By Martin Popoff
Elevators are just one place you might be hearing more of Aerosmith drummer Joey Kramer (some might argue there's enough Aerosmith in elevators already: shut up and play yer guitar!), who has just come out with his own CD stuffed full of license-free samples, ready for musicians to turn into the rhythm rock beds of their own compositions.
The album is called, simply enough, Drum Loops And Samples and is available at soundsonline.com and audioicons.com, Audio Icons Inc. being the company Kramer has formed with longtime buddy Peppi Castro (Blues Magoos, Balance) to bring the idea to fruition.
"It was kind of Peppi's idea," begins the legendary skinsman, on the germination of the CD. "He approached me with it, actually a few years back, and I wasn't really too willing to take part in it, because at the time I was a little more concerned and taken with myself and didn't feel that I just wanted to make my stuff that available, to just give it away and make it that easy. And you know, it's really just a question of perspective and how you look at things like that. But people have been doing stuff like this for years. I think one of the major steps I'm taking in doing this is the fact that so many drummers have the attitude that drum machines and synthesizers and all the like, are the enemy. And that's just not the case. It's more to the point that machines can do things that we can't do and we can do things that the machines can't do. And if you put a combination of that together, and get the best of both worlds, then I think that's what's best for everyone. And when you can take someone who plays the way that I play and have the ability to put it up on a grid with a click track and make it feel like there's a human playing, but yet you can butt it up and loop it up together and use it as anyone can use it, whether they be a composer or songwriter or whatever, I think that's the best of all worlds."
JOEY KRAMER - Loop In An Elevator? Page 2