We were lucky to catch up with Jules Stewart recently and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Jules thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Learning the craft is often a unique journey from every creative – we’d love to hear about your journey and if knowing what you know now, you would have done anything differently to speed up the learning process.

Learning the wide variety of skills I’ve needed to record my own drums has been such a fun process! I love playing drums and never intended to become a recording engineer, but it’s all part of the game of being a recording drummer in today’s remote-heavy world.

In case you’re not familiar with the process of remote recording, essentially I get sent songs that need drums from artists anywhere in the world. Sometimes they send me “scratch tracks” (an instrument and a vocal track, neither of which are the final version that will end up on the finished recording), and sometimes I get a mostly complete track with everything but drums finished. I record drums with a whole bunch of mics in my own studio to whatever they sent me and send them all my files. The artist generally gets other folks to play other instruments and sends everything to a mix engineer to put it all together.

When I set out to learn how to record my own playing so I could offer remote recording, I didn’t have a whole lot of knowledge about mics (or where to put them), the software or hardware I needed, or what to do (or not to do) with the files once I had recorded my drums. I read books on recording, took a course online about how to better use the software I had, and bought a couple sets of instructional videos from drummers I respect who do remote recording. I dove all in and practiced a lot, trying to get different sounds from what I had. I started sending files from my practice to mix engineers I know and asked for their honest feedback, then made changes to how I was doing things based on their feedback. Once I was getting good feedback about what I was sending, I felt comfortable charging money for what I was doing and started building a business! Since then, I’ve done tracks for folks all over the world in genres all over the map. It’s been a blast!

I’m not sure I could have sped up the learning process much and still felt comfortable with what I was sending out, though I know lots of folks start charging earlier in the process. Perfectionism is a double-edged sword: it slowed me down initially, but it’s been an essential trait of mine for making sure I’m sending tracks that make artists happy. I’m really grateful for the supportive and collaborative nature of the drum community. My favorite drummers who do remote recording are very generous in sharing their wisdom and knowledge. If you’re a drummer looking to learn how to record remotely, check out Dan Bailey’s courses and Aaron Sterling’s videos. Without those resources, it would have been much harder to get started!

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

Hi! I’m Jules Stewart. I live in San Diego, California, and have almost 30 years of experience playing drums and percussion. I love using dynamics, precision, and musicality to achieve drum parts that suit the band, song, and venue. I’m lucky to get to play with some incredible bands and singer/songwriters including Gráinne Hunt, Shane Hall, Please Ask for Paul, The Morning Room, and Lindsay White. I’m most passionate about connecting and collaborating with other musicians and I’m happy to be doing so both locally and remotely with musicians around the world.

I was lucky enough to grow up with parents who let me put a drum set in my room (my bagpiper father couldn’t complain too much about the noise) and since the day I started playing, drumming has felt like my first language. I’ve played live for decades but over the last 5 or so years I’ve focused more of my attention on remote recording. I offer remote drum and percussion recording for folks all over the world. My approach to drumming is song-first. I always want to make sure what I’m adding with drums only ever makes the music better and fits the song. I’m the most proud when I hear that what I played on a song inspired another musician to approach it in a more musical or sensitive way.

I’m still playing live, both in San Diego and on tour, but I’m happy to be spending more of my time recording. If you know anyone who needs drums on their next song or album, I’d love it if you’d think of me! You can contact me through my website, julesstewartdrums.com

What can society do to ensure an environment that’s helpful to artists and creatives?

There are some larger scale, infrastructure-type things that other countries do incredibly well to create a thriving artistic ecosystem, like providing significant government grant funding for creatives. But on a more personal level, I think there are some things people like you and I can do better to support the arts. First, we can all think a little more often about the value art and music bring to our lives. I’m so grateful to be inspired by all sorts of art in my daily life, from the poem on my wall that I read every morning (Wild Geese by Mary Oliver) to the art on the electrical boxes around San Diego. Then, considering the immense value we get from all this art, we can be willing to pay for art, even in a world where the internet and streaming have made art accessible for all (which is cool!). Streaming is basically free for consumers and doesn’t pay artists in a meaningful way. I try to make a point to buy tickets for my friends’ ticketed shows (sometimes even when I’m not sure I can come), pay for albums on BandCamp, buy merch, buy original paintings, pay to go to art museums to see art in person, and participate in building the ecosystem in any other way I can. I’d encourage all art lovers to give their money in direct ways to the artists who make our lives more beautiful.

For you, what’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative?

Contributing to the beauty in this often difficult, always gorgeous world is the most rewarding part of being a creative. As a backing musician, I’m always part of a larger whole, focusing on serving the music in any way I can. It’s always the goal to be part of something that touches, inspires, or helps someone, and it’s been incredibly meaningful to me whenever that has happened. When it happens live, it’s even more special when someone comes up and shares more about their connection to the music, and I’ve been lucky enough to have been a part of lots of moments like that. When music becomes a beacon that helps someone find their way through the world, it feels like the most important thing I could be doing.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://julesstewartdrums.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/adventuresofjj/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/JulesStewartDrums

Image Credits
Abigail Alexis Romi Rossel Andrew Murguia Darci Fontenot