\"First off, let me take this opportunity to wish you all the happiest of Holidays. 2007 was a bit of a weird year for me, but certainly not bad. Less touring than previous years, but more recording than ever.\"

The drummer recently got his own studio in NYC, where he will be teaching as well as doing some recording work.

Dennis and guitar virtuoso Ron Thal, better known as Bumblefoot and currently a member of Guns N\' Roses, have been locking themselves up for days on end over the past month. Dennis:

\"We\'ve been having a ton of fun experimenting with sounds. I got a whole bunch of drum tracks done, and we\'ll be doing some more soon. The process is similar to the way we recorded the \'Normal\' album: every day I come in not knowing what I\'ll be recording. I learn the songs from some basic scratch tracks, jam along, do some raw drum demos, live with the tracks for a day or two, and then lay down final tracks. It\'s an interesting way of working, as most of my tracks are very spontaneous without being able to really overthink (and possibly kill) anything.\"

Watch Dennis and Ron experimenting with bass and tom here:

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