Stray From The Path drummer Craig Reynolds is pretty sick of bands using pre-recorded kick drums during live shows, and he's making it well known.
It all started when Reynolds tweeted "some of your favourite bands have ALL their kick drums on track and you’re so dumb you don’t notice," and later followed it by saying "I’m hoping it’s just because I called everyone dumb but it seems like everyone is okay with this. Don’t bother practicing or becoming proficient kids, it’s the taking part that counts!!!!!!!!"
Of course this opened Pandora's box and the questions started flying. Some folks wanted the names of the bands that were doing it, while others were either in disbelief or resigned to that fact that a lot of live shows simply have some help. Given the curiosity (and accusations) around loads of bands using backing tracks live lately, it's not too surprising that this conversation popped off.
Reynolds then further elaborated in a series of tweets: "Putting ALL of the kick drum on a backing track is like having a football team with one player who is secretly an android, but then everyone just going 'ah cool that android is absolutely murdering everyone again and scored 500 goals, love this!'
"I guess there will always be people who just want to see a 'spectacle' regardless of talent or hard work. each to their own but those people will be the first to 'make their own' music with AI and stop supporting artists. I hate everything about music except music.
"The most annoying part of this whole thing has been people using the term 'triggers' for this. triggering is absolutely fine and if anything it makes your mistakes FAR more noticeable. completely pretending to play one of your drums while it does complex patterns: not cool"
"My second favourite takes of the day are the people who think that because they've never seen or worked with anyone who puts their kick drums on track that it can't possibly happen. Well I've never seen anyone fuck a dog but i'm sure it happens somewhere.
"I'm sorry that you haven't seen this happen at the 20 capacity slim jims saloon but I assure you some dogs are getting fucked at the o2 academy
"Not disrespecting a small capacity shows btw I mean this is stuff you can ONLY get away with in bigger venues or else everyone on the front row would just hear it lmao
"And if someone with history of working with/around dogfuckers tells me it happens, I'd probably just believe it and not die on some weird dog fucking conspiracy hill"
Frankly, I can see where Reynolds is coming from and I'm inclined to agree. Backing tracks are usually fine – you don't wanna see a band like Septicflesh or Ghost without all the bells and whistles they wouldn't be able to perform themselves. But outright having a snapped-to-the-grid kick drum feels a little mechanical and boring, right?
