Drums On Acid

Origin: None

Drums on Acid is the moniker of the legendary group Infected Mushroom’s esteemed drummer, Cary White. With an eclectic sound capturing the different styles of the electronic genres Drums On Acid is poised to have a huge 2014 with the debut release of his self-titled EP. Drawing support from the likes of Krewella, Emma Hewitt, Feenixpawl, Swedish Egil, Clinton VanSciver, BUL!M!ATRON, Pyramyth, Gunslinger, and of course Infected Mushroom, Drums On Acid has already began to pave his path into the electronic music scene. Keep an eye out for Cary in 2014 as he drops even more original content and releases remixes from upcoming industry heavy hitters.

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Honestly, I’d be a total lost soul if it wasn’t for music. It’s all I’ve really ever known since I was young and I’ve always had the love for it. It’s not something I started doing as a hobby when I was 18 because I thought it could help me get laid or because it was cool and everyone was doing the “band/music thing.” I started drumming on pots and pans when I was four, then graduated to the Fraggle Rock Drumset somewhere within those early years. I went to college for music and later became a session drummer in LA at 22 then moved more towards touring where I started playing for bands and touring with people like Tom Morello from Rage Against the Machine, John Davis from Korn and pop band Metro Station. My latest gig has been with super psych heavyweights Infected Mushroom; I’ve been their stand-in drummer since 2012. I learned a bunch from those guys not only about the EDM scene, but about music and styles and sounds in general. They would reiterate to me time and time again the fact that being different and doing things your way is of paramount importance. As of January 2014 I’m going full steam ahead with Drums On Acid and I truly feel with every fiber in my body that this could be huge. Nobody has ever taken on the task of DJing while at the same time multitasking and ripping drum parts and fills and ambient sounds into a DJ mix. It’s a little scary at times because there’s a lot to worry about but I like the rush of trying new things, improvising and having things be different and unique on a nightly basis.

Hometown: Hollywood, CA
Origin of Name: I’m not really sure, it was almost like one day I didn’t have a name and the next day I was Drums On Acid. It had been that way since the beginning of time, but I kind of have a little bit of an eclectic style. My sound is sort of trippy and different and I ultimately would like to incorporate some level of psychedelic imagery. There’s also the live element of drums in my sets in which I’m beating the shit out of the drums with LED impact sensitive oscillating drum sticks. Drums On Acid just kind of makes sense for what it is I’m doing. In no way is it a drug referendum.
Weapon of Choice: The aforementioned
Influences: I grew up listening to classic rock like Zeppelin and Hendrix, but it wasn’t until later that I discovered electronic music. I was at Burning Man ’11 and I heard who I later discovered was Bassnectar and some of the stuff from Divergent Spectrum and I totally was hooked. Since then my tastes and palette have broadened a bit but I love tracks from Tommy Trash, D-wayne, Henry Fong, MAKJ, Pyramyth, Heatbeat, Mord Fustang, Lazy Rich, Dirtyphonics, Hirshee, Infected Mushroom, Lets Be Friends and the list could go on and on. Every day I wake up and crave something different, but my ear tends to gravitate towards something with rich sounds and a lot of movement. I’m also a sucker for a catchy melody (I know, I know).

What advice would you offer someone thinking about entering the Discovery Project competition?
Just do it. Make sure your sound is tight, mixes are clean and most of all, be different. There are too many clones of clones of clones out there. We all know what happens when something is cloned, you end up with some regurgitated, watered down, imitated attempt at something that was never really your own to begin with and typically will never measure up to what you set out to “replicate” in the first place.

What do your parents think of what you are doing?
I’ve been asked this question a lot over the years and I really do enjoy answering it. First off, I have and always have had the two most supportive parents any kid could ask for. If I wanted to be a professional Mario-Kart player my parents would have supported me. We didn’t have a whole lot of money when I was growing up but my parents did any and everything to keep my musical dreams alive. They bought my first drum sets, paid for me to get drum lessons as a teenager and paid for me to go college to pursue music. Even as recently as a week prior to EDC I was tight on cash and I asked my dad if he could buy me the DJM-900 mixer so that I could learn to mix on it (yes I learned to DJ a week prior to my performance at EDC) and he totally hooked it up, no questions asked. In my early 20’s when people would ask that, I could tell by their expression that they were judging me and thinking “Oh his parents think that their son is going to have a successful music career… how delusional.” Over the years as I’ve had a little bit of success as a professional drummer and toured the world several times over and made a living playing music people think it’s pretty cool and their expressions have changed. When people ask what my parents think of me being a musician I say, “I wouldn’t be where I am if it wasn’t for my parents being so supportive and cool.” Furthermore, you have to be pretty damn rad as a parent to be OK with letting your son beat the living shit out of a drum set for hours on end. Shout out to Dina and big Steve-O. Love you guys!

