Hello, Modern Drummer readers! My name is Andrew Frawley, and I’m the drummer in the New York rock band Telling On Trixie. We recently finished our second album, Ugly Broke & Sober.

I started drum lessons at the age of eight. For the first year, it was just rudiments on a pad and basic reading, until my dad came home with my grandfather’s old 1940s Ludwigs. At the time I had no idea how cool they were.

The first record I ever owned was The Beatles’ Revolver. I still love it. A few years later, I played along to bands like Kiss, Cheap Trick, the Who, and the Police. Admittedly, I didn’t work very hard or take it seriously until I was sixteen or seventeen. By then I was very into John Bonham, but had also discovered jazz drummers like Tony Williams and studio greats like Steve Gadd. For college, I attended Berklee and studied with a slew of great teachers including Gary Chaffee and Bob Guilotti. Since moving to New York, I’ve been fortunate to play with some great musicians and have recorded some great records.

For Ugly, Broke & Sober, Tommy Kessler (lead guitar/producer) gave me scratch versions of the songs and we recorded drums primarily at my studio, Drumtracks. The remainder of the drum tracking took place at JRock Studios in NYC with engineer/producer/mixer Jamie Siegel. The tracks were somewhat incomplete, consisting of some temporary bass, guitars, and vocals–just enough to guide me through. For most of the songs I had drum parts worked out already. But I also took direction from Tommy and our bandmate Brad Small. I would bang it out and then come into the control room for feedback. It usually helps to have a couple of good ears chiming in to give you another perspective, often suggesting interesting things you might not think of, and confirming when you have “the take.” For the few songs recorded at JRock, I didn’t really have any drum parts ready, so Jamie and I just worked it out. We would basically air drum it out together in the control room, then I would go into the booth and do a pass, I’d go back in listen, we’d talk out the details, and then I’d lay it down. In the end we’ve got a strong, colorful family of songs on Ugly, Broke & Sober. Advertisement

Telling On Trixie self-released Ugly, Broke & Sober this past March 24. We’ll spend the next year sharing it with our fans. See www.myspace.com/tellingontrixie and www.tellingontrixie.com for our tour dates, videos, and behind-the-scenes antics.