I put myself through an absolutely unhinged producer challenge: learn every instrument in TOOL’s “Schism” in 24 hours and then perform it with no edits. I had my editor Pepe pick the song (of course he went with a classic), and the second I heard it I knew I was cooked. The game plan was simple on paper—bass, drums, guitar—but the only way this was even remotely possible was splitting the track into stems so I could actually hear what each part was doing. I started with bass because it felt like the scariest one, hunted down tutorials, and realized the riff isn’t “hard” so much as it’s insanely specific—especially once I tried it with a pick. Drums should’ve been my comfort zone (yes, I have a college degree in drums and percussion), but the reality check hit fast: there’s double-pedal stuff I don’t have, a mini-solo moment, and a bunch of parts that are easy until they’re not. Then guitar… brutal. Not because each riff is impossible, but because there are so many similar variations that change one or two notes and completely throw you off. At the end, I set my own rules: unlimited takes, but each instrument had to be performed clean with zero edits, then stacked. It was either going to be really cool or really embarrassing… and somehow I got a pretty good take.