A Drummer's Odyssey: A Conversation with Tony Royster Jr. x GoPro's Jordan Miller

GoPro has teamed up with internationally renowned drummer Tony Royster Jr. for the eight-minute short film A Drummer’s Odyssey.” The story follows Royster, who is also JAY Z’s drummer, turning his favorite tool into an audio/visual instrument, which accompanies his personal memories and storytelling. Shot at the DW Drum Factory on the innovative HD HERO3+® camera, director Jordan Miller conceptualized the dynamic environment with sonic visualization and projection mapping. Live projection specialists, Gabriel Noguez and Mattia Casalegno, transport Royster’s old home movies and childhood memories onto the main screen behind him, while GoPro time-lapse imagery is placed onto his drum set. We spoke to Royster as A Drummer’s Odyssey‘s main protagonist and its creative mind, Jordan Miller, about the conceptual approach and making of-procedure of this ambitious project.

Tony, how did you connect with GoPro? And how did you experience the video shoot?

I’ve always been a fan of GoPro. I was impressed on how the company has developed over the years and I thought it would be amazing to have one of their cams on my drum kit. One day, I decided to put a small camera behind my kit and record a live session. That clip achieved over one million views on YouTube, which lead me to make this a permanent thing and enhance my visual game so I could offer that point of view to the audience — especially when I perform with an artist like JAY Z. My manager then reached out to GoPro, and it’s been a wrap ever since. As for the shoot, it was great having a camera strapped to my head, a camera in my mouth and having up to 25 cameras accompanying my drum set. It really projects the whole experience. Simply incredible.

Why did you decide to work with GoPro on this project?

First of all, their cameras are just crazy due to their mobility. You can do anything with this camera. It gives you far more options and flexibility to capture a lot more things. Also, from a chemistry point of view, it’s that type of tech company that you want to work with. The people on the team are amazing and understand my vision.

What fascinated you most about this multi-media approach?

The editing process in particular. I loved how clearly the footage came out and was impressed about the motion effects.

How do you evaluate the role of the drummer in 2014? Is there enough recognition for this craft?

It really depends on the type of music that you are playing, and what artist is playing it. Of course, you have Questlove, who is not only a respected drummer, but also an influencer in music today. If you think of it, there are only about a couple of drummers that are being recognized in media today. If I look back, besides having Quest playing for The Roots, and especially in terms of worldwide recognition, there is obviously Ringo Starr (of The Beatles). As for 2014, I can say that drummers are not as recognized as in back in the days because it was much more about live music back then. Nowadays, you still have live music being catered to the audiences, but on a much lesser scale. A lot music is being programmed today. That’s why drummers like myself intend to change that. We are the foundation of music. We make people move, we make people dance. Drums is a very important part of music, the backbone behind the beat.

Why should one pick up the drums to learn an instrument?

It’s one of the greatest instruments ever. Period. It makes the world go round (laughs). Everything has a beat. Drums is something that just makes me feel good. You can even let off steam by playing the drums. It’s a great workout (laughs).

How did you start working with JAY Z?

I met Jay through a mutual friend about seven years ago. He was putting together a band. The Roots played with him first but Jay was interested in creating his own band. A friend of mine, Nisan Stewart, who was responsible for the scouting, has reached out to me. I came and learned about 20 songs in two days. The next day, I played all of them with a live band. Jay heard it, loved it, and the rest is pretty much history.

Have you learned any important lessons by working on him?

He’s simply a genius. I’ve learnt so many different things from him. One of the most important lessons was how to become more of a business man. He showed me the transition from pure artistry to a more entrepreneurship-type of approach. In addition to that, a lot of things that we’ve been through and the conversations we had helped me in becoming a more business-savvy artist.

Watch the audio/visual project here:

How did you meet Tony?

Jordan Miller: I first met Tony through the magical world of YouTube. He was absolutely destroying a massive kit at 12 – took me straight to double bass heaven. We’re similar in age, but I was a couple of years late on catching this video. I’m drummer myself and this little dude put me to shame (in a good way). It’s a really incredible time for folks with virtuous talent. The power of internet can work in amazing ways. The first time I met him in person, he insisted we share some Toppers pizza, which is actually a staple from my childhood – I grew up just south of the DW Drum Factory, which is where we filmed the piece. It was piping hot, greasy, and delicious. Suppose that sweet pizza bread power could be the key to the man’s shreddy chops.

