Hi! My name is Jaye Moore, and I’m the drummer for the Brooklyn band Dead Stars. We are releasing our new album Slumber on June 17, on Old Flame Records, and then we’re hitting the road to support it all summer.

Here’s a little about me. I was born in Jacksonville, Florida and grew up banging on pots and pans and relentlessly begging my folks for a drumset every year. I finally made my own out of Tupperware, a clothes hamper, a toy drumset, and a couple of five-gallon buckets.

My mom finally got sick of me destroying the Tupperware and bought a used Frankenstein kit from a garage sale. I began taking lessons from great local drummers Jimmy Glenn Sr., Brent Smedley, Jon Farmer, and Les DeMerle. I played in a few different bands until moving to Brooklyn and starting Dead Stars with Jeff and John. My main drum influences come from post-punk, metal, hardcore, and grunge bands, and I love all the original greats, like Neil Peart, John Bonham, and Buddy Rich. Advertisement

My live kit is a four-piece 1968 Champagne Sparkle Ludwig in standard sizes, and my main snare is a 6.5″ Pearl free-floating brass model. I play all Zildjian A cymbals and use an 18″ Rock crash, an 18″ Fast crash, a 22″ Platinum Medium ride, and 14″ Rock hi-hats. My kick pedal is a Tama Iron Cobra Jr., and my sticks are Vic Firth wood-tip 5Bs. For drumheads, I go with Remo Coated Emperors on the toms and kick and an Evans Genera Dry on the snare.

My studio kit is a blue Peavey Radial Pro 1000 in 12″, 14″, 18″, and 22″ sizes. They have a wood-hoop system in place of lugs, so the drum shells are free-floating. The drums sound warm and powerful but unfortunately aren’t made anymore. I switched between two snares for this record: a snappy-sounding Ludwig Supraphonic and a fat Rogers Powertone.

When writing my parts for the new record, I wanted to incorporate simple tom beats for verses and use the cymbals to open things up for bridges and choruses. I want people to be able to air drum to my parts, so my drum fills are quick and simple. However, I do get to cut loose on a few songs. I hit the drums pretty hard but try to keep my dynamics within the context of song and do my best to not overplay. We used a lot of room mics to capture the true sound of the drums and ended up getting a warm, full sound with lots of attack. Advertisement

I would like to wrap it up by saying what a fan I am of Modern Drummer, and I very much appreciate this opportunity to write about my drumming. Please check out Dead Stars’ new album Slumber and catch us on tour this summer. Thanks!

 

For more on Dead Stars, visit Facebook.com/deadstarsmusic, and twitter.com/deadstarsmusic.

 

Photo by Cary Whittier