Sabian Cymbals, Meductic, New Brunswick, Canada

On August 27th we began a long two week journey which started with a 2-night trip to Sabian Cymbals in Eastern Canada. After an adventure of flying there and arriving in Fredericton, NB in a 18′ish passenger plane, we arrived in our hotel. The next morning we realized how beautiful the landscape was where we were! We drove almost an hour out to the Sabian Factory in Meductic, NB. The drive was beautiful!

The property in which Sabian stood was on the edge of a beautiful river, the Saint John River. The weather was definitely favorable!

We went through the factory with still and one video camera, and another time with full 2-camera set up.

This fascinating process of watching cymbals being made was a great change for Bill and I. Since we have been doing guitars up to know, it’s nice to see metal in action!

After we finished our work day we had a chance to relax and enjoy some social time with the folks who helped get us there, including Bob Zildjian and his wonderful wife, Willie! Such a hospitable group of people! After the long travels it was nice to just b taken care of and well liked.

Enjoy the slides!

Steve Vai Photo Shoot

Thursday the 23rd we flew into LA. Friday the 24th we spent most of the day documenting a photo shoot on film and with stills. This session was with Steve Vai as the subject for Musician’s Friend. Photographer and music icon, Larry DiMarzio was a joy to work with! In addition to him and his crew, our very own Director of Creative Services, Ken Sager was there to help direct the shooting making this a real success! When the session was a wrap, we had Larry and Steve sit down and interview each other for 20-minutes. This allowed us to capture their story behind their long professional relationship.

SEE THE VIDEOS HERE! 

As a side note, Larry took a couple of snap shots of Bill and I, and now those pictures are going to be our profile shots for our bio.

Gibson USA & Gibson Custom

Our main reason for the trip to Nashville, TN was to visit the Gibson USA and Custom Factories. This was a great experience! It was a bit of a drool factor to see the hundreds of SG’s and Les Paul’s, V’s, and the new Reverse V’s, just to mention a few.

In this slide show there are 291 images from these 2 factories! Enjoy them!

We will be putting together individual videos for each factory, then after we cover the Gibson Bozeman and Memphis factories we will be looking at a definitive project to show the family of plants.

Mark Farner @ Musician’s Friend

In December of 2006 we had the pleasure of capturing an interview with Mark Farner to produce a video piece that could be the most definitive video on Mark Farner. You can see it on his personal HOME PAGE – CLICK HERE.

Bill and I will get a chance to see Mark again in NY next week at Rock and Roll Fantasy Camp.

Zoro The Drummer – Nashville, TN

Our last night in Nashville turned into an inspirational and enjoyable evening with Zoro The Drummer. He opened up his house to us as we set up our new gear in his new room where he hopes to be able to put up all of this pictures and memorabilia that represent his wonderful career.

The taped interview was right at 2-hrs long without a break. We were fortunate as a video team that Bill actually grew up with Zoro right here in Southern Oregon, so there was a lot of catching up to do, and a lot of old memories revisited, even as far back as what inspired Zoro to start drumming in the first place, and that Bill was one of the first guys to ever play with Zoro when he was learning how to hit the skins.

This interview was a great experience, a great time, and will provide a ton of versatile video content!

Chester Thompson – Nashville, TN

August 13th, we visited Chester Thompson in his private studio. A very hospitable gentleman, and a joy to be around. Bill did a great job getting Chester to talk about his career with Phil Collins and Genesis, Weather Report, and Zappa, as a drummer. Chester shared many other great stories, and of course we talked about gear.

We look forward to getting the interview up on the Musician’s Friend and Harmony-Central website, but in the meantime, check out the pictures we took following the interview.
We are still in Nashville, visiting Gibson USA and the Custom Shop. Today we did a walk through. Shot a ton of video on one camera, and about 450 stills. I will post them – most of them, anyway. Thursday we visit Zoro the Drummer, which will also be a great treat!Promise, we’ll share.

Introduction & Eric Johnson – Austin, TX

Whether this becomes a journal of our trips, a log, or anything else related, I hope to post pictures, and share stories related to our trips.

Below is the first of hopefully many more pictures. This was taken following our time spent with Eric Johnson at his private studio. We look forward to seeing the final video product from this visit!