What’s the biggest misconception about being a DJ? Or, what would people be surprised to find out about the profession?
The biggest misconception of all time is being a musician is “sex, drugs (and in this case) EDM.” This couldn’t be farther from the truth. Although I’m the first one to say I’m down to have a good time, I work my ass off. There are many a Saturday night when my friends hit me up to go out but I’m in the studio tracking live drums to put in one of my songs or putting together a mix or trying to finish a lead melody line that doesn’t seem to quite fit perfectly. It’s blood, sweat and tears literally, but I wouldn’t have it any other way. I love what I do and couldn’t imagine doing anything else.

What should everyone just shut the fuck up about?
A lot of things, and I mean this in a broad sense. In my opinion, electronic music and the nature of what it is and who a vast majority of its fans are, are people who want to cut loose and have fun. They want to forget about all the bullshit for a second, be carefree, kickback and dance their collective asses off. I feel like there are too many haters that want to bring people down. I hear bullshit like “this style is lame” or “that event is for posers” I could go on and on). The way I see it, If you want to hate on people, styles, sounds, really anything for that matter, stay home. You’d be doing us all a favor!

What gets you excited when you think about the future of electronic music and club culture?
I’m super excited for the future of electronic music. A good majority of my contemporaries and I feel like the next major step in EDM is the live element. I’m trying to jump on board early and play to my strengths. Although “early” is a relative term because obviously my boys in Infected Mushroom have been doing it a long time, and doing it well. I just feel like even though going to a rave or a festival is fun and overloads your senses to some degree, nothing is as cool as watching someone emote a feeling or a sound or a tone (live or in that one split second) as it is watching someone do it for real, right there in that instant, live. Not knowing if it’s going to work, or even the fact that it might collapse is kind of exciting and makes for a more exhilarating performance. But on the same note, when you pull it off and it sounds clean and creates a moment, it’s a truly magical feeling not only for the performer but for the spectator as well.

What do you remember about your first DJ gig?
I honestly wanted to keep this under wraps from the public and from pretty much everyone with the exception of my manager and a select few but after some deliberation I thought “fuck it,” EDC New York 2014 was my first DJ gig. I’ve been producing for a couple of years now so my understanding of composition and writing good songs is far superior to my skills behind the decks. When I submitted my track I didn’t really expect to win but when I caught word, reality set in and it was like “OK you have nine days to learn how to DJ,” let’s do this. My manager let me borrow his CDJs, I got the DJM900 mixer and I started from the ground up. I went on YouTube and learned what every button and effect did. I learned to properly mix and how to cue certain parts and how to balance certain frequencies, just mainly the rudimentary stuff that any legit DJ would know inside and out. Obviously I had an advantage being that I’m a drummer who constantly is playing with a metronome live with bands like Infected Mushroom so beat matching came to me almost instantaneously. The main things I found difficult were making sure certain parts lined up. For example, having one track fade out while another track reached its peak and making sure the first track would cut out or end right as the other was dropping. I discovered a few tricks (probably rudimentary) that helped with this, such as looping or adding effects to one track or another to make sure everything lined up. I didn’t want to mention anything because I didn’t want people to judge me or say, “This guy is bullshit, he doesn’t deserve it, he didn’t put in his time” because it’s false. I have put in my time. Maybe not in the area of DJing because initially I fell in love with writing my own music as opposed to playing other people’s but I’ve since discovered a whole new appreciation for DJing and really have found a passion for it. I continue to work on it daily and feel myself getting better and better. Obviously it’s a little tricky trying to DJ and play drums while making everything smooth but I really enjoy the challenge and look forward to pushing the envelope further.

Winning Mix:

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