Photo credit: SweetMusicChica
Dave Schoepke
After spending many years as a touring and professional musician, longtime Milwaukee-area drummer Dave Schoepke realized one of his many career goals—to record an entire album of percussion music.
Recorded in his Hartland home studio, his first solo album, Drums On Low, will be released Monday, July 15.
Influenced by classical music and legendary jazz percussionists like Max Roach, Schoepke has been drumming for more than 35 years. “As a kid and teenager, I always knew I wanted to play in a band. Before I knew it, music was my career,” he says. The drummer has toured with Milwaukee’s Willy Porter and Jethro Tull guitarist Martin Barre, and has performed with his own band, Tweed. Schoepke is also a member of Led Zeppelin tribute group No Quarter, which formed in Milwaukee more than 20 years ago.
Schoepke began recording Drums On Low last year during his wife’s maternity leave after the birth of their son. “Everything was done live in my room,” Schoepke says, adding that he’d record bits and pieces in between his son’s naps. It took the drummer about a month to record and mix the album, which he sent to another studio for mastering.
The album contains a mix of Schoepke’s previous compositions and improvisational work. To help select material for the album, the drummer turned to his No Quarter bandmates, Michael Brandenburg and Matt Miller. “I knew they’d be forthright,” Schoepke says. “Really, the catalyst for the album was those two fellows giving me support.” He adds that with Drums On Low, he “wanted to think of drums as a compositional tool, like a guitar or piano.” To help the album achieve a melodic, harmonic sound, Schoepke experimented with tuning his Ludwig drums in a number of ways.
Schoepke believes that, although the internet has created considerably more competition in the music industry, artists are able to carve out a niche for their music—and accumulate a wider fan base—more easily now than in the past. “Everything is kind of up for grabs,” he notes. “Things are way more exposed now than they were 20 years ago, when everything was dictated by labels.”
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Dave Schoepke will perform at Nō Studios on Friday, July 12, at 7 p.m. for an art and music event that will showcase the work of Jane Bellante. The show will also include a screening of a video for Schoepke’s album track, Which One ARE You?, shot by local artists Kyle Kadow and Steven Cleavland.
