CHEK Upside: North Island drummer taking cover videos to new heights

CHEK

Throughout his life, Jesse Barnes has looked to his drum set to unwind.

“I played a lot when I was a kid and through my teens and then through my 20’s it just kind of fell off and let it go to the wayside,” says Barnes

When the COVID-19 pandemic hit Barnes, once again picked up his sticks and decided to record his drum covers for YouTube.

Barnes was soon in search of a better backdrop than his basement studio and found it in the mountains surrounding his Sayward home.

“Basically I just looked around and I was like you know a lot of people don’t have scenery like this and I have the drums that I’ve been playing lately and I just put both together and said let’s show people what’s up here,” says Barnes.

He chooses locations based on accessibility, although there’s still plenty of challenges trying to record outdoors.

“Ideally, I mean you want to be able to just back the truck up and do everything easily without hiking and stuff right cause it’s a lot of gear,” says Barnes.

“We did one at this radio tower place way out in the middle of nowhere…the bugs were insane man, these horseflies and everything it was just crazy.”

For Barnes, the end result and reactions online are well worth the effort.

“When I post a video on Facebook or wherever they’re all like ‘Whoa, that’s where you live?’ says Barnes.

“Like the rest of the country doesn’t even realize it looks like this here, so it’s cool to show them that.”

His videos have also helped him find his own online drumming community.

“We all kind of reach out to each other after a while, get to know people and [I’ve] got some collaborations coming up with some of them and it’s going to be pretty cool,” says Barnes.

To watch Barnes’ videos, visit his YouTube channel.

Cole SorensonCole Sorenson

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