Phillip Kaplan tracking “Mung Party” by ‘Butchers of the Final Frontier‘ – featuring Guy Marchais, and Frank Mullen of Suffocation. This was recorded at Fantasy Studios in San Francisco, the same studio where Green Day recorded Dookie. Phil used a monster DW drum kit with 22 mics. Official music video- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G-PNaO6O8KQ
You may remember Phillip Kaplan from the popular Death Metal Office Drumming videos that got a lot of attention a bunch of years ago – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MJJHk4hSFB4. This video features Phillip playing along to Suffocation’s “Infecting The Crypts.” Many years ago Sick Drummer Magazine was able to introduce Phillip to the band Suffocation, when Mike Smith was still a member, and here we are 6 (maybe 7-8) years later and Phillip has now produced his own record featuring two members of Suffocation. It’s a great story and an example of what determination can do for you. Nothing is out of reach if you work hard enough and persist.
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SDM: Can you tell us more about all the gear used in this video?
PK: Snare – 14″ Pearl Steve Ferrone signature snare. It’s the rudest snare I’ve ever heard — clangs and rings like a screaming banshee, it’s just beautiful. I tune it so tight that the producer thought I was playing a piccolo snare.
Drums are Drum Workshop in Tobacco Sunburst:
(2) 22″ bass drum
08″ tom – I love this little tom
10″ tom
12″ tom
14″ tom
16″ floor tom
Cymbals:
14″ Meinl HCD hi-hat – So trashy sounding, I love it
22″ Zildjian Earth Ride – Crystal clear ride cymbal I’ve had since high school
16″ Sabian AAX Studio Crash – It’s very thin and bright
16″ Sabian AAX Stage Crash
16″ HHX Evolution O-Zone – Sounds like a cross between a china & crash
08″ Sabian splash
08″ no-name splash with a big crack in it
07″ Sabian Ice Bell – Such a funny cymbal. I use at the most pivotal parts of the song
Hardware:
DW 5000 bass drum pedal x2
Gibraltar rack & throne
The drums were recorded at Fantasy Studios in Berkeley, California. That place is hardcore–they put 22 mics on the drums. After everything was recorded, Zeuss at Planet-Z recording mixed it, making the drums sound even more unbelievable.
SDM: How long has it taken to write all the material for this track, and is there an EP? How many total tracks?
PK: Butchers of the Final Frontier was my high school band from 20 years ago in Maryland. We had some local success back in the early 90’s but never had a good recording. We ended up disbanding around 1993.
This year, we each had our own reason for wanting to reform. For me, I’ve been running a company called DistroKid that helps musicians sell their music in iTunes and Spotify–yet had no music of my own. I wanted to change that.
This is our first new recording. It’s a song we wrote in 1992 and is one of our favorites. It’s called Mung Party. I wrote the lyrics in an evening, and I think we all put the music together over 2 days or so.
You probably don’t want to google what a “mung party” is. But if you do, the lyrics & music video at mungparty.com will delight and/or horrify you.
SDM: How did you approach Guy and Frank to be part of it? Please explain the process.
PK: We have Sick Drummer Magazine to thank! A long time ago I made a video where I played drums in my office, to the song “Infecting The Crypts” by Suffocation. It blew up and got over 6 million views. It’s probably the first viral video ever on YouTube–I uploaded it in 2005 right when YouTube launched.
Many years later, Ian from Sick Drummer Magazine contacted me. He said Suffocation was playing nearby and that he could hook me up with backstage passes.
Suffocation is probably the single most influential band to me as a metal drummer, so it blew my mind when they recognized me backstage as “the YouTube video guy” and asked me for a picture.
Guitarist Guy Marchais and I swapped numbers but didn’t correspond much over the years. This year when my band decided to record Mung Party, I went out on a limb and asked Guy if he or Frank would guest on the track. I couldn’t believe it when they said yes.
Those guys are so cool–and total pros. I think Guy improvised the solo and recorded it in one take. All of the footage in the drumcam and the official video are actual footage of the actual takes of each instrument that are on the record. There was no faking it.
SDM: Will you be enlisting any other musicians for any live shows?
PK: It’s been 20 years since we’ve played a live show. We’d all love to play live again, but it’s hard logistically. This song was recorded remotely, in 7 different recording studios across the US. We were never in the same room. Some of us haven’t actually seen each other in person in over 20 years!
Right now we’re working on new recordings. We have fantasies of doing a one-off show in Maryland. That’s where we grew up & were part of the scene. It would be amazing to get together with some of our old friends like Deceased, Dying Fetus, Crossbreed, Sadistic Torment, Exmortis, Neftuwitch, The Crypt, and Horror Of Horrors.
It would also be fun to collaborate with other bands that influenced us, like Deicide, Malevolent Creation, Gorguts, and Cannibal Corpse.
Maybe I need to make office drumming videos of all those guys. Hah.
SDM: Any other news to share or new “office” videos… haha
PK: Who knows!
Some of your readers may cringe, but I’m also in a pop cover band in San Francisco called Coverflow (video). We play big dance parties. That has challenged me in other ways & added a new dimension to my ability as a performer. I recommend all metal musicians try it, even if it’s painful.
And sometimes it’s fun to throw double-bass or a blast beats into a Justin Bieber song–just to see if there are any secret metal heads in the audience listening.
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