Indie Studio Drummer

Drum Lessons with Grammy-Winning session drummer Dylan Wissing (Alicia Keys, Drake, Kanye West, Jay Z)

Dylan — Thu, 16 May 2013 16:33:11 +0000

Grammy-winning session drummer Dylan Wissing is now accepting a limited number of serious private students at his Hoboken recording studio.

Wissing’s drum tracks appear on such Platinum-selling and #1 charting albums as Alicia Keys Girl on Fire, Drake’s Grammy-winning Take Care, and Kanye West and Jay-Z’s Grammy-nominated Watch the Throne. He appears on Kanye West’s “Power (Remix)” featuring Jay-Z and Swizz Beats, “So NY” by Fabolous, Rick Ross’s #1 charting Maybach Music, and records regularly for twelve-time Grammy-winning producer Ken Lewis. A regular in the NYC session scene, Dylan has appeared in Modern Drummer Magazine and SonicScoop among many others.

Topics covered are drumming fundamentals, studio drumming and tuning, recording for producers, time and grooving, engineering technique, and music industry coaching. Styles range from Blues to Breakbeats, Singer/Songwriter to Swing, Rock to Rap, Salsa to Soul.

Lessons are held at Triple Colossal Studios in Hoboken, New Jersey, recently featured on NYC’s SonicScoop. The studio is five blocks from the Hoboken PATH station, one subway stop from Manhattan.

If you’re ready to make the next step in your drumming career, contact us for lesson availability.

A full-time professional musician for over twenty-five years both live and in the studio, drummer Dylan Wissing has performed over three thousand shows across the US and Europe with dozens of artists in a wide range of genres, recording and performing on Grammy-winning, Platinum-selling and #1 charting albums. He is a longtime endorser of GMS Drums, Aquarian Drumheads, Gator Cases and Pro-Mark Sticks.

Sonicscoop “Sweet Spot” Interview, Cameo in Batterie Magazine (France) with Alicia Keys!

Dylan — Mon, 18 Mar 2013 18:39:30 +0000

We’re huge fans of the recording/engineering blog SonicScoop, so it’s a real honor to be featured on their site. “Is this innovative studio the new king of NYC drum rooms? Our latest ‘Sweet Spot’ is a strong contender,” says SonicScoop. Take a peek at our massive wall of drums, too (and that’s only a fraction of the collection)!
www.sonicscoop.com/2013/03/10/recording-sweet-spot-triple-colossal-studios-hoboken-nj

Session drummer Dylan Wissing in his Triple Colossal Studios of Hoboken, NJ. Providing Grammy-winning, Platinum selling, #1 Charting drum tracks to everyone!
- Photo by Kristie Andreula for Frontkick Productions, www.frontkickproductions.com

The wall of drums in Triple Colossal Studios – sets and snares from GMS, Drum Workshop, Ludwig, Slingerland Radio Kings, Leedy Black Elites (engraved brass and one ply mahogany), Gretsch and Tama. www.indiestudiodrummer.com/triplecolossalstudios
- Photo by Kristie Andreula for Frontkick Productions, www.frontkickproductions.com

The Triple Colossal microphone preamplifier rack: API 3124, A Designs Pacifica, Universal Audio 4-7110d, Seventh Circle Audio lunchbox with N72, A12 and T15 pres, and a vintage stereo Magnacordette tube pre.

Drake’s album “Take Care” just won a Grammy for Best Rap Album. Dylan Wissing plays on the track “Lord Knows.”

In a distant land long ago, our resident session drummer Dylan Wissing graduated with a degree in French from Indiana University. Old worlds are now colliding with new: it’s Dylan’s first appearance in Batterie Magazine from France! The translation, helpfully provided by the article’s author Patrick Buchmann:

Alicia Keys’s newest album has an impressive number of producers, arrangers and programmers. Only Dylan Wissing plays live drums on « Girl On Fire » which seemed programmed though. It’s just the other way around here for ‘When it’s all over’ : sounds pretty much like the real drums were played but they were programmed with ‘maestria!’

Dig the transcription to Alicia Keys’ song “When It’s All Over” – a completely programmed part, but it sounds amazing (and fooled Patrick and I into thinking it was tracked live by some badass jazz drummer). Vive la France!

Batterie Magazine

French drum magazine Batterie discusses Alicia Keys’ tracks “Girl on Fire” (drums by Dylan Wissing) and “When It’s All Over” (drums programmed by Jamie Smith).

