E-drumming at the holy grail

Quebec-based artist and musician Antonio de Braga has just returned from the holy grail of music recording, Abbey Road Studios, in London, where he spent a day experimenting with acoustic and electronic drums.

The e-drummer, who shared his innovative upright bass-style e-cajon with digitalDrummer a few years back (dD, Nov 2016), says his latest project was about “getting the best recording I could from my e-drums and playing acoustic drums as a layer to get the best of both worlds”.

de Braga had dreamed of visiting Abbey Road 50 years ago when he saw The Beatles’ movies, and more recently began thinking about recording at the legendary studio, so he researched the facilities and services on offer.

He had his eye on the famed Studio Three, the smallest of the three original rooms at Abbey Road, often described as “the blueprint for the modern recording studio”, thanks to its 90 years of music history including sessions by The Beatles, Pink Floyd, Lady Gaga, Amy Winehouse and dozens of other luminaries.

The studio is very much in demand, and it was pure luck that de Braga’s request coincided with a last-minute cancellation.

de Braga travelled from Canada for the one-day session, taking his Sensory Percussion modules and sensors and a laptop loaded with 15 presets. He also brought the stems of a couple of tracks by Taiwanese artist Kristin Hsiang, with whom he has been collaborating.

“I rented the acoustic Ludwig kit they have there and they put 14 mics around,” he says, still marvelling at the natural reverb which blended well with the output of the electronic sensors.

The Canadian was captivated by the atmosphere which he says was like a church: “It’s amazing how calm and peaceful this place is and all the people working there have such good energy.

“You can feel the history there as soon as you step through the door,” he recalls, noting that even his 16-year-old daughter commented on the sense of history.

Abbey Road provided two engineers for the project – New Zealand-born Chris Bolster (Al Di Meola, Foo Fighters, John Fogerty, Kate Bush, Oasis, Matthew Herbert, Maroon 5, Ozzy Osbourne, Paul McCartney, Ray LaMontagne and Take That) and his assistant, Freddie Light (Kendrick Lamar, Yussef Dayes, Jimmy Page, Elton John, Glass Animals, Maverick Sabre).

“Before my arrival, I shared lots of information about my own music and videos so that they could see what I like and was aiming for,” de Braga says.

Besides recordings for his collaborations with Hsiang, de Braga says he came away from his day at the studio with “personal satisfaction and a better understanding of an ideal sound world”.

“From this experience, I have a reference of what my work sounds like in the best environment. I’m always very curious and research is more important than the result. I like to experiment and find new ways to do things, to make life even more interesting,” he says.

Like The Beatles, de Braga would love to Get Back, since one visit to Abbey Road was nowhere near enough: “I would love to return with some other musicians. There are some musicians I collaborate with in Italy, Taiwan and England – and I’d like to get them in the studio for some recordings.”

In the meanwhile, de Braga will continue to explore the possibilities with his Sensory Percussion rig and push the boundaries of visual art through his digital explorations.

Check out Antonio’s work at www.behance.net/antoniodebraga and his music, including the tracks recorded at Abbey Road, at antoniodebraga.bandcamp.com