By: Rick Landers
Eric Selby
Moving beyond being type cast as a percussionist, Eric Selby, a first call Northern Virginian session player pushed the envelope with his debut album, Do Baby (Soul Stew Records – 2020), taking on a heavy workload of writing the songs, handling guitar and percussion, singing vocals and helping dial in the sound and the emotional heft of the project, alongside DC’s master producer, Marco Delmar (Recording Arts).
Around the Washington, D.C. area, Eric’s been nominated for multiple Washington Area Music Association Awards (WAMMIES), and outside of his home-base he’s gathered accolades from the Blues411’s arena, winning its Drum Thumper “Jimi” Award, been featured in Modern Drummer magazine, and notably is a Blues Hall of Fame inductee.
On the road, Eric’s roamed around a lot of territory, having played such venues as, The Kennedy Center, The Music Center at Strathmore , Belly Up, NPR’s Mountain Stage, the Washington Folk Festival, the New York State Blues Festival, DC’s legendary 9:30 Club, B.B. Kings Blues Club in the Big Apple, the Greenwood Blues Cruise and other hot spots around the country.
If that’s not enough to keep the man busy, Eric’s also the owner of Soul Stew Records, with a fine stable of artists including: Eric Thompson, Bob Eike, Les Hatley, Little Bit of Blues, Mary Hott, Norman Taylor, Rob Gillette, and of course, now Eric himself.
Selby’s musical roots run deep and wide, given his work alongside such top performers as: Billy Thompson (Little Milton, Albert King, Art Neville), Ron Holloway (Warren Haynes, Dizzy Gillespie, The Allman Brothers, Sonny Rollins, Tedeschi/Trucks), Daryl Johnson (The Neville Brothers, Daniel Lanois, Emmylou Harris, U2, Bob Dylan), James East (Elton John, Lionel Richie, Eric Clapton), Warner Williams (Piedmont blues legend, 2012 NEA National Heritage Fellowship Winner), Drink Small (Piedmont blues legend, 2015 NEA National Heritage Fellowship Winner), Bill Payne (Little Feat, J.J. Cale, The Doobie Brothers), Lenny Castro (Adele, The Rolling Stones, Steely Dan, Maroon 5, Stevie Wonder) and Mike Finnigan (Jimi Hendrix, Joe Cocker), to name a few.
His debut, Do, Baby, is a hip, smooth rocker with cool hooks, catchy lyrics, offering listeners a spin-worthy platform of rock solid original tracks. Featuring an excellent array of musicians, the album shows off Selby’s vocals, with his drumming tracking steady in the background.
His album kicks off with a stylish guitar lick reminiscent of The Byrd’s Roger McGuinn during his Rio album days, before settling in on a blend of guitar, keyboard, dulcitar, bass and drums featuring some exceptional backup talent. Upfront, Selby’s first track, “Conversational Snow”, clips along with spot on harmonies and some punchy drive. Lots of highlights here, including “Patiently”, “The First Taste” and others that have an almost country-folk-rock mix with vocal glimpses of Al Stewart, Dewey Brunnel and some of Graham Nash’s early solo work with David Crosby, more fine wine here than beer in this first tasting of Eric Selby. Eric’s first solo outing has been getting accolades and airplay, and a lot of hat’s off from folks around the country. Nice work and we hope to see more from Eric Selby in the near future.
As one of the country’s best drummers, Eric Selby has been endorsed a number percussion companies, including: SonoTone Premium Guitar & Bass Strings, Canopus Drums, Soultone Cymbals, Tycoon Percussion, The Grombal-Cymbal Accessories, CymbalChief, Carmichael Thrones, BEATO Bags and Ahead Drumsticks and is a DrumART showcased artist.
Guitar International is pleased to present to our readers the masterful Eric Selby, as we discuss his road to becoming a pro, his drumming and recording experiences, and his fine new Do, Baby debut release (2020).
******
Eric Selby
Rick Landers: Most musicians have a pivotal moment in their lives when they heard a singer, a song or a group, or a music genre that caught their attention in a way that paved the way to them learning an instrument. Did you have a moment that grabbed you?
Eric Selby: My pivotal moment occurred at 9-years-old, listening to the first real record I ever bought with my own saved money, The Beatles Second Album. It was a record that had a couple of originals but mostly filled with rhythm & blues covers and it was so raw and alive to me. They really showed me that an artist can deliver variety and stay true to what they are.
The Beatles were my introduction to rhythm and blues, rock, beautiful ballads, amazing harmonies. I had not discovered Brian Wilson yet, psychedelic, heavy distortion, Billy Preston’s B3 sound…just so much to internalize.
Rick: As a kid were you always banging on things, making sounds that evolved in a way that pointed the way to a set of drumsticks?
