Adam Silverman : Nashville Session and Touring Drummer

This past week I received and email that I honestly never thought I would see. I got an email from an Artist Relations person at Paiste Cymbals saying that they would like to offer me an entry level artist endorsement. I couldn’t believe my eyes when I opened up the email. It was absolutely amazing and I have never been more surprised in my life. I called my wife Nicki and was just about jumping up and down on the phone.

Since I am already playing all Paiste it doesn’t really change a whole lot currently, but it does add me to their family, and as my career grows and changes and my cymbal needs change I’ll be able to update and add to my collection for a fraction of what it would cost me normally. So it’s terribly exciting. For anyone looking for cymbals I personally play the following:

• 22″ Signature Series Full Ride
• 17″ Signature Series Power Crash
• 18″ Dark Energy Crash (Mark I)
• 14″ Dark Energy Hats (Mark I)

All of their stuff rocks and I am so proud to be a part of what they are doing.

Dark Energy Ride from Paiste

Lately I have found myself digging further and further into the abyss that is often called “practice”. When I sit dow in my studio now I have between 2 and 3 hours of practice everyday, and in the coming months when I am home, that will be more like 3-4 hours a day to work on my craft. Though I am so thankful for the time to be able to commit to my practice, I can’t help but feel overwhelmed.

I get in my studio and do 30 minutes of hand technique work, than I spend 30 minutes on my Hans and Futz practice bass drum pedals. When I finish all of my warmups I do 1-2 hours of book work, either double bass, coordination, studio type of practice, all kinds of things. I end with 30 – 60 minutes of playing either CD’s that I have or doing play along charts that I have music to.

Though this is all really awesome stuff, lately I’ve been completely overwhelmed with learning too much too fast. At some point it becomes too mechanical and I am not really learning anything but simply regurgitating the stuff I read. I think it may be just about time for me to start working on less material each day, and focusing on really learning what I need to work on and meeting more short term goals. Saying I want to be an A-list player at the end of the year is a huge goal, but it can be accomplished if I can meet the short term goals, the long term ones will fall into place.

Being able to play anything at anytime is what is required of a studio musician. Getting there is the challenge!!

So far it’s been a completely crazy start to 2009, so let me do a really quick recap for you of what’s happened in my world.

I spent Christmas in Italy this year with my wife and her mom, dad and Aunt Cathy, and it was ana amazing time had by all. We absolutely had a blast. I came back and hit the ground running with a gig in WV and it’s been crazy ever since. I got my Risen kit in the mail and have been working to get that setup and going out on the road. Nicki and my cat Preston are missing me and I am missing them, but everyone at home is happy and healty.

In the world of the road things are changing rapidly with 33Miles. They have announced the departure of their road manager Graig Clinton. Graig is off to work at a church back home in Mississippi. That’s definitely going to be a tough punch to get up from. Graig does everything from schedules, sound, he’s basically the Daddy of the road for all of us. So that’s going to be a tough loss. Thankfully they have a someone on the back burner that could be awesome, but they are all just waiting for God to show them the direction.

Their bass player and my pal Aaron Williamson went on the cruise with 33 down to the Bahamas, which I missed out on because of prior commitments. At one of the port stops Aaron rented a scooter with his wife and crashed it into a concrete embankment. His wife Rachel was not hurt, but Aaron’s kneecap was separated into about 3 pieces and he’s been in a lot of pain. Last night he went into the hospital with some stomach pain that may be related to the injury. So right now we are all praying that he’s going to be alright and that he wouldn’t have that pain. Also, on that same cruise, a 33 year old guy from the sponsoring radio station had a heart attack and died while playing basketball aboard the ship. Truly, none of us know how long we have here. That was another reminder to make the most of what I do with my time, because you just never do know when the clock runs out.

The scope of life for Nicki and I is changing at home with both of us doing different things for our work, and just the business of living life. It’s really never a dull moment. We have plans to update some things in our house this year. My musical equipment goal of the year is to start running Pro Tools so we are working towards that goal together as well. We also just continue to work and love being in he music business. It’s going to be another adventurous year this year, and we are looking forward to it.

The good news here is that no matter how crazy life gets, it’s awesome to have a girl like Nicki to walk that road with hand in hand. It’s also even better to know that though we may plan and make every attempt to be smart with what we do, in the end God’s plan always wins.

Today I am so thankful to be alive and heading to church to play on our worship team this morning. I love Rolling Hills church and I am so glad that I can serve there today with my wife Nicki, and my new drums.

I think it’s only fitting that I am able to use my kit to honor God this first weekend of having them with me since He provided everything for me to be able to have these drums.

After much waiting and anticipation my first drum kit from Risen Drums arrived early this week. I have never been more excited in my life to open a couple of cardboard boxes. Not only is this my first kit from Risen, but it’s also the first endorsement opportunity that I’ve had in my career as a drummer.

I have been playing with a ball of fire behind my kit since I got the endorsement from them. There is something really encouraging when you have a company that knows drums, knows drummers, and knows the industry and they say “we believe in you”. As an up and coming player nothing instills confidence like a little belief from someone you respect.

Let me first say that the experience of working with Risen so far has been an absolute delight. Keith Anderson from Risen basically took me from the know nothing stage about drum shells, to helping me understand how shells resonate, how they physics of a drum works. Then he helped me put together the most effective kit for my current playing situation. I was a little conservative this time on the shell sizes and configuration just because I wasn’t sure what to expect, but they drums are absolutely fabulous.

I got them setup this last night and played them the first time this morning. The kick drum is amazingly boomy and powerful. The snare could rip someone’s face off, and the toms really sing and project so well, and the drums stay in tune perfectly. These drums mark my 3rd custom set of drums and things have just gotten better and better and better. Also they have the most elaborate finish that I’ve ever had as well. When I sit behind them they feel like home, they look like me, and they sound like me. I keep getting distracted by the finish thinking “are these really mine”? I keep expecting to wake up and this whole thing be a dream.

Anyway, here are some pictures of the kit. If you are looking for drums or know someone who is looking for drums I would HIGHLY recommend talking to Keith at Risen, you won’t be sorry.

This past weekend my Aunt Ivy competed in a “Sheep to Shawl” competition where, yep you guessed it, they actually sheer a sheep and turn the wool into a shawl. From what I have read about it, you have a certain amount of time to sheer the sheep and create the shawl. It has to be a certain width and length, and then they judge those who finish and determine which shawl is the victor.

So congratulations to my Aunt’s team for winning 1st place in the competition. I saw the email from my mom that she was doing this and though to myself how amazing Ivy and the rest of the Allgier family really are. They do the most awesome and eclectic things that you can think of and have so much fun doing them.

The really cool thing is that they are alway learning and doing things that ordinary people would not be able to do. My uncle rides unicycles and competes in insane Iron Man types of races where he runs for like 20 hours at a time. Ivy rides a Pink Vespa to work, Steve runs to work. They have pet cockroaches, make scarfs out of their angora rabbit, and these are just a few of their more normal hobbies. Couple that with their hilarious sense of humor, and you have some of the most fun people you’d ever want to meet. When people ask me about my family life, you’d better believe that I always talk about Aunt Ivy and Uncle Steve. I LOVE IT!!

Visit the Sheep to Shawl Website

Aunt Ivy strutting her stuff with her victorious shawl