36-47 Vibes
3/10/08
9:33 AM
Page 46
ZAC FARRO
“Some days he would take all my toms and cymbals away, saying I was playing too many fills” “He calls it Bendeth Boot Camp,” Farro says, still perky despite his transatlantic jetlag, “and he does it with every band, just breaks them down and reworks them.” Bendeth is David Bendeth, producer of bands like Hawthorne Heights, Killswitch Engage, and now Paramore, and his boot camp is a month-long musical melioration designed to turn good bands into great bands, to turn dreams and aspirations into hit singles and gold records. It’s intense; it’s effective (see: Grammy nod); and it’s not for the squeamish. “Going into recording this record I thought I’d be pretty good at it because of my expe-
rience with the first record and the work we did on the demos, but I was totally wrong. Bendeth was such a hard ass. He totally worked us. At one point he sat me down and said, ‘Zac, I know you’re 16 but you’re playing like a 16-year-old and you need to play like a 25-yearold. You’re just not playing well enough for this record.’ He knew I had the potential and that’s why he was so hard on me. He totally broke us down and rebuilt us. “A lot of times it was pretty emotional. I was pretty young – well, I still am – and I had this guy constantly over my shoulder telling me I sucked, just to make me better. I didn’t
quite get it at the time but my brother [guitarist Josh] told me to stick it out, that Bendeth was just trying to get the best out of me. And when I listen to the tracks I feel like what he did was worth it.” Farro’s playing on Riot! certainly does display a level of preparedness and craftsmanship that puts him well beyond his now 17 years. His drum stylings are creative and expressive without being distracting and overbearing. He plays to the song, but can easily be considered a highlight as well. The hard work paid off – and there was plenty of hard work. “Before we even started preproduction, Bendeth wrote down a list of things he wanted me to work on: consistency, velocity, all these things. But the main thing was consistency with the kick drum, snare, and hi-hat, and to make sure I hit the toms the same way all the way down the kit. Some days he would take all my toms and cymbals away, saying I was
QUICK LICKS
“For A Pessimist I’m Pretty Optimistic” = ca. 206 0:38
VITALS Paramore 17 BIRTHPLACE New Jersey INFLUENCES William Goldsmith, Dave Grohl, Riley Breckenridge, Zach Lind CURRENT RELEASE Riot! WEB SITE paramore.net BAND AGE
ALL GEARED UP Truth Meinl STICKS Pro-Mark HEADS Evans MICROPHONES Shure DRUMS
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playing too many fills. He was so crazy. He’s a wild dude. “On several different occasions we would sit in the preproduction room – just me, Bendeth and our bass player, Jeremy [Davis] – and we’d play funk music, jazz music, country music. We’d play with a click track and we’d just do it to groove, playing the same thing for three or four hours at a time. We’d take turns playing solos and everything.” TRANSCRIPTION BY JOHN
Zac Farro’s considerable talents as a drummer are highlighted by his key musical attribute: an incredibly short attention span. Tune out for five seconds and chances are you’ve missed two or three new grooves and an assortment of newly unveiled fill material. All too often this type of playing can leave a listener weary and unsatisfied, but Farro’s performance has the opposite effect. Instead of sounding unfocused and immature, the material comes across as
NATELLI
exhilarating and highly evolved, making for an altogether exciting and downright fun listening experience. Within this 20-second excerpt from “For A Pessimist I’m Pretty Optimistic,” Farro conquers no less than four completely different groove feels, labeled A, B, C, and D, each of which add to the music as much as the last and indicate a very particular sense of craftsmanship.
A
R L
B
C R
D
42 DRUM!
drummagazine.com
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L R
L R