Hello.
My name is Andy Walker.
I do a few things.
I drum
I taught myself to drum at the relatively late age of 21 or thereabouts, after having realized that a lifetime of tapping on desks, doors, beds, mugs and other people was clearly an omen. Nowadays I'm making up for lost time.
I currently co-lead the Harbingers Drum Crew, a bloc of varying size (up to 25 occasionally!) playing pavement-smashing beats inspired by metal, taiko, samba and drum'n'bass.
I played for about seven years with the Edinburgh Samba School.
Current projects: developing a solo act using drum triggers, loop pedal, djembe and singing; improving my live kit drumming; learning to sing better; continuing to dabble in the random instruments I've picked up over the years (latest: trombone!)
I code
I currently work for Sequentec, writing industrial control software, data analysis and web-based data dashboards for tidal and wave power platforms.
I spent eight years at Amazon, including three years building a web app to allow prospective movie makers to create animated storyboards with music and sound effects, all in the browser.
I'm a polyglot: not necessarily an expert in any language, but I can learn whatever I need to get the job done. My currently used languages are industrial automation C, Python and JavaScript, but I also have a soft spot for Ruby and CoffeeScript.
I write music
Current stuff
Mixed Signals (I like singing)
- This Is Not A Love Song (tongue-in-cheek musings on crushes)
- Iodine (You're Breaking Me Up) (funky midtempo chopped-vocal strut)
- Common Fortune (reverb-washed post-rocky instrumental)
- Realization (NIN-ish gritty doof doof)
- Hermit Crab (alt rock rant about hipsters)
- Sweet You Said You Were (pseudo-folk; nostalgia, aging, and lost love)
- Like I Just Came To Be (tiny stories over minimal guitar)
- Repeat (Repeat) (big electronic beats + lazy slide guitar)
- Airplay (electro funk)
- Bird (camtarn drum mix) (remix of Mairi McKay's song 'bird')
- If Not For Shadow-Light (mellow dreamy pop)
- Out of Nowhere (even more mellow dreamy pop)
- Forewarned Is Forearmed (electronic reggae-ish)
- Sound Is Our Soul (a hymn to the power of group drumming)
- How High (political, reggae-ish)
- Shadows on the Face of the Ocean (downtempo stormclouds)
- Dust Cloud Halo (American desert Mellotron angel growling)
- Until You Can Face Going Home Again (cigarettes and alcohol and drum machines)
- Like You Think I'm Human (industrial-pop-ish with a twist)
- Princesa dos Orixas (dreamy synthpop cover of the Rio Maracatu classic)
- Set Sail (acoustic musings)
- Measurements (scientifically the least metal metal song ever)
- First We Take Manhattan (Leonard Cohen if he was a shouty punk with a guitar)
Digital (I like dance music)
- Pinch Block Align (dubstep jam)
- The Hunt (industrial grade d&b with guitars and shouting)
- Anonymized Set (cold tech house with a message)
- Thrillseeker (lo-fi grungy d'n'b destruction)
- A Life Without Forgetting (chill electronica with beeps and boops)
- Seeing Clouds Past Clouds (lazy 5am beats)
- Nikotine (murky dubstep)
- Rock Star (hyperactive drum'n'bass)
- Deny Everything (chilled-out drum'n'bass)
- Loud Noises (Hands On Drums) (real drums, synthetic bass)
- In In In This This Message (tongue-in-cheek doof doof based on predictive text)
True Analogue (live music and field recordings)
- Winter Call / Repercussions (Winter Drummers 2015)
- Winter Poem (Winter Drummers 2015)
- Swagger (Winter Drummers 2015)
- Hammer of the Gods (Winter Drummers 2015)
- Five Calls (Winter Drummers 2015)
- Cailleach's Lament / Winter Call (Winter Drummers 2015)
Practice (everybody needs practice)
- Feel So Good (D&B remix) (practicing chopping up and remixing real tracks)
- Fastlove (Smoky Bar Cover) (reinterpreting a classic song to change its feel)
- Revolution Compression (rock song demo)
- Nail (demo) (alt rock)
- On The Way To Search For Jane (demo) (alt rock)
Old stuff
Not necessarily chronologically - these just don't represent my current work. Some of them aren't very good. Take them as a documentary timeline ;)
New stuff always goes up on my SoundCloud page before it arrives here.
Occasionally I draw and paint and make things
Say hi?
You can catch me on Facebook, check out my CV on LinkedIn, or email me.
Photo credit: 'birds - tendrils - hearts - flowers {curtain pattern}' by quapanVital statistics
Height: quite tall
Weight: due to gravity
Eye colour: brown
Favourite food: things without meat in
Favourite editor: Vim
Favourite drum fill: tak takarak takarak tak takarak tak takarak tak takarak takaraka