Eric Selby: I grew up in a very musical family. My mom was always the church organist throughout my childhood. All my brothers played instruments at the time. I started playing piano at six or seven-years-old and then added drums at nine-years-old. Although I was competent on piano and guitar at a pretty early age, my four older brothers had all of those instruments covered and they needed a drummer to add to the mix, ergo, I became their drummer.
Rick: Well-known drummers are typically known for their technique coupled with a style of playing, like the technical expertise and ease of a Buddy Rich, or dramatic fills and physical expressions, like Keith Moon. Where does your own style fit and who would you say best reflects your style of play?
Eric Selby: Like any impressionable kid who was a drummer, I was listening to the greats like Buddy Rich, Ringo Starr, Tony Williams, Neil Peart, Stewart Copeland, Billy Cobham, John Bonham, Ginger Baker, Richie Hayward, just to name a few. I had an “a-ha” moment in my late teens when I realized that I was never going to be them as they had already ‘done them.’
So, I started focusing on being the best me I could be as a musician. In fact, I was asked to write a feature in Modern Drummer magazine some years back, specifically about this moment and concept of being the best you that you can be.
Rick: You’ve played a considerable amount of session work, that I’d guess means you’re called upon to not only play a complementary style to fit composition, but to come up with something original to add a percussive signature to a track. What kind of preparation do you find helpful or necessary to make things happen once you’re in the studio?
Eric Selby: I have been blessed with a lot of studio work over the years in many varied musical genres: rock, blues, country, reggae, Celtic, Americana, etcetera. I have learned to simply explore all good music, regardless of the style.
Today, I listened to Thelonious Monk, Florence +The Machine, Firefall, Dawes and Little Feat, to name a few. Because I always listen to so many different genres, it has provided a solid and handy foundation for me to understand what the basic feel, structure and approach to a particular required format might be.
Eric Selby
As I prepare, I listen intently to the scratch tracks first and make copious notes before ever even walking into the studio. Once in the studio, I do my best to leave my ego in the car and listen to what the songwriter/performer wants out of the song and truly deliver their musical vision.
Because of my experience with this and the much appreciated producer’s trust in me, they often just say, “just do your thing.”
Ninety percent of the time it works well with what they wanted in supporting the composition. If not, we discuss their vision further and we run through it with that creative approach.
I know a lot of musicians don’t like the studio and, in particular, drummers don’t like the metronome, but I love it all! Time in the studio is a sacred gift to me, and I’ve learned that the metronome works for me, not the other way around.
Rick: Guitar players tend to fill up their homes with guitars. Do you find drummers do the same? What drum kits do you have, and do you have a full array of other percussion instruments? Missing anything that you long for?
Eric Selby: I am so appreciative that I have the opportunity to endorse several amazing companies. For my drums and percussion life, I endorse Canopus Drums, Soultone Cymbals, Ahead Drumsticks, Carmichael Thrones, Cymbal Chief & The Grombal Cymbal Accessories and Tycoon Percussion.
For my guitar life, I endorse SonoTone Premiums Guitar & Bass Strings. So, I am pretty covered with gear. Thankfully, I have decent storage space in my home for all of my musical tools for gig and session readiness, although my daughters would beg to differ.
Rick: Your Do,Baby album is filled with all original songs that you’ve written. I assume you have many more and had to go through a process of elimination, and setting aside a few for a follow-up album. Did you rely on your own instincts or did you get perspectives from others to come up with the final list?
Eric Selby: The six songs on the Do Baby EP were chosen by me. With it being my first solo effort, my intent was to provide a variety of moods and styles on the record that made sense for where I was creatively when we started tracking the songs.
My co-producer and partner-in-crime on this record, Marco Delmar, helped me with placement of the songs within the record to help provide the best musical landscape story. The entire EP is just 30 minutes long, so it is really intended to be listened to as an entire package.
Rick: I expect that you’ve worked with quite a few producers, what drew you to Marco for your first outing and what did he bring to the “game”?
Eric Selby: I really owe a lot to Marco for being able to “get on tape” what I have been wanting to really articulate in my music for some time. Marco has an amazing gift for being able to draw out creativity and emotion from a space where I often don’t go. He cares so much about delivering an emotional, honest message that I often forget that I am performing.
There are some amazing producers in the Mid-Atlantic Region and I love working with them and have high respect for them all. Marco just seems to work well with my own musical vibe and it allows me to be creative and expressive.
That said, as any good producer will do, he also knows when to reign me in from the ledge sometimes. We’ll try stuff and look at each other and say…”nah” and move on to the next cockamamie idea I have. Yes, he is patient.
Rick: The album art for Do, Baby is pretty cool. What kinds of collaboration did you have with the designer (Kelly Wills – Brain Flower Design)? Did the artwork already exist or were you involved in the themes of each piece?
