A Moment That Changed My Career

                                     A Moment That Changed My Career

I was fortunate to tour and record with Alanis Morissette for about 5 years. The connections I made during this period started my recording career.

Alanis asked her live band record on her albums which was quite a rare thing back in the early 2000s and even more so now.  She wanted to record the 10 year follow up to her multi grammy winning record "Jagged Little Pill" but as an acoustic version.  She enlisted Glen Ballard, the producer from JLP to produce this version also. I'd met Glen one time before recording a song for Alanis but it was a quick one off day. Recording for JLP Acoustic would be a 2 week project.

On day 1 just after we were all set up, I was sitting at my kit. The first song to track was called "All I Really Want".  We'd played this song a few hundred times as a live, loud band but we needed something different for this recording. I decided that brushes might be a cool approach.  Glen walked into the tracking room and asked what my groove was going to be for the song.  I started playing my idea and Glen stood in front of my bass drum.  He was bobbing his head a bit but not showing much emotion. In my head I was wondering what I should do so I just kept playing...no fills, just the beat and a consistent feel.  After about 3 minutes he stopped me and said "cool".  The band tracked the record over the next 2 weeks and had a great, creative time and in process I got to know Glen personally.

About a year later I was at my wedding and I got a phone call from a music coordinator.  I was asked if I would be available to come record for Glen on an album starting the following week.  Another drummer couldn't make it and a guitar player friend on the session recommended me.  Glen brought me in and from that time on I was Glen's main drummer.  We recorded with Idina Menzel, Annie Lennox, Stevie Nicks and many others.  

This was a pivotal moment in my recording career.  It opened the door for me to work with many artists and engineers and my name began to spread as a credible recording drummer in Los Angeles. It gave me the confidence and name recognition to develop my own home studio and carve out that part of my career.  It got me to where I am now through this ever changing and crazy business. I'm incredible happy I was able to go down this path to allow me to do what I do and also the opportunity to teach recording and give back.

Happy recording!  Talk soon,

Blair