The Lorna Shore Effect: A Reflection and Interview With Parker Yowell, Drum Tech, Whitechapel

Whitechapel

2024 exploded deathcore into the mainstream. Spiritbox, Gojira, Knocked Loose, and especially Lorna Shore—thanks to Will Ramos's viral 'To the Hellfire'—broke through with Coachella, Olympics, and Grammys. Metalblade's massive fall tour, headlined by Lorna Shore and Whitechapel, with Kublai Khan TX and Sanguisugabogg, sold out everywhere. As a lifelong metalhead—Pantera to Slipknot, Hatebreed pits to MySpace deathcore—and now a dad, taking my son to his first metal show at Detroit's Fillmore felt monumental.

It delivered. The energy from start to finish never faltered. Each band put on a masterclass in performance and crowd manipulation. Unlike the metal shows of my youth the diversity of the crowd was apparent in nearly every direction as people from every age group and every gender felt empowered as if everyone knew this was the safest place on the planet and slammed into each other for three hours straight. Kublai Khan ran one of the cleanest and highest energy pits I had ever witnessed. White chapel were as they will always be, iconic, the sound and technical abilities of each instrument including Phil's vocals were easily apparent, and as impartial as it may sound the percussion from this set seemed to be the best quality drum acoustics of any show I had ever witnessed.

Lorna Shore

Of course, without needing to delve too deep into the Lorna Shore set as an almost counter intuitive phrase considering the title, it was the crowd, it was the energy, it was the way the sound travels through the Fillmore's domed roof, it truly was an out of body experience transcending space and time and as my son put it best “Dad I think I’m turning fu***ing Super Saiyan here”. The Lorna Shore

effect is real and the Will Ramos Effect is happening still as we speak. Deathcore has found its way into the hearts and minds of the general populace now and we can never go back.

Parker Yowell

I sat down with Parker Yowell, Thy Art is Murder and also currently working as the drum tech for White Chapel, after the tour and solid respite to talk in length about the tour and about working behind the scenes and about his hopes for the future with his own projects.

Q. Tour Experience: How was your experience working with Whitechapel during the recent tour with Lorna Shore? Any standout moments or challenges that made this tour unique?

A: "Being out with Chapel was great! All the guys are awesome and the whole tour package was full of great bands. I've been a fan of Chapel for years. I was super stoked to tour with them last year when I was working for Thy Art, so it was pretty rad to get to be in the WC camp this time. It was probably the biggest scale tour I've ever done, so that was definitely a unique factor. Also just being on tour with two of the biggest deathcore icons was wild. Seeing how the crowds went totally insane for Chapel and Lorna was definitely special. Phil went out and did guest vocals with Lorna one night so to see those two share the stage was pretty special."

Q. Pre-Tour Preparations: How do you typically prepare the drum kit for a Whitechapel tour, especially when you know you’ll be playing alongside bands like Lorna Shore? Do you change your setup or approach based on the tour's demands?

A: "We pretty much keep the rig the same tour to tour. Some of the logistics could change like whether or not we use a riser, but the kit pretty much stays the same. Of course, there's occasions where you do a fly in and have to use a rental kit so that could present some obstacles, but generally speaking we try and keep everything the same as much as possible. I also pretty thoroughly mark the drum rug, stands, booms and all that so it can be as consistent as possible for Brandon. I also like to gaff the shit out of the drum rug and mark what's supposed to go in the squares. I also put gaff on the stands and write what it is. For example, I also put a marker for the leg of the stand that is supposed to be pointing at Brandon. That way it's obvious what position the stand should be. In theory, someone who has no idea how his kit is supposed to go can kind of figure it out. You would just need to match up the stand writing to the carpet label markers. I pretty much do that for everyone. I had Jesse's (Thy Art is Murder) rig very marked, and my own kit is also meticulously marked as well. I also will always do a head change in pre pro so show we start out with fresh heads. I have a specific head combination I personally like so if the drummer is cool with it, I usually will put Evans G1 clear on the reso, G2 clear on the batter, EMAD 2 on the kicks, and an HD Dry on the snare batter. So before shows, I'll put on new heads and get everything tuned up so we're ready to roll."

Q: Maintaining Gear: Whitechapel's sound is aggressive and intense. Can you walk us through the maintenance and setup process for the drums to ensure they stay in peak condition throughout the tour?

