9000 0

APRIL
2019 | 292

.MASTODON EXCLU VE.

MIKE JOYCE
"John Lydon told me my
drumming was s**t!"

RHYTHM INTERVIEW

MARKRICHARDSON
25
Heavy rock's most exciting years of
drummer on recording, vocals Skunk
and why songwriting matters Anansie

GERRY MORGAN
Taking pop sessions
to the next level

LEARN TO PLAY…

SOUNDGARDEN
'SPOONMAN'
JAMES BROWN
'I FEEL GOOD' ALESIS
DOUBLE STROKE POWER
3/4 JAZZ COMPING
STRIKE MULTIPAD
The new sample pad standard?
WELCOME!
All good things…
Stuart Williams, Editor
stuart.williams@futurenet.com
WWW.MUSICRADAR.COM/RHYTHM
Welcome to this month’s magazine – which,Iw writewiththeheaviestofhearts––will be the
final issue of Rhythm. I’m as saddened as Iimaggineyouwillbe,aswhenIjoineddthe
magazine it was as a reader of the title for two-thirdsofmylife,andacontributtorfor a
decade. Like thousands of others, my formativeeyearsandbeyondon this instrument
were shaped by the words and images containedwithin Rhythm.
Expertly-written, informative, humorous and inspiring,alongwithjusttherigghtlevel of
reverence and the best visual presentation ofanydrummag,itshowedmefroomthe early
stages of my drumming journey that we areavvery different breed to manyothher
instrumentalists. We’re close-knit, open-minded,disciplinedandalwayswillingtoshare
ideas with each other.
The diverse content in the magazine taught me that it was possible to find value in any
kind of music: you can appreciate and learn to play drum’n’bass beats while also wanting
to demolish a snare drum with the fills from ‘Smells Like Teen Spirit’ (yes, it was the 90s)
and curiously trying your hand at ‘10-to-10’ on a ride cymbal. I feel fortunate and grateful
that I was encouraged to pick up Rhythm almost as soon as I picked up drum sticks.
However, things change and sadly print magazines are increasingly expensive to create.
Despite Rhythm being made by a very small team of people who love, live and breathe
drums and music, it has been deemed no-longer viable in an age where information is
largely free. That said, if you’re reading this, you are the exception to that trend. So, I’d like
to thank you for supporting an institution – I receive many emails from readers, from
people who have bought the mag since day one, to people who have just picked up their
first issue. It is thanks to your loyalty that Rhythm has managed to reach its 35th year on
the newsstand. Likewise, I’d like to thank the gear brands whose continued support has
helped enable us in our quest to celebrate the legends of our instrument, help break
many new drumming names, teach people to play, and appraise gear honestly. Of course,
there’s also the many talented editors and team members who have come before me, as
well as the contributors whose reputations as players as well as journalists and tutors
have made Rhythm’s content so strong for three and-a-half decades.
So, thank you all. The wingnuts are off, there will be no encore.
APRIL 2019 | 3
Contents Issue 292 April 2019

46
MIKE JOYCE
The Smiths drummer on
the band’s six magic years

We tip our hat and say

52 farewell to a stalwart of
the UK session scene

Regulars
06 BEAT
All the latest news from the drum world,
hot gear, classic sounds and more
16 INTRODUCING
The bands and drummers you need
to have on your radar this month

WANT TO SUBSCRIBE TO RHYTHM? 44

Become a Rhythm subscriber! Save
big by heading to page 26 right now!
www.myfavouritemagazines.co.uk
BEHIND THE DRUMS
First kits, big show nerves and
LESSONS Essential tutorials
64 to improve your playing
meeting heroes with Brent Fitz

4 | APRIL 2019 WWW.MUSICRADAR.COM/RHYTHM

26
BRANN
DAILOR
The Mastodon man on
songwriting and climbing
the ‘drum mountain’

38
GERRYMORGAN
84
On how embracing technology has GEAR REVIEWS
allowed him to realise his creative vision Our experts get hands
on with the latest gear

