Music

Josh & I have grown quite fond of this particular form of metric modulation as it is based more on accent patterns than any one rate. There are a couple of ways to think of it - one is that there are dotted triplets and these can start to imply another pulse, and another would be you are playing 4 over 3 polyrhythms and 3 over 2 polyrhythms to create a new pulse. This tune encapsulates our attempt to bring groove and space back into the fold of technical playing.

This Tune is in 11 as implied by the title. Plini asked me to guest on this tune for a Neural DSP video and I was more than happy to oblige as I love his music! I recorded it on the same day as “Chronostasis”, “Possibilia” and “Axioma” by Victoria (2 of which have yet to be released).

Whole Album

This album was probably 4 years in the making. Covid stunted our ability to write together but it also enabled us time to develop ourselves and the concepts/parts utilized in this album. We as a band consulted Misha Mansoor for some of these tunes to streamline the writing process. Misha was able to help structure our creative forces to make what I think are some very strong tunes. Of course, I pour myself into every record but every Animals record is a challenge that is welcomed. Forged through fire!

My friend Ivan Chopik, who is an old friend of mine from Berklee College of Music, asked me to be a part of this project and so I said of course! This project features Jacob Umanski on bass as well as Alan Hankers on keys. This is a mix of metal and ethereal vibes.

This song features the usual metric modulation tricks we get up to but something special happened at the end. Upon Josh sending this song to me and playing around with it I found that I liked the feel of a shuffle over the end but the only problem was that it was 16th notes in 11. As any stubborn individual does, I just figured out how to make it work over a shuffle and although it takes a bit to resolve it still FEELZ nice :)

This is definitely my favorite JIA song. It goes hard in the paint and that is my forte! Kudos to Casey Sabol KILLING this one. Somehow this song can go from mean at 0:57 to ethereal and vibes at 1:24.

A bit poppy for me but I did it nonetheless as there are so many great qualities about this song. Casey Sabol is one of the few singers I truly dig so I was happy to work with him.

This song was made in an era when Josh and I had become mildly obsessed with analog synths and I got carried away and ordered a Prophet 6. This was a fun one to work on and even more fun to play. 1:28 features a dance hall-like section if dancehalls could have odd time :) These 33232232 groupings in 5 turn into 44343343 groupings in 7. 

This tune features yet some more metric modulations based off of a phrase rather than any particular rate. The 3332 groupings in 11 eventually morph into 4443 groupings in 15. The middle section of this song features groupings of 434334343 in 31 that we use to modulate to 323223232 in 22. We then implement three groups of 5 in 15 and use those 3 pulses to modulate to 3. This song ended up being a great breeding ground for developing quite a few ideas for us. My personal favorite is the end where Josh & I trade 4’s playing all sorts of rates from triplets to 16ths to quintuplets and septuplets. This was recorded at Sphere Studios in LA by Francesco Cameli.

Whole Album

I remember the day Casimir showed me the album at a cafe. I said, dude, this might be too nutty, I’m definitely gonna have to do some work to help reign in some groove and simplicity. I also remember being a bit scared, knowing how much work it would take to learn all this outlandish material. I had spent a couple of months preparing for this session, taking my time to learn every part slowly so as to sit the parts confidently in my head and come up with all sorts of different orchestrations, parts or variations. What you hear on any album I play on was not all I learned, it simply happened to be the sequence of parts that won. As I was preparing to depart for NYC to record at Bunker Studios, there was a massive snowstorm. This extra 5 or 6 days I ended up getting to work on the material ended up being a godsend. It allowed me to really get to that next level of integration.

Eikasia

Ever Wonder

Javier showed me “Ever Wonder” in his apartment and I was like yes let me play on this. It wasn’t till 24-48 hours before the studio session that he sent me “Eikasia” and I was stoked. I had only gotten to hear it and think of what I would play. Part of me wanted to retain some of that magic in a song being fresh and also the magic of being in the studio. Being in the studio can conjure new ideas and because eventing sounds so good it is an inspiring environment. Upon showing up to Sphere Studios Eric Moore had just finished tracking his tunes. We chatted a bit and then Eric detuned all the drums he had worked on tuning with Francesco, probably in fear I would sound as good as him, lol oh Eric!