Grammy Win for Dylan Wissing / Indie Studio Drummer – Drake, “Take Care”

Dylan — Tue, 12 Feb 2013 21:41:50 +0000

Session drummer Dylan Wissing wins his first Grammy award for his work on Drake’s album Take Care. Wissing played drums on the track “Lord Knows” for the disc, which won the “Best Rap Album” category at the 2013 Grammy Awards. Previously, Wissing was nominated for a Grammy in the same category last year for his work on Kanye West and Jay-Z’s Watch the Throne. Looking forward to big things in 2013!

Grammy Nomination for Drake, “Girl on Fire” Hits Billboard Top 200 #1

Dylan — Wed, 02 Jan 2013 22:41:43 +0000

What a way to close out the year: playing drums on the lead single from Alicia Keys’ Billboard Top 200 #1 charting Girl on Fire, and receiving a Grammy nomination for Drake’s Take Care (Best Rap Album)! We’re tracking like mad around here, call us to add Grammy-nominated, #1 charting, Platinum-selling drum tracks to YOUR songs!

Nine Month Wrap-Up: Alicia Keys, Fabolous, Failure Club, Europe

Dylan — Wed, 28 Nov 2012 18:15:36 +0000

It’s been hard to keep up with website updates, with all the stuff that’s been going on around here. We’ve been tracking drums like mad fiends (even had the Rolling Stones’ horn section in recently for a session), finished building the new studio after the damage from last year’s hurricane, and spent a couple weeks dodging Hurricane Sandy. Here are some of the highlights:

Our resident session drummer Dylan Wissing is playing on the title track and lead single of Alicia Keys‘ latest release “Girl on Fire” with Nicki Minaj.The recording took place in June at Alicia’s personal Manhattan studio (and that’s a pretty sweet place…). The great Ken Lewis was engineering, with Indie Studio Drummer’s Matt Teitelman assisting on the drum teching. As of this writing the album is #1 on iTunes, and the single is on radio charts all around the world. Check out the video:

Another recent session was for Fabolous and his track “SoNY,” adding old school funk fills. More work with Ken Lewis (Matt T. assisting), for Hip Hop producer extraordinaire Just Blaze. Fairly high-pressure session, as I was on the road with Blues/Soul singer Kirsten Thien when the call came in. It was a mad dash to get back to the studio from the final show in Maine, and a sprint to get the kit miced, the parts learned, and the tracks sent to Ken. The song was on the radio about three days after our parts were sent. Check out the video, with some powerful footage from Hurricane Sandy:

On a completely different side, recently tracked the song “Wouldn’t Be a Merry Christmas” with Grammy-winning producer Steve Addabbo (Shawn Colvin, Suzanne Vega) for artist Elizabeth Chan. Elizabeth is featured on Morgan Spurlock’s show Failure Club. Her debut EP “Naughty & Nice” hit #4 on iTunes Holiday Music chart, with the single in iTunes Top 25.

Indie studio Drummer’s Dylan Wissing has been on tour for several weeks this year with Blues/Soul sensation Kirsten Thien. In May, Kirsten and the band (an amazing group of musicians and people, with David Patterson on guitar, and Erik Boyd and Johnny Pisano sharing the bass chair) travelled across the US to Washington State. The band travelled to Europe in October for an amazing sixteen days of shows. Here’s live After Hurricane Irene destroyed our former studio last year, we’ve spent a good part of the year building our fabulous new Triple Colossal Studios in Hoboken, New Jersey. Happy to report that, once the water receded and power came back on, our families, homes, studio and vehicles were all completely unscathed by this year’s Hurricane Sandy! Sad to say that the same can’t be said of a good deal of our beautiful little town – thousands here (and all over the region) lost everything. Please help support Rebuild Hoboken to bring this town back to life.

It’s been a great year so far (with a couple weeks of hurricane madness) at Indie Studio Drummer, with more amazing and inspiring projects coming up. Contact us if you need drum tracks for your project, and we look forward to working together!

Six month wrap-up: Grammy nomination w/ Kanye & Jay-Z, on #1 Album “Take Care” w/ Drake, “I Love My B___s” w/ Rick Ross, and a brand new studio!

Dylan — Sun, 05 Feb 2012 21:31:33 +0000

We’ve barely had time to breathe here at Indie Studio Drummer, so much has happened since August. Here’s a wrap-up of highlights:

Our first Grammy-nominated album! Kanye West and Jay-Z’s Platinum-selling and #1 charting disc Watch the Throne is up for several Grammies this year. Our resident session drummer Dylan Wissing performs on the track “Prime Time” (along with producer/mixer/musician extraordinaire Ken Lewis), and is included in the “Best Rap Album” category. We’ll be watching closely on February 12th!

