This week DeBraun profiles Daniel Mohler, drummer with the band Summer Smoke.
Daniel Mohler is a native of Shelby County, Kentucky who moved to Lexington in 2001. Music was around him as a child since his mother was a music teacher and sang in many different bands. Growing up, Mohler sang in church and in middle school learned many different instruments. Mohler says his decision to focus on percussion came when a guest visited his middle school class.
“There was a guy that came into school and apparently he taught percussion up at the high school, but he started playing some stuff with some drum sticks on his shoe and it was the most amazing thing that I’d ever seen or heard and at that moment, I knew I wanted to play drums, percussion rather, so basically I did vocals and percussion all throughout high school.”
After high school, Mohler moved to Lexington to attend the University of Kentucky and became a working drummer in many bands including Roger White’s Electric Heat, Our Man Flint, and the Other Brothers. In 2012 he began working on a new project with guitarist Joe Drury called Summer Smoke. Mohler says the vocal harmonies between the two create a sound that reflects their duo.
“It was me and him, it was guitar and drums and almost all the songs have a linear vocal harmony throughout the song, a lot of the songs were different than normal songs where you’d have like, a lead vocal then backups on the chorus or something, but this was, a lot of the stuff we were doing was straight up harmonies the entire way, partly because we were good at that and partly because there were two of us and we needed to fill up the sound [laughs].”
Summer Smoke has a new record out and while live the group mainly performs as a duo, being in the studio was a different experience. The two recorded parts of the album in La La Land in Louisville with Kevin Ratterman and Lexington at Shangri-la with Duane Lundy. With the record the duo used full advantage of the studio setting using overdubs and other instruments. Mohler says the experience was great for him because he was able play other instruments on the album as well.
“We took it about as far as we could go with instrumentation and really it was fun for me because, I don’t get the chance to cut loose on other instruments that often and I really got to do a lot of keyboard arrangements and make different melodies and harmonies with instruments that I wouldn’t normally get to do live because I’m always playing drums.”
Daniel Mohler performs with Summer Smoke and can also be seen with Warren Byrom & the Fabled Canelands and The Other Brothers. Summer Smoke will be performing on July 24th at Cosmic Charlies for their CD release party.