Custom played drum tracks

[pdalmolin]

Hello Everybody,
My name name is Phil Dalmolin from San Antonio Texas, I’ve been playing drums for over 30 years and with some of the top names in country music.
Johnny Bush, Fiddlin’ Frenchie Burke, Barbara Fairchild,
Adolph Hofner and the Pearl Wranglers, Bobby Flores,
Clay Blaker and The Dixie Chicks to name a few.

I get many calls from frustrated songwriters in their own home studios
who can’t get loops or programmed drums to sound right or even come
close on traditional blues or country music (even most rock). That’s because
heart and soul can’t be imported into your living music tracks like
so much data. Blazing hot machine chops and nifty cool beat patterns
written and programmed with the intentions of selling drum machines are not
what makes your song great. Real drums that are played by a musician and support the music in your song is what's needed.
If you produce your own music in your own home studio, go check out my website.

RealStudioDrums.com

Happy recording!

[brandondrury]

You are right, dude. Most programmed stuff turns out sounding lack lust, at best.

Tell me about your work for the Dixie Chicks. My buddy, Eric Conn, has mastered a couple of their records.

Brandon

[pdalmolin]

dude! I logged in and wrote you a pretty detailed reply about the chicks. when I clicked submit, it threw me to the log in page and I supppose all i wrote was lost....DANG!

[pdalmolin]

in short ....i worked with them back in 96-97ish. They are great. emily and i lived a few blocks from each other at the time and she was kinda like a sister...always fed me, gave me old boyfriends cool clothes. That kinda thing. i didn't play on the first album, but lots of my ideas made it. we would record on a little cassette, ideas for songs the label would pitch the chicks. In most cases the studio band played it pretty much how we arranged it in emily's living room. I was glad I was gone when all the anti-GW stuff happened. I'm from the old school...shut up and sing.
No matter...I love them tho and always will....

[brandondrury]

dude! I logged in and wrote you a pretty detailed reply about the chicks. when I clicked submit, it threw me to the log in page and I supppose all i wrote was lost....DANG!

Yeah, sorry. I have a big new mod thats in "beta mode". That combined with the forum growing rapidly the past few months and overloading the server has caused some performance issues.

It looks like I'm going to need to make a major server upgrade soon. Great!


That's really cool that you were in on the "ground floor" of Dixie Chick deal. I don't know anyone who has been explosively successful like that. Just out of curiosity, has that benefitted you in any small way from making contacts or whatever? I mean, have you ever met Robin Williams from this?

Brandno

[pdalmolin]

I did meet Leonardo DiCaprio at Stubbs Barbeque joint in Austin. We were doing a show with Radney Foster and he was hanging with Radney....don't know why. Played some for George Bush when he was gov of Texas, shook his hand. He hired the Chicks to play hoity toity functions which I think was kinda shitty of ....never mind, I'll shut up...
Being with the Chicks has looked good on my resume and probably helped my career some. Other than my not agreeing with their political stuff, I really enjoyed my year with them. Played lots of great venues. I wish them all the best.

I've had the opportunity to meet a whole lot of big stars and famous people down thru the years and it's been great. Toured Europe for 6 week runs for several years in a row. That was cool. Met my wife there (Germany). Yesterday was our 6 year anniversary.

I ain't done yet!

[brandondrury]

It sounds like you've done alright without getting a real job. I always have tremendous respect for that. I'm still fighting the good fight as a engineer / webmaster dude and hoping for some good luck to kick in sometime.

One other question. How did you hook up with the Dixie Chicks originally? Were they already something?

The Political thing is a tough gig. Some people look at music as being for fun. (Kiss, Motley Crue). Other people think music should be more than just fun. Older John Lennon comes to mind. I think the world needs both.

I've dealt with a lot of bands over the years. Some have little to say and looking for syllables to fill up guitar riffs. Some really have a message that they feel is their obligation to share with the world. Personally, I'd always prefer to work with people who have a real conviction...unless they are socialists. (That's a different story).