Whole Album

This album's drums were recorded by me in 2015 when I was in NYC for the Stars, Plants, & Bugs album. I had a bunch of different drum ideas that I’d interwoven metrically and Louis then wrote to those drums. 

Whole Album

My father moved out to CA a few years after my sister and I had and started playing in this bar band. He continued to tell me about this kid Joshua De La Victoria who was phenomenal and who I needed to play with. I eventually met up with him and he showed me a bunch of tunes from Modern Value. I then told him I would record drums for it and maybe we could write some metric madness together and of course, he agreed. I would go to his parent's place in Diamond Bar and practice/write with him and the rest is history.

Whole Album

For years I told the guys we needed to have a live DVD or at least an album. In this way, it was a possibility but it wasn’t until our sound guy Ronnie Young started actively mixing the board recordings and showing us that we were like, hey this is an actual possibility. He chose performances he liked and mixed them and we were quite happy so it happened!

Whole Album

This album's drums were recorded by me in 2015 when I was in NYC for the “Stars, Plants, & Bugs” album. I had a bunch of different drum ideas that I’d interwoven metrically and Louis then wrote to those drums.

Whole Album

Pretty much this whole album was written by the three of us in Javier's apartment. We started “Cognitive Contortions” at my practice spot and it’s one of the few cases where we were playing together to get ideas for the song. And of course that tune started with a riff from Tosin which is quite different from “Arimophobia” which started out as a series of rhythmic motifs I’d developed and recorded drums for entitled “crazy shit in 4/4”. This album has zero drum samples and was recorded at Sphere Studios by Francesco Cameli.

But

Book

Chon asked me to guest on the song “But” and I said hell yeah because I love their music. When I got to the studio and recorded But they said do you want to do another and I said now? and they said yes. I said let me hear that thing and they played “Book”. I then started working things out and recorded Book that day! 

Whole Album

This was recorded at Once Again Studios in NYC. This one definitively has more oddities and a sense of humor at times than Defense Mechanisms. If you are not a normal person, this may be just the thing for you! Lol in all seriousness, the exploration on this album was a lot of fun.

Whole Album

This was recorded at Swing House Studios in LA. It was engineered and mixed by Nolly Getgood. It was quite the struggle to get both Javier and Tosin to agree to use real drums for this album as they were stuck in their ways a bit but they ended up taking the leap of faith. Most of these songs were written by Tosin with Misha Mansoor at the helm but there were a few songs we wrote with Diego Farias of Volumes. I remember hearing Physical Education for the first time and thinking what is this pop Djent crap?! Luckily I took the leap of faith because it turned out to be one of our favorite songs to play.

Cold Cold Day

By My Side

Sunshine

Standing Tall

My father Greg Garstka was the reason I play music. Without his guidance and exposure to live music and local musicians, I simply wouldn’t have had the tools to get the opportunities that led me to where I am today. He is a Blues, Rock, & Reggae musician and yet his eclectic taste in music exposed me to so many different styles and artists. 

Whole album

This recording was made when I was fresh out of Berklee College of Music. I had begun playing with Louis and Casimir Liberski at Berklee years prior and we had developed a great report both musically and personally. Louis was the grounded type and Casimir was the wild, flighty genius. This was recorded in NYC at Bunker Studios on a Neve Console. I used a Tama Bubinga Warlord snare, a 22” Constantinople, 17” Legacy Crash and 16” Ozone on top of a cracked Azuka for a stack for this entire album.

Thou Shalt Not Kill

2 Drummers One Bass (featuring Billy Powell & myself)

Jo Sallins started mentoring me at 14 and this recording was made when I was 17. Jo taught me all about fusion, African, latin, jazz, and funk. He was originally a drummer and later picked up bass & keys. He gave me tons of invaluable experience playing in schools and clubs.