Eric Selby: Kelley Wills is an amazing artist based out of Eugene, Oregon. She has created artwork for many well-known national musical artists. The artwork was created specifically for this record. There are six songs on the record and each piece of artwork represents an individual song.
Kelly and I discussed concepts before she started the sketches, she listened to the pre-release tracks to get a vibe and to embrace the lyrics, which I think is really cool, and then she provided her artistic interpretation of each song. I released each song as a single prior to the entire EP and so each songs “cover” stood on its own.
With the full EP, she lined up all six pieces together to create a patchwork design that worked really well with the vibe of the record. I have gotten so many compliments on the design and I owe it all to Kelley. Please, do check out her company, Brain Flower Designs!
Rick: The album credits show that you contributed some guitar work on all of the tracks. I’d guess you wrote the songs with your guitar, but had some idea of what each would sound like with other instrumentation. While engineering and mixing the tracks, did you experience any surprises or magic that surfaced, that you hadn’t anticipated? Also, what guitars are you playing on the album?
Eric Selby: Yes, I wrote the material on my guitar. I had most of the instrumentation mapped out in my head as to what I wanted to hear, but wasn’t sure if I could get the right musicians and arrangements to pull it all off. I am happy to say that nearly all my intentions are exactly what you hear on the record. There were a couple of happy magical moments that we took advantage of during the mixing.
I remember when Marco was placing Don’s (Don Côqayohômuwôk Chapman) background vocals at the end of the first song, “Conversational Snow”, ’it created a cool call-and-response echo effect and we kept it and built upon it because it just worked in the sonic landscape in the coda of the song.
There were so many great guitar players on this record, including Billy Thompson, Don Côqayohômuwôk Chapman, Christopher Brown, Miles Gannett, Les Hatley and Marco Delmar. These amazing musicians had an arsenal of four, six and 12-string guitars: Martins, Taylors, Stratocastors, Telecasters, Dulcitars, to name a few. Some were factory, some were mods and some custom guitars, like Don’s Nichols Custom Guitars made by Todd Nichols, of Toad the Wet Sprocket fame.
Rick: Are you a member of a band or bands, or do you find it more agreeable to be a “contract” player, working with a broad array of groups or individual artists?
Eric Selby: I have chosen, at this stage in the game, to prefer to do it all. Years ago, I had been exclusively in one or two bands maybe at a time, but I found that if the band or band leader couldn’t book or didn’t want to work that month, then I was out of luck.
Rick: As far as the music industry or business goes, what are some of the things you’ve learned that you wish you’d known before you got involved in the logistics, the administrative, legal and other aspects of the job?
Eric Selby: I have learned so much: I’ve learned that nothing is forever. I’ve learned that only you can tell your story the way you want to tell it. I’ve learned not to rely on others to make a living in this business because they are focused on their own journey. If it includes you, great, but they aren’t going to include you if it doesn’t suit their needs.
I’ve learned all of this through trial and error, for sure. I am now reliant on my own efforts to be productive and effective. As a couple of examples, if I didn’t like the way a tour was being coordinated, I stepped up and became the tour manager. When I felt that too many great artists weren’t being properly represented or available to the public on recordings to the masses, I started Soul Stew Records.
Rick: We’ve all been stifled a bit from the constraints of COVID-19, and I suppose it couldn’t have come at a worse time, when you were probably pumped about getting out in front of udiences to perform Do Baby live. How have you had to mentally adjust your expectations or recalibrate your marketing plans?
Eric Selby: Actually, I haven’t really adjusted my intent or plans with this record at all. I never particularly planned to perform Do, Baby live. It was always intended to be a studio project. I think that allowed it to be freeing in a couple of different ways.
First, I was able to be as creative in the studio as I wanted to be without worrying about how I was going to deliver it live; and, second, it provides me with the freedom to continue to work on other collaborative projects that I am really psyched about without concern with conflicts with other musicians or competing schedules.
Eric Selby: Timing is odd with record releases because generally you’ve written the songs a year, or years in certain cases, before the release. I started working on this record in May 2019 other than tracking, editing, mixing and mastering.
I have had a year since creating and tracking new music, so I am really ready to get back to it!
In fact, I was properly social distancing in the studio this past weekend with Marco Delmar and Don Côqayohômuwôk Chapman, getting started on the next release since I already have a good amount of songs I intend for the next record already written.
I’m really blessed to have received great reviews on Do, Baby. As well as sales in both downloading and old school CDs have been really good, as well, even with the quarantine situation we all are facing right now.
I want to continue to create music and am really looking forward to continuing the various projects I am blessed to be associated with, including working with Billy Thompson, Little Bit A Blues, Fractal Cat, Jay Summerour Band, Don Côqayohômuwôk Chapman and Deane Kern Trio and, of course, my own ongoing studio projects.