Who came up with the creative concept for his video?

Our music marketing manager, Will Hoover, bursted into one of our production meetings absolutely stoked after hearing Tony was interested in filming with us. As Tony was a child prodigy, we initially had the idea to project images from his past onto his current self. At first thought, we envisioned some home movies projected on the man. Simple. Upon further visualizing, we realized that if we were going to do this well, we’d have to drop in deep – a full visual landscape. My good amigo, Quantum Pfiz (also known as Mike Pfau, GoPro Production Artist) does 60’s-esque liquid light shows incorporating GoPro live streaming. He helped conceptualize this whole visual flow.

How did you set up the shoot?

Quantum Pfiz wasn’t available to come run projection, he is a man of many talents and I believe he had to go to Hawaii to film surfer girls or something. Poor guy. Gabriel, the editor of the piece, studied fine arts at UCLA with Mattia Casalegno. Mattia came in hot with some new incredible ideas. We set up the shoot at DW’s Drum Channel sound stage, essentially a TV studio with a full-on recording studio attached. We set up the shoot in two full work days. The first day, we raised a massive screen, unboxed scary giant christie projectors (we’re used to small technology – wink wink), and set up Tony’s space ship of a drum set. That night we cut film reels and projection assets – all media was either composed of Tony’s home movies, which would be run through GoPro live-stream and liquids, or GoPro hi-def images. The second day, we mapped the screen with one projector and the surfaces of drums with the other, set up 30 cameras, and put the cherry on the top with optimizing our sound mapping – we would be taking Tony’s drum frequencies and assigning real-time video effects to different tonal ranges (high, medium, and low). Serendipitously, Mattia and Gabriel needed someone to ‘test’ this flow. I got to place my humble cheeks on the holy throne and have a go at shredding that monstrous DW kit with dual projection and sound mapping raging. It was glorious.

Can you detail your role at GoPro?

I already told you! I have people skills; I am good at dealing with people. Can’t you understand that? What the hell is wrong with you people?

Just kidding. That was from some movie I saw once… somewhere…

I’ve been working with GoPro for the last four years as a Sr. Production Artist. It’s been pretty heady and amazing watching our media effort grow from five dudes in a room to now nearly seventy-five occupying on an entire floor of a building. I lead the music production team, the hook and bullet (hunting and fishing) effort, and edit/manage/shoot our commercial campaigns and camera launch videos. We’re very happy here at GoPro – a big group of friends and friends of friends. I absolutely love supporting the cause and expanding artistically in this space.

GoPro has been involved in some very interesting music projects. How do you choose your content and projects? How do you know an artist is an ideal partner for GoPro?

All in all, we are inspired by passionate and talented people celebrating their passions from unique perspectives. I reckon we look for that in all content we acquire. From a music perspective, virtuosity seems to be the dealmaker. Music tastes differ, while love for supreme talent and unseen angles is universal. Some of our best performing music pieces, and personal favorites for that matter, fit that mold. David Finlayson of the New York Philharmonic but a camera on the slide of his trombone and not only played a nice solo piece, but got a mind melding perspective that the internet latched onto in a serious way. Carter Beauford of Dave Matthew’s Band put a camera in his mouth and did the same.

How would you describe GoPro’s contribution to music culture in 2014?

These powerful little capture devices are out there shaking sh*t up right now. GoPro provides an affordable option for upcoming bands to document themselves in unique ways as well as a whole online community for them to tap into, share, and maximize their content. In a professional setting, this cameras are constantly being used to live stream and record intimate angles without a camera man with a big rig in the artist and audience’s face. Imagine we will see even more of this in 2015. From a content perspective, we are introducing new, never-before-seen angles into the music world – seeing Tony’s drum chops through Tony’s eyeballs is just plain and simple incredible.

Can you tell us about some of GoPro’s upcoming projects in 2014?

We are focusing more and more on sharing our user’s content. There is a whole world of people shooting insane things with their GoPros and it has become our mission to bring that content to the masses. Some of our raddest moments have come to us in this organic way. Nobody on our production team fights fires and gets the opportunity to save a kitten from a burning building, but remarkable folks out there in the world very much do. Haven’t seen that one? Have a look here. As for standout music productions, we just had the incredible opportunity of documenting one of the largest EDM festivals in the world. I’ll stay vague – tune into our web channels towards the end of the month to check it out!!