Session work comes in all shapes and sizes, and with this one ‘freedom’ was the name of the game, literally! This was definitely one of the most fun session processes I’ve been through for a while. Here’s the story.
Today I posted to YouTube a live performance video of the full track ‘Higher Drums’ by the United Freedom Collective, performed at London’s Alexandra Palace in February 2025 (see below).
The United Freedom Collective is the brainchild of Robbie Redway, Mathieu Seynaeve and Waifung Tsang, who came together in 2020 to make music with the blueprint of a free, open and mindful creative space. The band reference world music and dance rhythms with an exploratory psychedelic angle.
Collaboration is a huge part of UFC’s ethic and as well as the three core members, a host of other musicians offer guest vocal and instrumental input, helping to create music spanning genres from hip-hop, through Balearic-dance to four-on-the-floor House. It all makes for a rich tapestry of collaborative energy.
The Collective have performed live in many formats – from varying multi-piece lineups to solo performances by Robbie, juggling between synth keyboards, trumpet, guitar and percussion. However, the band had never played with a live drummer.
In 2025 UFC were offered the slot supporting alt-electronica act Maribou State across the UK and Europe. This prompted a decision to adapt the live show for just two people onstage – Robbie with his multi-part solo set up, and myself on drum kit and percussion. This approach helped keep the tour budget manageable. It also adding a different, more bombastic angle to the show, with live drums helping to fill the spaces of the tour’s large venues like London’s Alexandra Palace.
With very little time before the start of the tour I set building my side of the performance. With only a few rehearsal days planned close to departure we initially operated remotely and Robbie put his trust in me to find which parts felt right for each song.
Using audio stems from each of the tracks, I first established the core groove shapes. The original tracks were built using layers of live-recorded auxiliary percussion mixed with drum and percussion samples, all woven into a beat. Working methodically through the tracks, I muted and unmuted layers, played bits on the kit, experimented to find the combination of parts that were both physically playable and combined to best represent the core nature of the original groove.
This multiplicity of parts meant two things. First, some layers could not be played together, in which case we left some parts on the playback tracks we’d be using as part of the show. Secondly, it required a bespoke kit which included a range of percussion items and the need to juggle between different sticks, beaters, shakers, tambourines and dressing-pads on the drums. I lost track of how many times I broke the kit down and put it back together differently in order to accommodate a change, or to help smooth out the performance.
After a few final days of careful choreography and rehearsal, we had shaped slick, boisterous, fun versions of 6 songs that I went on to love more deeply each night of the tour.
As the tour progressed there was opportunity to build on the plans. The core parts always remained the same, but further live exploration and integration of these parts happened gradually across the shows. It was exciting to just improvise and let loose on whatever I could find, storing those ideas and passing them forward to the next night’s performance.
I’m grateful to Robbie and UFC for the opportunity to help develop this show – it was immense fun, feeding my brain and my soul equally at every stage of the process. It also helped me rejuvenate some dormant skills and further nourished my drumming vocabulary.
Session work will always be exciting – the unknowns, the measurement and calculation of each situation, and the fact that an artist is relying on you to find what’s needed. It uses every faculty of your skill set as a musician, not just as a drummer, and most importantly, to use your ears, your heart and to listen!
Check out United Freedom Collective at…….
Website – https://unitedfreedomcollective.com
BandCamp – https://unitedfreedomcollective.bandcamp.com
YouTube – https://www.youtube.com/@unitedfreedomcollective
Instagram – https://www.instagram.com/unitedfreedomcollective
