Date: 11 November 2011
Session Time: 9am-12pm
Studio: Air Lyndhurst Hall, London
Project: Film
Title: Papadopoulos & Sons
Composer: Stephen Warbeck

“This was a film session for Oscar-winning British composer Stephen Warbeck. The film, Papadopoulos & Sons, is a story of a Greek family living in England. Nice early start on this one... 9am. That means arriving at 8-8.30am, which means I'm out of the house by 6.45am. Ouch. The early start was scheduled because a long day of recording orchestra was needed after our session.

“My drums were delivered by Simon at London Drum Company. My rosewoodvintage Gretsch drums, a mix of an old round badge bass drum and some ‘70s toms: 22”x14”, 12”x8” and 15”x15”. All Remo coated Ambassador heads, except the Powerstroke 3 clear on the bass drum. Cymbals: Sabian, very old 14" HH hats, an 18" Legacy crash, a 22" Groove ride and an old 18" HH Medium crash.

“I tuned, chatted with Nick the engineer for a while, then popped into the canteen for breakfast. On any given day at Air studios one is likely to bump into any number of music luminaries such as David Arnold (Bond Composer), George Michael, Joni Mitchell, Coldplay etc. who all work there regularly. This is a seriously good studio, first put together by Sir George Martin at a cost of $10,000,000.

“The hall is usually used for orchestral recordings and films. I've played on many scores in the room and made a few records there too. I love it, such a transparent sound. The band was (not surprisingly) playing Greek-style music. The line up was : Bouzouki, some other Greek sounding plucked instrument, violin, acoustic guitar, double bass and drums. Stephen is such a lovely relaxed guy that his sessions are always very relaxed and fun. He knows how to get good results. That's usually by not rushing it and tweaking things until we get it right.

“Most of the music we played was quite simple and it was just a matter of getting a good feel and making a few things up to fit in with the atmosphere required by Stephen and the director.

“This part is an example of how simple things can be! A lot of the time drum parts are very simple in order to leave the drummer a lot of freedom to put in the right part for the music. We listened back to the takes in the control room while watching how they were working with the picture. This looks like it will be a great film.”