Playing drums on Drake‘s #1 charting (and I believe Platinum-selling by this point) album Take Care.We’re on the track “Lord Knows” along with special guest Rick Ross. And speaking of the Boss…

That’s our resident session drummer Dylan Wissing on Rick Ross‘s latest single “I Love My Bitches” (title blank out on the headline in case Mom happens to look at the site…). Rick’s full-length album God Forgives, I Don’t is due later this year.

Thanks to Hurricane Irene, Indie Studio Drummer has a new home at Triple Colossal Studios in Hoboken, New Jersey! The new space sounds great, is double the size, gives us the ability to record full bands, in a great location, and with lots of storage for our extensive collection of new and vintage drums, cymbals, percussion, mics and recording gear. A proper website coming soon, as soon as we finish sorting out details from the physical world and take care of the tracking backlog…

A LOT of time over the past several months has been devoted to designing, renovating and building the new studio (first two sessions are officially out the door this week, more following closely on their heels), salvaging what could be salvaged from the old studio, and replacing a mountain of gear (which was pretty fun, we must confess – HIGHLY recommend that all musicians get their equipment insured in case this happens to you!). In between demolition, hammering, painting and wiring we’ve recorded tracks for several artists (a BIG thanks to Dan McGloughlin at the Vault in Hoboken NJ for taking care of us while the studio was out of commission!), toured the US and Europe with Blues/Soul artist Kirsten Thien, performed and recorded around NYC with rocker Foster McGinty and singer/songwriters Galia Arad and Cordelia Stephens, and throughout it all chased after a toddler who doesn’t really care how late Daddy got home from the studio. It’s been a crazy year, but a great one overall!

Playing on Maybach Music Group’s “Self Made,” Billboard #1 R&B/Hip Hop AND #1 Rap Two Weeks in a Row

Dylan — Wed, 29 Jun 2011 16:42:59 +0000

Indie Studio Drummer on the Billboard charts! Our own Dylan Wissing played drums on the title track to the Maybach Music Group’s “Self Made,” featuring Rick Ross. The album was number #1 for two weeks straight on both the R&B/Hip Hop Album and Rap Album charts. As of this writing, the record is still #7 on the Rap charts and #10 on R&B/Hip Hop, with four weeks on the charts. Fingers are crossed for Gold…

Appearing on “Gossip Girls” with Kanye and Jay-Z, apparently…

Dylan — Thu, 12 May 2011 04:41:50 +0000

Thanks, Musicians Union for the heads-up (several months after the fact, but that’s fine by me)…

Apparently the Kanye West / Jay-Z track “Power” I played drums on is prominently featured on the show “Gossip Girls!” If, like everyone here at Indie Studio Drummer, you are dying to find out just what happened on the episode, it’s chronicled in exhaustive detail here:

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/showtracker/2010/10/gossip-girl-recap-the-greatest-aphrodisiac.html

Never a dull moment with Blair, Juliette, and Serena!

Recording for Rick Ross’ New Album

Dylan — Thu, 28 Apr 2011 04:45:42 +0000

Working once again with studio wizard Ken Lewis and hip hop mega-producer Just Blaze, recording an intense sample recreation for rapper Rick Ross‘ upcoming 2011 release “God Forgives, I Don’t” (Def Jam). Can’t give away the song we’re recreating, but it’s by one of the most famous songwriters in history, and the track is apparently a single. More news as we have it…

Playing on Saigon’s “The Invitation” with Q-Tip & Fatman Scoop

Dylan — Wed, 16 Mar 2011 15:11:25 +0000

More work with mega-Platinum producer Just Blaze and mega-Grammy-winning engineer Ken Lewis: a sample recreation on rapper/actor Saigon‘s track “The Invitation (feat. Q-Tip & Fatman Scoop)” from his latest album The Greatest Story Never Told on Suburban Noize Records!

The job on the Indie Studio Drummer end was to exactly recreate the original sample underlying the tune, a funky and obscure old soul track with lots of cymbals and percussion. Hard work, and extremely meticulous, but damn fun. I listened to A Tribe Called Quest‘s brilliant record The Low End Theory about a zillion times in my youth, so it’s a personal thrill to play on a track with Q-Tip, too!