Brandon

[pdalmolin]

I've been lucky enough to never have to do a day job thing except in spurts here and there. On the other hand, I've spent many years on the road losing wives and time with my kids. So is that lucky? I would trade it all if my son had not had some of the hard knocks in life because he had a dad who was around to teach him how to behave.
When I got the gig with the Chicks I lived in Dallas at the time and a friend called and told me they were auditoning drummers. I auditioned and got the gig. They had just signed with Sony and their previous drummer Tom Van Shaiks up and quit. I never really knew why. I assume because he was with them for 6 years before the "deal" then he found that he wasn't a "member" just a sideman..so he quit. He went with Robert Earl Keene who was offering him way more money anyway. The Chicks paid (me)at the time $120 per play date with a minimum of $1100 per month. $25 per day per dium and $25 per rehearsal. Some of my ideas that made the album....By God, I got $25 for those. There was a lot of dead time for the musicians because they were in Nashville recording and shopping for songs for the first album. Also doing radio shows and promoting. I had a chance to move on and do some producing so I did. It was fun while it lasted...

[brandondrury]

I've been lucky enough to never have to do a day job thing except in spurts here and there. On the other hand, I've spent many years on the road losing wives and time with my kids. So is that lucky? I would trade it all if my son had not had some of the hard knocks in life because he had a dad who was around to teach him how to behave.

I was walking home from my mom's last night. (One mile walk. I take my dog.) I had a few opportunities to go the "high road" of audio engineering and intern under a BIG producer. I combined that with the line in Band of Brothers that says "As a testament to Joe's character, he had 1,600 people attend his funeral". It occured to me that by being the guy that does family crap on Fridays and walks the dog, I probably am not increasing the size of my funeral attendance, but this lifestyle would lend itself well to family/fatherhood.

This whole life thing is tricky! Trying to have an awesome career and be an awesome dad appears to be damn near impossible. Then again, there are a lot of dad's who are around all the time and are assholes that don't get along with their kids.

In my various travels meeting big wigs in Nashville and elsewhere, I've found that a larger percentage of pro audio engineers/producers are divorced than in the real world. Ironically, most of fortunes these guys made went with the wives. They get a bigger funeral, I guess.

THANKS for sharing the numbers you were making with the Dixie Chicks! I love seeing interesting "statistics" like that. When a person says "I worked with the Dixie Chicks" you expect them to be a raging success. You were making about as much as a Burger King assistant manager at the time! haha Of course, who knows where that did / could lead.

Out of curiosity, what has been your most financially successful move in the music biz? I've been slugging it out in the local studio world for some time now and trying to figure out what's coming ahead.

Brandon

[pdalmolin]

My best financial gains have been selling a solo album and gigging on a state fair circuit with a band that played those circuits. The band was called "the Shoppe". They were a variety/show band. It was basically couple of brothers who had played this circuit for years and they were able to sell merch like I've never seen. $100K was a mediocre summer for them in merch only! CD's, t-shirts, caps, sweatshirts, photos. They had last years CD, the year before that CD, this years CD, a Christmas album.... I can still hear Clarke barking like a fair-way guy at the carnival..."Folks, normally these albums are $15 each, but just because we love Seattle, at this fair only, you can get TWO for $25!!" We would swoop the crowd after a show, CD's and sharpie's in hand, selling and autographing...

They paid me $175 a day in 97' plus $25 per dium. Unlike the Chicks who had 6 and 8 dates a month, maybe...these guys play dates were 18 days in a row, 24 days in a row, 7 days in a row...with only 2 and 3 travel days in between. Like that from May to October, mostly pure profit. The first year I was with them I saw what was going on and thought "holy moly, I need an album (CD) to put on the table next to theirs!" The market was in place I just needed product. So over the winter months I threw one together. In fair season '98 I made all my gig money PLUS $8k in profits after paying the costs. I used a studio and hired players. All that came off the top. I sold appx 1000 copies at an average $15 each.
That being said, down thru the years I've played with many acts, some big, been there, done that. Never made any real money. Like you say, a fast food manager does better than me. I do a corporate band gig now locally that's pretty cool. We play company events and private parties. Averages $300-$400 per gig. I also teach at Bulverde Academy of Music here in San Antonio. I do better staying home. I'm old now (54) and I would have to be offered a lot of money to leave my wife, comfortable home, new grandbaby, dog, to go out and tour. No one is going to offer an old fart like me that when they can get young eager (and damned good) players to do it for chump change, like I did decades ago. That's why I'm trying to get this Realstudiodrums.com thing going, so I can stay here with my family and provide a service that people use/need. Win/win, I see it...