A: "Luckily for me, Brandon is an incredibly consistent drummer, so we can pretty much predict when we will need to change heads. I typically shoot for 4 shows on a set of heads. He also doesn't break a lot of cymbals, so we don't need to carry as many backups. Personally, I'm pretty hard on cymbals so I tend to need more backups. Which is expensive and takes up a lot more space. So be like Brandon, not me (ha-ha). We do have the luxury of changing heads pretty often, so that helps tremendously. People would be surprised at what a difference a fresh head set up makes. If you've ever played guitar with dead strings and then put fresh ones on, it's as big a difference if not more. Dead drumheads start to sound kind of all the same regardless of how the drum is tuned. And every drum tunes differently. So, you really have to know how your drum kit likes to be tuned. For instance, some snares you can kind of finesse the sound you want out of it and other snares it'll sound good if you just crank the shit out of the lugs."

Q. Deathcore music is known for its brutal drumming. How do you adapt your tech approach

for a genre with such heavy and fast drumming styles? Are there specific modifications or adjustments you make to the gear?

A: "I've only really worked for metal bands, but everyone is different. I pretty much tune drums the same no matter who the band is. I also tend to mark carpets and hardware the same whether it's for Brandon, Jesse or my own rig. I would imagine that for other genres the absence of triggers is really the only difference. I'm just so used to setting them up, it's pretty much second nature at this point. While I haven't worked for a non-metal band, I've got a pop punk band, and my gear is marked essentially the same way I do things for deathcore/metal stuff."

Q: How long have you worked for Brandon, what other bands have you worked for, and how is Whitechapel different from other bands you've toured with?

A: "I've worked one Whitechapel Christmas and then the Lorna tour with Brandon. I've also worked for Thy Art is Murder and have worked for Suffocation, Kataklysm and Carach Agren in the past. It's not a massive difference, but I always have to remember that Brandon uses a floor tom on his left. Jesse with Thy Art does two floors but they're both off to the right. It's weird, the visual of my

kit, Jesse's kit and Brandon's might look pretty different but setup wise, they're all three very similar. That definitely makes my life a lot easier (ha ha)."

Q: Dealing with Wear and Tear: Deathcore tours can be physically demanding on both the musicians and the instruments. How do you handle the wear and tear on the drums, especially given the aggressive nature of the genre?

A: "Thankfully we have really good protective cases for everything, so the gear doesn't take too much abuse on the road. The hardware probably takes the biggest beating just due to being in a road case and it can smash into itself in there sometimes. Like I said, Brandon is pretty good about not breaking cymbals and such. That's always the biggest concern for me. We can plan to have a ton of drumheads to change every X amount of shows, but it's hard to know what cymbals will break. Of course, you can assume crashes and chinas are probably most likely to crack, but you never know. Brandon and I would laugh about sticks because he would use them pretty much until they were

absolutely shredded, and for me bands once a pair starts to wear out, I ditch it for a new pair. So, I was constantly like 'oh, man, please don't break all the sticks' (ha ha)."

Q Memorable Moments: Can you share a memorable moment or a funny story from the tour that involved the drum tech side of things? Perhaps a moment of technical triumph or a last-minute save that you’ll never forget?

"I can't really think of any funny things that necessarily involve me being a tech specifically, but during Dementia, Phil would hit the mini china with his mic. I'm not sure how visible it was from the crowd but from my vantage point it was clear as day and super funny. It was a wildly long tour, and we had a lot of fun, so a lot of it is honestly kind of a blur. Thankfully other than fixing a couple booms, we didn't have any disastrous moments that I needed to step in and help. It was a pretty smooth tour, especially considering its length.

Current projects -

I've got a lot going on right now band wise. I'm currently playing in pop punk/post hardcore band Storm of the Century, metalcore band Beyond the Tides and deathcore band The Archaic Epidemic. I also offer a ton of studio services ranging from drum programming to full mixes at my studio, Parkolepsy Productions, so I always look forward to working with new bands. I do more than just drums for Storm and Beyond as well. I mix for Storm and write a lot of the Beyond material, so I've got a hefty amount of work throughout the writing and recording process for both bands. I'm

also involved with producing for death metal legends Dying Fetus. I worked on their last record Make Them Beg For Death and hopefully we'll team up again in the future! As always, I also want to shout out the companies who help me do what I do. Thank you to drum, Czarcie Kopyto, London Drumstick Company, Vratim shoes, Kaptor triggers, MEE Audio for your continued support!

Parker Yowell, Drum Tech, Whitechapel