Little Drummer Boy...all grown up

Little Drummer Boy...all grown up

By BRENDAN BURNETT-KURIE

The fake wood-paneled wall of Felipe Ramos’ ‘70s era trailer is covered in white sheets of paper splashed with scribbles of black marker. On each is written some aspect of his hopeful music career; a song title here, a dash of cover art there, a long list of radio stations.

Just below the madman-esque flurry of wrinkled notes sits a $4,000 laptop, which holds the key to this maze of information. Felipe sits on his bed, dressed all in black, like always. When he goes outside, he puts on a black jacket. His undershirts are black. Even his sheets are black.

In his heart of hearts, Felipe is a drummer. He’s the guy who played in the Rose Bowl parade, the one whose caustic drumming accompanied George W. Bush when was inaugurated as president in 2001.

But for now, Felipe has transformed. He’s become Flip-In, a singer-songwriter who scratches raw vocals over slick west-coast hip-hop beats on his first album, Mexican Black Magic, which he hopes to release this fall.

“I’ve never done this before,” he said. “I’ve never sang or written. It’s not my thing. I had to think outside the bubble.”

***

Felipe sits down at his drum set, intensity building in his eyes like a rising tide, and turns his iPod to a classic jazz tune. Two massive speakers encompass him, pounding into each ear. He looks up one last time as the first notes flutter from the bulbous speakers, a mischievous smile splitting his lips.

He glances down, swings his left arm into the air and brings it down with a ferocious tenacity, smashing it across the top of a snare. The hits start coming faster and faster as he builds up energy, hands a-blur as they beat out the staccato rhythms. Beads of sweat form on his forehead, then cascade down on the clear plastic as he spins left and right.

***

It’s the second track of the album that really gets the head bouncing. It features a light piano dancing over a smooth, relaxed Dr. Dre-styled bass line. The drumming is simple, understated, and surprisingly not recorded live. Felipe has written his entire album, created all the music and recorded his lyrics, using his MacBook Pro and GarageBand, an intricate program he manipulates to create his signature country hip-hop sound (you can call it hibbity-hop if you prefer).

Felipe wrote the first six tracks of his debut in a flurry of inspiration last fall. After years of living with music as a hobby, he was determined to re-enter the biz. He knows it is where he belongs.

Felipe is a 2001 graduate of Douglas High School, which was just one step in his 14 years of bashing drums.

“I started off playing and it hasn’t stopped since,” he said. “It’s been a lot of fun. A hell of a ride.”

Felipe, who arrived in America from Mexico when he was just a baby, was selected to the Wyoming High School All State Marching Band for two years, earning the chance to play in the Tournament of Roses, the largest parade in the world. While still roaming his high school halls, Felipe started the band Pledge Felix with several buddies. They recorded a five-track demo, but broke up when several members left to attend Oklahoma Christian University.

“We wanted to do it, but we all went our separate ways after we graduated,” he said.

From DHS, Felipe accepted a full-ride scholarship to Northwest College in Powell to study under the tutelage of acclaimed drummer Ronnie Bedford. Bedford spent two years touring with Bennie Goodman, played for two Broadway shoes and was once matched with Buddy DeFranco.

But formal schooling didn’t fit the mile-a-minute Felipe, who dropped out after one year and never earned his performing arts degree. He soon returned to Douglas.

“I threw myself into an extensive practice period for awhile,” he said. “I’ve also been doing, since 2004, my homework for the production company. That’s something I have to learn, is the production side of music, and it sucks. I hate it. But it’s got to be done. It’s a tricky business.”

***

In 2004, Felipe created Foxxy Productions and/or Studios LLC, a production company he envisioned would sign other bands and record their albums. Quickly, he realized that Douglas had a dearth of local musicians.

“I have to get out of here to do that,” he said. “I’ve known that forever.”

So Felipe continued to do what he knows best, spending years working mostly in manual labor – oil rigs, landscaping, construction – or in restaurants. Finally, in the fall of 2008, he had a falling out with family, was forced to move from his home outside town and found himself living in a 15-foot trailer outside a friends house. One night, while sleeping on a thin mattress feet above a city street, he realized it was time to delve back into the music business.

“Last fall, especially, I was done for,” he said. “I was bored, but I almost didn’t do it. It took off for about five tracks after that. I actually did it for like 12 hours a day, working on it and listening to it over and over again. After that it kept going and going.”

Over the course of a year – often interrupted by family battles over land and money – he put together 17 tracks, which he crafted into his debut album.

“Waiting for inspiration to strike is expensive,” he said. “I’ve sat there listening to drum beats over and over trying to think of what lyrics would fit.”

***

He would start with rhythm – some drums and a twisting bass line –  then he’d add pianos and guitars and banjos, then, finally, sit down for the most difficult part: Writing lyrics.

“There’s a couple love songs in there,” he said sheepishly. “Just things in life, crazy dreams about this crazy town. Right now I’m biting my fingernails, a little nervous, to see what the world thinks about that.”

While his drumming is bombastic, most of Flip-In’s songs are laid-back, with a west coast hip-hop style infused with a twang of country living. But some of his lyrics beget a softer, emotional side. The side of lost loves and whirlwind romances. Still, on other tracks he reaches back into his cultural past, spinning the folk tale of a Mexican scorpion.

“It’s mello,” he said of the album. “It’s definitely not something that’s expected of me. I’m aggressive. Even my jazz is aggressive.”

With his initial demo done, Felipe sent a rough cut to Glen Romero, a friend and fellow DHS grad who lives in Massachusetts.

“He’s a musician who’s done his homework. I’ve done my homework too, but I use him to check out my work,” Felipe said. “He has a trick or two, and he’s been helping me out with that.”

Once he gets feedback from Romero, Felipe hopes to have a CD release party in the fall. He’s already hard at work on his second album – which could be part of a double release – and is still pouring himself into the drums every day.

“My ultimate goal is to just do drums,” he said. “Drums, drums, drums, all the damn time.”

When he dreams, Felipe pictures himself leading a rock or jazz group, hiring his own musicians, writing his own charts, being the man behind it all. But he knows he has to put in his dues, earn his way up the hierarchy. Toward that goal, he has been playing in the Casper College reading band for two years.

Even once he releases the album, Felipe knows he has a long way to go to becoming a successful musician. He plans to hit the road in 2010 for his aptly-titled Camper Blues tour.

“It’s the road for me, for awhile anyway,” he said.

After the road, who knows. Felipe knows the horrors of the industry. He knows that for every band that pops up on MTV, there’s a hundred more playing a musty old bar on the side of a highway on a Tuesday night.

“It takes a lot for it to take off. It takes time and money and patience for it to develop. You’re always gambling,” he said. “You’re always putting everything you have in. You’re always risking. Who knows for what? For fun, pretty much.”