Artists, Behind The Drums, News & Views

“In The Studio” Joe Accaria & Marty Hailey at Blackfoot Sound

By Simon Ayton

Arguably two of Australia’s busiest musicians, drummer Joe Accaria and guitarist Marty Hailey performed as a dynamic duo at the 2012 Australian Ultimate Drummer Weekend in Melbourne to rapturous applause.

The performance was a twenty minute piece based around diverse musical ideas, lots of looping and sound changes and space to really stretch out.

Regrouping after some international and Australia-wide playing, the pair joined up again at Blackfoot Sound in Sydney to record the piece and talk to us about their ideas, compositions and how the gear is being used to create their particular loop inspired din.

In this new ‘In The Studio’ series which gives an up-close insight into working in the studio, Marty is strapped to the GC-1 GK-Ready guitar with the GR-55 guitar synth and RC-300 looper massaging his feet whilst Joe is seated at an acoustic/electronic hybrid kit consisting of the flagship TD-30KV V-Drums kit with acoustic kick and snare fitted with RT series acoustic triggers, ubiquitous SPD-SX sampling pad and the HandSonic HPD-20.

The pair begins by playing part of the performance then moves on to an explanation and comprehensive breakdown of their individual setups and discussion of how they bounce ideas off each other.

The armoury of gear allows them enormous creative potential in that they can dramatically switch sounds and textures instantly. Looping lets Marty lay down a rhythmic bed of sound for them both to play on top of whilst freeing them up for trying out ideas all the while perfectly synced.

Both Marty and Joe’s adventures in theatrical music come to the fore throughout their performances which highlight just how much creative
freedom clever use of technology allows.

A full length interview with Joe on all things V-Drums you’ll find here!

Joe Accaria Interview

Roland V-Drums artist Chris Whitten

Hybrid Acoustic and Electronic Drumming