird or crazy as necessary, but we got to be out and on to the next in proper time.
This album demonstrates a more integrated and collaborative approach to songwriting than previous records – how did you go about implementing this shift, and what challenges did it present?
EB: I think the primary shift was we now had a regular drummer, our beloved J, whereas on the initial record, we had like 11 drummers.
ES: The first recording was just us trying to get everything we’d been making into the world. We didn’t have a drummer yet and we wanted to get one and play shows. It was more of a tool to move forward. This record is a full-scale project and statement of intent from us.
Since recording has reportedly made your live shows tighter, how do you balance this cohesiveness with the unpredictable energy that makes live performances special?
EB: Ha, we don’t? The more unpredictable the better, we all just learn to adapt and roll with it.
ES: The songs are tighter when we play them live and now, we can mess with them more. There’s a couple that have evolved slightly just in time since the record came out. That kind of continuation of each song’s life makes every time we play it unique…to us at least.
What's next for Stunt Drummer?
SD: We are calf deep in working on new material for a follow up EP or full length, whichever the courts/judicial proceedings allow first.
ES: Adding to the riff pile…extracting from the riff pile…constructing a giant mecha-riff-bot.
