If you have had the chance to look at the new LP Marketing materials, you will see that we have a brand new theme. It features our endorsers in cool, recognizable locations around New York City. Well, we certainly did not want to pigeon hole ourselves to just one locale. So, when the opportunity arose to fly to the west coast and photograph four California percussion stalwarts, we jumped at the chance.

Kevin Ricard with Dave Matthews Band Drummer Carter Beauford at the 2010 Grammy Show rehearsals

The first day started with a 3.5 hour delay in Newark Airport due to weather conditions. We were scheduled to meet with Kevin Ricard, the percussionist for American Idol, first. Kevin’s reputation as the go-to guy for televised events is unquestioned. He performs at just about every Grammy Awards and has been a regular on The Image Awards, The TV Land Awards and VH-1 Divas. He also has worked on the musical scoring for such movies as A Bug’s Life, Speed and The Hangover. In the picture below you can see Kevin with Carter Beauford from the Dave Matthews Band during the rehearsals for the 2010 Grammy Awards show.

So, were scheduled to arrive in Los Angeles at noon for a 2pm photo shoot. Needless to say we did not make it. We hit the ground in LA at nearly four and scurried as quickly as we could to get to the location of the shoot, the historic Capitol Records building right near Hollywood and Vine in downtown Hollywood. Now, I have been to Hollywood quite a few times and the Capitol Records building always earns a drive by view. It is a classic piece of architecture that is truly a standout on the Hollywood landscape, it screams show business.

The Historic Capitol Records Building in Downtown Hollywood

This visit though, we were going to get a chance to go in and see the famous studio A. This is where Sinatra, Nat King Cole, Pink Floyd and all the greats recorded. This was the studio that was designed by the legendary Les Paul. To say that we were excited is an understatement. We finally arrived at 5:30pm, no small feat considering LA traffic – even on a Sunday.

Once inside we walked down to Studio A and into the control room. From that vantage point we could see the American Idol band, including Ricky Minor and Kevin, laying down tracks for the upcoming Tuesday show. They record the backing tracks on Sunday, the contestants come in on Monday and put the vocals on top and when the show is done airing on Tuesday, the songs are available on iTunes.

Kevin's Percussion rig inside Studio A, Capitol Records

On this occasion they were working on all of the Rolling Stones songs being sung by the top twelve. Anyhow, Kevin saw us in the control room and came out to greet us. He told us that he would need some time to finish up his parts and would call us when ready.

So in the meantime, we went outside and started to scout the location, looking for the best shot. We also decided to grab a bite to eat. We stopped at a great Irish pub literally on the corner of Hollywood and Vine. No sooner did our appetizers arrive then we received a call from Kevin, he was ready to go. We asked the waitress to hold the rest of our order until we got back and ran up the street to grab Kevin and bring him to the north side of the Capitol Records building.

Tom and Heidi finding the perfect shot!

The sun was fading fast and the building’s lights just went on. We were rushing against the setting sun in order to get just the right shot. Thankfully daylight savings time just happened that day or we would have been sunk. Thirty minutes later we said thank you and goodbye to Kevin and rushed back to the pub for the rest of our dinner. It was an extremely hectic but overall exhilarating and quite fruitful day. As our photographer Tom is always fond of saying, “I think we got something!”