The Production of Lil' Dicky's "..Bruh"
By: Kevin Skaggs
Photo: Variety
Back in 2016 or so I got a call from a friend who asked me if I could help him out with a project. He is an audio post guy doing mixing, editorial, and sound design. He told me that “it seemed more musical than just post production audio, and you might be a good fit!”. Happily I agreed to meet the client and find out what they needed. I love production, and adapting to a new client’s vision, so next day I drove to Culver City (I think?) to meet “Dave”, and Mike.
“He wants it to sound like it’s on a street corner. You know, like a guy with a portable P.A. system, and a dude who came along with a kick & snare. ”
When I heard what he had in mind, and realized we could take it a lot further than just the loop that he licensed. I took the gig not knowing anything about where Lil’ Dicky was headed. I called my production parter at the time and asked:
“What would be the main kit someone would drag to the street and use as a busker’s drumming set-up?”
His response: “A bucket.”
Then he added:
“…And if they want to really jam, a kick, and snare. Not hats.. That’s too much stuff to carry around.”
So I got my self a bucket, secured a drummer (Hyke Shirinian), and scheduled a time for Lil’ Dicky to pop by!
Cut to the day of recording, Lil’ Dicky walks up and the first thing he says after the “hellos” is: “Call me Dave..”. Which after discovering his greatness is as humble as it gets.
We had some time to get to know more about Dave’s vision for “Bruh”, and we quickly realized we were right on the money with the basic kit setup, and the bucket.
Dave would direct Hyke through the song, and how he wanted the energy of the track to progress. Creating the feel of the pocket on the street when the crowd really gets into it.
At the end of the day we arranged all the recordings, and produced a great track for Dave. Later he told us how relieved he was that we sorted this track out for him, as it was the only one left that he was concerned about.
There was a little more to the story after this. This was close to a holiday and I was visiting my family up in Washington State (near Seattle). Dave coincidentally happened to be stopping there on his tour. I asked him if he would be cool with meeting up, and gathering some of his fans to cheer, and clap (as the people on the street while a busker is drumming would). He loved the idea, and got excited to try it.
A few days later I was up in Seattle, and with my mobile field recorder chatting it up with Dave’s fans. It was such delight to see their delight when Mike Hz (Dave’s manager) and I asked them if they wanted to be a part of the crowd on the track. We explained the concept the best we could, and got a lot of great material that you can hear in the final track!
After that Dave and Rob Klineski Mixed it, adding the main loop back into the live drums. Which worked really well!
In the end the final track turned out so well, and the best part is that Dave (Lil’ Dicky) was super happy with the results. At the end of the day, that’s all that matters!
Thank you to Lil’ Dicky and Co. for trusting us with your track!
Here’s a link to the final track: