Phil Johnston Drums

Payphone – Maroon 5

admin — Sun, 20 May 2012 13:25:22 +0000

I added some of my own drum parts to “Payphone” by Maroon 5 after it started playing on my half-calculator/half-payphone. *All drum parts are real as seen. No pre-recording or sound replacing was done

Owl City – Dementia

admin — Tue, 08 May 2012 15:47:00 +0000

This song was driving me crazy…in a good way. So I added some of my own drums to it. What else…oh yeah Mark Hoppus is hot.

Coldplay – Paradise (Peponi)

admin — Thu, 19 Apr 2012 01:18:04 +0000

I added drum parts to The Piano Guys’ Cover of Coldplay’s “Paradise”. So technically it’s a cover within a cover. Sort of like inception but the only dreamy thing here is my amazing good looks.

Katy Perry – Part of Me – Drum Cover

admin — Sat, 24 Mar 2012 00:25:56 +0000

I suped up Katy Perry’s song “Part of Me” and added some of my own drum parts. MMmmm…soup.

Carly Rae Jepsen – Call Me Maybe

admin — Mon, 27 Feb 2012 21:13:27 +0000

Call Me Maybe…or maybe not. You know, whatever. Okay, yeah call me. Or don’t. Do.
- These are drum parts I added to Carly Rae Jepsen’s Song “Call Me Maybe”.

JessieJ – Domino

admin — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 16:41:15 +0000

I added some parts to Jessie J’s Domino.

Bruno Mars – It Will Rain

admin — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 16:56:10 +0000

Invincible – Hedley

admin — Sat, 19 Nov 2011 19:35:45 +0000

This is a wicked song by Hedley. I added some of my own drumming parts to it. Blam!

John Mayer – Slow Dancing in a Burning Rom

admin — Mon, 17 Oct 2011 04:26:09 +0000

I made up some drums parts for John Mayer’s “Slow Dancing in a Burning Room”.

After The Anthems’ channel (my band): http://youtube.com/aftertheanthems

Thanks to Lee for taking a cymbal to the face while recording the video.
Check out his channel: http://youtube.com/howshebe

Micing drums

admin — Thu, 02 Jun 2011 15:50:08 +0000

Sometimes I want to do a drum video cover but i don’t have access to a studio. All I have myself is an Mbox and access to a couple of mics. The Mbox only has 2 inputs so I am limited to micing the whole kit with just 2 mics.

Often I’ll get Phil Ciufo (the singer in my band After The Anthems) to come and record drums for me because he has a full Pro Tools set up with tons of mics. It always sounds killer when he does it for me.

This time I used my Mbox and 2 Beta 87a’s. I tried a bunch of different mic placements and found a couple of places that gave me a good mix. I ended up putting one Beta 87a overhead on the right-hand side of my kit over the Ride Cymbal and Floor Tom and another pointed upwards towards the snare so it would also pick up the hi-hat, rack tom, snare, and left crash.

I feel like the mix ended up pretty good considering it was only 2 mics. I figured that since drums sound like drums when you’re in the room with them that I didn’t need to mic every tom, cymbal, and snare separately. With a couple of room mics it should sound decent.

How do you mic up a drum kit? What has worked and sounded good for you? Let me know in the comments.

New Alchemy Cymbals

admin — Wed, 01 Jun 2011 20:36:44 +0000

I have been using the Istanbul Traditional Cymbals for a while now and just recently I decided to try out the Alchemy Crashes. I got 19″ and 20″ Custom Rock Crash cymbals. And they sound incredible. For someone who hits the drums really hard like myself, to keep from breaking cymbals usually the cymbals have to be made of some iron-man suit-like material – which usually sounds pretty crappy and clangy.

The Alchemy Custom Rock cymbals are not only tough and durable – but the sound is so nice. They aren’t clangy-sounding at all – but still have a huge punch and shimmer when you hit them. The other Istanbul Traditional cymbals I was using were pretty good – but I can’t compare the sound and durability to the Alchemy Custom Rock’s. They are sooo good. MMmmmm.

