All About My Collaborations with RAVIDRUMS (and more)

During my long time in the band Ours, my dear friend and the band’s leader Jimmy Gnecco and I met RAVIDRUMS, or Ravi, at a backyard party in the early 2000s in Hollywood, CA. We all felt an immediate connection talking about our influences, deep love of cultural and world music, and found ourselves jamming right then and there in the middle of this gathering on whatever instruments were near us. Later, this lead to Ravi being included in several different acoustic performances we would have.

One of the first things Ravi did after meeting us— and one of the truest representations of the person he is— was opening up his home and having us over for a home-cooked Indian dinner before hit the stage that night.

Ravi has always been a high-energy and loving human and artist, so watching him spread joy with his larger-than-life presence through being a DJing drummer helps expand the reach of his message of joy and love.

In recent years, when remote collaboration became more and more possible, we were still able embark on projects, even Ravi being on the west coast and me being on the east coast.

Then during 2020, with remote collaboration being at the forefront of everyone’s mind and technological advances being even more in support of this, it put us in the perfect position to work together even more!

How me and Ravi work together

Ravi is always encouraging me to go with my inherent style of emotive, atmospherical playing, which is laden with delays and echos. The next part of the process we go through is typically getting down to what’s needed to fill out a track: certain chord passes, an acoustic throughout for a strong foundation, and a few different rhythmic approaches including “energy guitars” as he calls them.

After laying them out, I’ll listen to how all I’ve added can potentially sit in the track and I’ll make some basic adjustments: EQ-ing any unwanted or contradictory frequencies, and laying out where these parts may sit best in the pan spectrum. What makes it so easy to work with Ravi is that he sends me tracks that are so close already to the completion of the vision— the grooves are slamming, the vocals and melodies are loud and proud— and all I need to to in “join in the band!”

Being of service to Jeremy Finlay and Ravi’s greater visions

Some of the more notable collaborations during 2020 and 2021 were sparked by the need to bring joy and hope during uncertain times— especially for the youth, with Ravi and Jeremy Finlay (singer, pianist, entrepreneur, et al.) leading the charge.

My first time being a part of the Ravi/Jeremy dynamic duo was for iHeartRadio to benefit people in Hawaii with an anthemic sounding cover of Leonard Cohen’s “Hallelujah”. The song arranged by Ravi and Jeremy still maintained the harmonic depth to pull on the heartstrings as this song has done in its many beautiful incarnations.

Then, a few months later, Ravi came to me saying that he and Jeremy had been willingly tasked by Spectrum Cable to write and produce a song that would serve as a theme and celebration for the virtual graduations all across southern California, to be aired for a star-studded television event.

Per usual, I received the track from them in an already glorious state for me to “suit up and amp up” to add various musical and instrumental contributions of acoustic, electric, and even some synth work.

A few weeks later, the song released to what is now “In the Cali Sun,” which quickly reached a million views on Facebook as it was connected to such a unique and special circumstance and much welcomed pomp for the classes of 2020.

After all their caps and gowns were packed away, and the class of 2020 was now settled into the beginnings of the next phases of their lives, we were all pleasantly surprised to be notified that “In the Cali Sun” was being nominated for an Emmy! Such a cool experience and yet another point of gratitude.

“New Christmas” collaboration with RAVIDRUMS and Jeremy Finlay

Now, for Jeremy Finlay and RAVIDRUM’s most recent creation, “New Christmas,”— and me as their guitar player getting a near midnight call filled with Ravi’s verbal enthusiasm, warmly beckoning for my enlistment into yet another magical musical collaboration.

I was honored to be a part of this appropriately expanded team that brought warm tidings and cheer including Nick Sabia and Lewis Richards of 17th Street Recording, as well as the cheerful fa-la-las of the youth.

“New Christmas” is filled with infectious, uplifting melodies, undeniable grooves, and wonderful orchestration and harmonies spread out through the instrumentation with the always welcomed space for my guitar presence.

Though I’ve never met Jeremy formally, I truly hope that one day us three can be in the same room, as I truly love his voice, his writing, and admire the other multifaceted talents he brings to the arts.

It’s such an honor to be welcomed onto projects with Ravi and Jeremy that, to me, is focused on the most instinctual and spiritual purpose of music: to serve something larger and greater than self to uplift and unite!