I’ve had what I always believed to be great songs bouncing around in my head.  I’m a singer/songwriter, and guitar is my primary composition tool. For the past year and a half I have been developing my first ever solo album, after a few lukewarm receptions to albums that I released with my prior Detroit based band.  The benefit of being in a band for me was primarily having access to those that can interpret and perform the music I was writing.  Bands have a way of disintegrating, and mine was no exception. 

I decided that it was time to go solo, which would disentangle me from band politics, and permit me to produce songs exactly the way I envisioned them without having to be approved by a “committee”.  I play guitar, sing, and can hold my own on bass and keys, but drums?!  So there I was, great songs in hand but no drummer. I decided to hire session drummers.  

Disaster!  I found the session drummers to be skilled, but they did not seem to possess the sensitivity to fully understand the direction of a given song.  If the drummer was primarily a jazz drummer, everything sounded like “Take 5”.  If they were primarily a rock drummer every song sounded like “Flies in the Vaseline”.  I have nothing against either of those pieces, but that’s not what I was writing!  Add to that frustration the fact that every session was costing anywhere from $500 - $1000 between paying the drummer, studio fees, and an engineer.  

I would like to say that I make my livelihood from my music, perhaps soon, but the reality is that I have a day gig that demands most of my time.  Family commitments pretty much consume the rest, leaving very little time to ply my craft.  I can’t afford to waste time or money on failed studio sessions.  My next course of action was to try my hand at midi drum programming.  Well, that turned out to be far more difficult than I realized, and the synthesized drum sounds just did not move me. 

Then one day I found an advertisement for DrumsForYou.com and everything changed.  I found an affordable, sensitive partner to help me achieve the sound that I knew existed.  From my very first experience with DrumsForYou.com I knew that I could create the music I wanted to, and do it far below the budget I had planned. 

Every drum track that DrumsForYou.com provided exceeded my expectations, and it amazed me that a drummer that I had never even spoken with, could understand the subtleties, nuances, and drama of what I considered to be fairly unusual compositions.  In addition to the top notch performances and the extremely high quality sound, these tracks were usually turned around in less than 24 hours, much less.  In one case, I had uploaded a song, went out for lunch, and returned home to discover that my drum track was awaiting my approval.   Approval????   How about downright gratitude for the skill and professionalism I was experiencing! 

Now, a year later, I am enjoying radio airplay in my local market and even more astonishingly in Europe, and have every expectation that my songs will gain US national attention.  I have received numerous awards and even a “5 Star” rating at the internet music website Garageband.com. 

Elad Fish of DrumsForYou.com provided the drums for every song on the album, and I truly believe that none of those successes would have been possible without him.  I would recommend DrumsForYou.com to anyone that is seeking the very best drum tracks you could hope for at any price.  Just don’t keep them too busy, because I still need their fantastic service! 

Mark Meisel/Counter Clockwise Music