FORT WAYNE, Ind. — Resin Smokers vocalist Claudia Smith told her bandmates last night that the drums during the bridge of their new song should be less “bum-da-bum-da-bum-bum” and more “bum-bum-da-da-bum-bum-bum,” band members confirmed.
“I was so confused. I kept trying to follow along, but whenever she said it, her eyes would close, and she’d have both hands in the air — like she was trying to grab a paper clip off a high shelf,” said drummer Danny Salazar. “She doesn’t know which drums are a rack-tom or a floor-tom or a snare. She just makes these noises, like I’m supposed to understand what she’s talking about.”
Smith, however, came away from practice equally frustrated.
“That part just needed a heavier beat. Like, he knew what I meant. Just because I don’t know the right terms doesn’t mean I can’t explain things clearly,” said a red-faced Smith. “I know how to make a song hard as fuck, and no one else had the balls to tell Danny. I’ll be the bad guy if it means we’ll get more kids beating each other in the pit.”
Fellow Resin Smokers admitted this was not Smith’s first request.
“Claudia barely even know how to play her instrument, so listening to her tell Danny what to do is real annoying,” said guitarist Mal Flanagan. “She ends up sounding like she’s doing different versions of The Little Drummer Boy’s ‘rum-pa-tum-tum.’ One time, when she told me my guitar needed to be more ‘chucka-chucka-waaa-chucka-chucka-waaaa,’ we stayed at practice for an extra three hours until I figured out what the hell she was trying to scat at me.”
Those close to Smith report she has long had a unique way of communicating, using sounds and feelings rather than words.
“When she’s passionate about something or she gets worked up, the sounds just flow through her, I guess,” said Smith’s boyfriend Mark Waters. “Our car was having some issues, so she called up a mechanic friend and told him the car was supposed to sound like ‘vroom-vroom-put-put-put,’ but instead was sounding like, ‘ba-rooom-vroom-vroom-put-vroom.’ I honestly don’t know if it got fixed, but she seemed happy with it after. So I guess that’s good.”
Photo by Senny Mau @SimplySenny.