Mastodon - The Motherload // Johnkew Drum Cover

This one is long overdue. Last year I played along to this song to get my chops back after a drumming hiatus, and I planned on recording it then. More than a year later, and I was telling a friend how hilarious the music video for this song is, and I remembered how great of a song this is.

How Brann can sing and drum this arrangement is beyond me. Although what is maybe not so apparent is that Brann really went all out on the drums for the studio version. No fill is repeated twice, and there are MANY fills. If fills were repeated over and over, it would get stale real quick. But he freshens up the orchestration and dynamics throughout, so that it's almost hard to tell how crazy he's playing. It's a real shredder to play on the drums, and an absolute blast.

Thanks for watching, and if you feel so inclined please leave feedback and share.

and Twitter @JohnkewDrums

Recorded on Sonor Select Force maple drums, Pearl free-floating maple 14-inch snare, Evans G2 batter drum heads and G1 resonant drum heads, Sabian HHX Evolution 14-inch hi-hat; Sabian AAX-plosion 14-inch hi-hat auxiliary; Stacker with Sabian 19-inch Paragon china and 18-inch AAX O-zone, Sabian 21-inch Holy China, Sabian 18-inch HHX crash, Sabian 19-inch HHX crash, Sabian AAXplosion, Sabian Paragon ride cymbal, 18-inch crash, DW 9000 double bass pedal, DW 3000 hi hat stand, Tama drum throne, Vic Firth Danny Carey signature sticks, Audix Fusion overhead microphones, Apex 435 room mics, Audix D-series mics on toms and kick, Audix i5 and Shure SM57 mic on snare, M-Audio Profire 2626 interface, Logic Pro X, Sony Alpha 6000, Canon T2i, Canon Vixia HF M40, and GoPro HD Hero cameras, Shure in-ear monitors.

[NP]

Brann needs to get more recognition for his skills. Able to sing while drumming something like this is simply amazing

[aenimic]

Think about it. Brann actually sings while playing this.

[Howitchewstofeelgum]

"How Brann can sing and drum this arrangement is beyond me."
Well, he doesn't. Watch a live version, he (understandably) tones down the drumming a lot, especially the frequency and complexity of the fills.

That being said, great cover!

[onthe]

Excellent playing! Power, speed, and precision. You really paid attention to the fills, and Brann's fills always sound extremely spontaneous - which are hard as hell to memorize! Well done, man.

[Frakymetl]

Man, I waited for this the whole time! This dude makes PERFECT covers! And this is definitely one of my favorites!
And as always, perfect sound!

[flacche]

Power, precision, groove, and explosive fills... you have it all John!

[guitarmystery]

1:07 the fill seems so hard. Awesome job

[vertigus]

Nailed it. God's the fills in this song are awesome.

[joanna]

Brann Dailor inspired me to play drums and now I've gotta say I've got one more inspiring man to look up to. makes me even more excited to learn! Amazing

[WillBloodfarm]

Excellent choice of tracks. I jammed this one regularly to improve my ghosting abilities, and it really helped. Was contemplating doing a new series of drum covers - this was to be one of them hahaha...maybe i'll get round to it someday soon :) Good to see you're still going hard man. Respect.

[barnowlcom]

Well, it's time to put Mastodon on my Amazon MP3 list! Thanks for a great cover! It's always great to see "frenetic" stick work

[rogersgonc]

dude... always love to hear and see you drumming. There's everything there! Technics, precision, feeling. And the sound and video captions, mixing... all that hard work words won't give the real extension on what you've put there. God bless you and keep the pace dude. You rock!

[kingadalou]

Please give Gojira a listen, Mario is fantastic.

[Daniel_Alves]

There should be a cover of every song ever made by you...That´s how great I think your covers and you are. Keep up the amazing work

[brentbousquet]

nice job as always and perfect timing ive been listening the shit out of mastodon lately

[jasonkamen]

I can only describe it as "unreasonable" for someone to be as good as you are. I've watched this a thousand times already. Awesome awesome stuff man.

[freetaylor]

Dammit man! I'm blown away! Good tune and those drums are amazing, good job!

[timothywolff-piggott]

Yes! Brann's style is super distinctive and this is an exhilarating cover.

[granteth]

absolutely bonkers. nailed it. wonderful job.

[SlemonyGas]

thank you for this. I have been waiting for this song after chimes. Now all we need you to do is sing and drum this song.