By Miles Patrick Yohnke
Copyright 2018 All Rights reserved
"One must stand out from the herd in order to be heard."
- Miles Patrick Yohnke
Drum kit, aTOMgun, brass wind chimes, Chilean beads, 1.5 quart stainless steel saucepan with H2O. These are the linear note credits of Hal Schrenk from the song "Killing Fields," from the album "Descriptive" by Rob Palacol.
Indeed, standing out from the herd.
I remember seeing Hal Schrenk the first time behind a drum kit. Just the refined presence of him; it was a form of high-end art unto its own behind a mint condition 1929 Chrysler drum kit (serial number 0001), again standing out from the herd.
It was the fall of 1998, and I was living with my then partner (8 years at that time) Elizabeth Palacol and her son, Rob (21). We were just embarking upon the recording of his debut CD.
One particular Sunday found Rob and me driving down to Regina (the capital of Saskatchewan) to pitch the project to Mr. Hal Schrenk to see if he would be keen enough to drum on the recording for us. We played a rough copy of "Saint" to him.
I needed Hal Schrenk on this. He was the only one (as I discovered) that could have ever had the right parts for the project; to put his special stamp upon it.
I was endeavouring to record an album that would take on the major labels. It was a DIY, back before there was even a term for it. Me with just a Roland 8-track.
We were recording Rob's parts in our apartment (the one I still live in), then going to Star City (fitting name) to lay Shaun Dancey's Chapman stick, fretless bass and fretted bass tracks down. And lastly, we had to lay down the drum tracks.
Who records drum tracks last? And where do you find a drummer that could even take that on?
In the recording I just wanted to capture a certain spirit. Create songs that had feeling. That could provoke something within one's self.
I remember coming off the road after a week of doing my day job in the beauty industry and Rob wanting me to listen to the new song he had just finished. There he was in his bedroom playing "Saint" on my 1978 Dove acoustic guitar. It is a memory, like Hal's life, that never fades within me.
That Sunday night, there we were trying to pitch him on laying his art down on it. "I'm in," he replied.
Hal Schrenk had no idea what that meant to me.
Rob and I would get home at 5 a.m. early Monday morning. I then put a suit on and picked up my Wella colour educator and drove to Alberta to do three colour classes that day at 3 separate salons. I finally got to my hotel room at 11p.m. totally exhausted, but still so excited about the thought of Hal's contribution to the project.
It was the thought of Hal Schrenk that kept me going that day; that his life and his artistic gift would be present on "Saint."
"For those of us who don't pretend...
...Are driven to Create."
Those are the last lines from Rob Palacol's song, "Saint."
Dec 20, 21 and 22, 1998 we recorded his tracks. First starting in Shaun Salen's photography room with a 30 foot ceiling (where Saint was done), and then over to Hal Schrenk's then girlfriend at the time Nicol Lischka's place, and recording "Killing Fields" and others, in her living room, after she made supper for us all.
"Retribution, forgiveness and creation." "The song focuses on the need to live, rather than merely survive, and the longing of the human spirit to create something from nothing. This creation is "the antithesis of the natural order, where things fall into disorder...and it's so wonderful that people can overcome that to create."
- Rob Palacol discussing the song "Saint," from his CD "Descriptive."
There are many stories within "Descriptive." The cover photograph was the first photograph ever taken by Shaun Salen. That photograph and others would lead to it being nominated for album design of the year and the recording was nominated for pop recording of the year (all in 1999) at the Western Canadian Music Awards. The first DIY to do so.
I wasn't ever interested in winning or losing, but merely interested in helping make art. Art through song.
I've known Hal Schrenk now for over twenty years. I never think of Hal Schrenk as a "drummer," but rather I think of him as an artist. An artist like Jackson Pollock, who made their medium different.
He is endorsed by a wide variety of companies. He drums for a roster of diverse acts, including Rosie & the Riveters. He has a long list of accomplishments, including a Juno Award. In 2018, Hal Schrenk and Shaun Dancey were the first group of people inducted into the SCMA Hall of Fame.
He is ever-evolving, though he has always produced this hurricane of emotion with heavy response, controllable feel; clean, crisp, bright and big. An overwhelming pressure of artistic prowess: Hal Schrenk is that layered storm of mass-percussion.
He is very similar offstage. He ignites emotions. Emotions pressed. Pressed into our human palette. Synchronizing to our inner beat. This is all voiced by his commitment, passion and integrity.
Hal Schrenk is a living piece of art. He is a rhythm pulsation of life.
Hal Schrenk on CTV television. Please click here
To learn more about Hal Schrenk, and to contact him, visit his website: