Ken Mary Launching The Neil Peart Experiment
(All Noir) Drummer Ken Mary has worked as a session and live player with a list of artists that's beginning to look like a who's who of metal and rock, including icons such as Flotsam and Jetsam, Accept, Alice Cooper, House of Lords, Bonfire, Impelliterri, Don Dokken, and Fifth Angel to name a few.
Now, Ken has revealed a new project, titled "The Neil Peart Experiment." Anyone who knows Ken is aware of his reverence for Neil Peart's composition skills, as well as Ken's claim that he would love to duplicate Peart's drumming, at least in the technical sense, on a Rush track.
Well, one of Ken's drummer friends challenged him to do just that. As an experienced session musician, could Ken remove Neil Peart's drum track from a Rush song and replace Neil's parts almost note for note? How close to the original recordings in sound and performance could Ken get? But here were the additional rules the friend gave him: Ken must record the songs all in one pass, with no editing or samples, or any adjustment of any kind. And remember, the original songs were not recorded to a click track, so the time drifted on occasion!
Ken's friend was essentially asking him to remove the "foundation of the house" and replace it, since all the other tracks (vocals, bass, guitar and keys) were recorded after the drums were laid down. This was not at all an easy task, but being the versatile, talented and experienced drummer Ken Mary is, he passed this challenge with flying colors! Watch Ken Mary's stunning performance in "The Neil Peart Experiment" and decide for yourself if this is "the ultimate Neil tribute."
Subscribe to Ken K Mary on Youtube! Ken will be releasing a new full length Rush song from "The Neil Peart Experiment" each week for four weeks at:https://www.youtube.com/@kenkmaryofficial
Ken comments: "This experiment was more difficult than I imagined it would be. I had to learn the fills and grooves exactly as Neil played them on the original recordings, as he did change them slightly over the years. I had to rehearse the songs to where they felt natural, and know where the band surged or pulled back at times, so I could lock to the existing guitars and bass. And they didn't use a click track! If anyone else wants to try this experiment, please do, lol. But remember the rules! I have my individual GoPro video and audio to prove this was all in one pass with no editing or enhancement. I hope Neil would have been pleased with this 'experiment,' and the fact that another artist would make the effort to record these songs, and get them as exact as possible using the original methods he used. Maybe the greatest gift I received in this whole process was a feeling of getting a bit closer to Neil Peart as an artist, and stealing a brief glimpse at the moment of these recordings."
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