Stella Mozgawa

“I’ve kept relatively the same setup since joining Warpaint—two 16? Agop crashes as hi-hats, a 24? Turk ride, and a 22? Agop ride used as a crash”), Promark 5A Japanese oak sticks, and Remo Vintage heads (“or the Aquarian vintage equivalents, which match well with the drier tone that I’m fond of”).

Stella: Yeah, definitely. I like the idea of creating my own samples, and I’m very particular about what I put into my SPD-SX pad, instead of having every drum machine ever made in there so I can pick and choose and make Frankenstein kits. With modern technology you can drive yourself crazy over the number of options. It can steer you away from focusing on a sound that will be known as yours.

On Heads Up and on the album’s supporting tour, Mozgawa plays a 1964 Slingerland kit in jazz sizes (12/14/20). “Live I generally play C&C drums,” Stella says. “Those guys are amazing and they made a kit for me for our last tour, which is more of a rock kit. But since we recorded with smaller, more electronic/samply funk sounds, the Slingerland seemed like the right one to go on the road with. On the last record and on a lot of the studio stuff I’ve done, I used an early-’70s Pearl wood/fiberglass set, the one James Gadson loves. That’s one of the best-sounding kits ever.”

“On a lot of the tracks on the album,” she explains, “we made the snare and kick sounds a little grittier and more electronic, so I’ll just fatten up the snare on certain songs live, like ‘New Song’ from Heads Up and ‘Disco/Very’ from the last record, just put a LinnDrum snare on it. I use an Acrolite snare, which is exactly the snare I want to use forever until the end of time, but they never really made a deep model. So I guess I’m compensating a little for that, but also the familiarity of that tone. Also, even though there’s four of us on stage, we’re sort of a three-piece, and we’ve got to kind of fill in sonically—a little more decay on certain things.”

“I’ve kept relatively the same setup since joining Warpaint—two 16? Agop crashes as hi-hats, a 24? Turk ride, and a 22? Agop ride used as a crash”), Promark 5A Japanese oak sticks, and Remo Vintage heads (“or the Aquarian vintage equivalents, which match well with the drier tone that I’m fond of”).

She plays Istanbul Agop cymbals (“I’ve kept relatively the same setup since joining Warpaint—two 16? Agop crashes as hi-hats, a 24? Turk ride, and a 22? Agop ride used as a crash”), Promark 5A Japanese oak sticks, and Remo Vintage heads (“or the Aquarian vintage equivalents, which match well with the drier tone that I’m fond of”).

3:29. "This is the Roland TR-606..." "I program something on this drummachine and try and replicate it on the drumkit.."

And: https://www.moderndrummer.com/article/february-2017-on-the-cover-warpaints-stella-mozgawa/ “Live I generally play C&C drums,” Stella says. “Those guys are amazing and they made a kit for me for our last tour, which is more of a rock kit. But since we recorded with smaller, more electronic/samply funk sounds, the Slingerland seemed like the right one to go on the road with. On the last record and on a lot of the studio stuff I’ve done, I used an early-’70s Pearl wood/fiberglass set, the one James Gadson loves. That’s one of the best-sounding kits ever.”

“I’ve kept relatively the same setup since joining Warpaint—two 16? Agop crashes as hi-hats, a 24? Turk ride, and a 22? Agop ride used as a crash”), Promark 5A Japanese oak sticks, and Remo Vintage heads (“or the Aquarian vintage equivalents, which match well with the drier tone that I’m fond of”).

She plays Istanbul Agop cymbals (“I’ve kept relatively the same setup since joining Warpaint—two 16? Agop crashes as hi-hats, a 24? Turk ride, and a 22? Agop ride used as a crash”), Promark 5A Japanese oak sticks, and Remo Vintage heads (“or the Aquarian vintage equivalents, which match well with the drier tone that I’m fond of”).

Playing Yamaha Reface DX for recording in this video.

"As you can see, we tracked on the very fashionable Tascam 388"