T
ool & D
ie page 12
By
Chuck
Where are you guys from and who are
the members that make up Dropclutch?
Shawn Swartwood
vocals Binghamton NY
Brandon Schuldt
drums Binghamton NY
Josh VanDusen
bass Binghamton NY
Adam Skellett
guitar & vocals Binghamton NY
Brandon Wheeler
guitar Utica NY
How long have you guys been around?
Dropclutch has been around for approx.
3 years solid. The current lineup is about
3 months old!
Did you guys know each other outside
of the band, or did you meet through
the band?
Josh, Brandon Schuldt, and I all went to
high school together. Josh knew Adam
from being college classmates together.
After Adam graduated from Berklee
School of Music, he joined the band.
We met Brandon Wheeler through the
band. He used to be the lead guitarist
in a band called Caustic. Dropclutch and
Caustic played MANY shows together. A
month or so after Brandon left, he called
me and he joined.
What style of music are you guys, and
your major influences?
Metal, Funk, Jazz....weird I know!
It sounds like your debut album The Rea-
son was a success from the feedback you
received. Tell us about the work you put
in to that recording.
Yes it has had major success and still to
this day keeps growing! We have a na-
tional radio campaign which when we
released it to radio was #2 in the nation
on the FMQB metal charts (commercial
radio) and #3 in the nation for CMJ
LOUD charts!
The record was produced by Billy Gra-
ziadei (guitar and vocals for BIOHAZ-
ARD). We have had a friendship with
him from playing many shows together
and he wanted to produce our record
and we were ecstatic! The whole pro-
cess took about a year! Preproduction,
tracking, post-production, etc was all
done at Billy's studio in New Jersey. Ev-
erything came out amazing and it was
well worth the long drives to and from
Jersey and all the cheap hotels!
What's in store for a follow up to The
Reason?
We actually are working on a follow up
as we speak! We have new blood in
the band, along with new blood comes
different ideas and influences! We are
extremely excited to get this new mate-
rial out! We have our core Dropclutch
writing, along with Adam's Berklee
education and Brandon's experience in
writing songs with Caustic. So we really
have a lot of ideas to work with! We
have a lot of interest from producers
that want to jump on board with this as
well! I can promise you that the new
record is going to make The Reason old
news!
How does Dropclutch go about writing
songs?
We use all methods. Adam will bring
Demos of songs that he writes for our
input. Brandon Wheeler has a bunch
of stuff that he brings to the table. We
try to get the music as solid as possible
from arrangement to solos and then
I work with it to bring melodies and
lyrics to it. I was taught by my vocal
instructor, who is also an opera vocal
instructor, to have the music play over
and over until you become part of it.
The music will tell you what to sing and
how to sing it. Her name was Hilerie
Klein Rensi and that was the best advice
I have EVER received.
You guys are signed to Dirtbag Music.
How did that come about?
Their A&R scouts found us. They were
scouting us for a while, coming to shows
and watching us connect with our audi-