The Saga of Andrew Fox

My first memory of Andrew Fox takes place in my Freshman year Songwriting I class. It was one of my very first classes in college, and the idea of a college education was still fresh and new to me . The class was an open forum, where students could present their songs-in-progress to the class, and receive feedback. Andrew Fox stood up, walked to the piano, informed us that his song-in-progress was titled Londonistan, and proceeded to play a song that got to the heart of just about every musical genre stereotype there is, including Klezmer, broadway showtunes, Arabic Pop, 1970's Punk, and some good old fashioned Rock and Roll.

One year later, Andrew is in the studio recording his album. Tom Rosato, SUNY Purchase alum, is engineering the record. Spencer Murphy (earlier mentioned for Madeleine McMillan's record) is playing bass, and I am lucky enough to be playing drums.

Andrew's recordings, track by track, are becoming epic, and Andrew is becoming known to regularly run out of available audio tracks in Pro Tools. One of his more popular songs, Disco Institute, will be rooted in drums, bass, electric guitar, and Andrew's voice, but will be augmented by tubular bells, latin hand drums, fourteen cellos, ten violins, trombone, trumpet, tenor saxaphone, distorted guitar, and french horn.

Go Andrew!

In Studio with Madeleine McMillan

My good friend, Madeleine McMillan, is a singer, songwriter, and pianist in the SUNY Purchase Studio Composition program. I met her Freshman year in my required Songwriting I class. I was intimidated by her for a long time. She was from the Upper West Side, had long black hair with bangs, wore Doc Marten boots, and sat alone. However, our conservatory is only so big, and before I knew it, she was helping me order Doc Martens of my own from Zappos

I've been lucky enough to play drums for her since Spring 2008. She's also enlisted the services of two of the best groovesters at Purchase, Spencer Murphy on bass, and Rob Hokamp on guitar. I couldn't ask for more.

The following video is my first ever attempt at making a movie. I'm sure this will be somewhat obvious. The documented session was "drum day" which explains the relentless focus on me. Pictures to come.

By the way, I should mention that the recordings of Madeleine's voice and keyboard in the following video are temporary scratch takes, meant only to give the drummer (me) a road map of the song.