Michael Schwark

Odd Grooves & Patterns

Odd grooves have always fascinated me since my early days behind the drums. Actually I didn´t even start playing behind a kit but behind a snare drum in a marching band when I was eight years old. I can remember that lust to turn a straight four fourth into a seven eighth but also remind the band leader yelling at me while rehearsing. This was back in the late Eigthies. Then, at the age of 11, I switched to rock drumming.

Lateron I found out that there were a lot of great things to learn from acts who I had lived with whole my life already – simply because my parents were listening to their music. Guess you know who I am talking about – Sting, Peter Gabriel, Tracy Chapman, Rush, Genesis and many more. They all played different styles of music but tried to find their personal approaches to odd grooves and patterns.

Finally when I turned 17 I came across artists like Helmet, Meshuggah, Snapcase and others. I liked the way they all combined heavy riffing with odd grooves. At that moment I recognized that an odd groove doesn’t necessarily have to be played to sound “odd” but can also be played really groovy and “right out of the stomach”.

This is one of my early VDrums recordings. At this time I only used my DELL Vostro 1500 notebook recording audio via line-in and video via an integrated webcam. Though the video quality is beyond good & evil I like this groove a lot and it is a good example for my work.

I created this pattern for an Old School Hip Hop & Rap radio station. It’s groovy and odd. Actually I changed it before it finally got airplay. Nevertheless I like this early version as much as the “final product”.