What kind of cymbals do you have/use/love?

Drum Cover – Justin Bieber – Never Say Never

admin — Wed, 01 Jun 2011 20:27:10 +0000

Snare skins.

admin — Wed, 01 Jun 2011 20:06:41 +0000

I recently switched my snare skin from the Remo Emperor X to the Evan’s HD Dry. The Emperor X is multi-layered and is the most durable skin I’ve ever used. The only problem I had with it was getting it tuned up the way I liked it. I always seemed to have a ringing noise out of the snare when I tuned it up super tight.

I like having my snare skin as tight as possible and I just couldn’t seem to get the sound I wanted from the Emperor X. The Evans HD Dry has been sounding really awesome. I can tune it up super tight and it still gives a hard solid punch. The only drawback is that it is less durable than the Emperor X so I’ve had to change it more often as it wears out sooner. Still, for shows and studio stuff it’s worth the extra cost to be changing the skin more often.

What type of snare skin do you use? How do you tune it up? Let me know below!

Airplanes PT 2 – B.O.B feat Eminem and Hayley Williams

admin — Tue, 01 Jun 2010 03:06:00 +0000

I added some drums to Airplanes pt 2 by B.O.B – Philj

P.S. you can download an MP3 of it here:

Download (right click, save as)

Fireflies – Owl City – Drum Cover

admin — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 22:01:49 +0000

Beside You – Drum Cover – Marianas Trench

admin — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 21:38:32 +0000

This is a cover I put together of the song Beside You from Marianas Trench – Thanks to Josh Ramsay for the tweet!

Saviour Lights – Philj Drum Remix

admin — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 20:19:14 +0000

I added some drum parts to Saviour by Lights

“Crush” David Archuleta – Drum Cover – Philj

admin — Tue, 11 Aug 2009 02:29:40 +0000

This is a drum cover I did of David Archuleta’s “Crush”

Britney Spears -Circus drum remix

admin — Wed, 11 Mar 2009 21:41:50 +0000

Britney Spears’ Circus on drums by Philj

Kanye West – Heartless

admin — Sat, 28 Feb 2009 14:31:15 +0000

Kanye West’s Heartless on drums by Philj

Istanbul/Alchemy Cymbals

admin — Wed, 17 Dec 2008 14:53:08 +0000

I have recently been endorsed by Istanbul Cymbals and I’m using 16″ Traditional hihats, 18″ and 19″ Traditional Crashes as well as a 21″ Sultan Ride. I’m loving the combination of these cymbals. The Traditional crashes have a powerful sound as well as a lot of dynamic. The Sultan is great for quick technical beats. It has a great sounding bell and has a lot of range in sound.

Studio Recording – Phil J – After The Anthems

admin — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 03:54:14 +0000

Recording drums for “It’s dejaVu all over again” – After The Anthems

Download the album free:
www.free.aftertheanthems.com

Why is it – Phil j – Whitby, Ontario

admin — Tue, 28 Oct 2008 15:05:19 +0000

Phil J playing “Why Is It” live on the drums by After The Anthems in Whitby, Ontario

Phil j – Everyone – Whitby, On

admin — Tue, 28 Oct 2008 14:55:49 +0000

Phil j playing “Everyone” by After The Anthems in Whitby, Ontario

Why is it – Live intro – drums

admin — Thu, 16 Oct 2008 23:42:32 +0000

Live intro to “Why is it” – Phil j drums

Let it In – Music Video – After The Anthems

admin — Wed, 24 Sep 2008 20:13:14 +0000

Music Video for Let it in by After The Anthems

The Temporary

admin — Tue, 15 May 2007 23:45:32 +0000

I did a little studio drumming for this project JamieK is working on called “The Temporary” – He made this video lol. Check it out at www.iamtemporary.com