Meet Nick Yacyshyn, your new favorite drummer.
We don’t do enough drummer Rigged’s here atGear Gods. Which is unfortunate, not only becauseI love drum rigs, but also becausewe’ve been leaving a spotlight-gap in awhole swath of some of the best and most importantmusicians in this subculture. So I am pleased to present this little feature on Nick Yacyshyn, skinsman from Vancouver-based gnar-shreddersBaptists.
You won’t remember how to spellNick’s last name, but you also won’t forget what it sounds like when he plays the drums. It’s a breath of fresh air to hear someone like Nick playing the music that he does, in a style so full of drummers who never quite got over the fact that the D-beat is a drum beat. Nick is inventive and loose. He plays with feeling. He hits hard. It is a joy to listen to his music.
Take it from me, take it from Dave Grohl, it doesn’t really matter. Listen and look at a musician who is able to do a whole lot with very little…
These are my drums. I fucking love these things. About 4 years ago when Baptists started playing, I was looking for a new kit and was pretty lucky to find this one. One of the previous owners drilled into the 15″ rack tom and put Rogers lugs on it for some reason. That rack tom though, man. That thing is cool. I recently found a matching kick drum (that also has another brand of hardware just drilled into it – what’s that all about?) and there is a 13″ rack tom that came with the kit. I don’t typically play a very big set up but I eventually want to utilize those other drums in some way or another.
Drums:
Ludwig Clear Vistalites
24×14 bass drum
15×12 rack tom
18×16 floor tom
14×5 1968 Ludwig Acrolite snare drum
OR
14×7 GCI Titanium snare drum
I keep it simple with cymbals. Some big sloshy hats, a big washy ride and another smaller ride as a crash. Nothing too crazy in my set up, just some big, loud stuff.
Cymbals:
Zildjian 21″ A sweet ride
Zildjian 24″ A medium ride
Sabian 15″ AAX X-celerator hi hats
That Acrolite was the second snare drum I ever had. It came with a kit that my mom got for me when I was 11. I’ve used it on and off ever since. That thing rules. The GCI is a titanium snare drum made by Kurt Ballou that I just got a couple weeks ago. It is super versatile and sounds great at any tuning. I used a similar version of it to track both Baptists LPs and I’m stoked to have this one.
Sticks:
Vater 2B wood tip
Pedal:
DW 5000
Heads:
Remo (All coated)
Emperors on toms
Powerstroke 3 on my kick drum
CS black dot on my snare
Thanks for checking this out and thanks to Max for having me!
– Nick
For the music productioncrowd, we also checked in with Kurt Ballou – whorecorded and mixed bothBaptists albums at his studio God City – about recording Nick. Kurt also built that snare drum in the above picture, which belongs to his upcoming GCI line of instruments. Check out the mic’ing details below:
Tracking Nick with Baptists in my studio has been pretty straightforward. He’s a great player and a solid hitter, so the sound comes from him more than it does from me. Plus, he gets pissed at himself when he fucks up and just wants to redo the take, so I don’t usually have to do any editing! If all drummers were that easy!
He’s tracked with my Slingerland 24″ kick, 14″ and 18″ Tempus toms, and a 7×14″ Titanium snare I made. Probably coated Emperors all around. I don’t remember all the mic’ing details but it was probably a Shure Beta 91a inside the kick, Yamaha Sub-kick outside, Heil PR-31 on top snare, Sennheiser 441 on bottom snare, Josephson E22’s for toms top and bottom, sE RN17’s for overheads, and Soundelux E49’s in omni for room mics.
The new Baptists record,Bloodmines, is out October 13.Nick’s been keeping busy: he just tracked drums for the upcomingThe Armed record, and he’s also finished a record with his new side projectSumac, a collaboration between himself, Aaron Turner (Isis/Old Man Gloom/Hydra Head Records), and Brian Cook (Russian Circles). Yeah, you read that shit right.
The post Rigged: Baptists Drummer Nick Yacyshyn appeared first on GearGods.
