On the heels of releasing his debut album Schiermann back in 2017, progressive rock and metal guitarist Chris Schiermann and his band have been gearing up for their upcoming US tour with Sons of Apollo (feat. Mike Portnoy) and Tony MacAlpine on January 16th, 2020. And to show you what they’ll be bringing behind the kit, French drummer Arnaud Verrier is here with an exclusive playthrough for the song “Technical Disabilities”, only right here, on Gear Gods!
As you might expect given Schiermann’s previous playthroughs, the track is a total behemoth and is overflowing with equally complex and tasty musical ideas. And from a drumming perspective, Verrier does a wonderful job tying it all together while showing off his insane chops. With how technical and progressive this tune is, the title is pretty damn fitting.
About the track and his kit, here’s what Verrier had to say:
“I was visiting Chris Schiermann in his hometown of Omaha early last year, and this being my french ass’s second time only in the US of A I wanted to enjoy this short stay to do something fun that I could keep as a memory. So we quickly hooked up with the awesome Tom Ware at Ware House Production in Omaha and booked a couple of hours just to get the thing done. It was a little below 5°F outside (-15°C), and having booked only two hours we had to set up soundcheck and wrap it up as quick as possible so there were no such things as a warm-up, which made it quite challenging haha. I know you guys will judge me for seeing glitches of me wearing a shirt on some takes, and the story behind that was that once again with the rush we were in, this was the soundcheck take that Matt (bass player) used to check the lighting that we ended up keeping (haha).
My rig on this one looks like this:
Tom set up a kit that he liked with bits and bobs made of an old school PDP kick, Ludwig Legacy Maple, 10×9″ Tom and 14×14″ Floor tom that I really liked, we brought a beat up unreferenced 13″ and old school Mapex Steel snare that sounded nothing short of surprisingly sick. I went with the studio’s Iron Cobra on wich I mounted my trusted Low Boy wood beaters, wich I gotta say has become such an essential part of my ‘on the fly’ accessories. I play Wincent ‘Rock’ sticks, a Swedish brands that I find extremely durable and well-balanced. Cymbal wise, I always was and forever will be a Sabian guy, and this is what I had:
- AAX 14″ Freq Hats
- AAX Mini Monster Stack
- 20″ HHX Legacy Ride used as a crash
- 22″ XSR Big and Ugly Monarch
- AAX 18″ X-Plosion Crash
- Stack: broken 18″ AAX Omni on top of an 18″ HHX China, for a crisp, breathy and buttery sound
- AA 19″ Holy China.
“Thank you for taking the time to checking it out, Schiermann is currently on tour in the US supporting Tony McAlpine and Sons of Apollo, the difficulty for us non-Americans to get a Visa is becoming increasingly difficult so unfortunately Matt Ball and I couldn’t be there, but my friend Joseph Wesley Harrington has been taking over the drumming duties and Reese Ortenberg will deliver the lows, I highly suggest you make room in your schedule to check this amazing line up out!”
Dates and details for the band’s upcoming US tour are below. You can get your tickets here.
Be sure to listen to and stream Schiermann here and to follow the band on Facebook.
