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Women’s Audio Mission Presents Drum Recording Workshop

Kiran Gandhi, drummer for M.I.A., and Kimberly Thompson,drummer for Beyoncé, participate in workshop on April 10, 2016.

On April 10, 2016, Women’s Audio Mission (WAM) in San Francisco, a nonprofit dedicated to the advancement of women in music production and the recording arts, presented an intensive drum recording workshop in its recording studio. The workshop featured guest celebrity drummers Kiran Gandhi, music producer and drummer for M.I.A. and Thievery Corporation, and Kimberly Thompson, recording artist and drummer for Beyoncé and Late Night with Seth Meyers.

WAM Executive Director Terri Winston led the workshop and trained more than 20 young women in how to prepare and tune a drum kit, and select and place microphones to produce high-quality, professional recordings of live drums. The students then participated in a live recording session of both Gandhi and Thompson on drums.

Kimberly Thompson in WAM studio.

“I haven’t worked with any other female engineers except for myself and a few of the ladies today,” Thompson said during the workshop. “I’m really honored to step into the first female engineering location. It’s very inspiring. I think that there are some core people in this camp that are really going to change the world.”

“I think one of the things I’m most inspired by is how energetically positive this place feels. It just feels super supportive, celebratory of each other’s music, everyone is super good at what they do,” Gandhi observed. “I just feel like my comfort level here is so good and stable. Today’s class was just through the roof good vibes. Everyone was so happy working together, we had a blast playing, teaching and getting inspired.”

“WAM is so honored to have Kiran and Kimberly here working with our students,” Winston says. “What a life-changing experience for our students to witness such incredibly accomplished and gifted drummers who were so generous with their knowledge and experience. It doesn’t get any better than this.”

Women’s Audio Mission trains more than 1,200 women and girls every year in the only professional recording studio in the world built and run entirely by women.

For more information, visit www.womensaudiomission.org.

Hear more from Gandhi and Thompson in an exclusive WAM podcast interview produced by WAM student interns, posted on SoundCloud.

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