claudio rivera

so, i’m in los angeles for the week. tuning some drums on motion city’s fourth record. i’m really excited about hanging out with everyone and also stoked to hear how the songs turned out.

normally, you have to have really good foresight, to be able to heard the finished songs in your head, when it’s just drum tracks. for this, though, everything’s done! the instant gratification is probably gonna make everyone poop their pants. in a good way (i hope). i’m stoked for it.

other than that, i may or may not be getting together with someone who may or may not be hiring me to maybe or maybe not be involved in something that may or may not be awesome. (i hope that was vague enough to not get me in trouble, but still be intriguing! haha). at any rate, keep your fingers crossed for me!

i’ve come a long way since this:

my first drum kit. also, my last polo shirt?

here's me as a youngster. cute fucker.

i just scanned a bunch of old pictures onto my facebook.

there’s a couple in there from high school and it’s crazy, cause i feel like that wasn’t that long ago. but, it was almost a decade ago! yikes! i guess i’ve been teching for mcs for 3 years. somerset was formed almost 7 years ago. and flipsyde’s first tour was like 10 years ago? crazy. hehe.

at any rate, i’m feeling much more positive now, than from my last post. i had a great conversation with jon, who plays in the matches. he is starting a new project and we’re talking about me possibly playing drums for it. i’m excited to hear what he’s got. i hate getting ahead of myself, but just thinking about playing in a band and touring in a van again gets me stoked.

i’ve found myself being jealous about various things, lately. it’s a strange feeling. and, even though i enjoy peter joseph’s ideas and discussions, i don’t think that you can trace all of those feelings to scarcity and a monetary-based economy.

like, when it comes to skill. it’s not that i’m thinking “i want to be as good as that drummer, because he makes a lot of money and there aren’t lots of skilled drummers out there.” it’s more like “i want to be as good as that drummer, because he’s a fucking badass.” so, i’ve been working hard to make myself a better drummer. and i feel like i’m doing alright, but that i can always be better.

different drummers have different skill sets. i know lots of drummers who are very skilled and technical, but they don’t seem to have passion in their playing. it’s like they’re more worried about impressing fellow musicians, than letting themselves be moved by the music.

at any rate, i guess i’m gonna keep doing what i do. i’m just worried that my window of opportunity has shut. i was just talking about this, yesterday. somerset was doing video updates before youtube. we had the nice photo shoot, before other local bands. in fact, we got criticized for it!

when we first came out, people thought we were trying too hard. but, now, every band has a myspace with a giant banner up top (with a professional photo), glossy sounding demos, and youtube webisodes. these days, if you don’t have those things, you’re not trying hard enough! heh.

anyway, i’ve gone off on a tangent. i don’t know that i had a specific point to make. i think i’m just down, at the moment. but, i can turn it around! i always dooooo! hehe.

please, keep your fingers crossed for me!