WWW.MUSICRADAR.COM/RHYTHM APRIL 2019 | 5

PEOPLE | MUSIC | GEAR
RHYTHM:
1985-2019
Rhythm writers reflect
Q Geoff Nicholls
From its very first issue, Rhythm set the
highest standards. The mission has always
been to report and comment on the drum
world with straightforward honesty – no airs
and graces. A balanced mixture of news,
interviews, gear – new and old – plus more
educational support than you could shake
a stick at. Rhythm set the pace with its
inspirational cover mounts – worth the
money alone. Rhythm championed the
greatest UK drumming events and the
resurgence of the UK’s world-class
drum-building community. And every
issue has boasted first-class photography.
Q Colin Woolway
In 1992 (ish), I pitched an idea to then-editor
Simon Braund for a casual column called
Teasers that could be thrown around
anywhere in the mag – not so much
educational as a drummy distraction. He
agreed – and I continued to contribute to
the mag for the next 27 years! I’m intensely
proud of being part of the Rhythm mag
educational team for all that time. Teasers,
Getting Started, The 8 Bar Pattern, 20th
Century Rudiments, The Next Step, Jazz
Concepts, and of course the London
Drum Show; seven editors who have been
immensely supportive; and so thank you
Rhythm. It really has been a pleasure...
6 | APRIL 2019
Q Pete Riley
It’s been a fantastic experience to be part
of a magazine I began buying as a young
drummer, and through which I’ve gotten
to know so many of my fellow drummers.
It’s terribly sad to see it go after all this
time – but I’m also grateful for the
opportunity. It’s been a role that has helped
me feel a part of the drumming community,
but personally has helped me learn so
much as a writer, drummer and engineer.
Mostly, though, I’d like to thank you, the
reader, for all of your support over the years.
It’s been an absolute pleasure to share this
drumming journey with you.
Q Chris Barnes
I joined the Rhythm team in 2004, hired by
the brilliant Louise King, before stepping up
to editor myself in 2009. It was a thrill to
work in such a close-knit industry; to
interview my drumming heroes; and to
travel the world, all to bring our readers
the very best from the world of drums.
A personal highlight was working with
friend and BIMM tutor James Hester on the
‘Classic Drum Sounds’ issue, in which we
armed readers with the skills to sound like
Dave Grohl, Phil Collins, Clyde Stubblefield
and more in the studio. This is the end of
an era, but I’m incredibly proud to have
been part of such a drumming institution.
WWW.MUSICRADAR.COM/RHYTHM
WWW.MUSICRADAR.COM/RHYTHM APRIL 2019 | 7
BEAT! PEOPLE | MUSIC | GEAR
FREDDIE’S RETURN
Nuthin’ but a Freddie Gee thang
Q The Freddie Gee Drum
Academy & Drumming
Holiday is back for 2019 – and
it is looking bigger and better
than ever.
The drumming extravaganza kicks off at Sparsholt
College in Winchester on 29 July and will then run
until 2 August.
Places on the course are available on residential
and non-residential basis and whichever option
attendees plump for, they will be treated to an array of
performances and masterclasses.
8 | APRIL 2019
The line-up so far is described by organisers as
possibly the strongest British line-up that the event has
ever managed to put together. The jaw-dropping list of
names includes all-round Brit drumming institution
and education maestro Steve White (Paul Weller), prog
king Craig Blundell (Steven Wilson) and a pair of
session superstars in the shape of Jeremy Stacey (Noel
Gallagher’s High Flying Birds) and Ash Soan (Adele).
Is that little lot not quite enough for you? Then
worry not, because there’s more! Also already
confirmed are greats from the rock, pop and big band
worlds. There’s Ian Matthews, a man who is just at
home in a stadium with Kasabian as in a tiny jazz club,
the always-excellent big band leader Pete Cater,
livewire rocker Mikey Sorbello (The Graveltones) and
drum tuition master Paul Dinnage.
The event is supported by Natal Drums, Zildjian
Cymbals and Roland electronics. It lasts for five days
and is designed for drummers of all styles and abilities,
bar absolute beginners. Classes run each day from
10am to 5:30pm, with informal evening events such as
clinics running after hours.
According to organisers: “It’s a great fun-filled week
where you can enhance your drumming skills with this
stellar roster of tutors and soak up the valuable
information they have to offer… whilst having FUN.”
For further information and to book a place contact
drumacademy@hotmail.co.uk.
WWW.MUSICRADAR.COM/RHYTHM

ENTER THE FLAMES
In Flames frontman explains drum switch
Q In Flames frontman Anders Friden has revealed
all about the change behind the Swedish metal
behemoth’s drum stool.
In 2018 Tanner Wayne joined the band, replacing Joe
Rickard who had himself had replaced long-time In Flames
drummer Daniel Svensson in 2016.
Discussing the latest switch, Anders told Loud TV that
Rickard was forced to step away from the band due to back
problems, but his final act with the band was to have a say in
the man who would step into his shoes.
“[Tanner] was actually a recommendation by Joe,” he
says. “Joe told us he couldn’t play anymore because he had
back problems, which was very sad, because we love Joe
and had a good time with Joe, and he was a great addition to
the band when Daniel [Svensson] left [in 2015].
MCLEAN JOINS LUDWIG
Broadway sticksman makes the switch
Q Carter McLean, an in-demand Broadway pit, pop
player and multi-instrumentalist, had previously
played Dunnett and George Way drums.
In a statement, Ludwig announced the news: “Proud
to announce the joining of Carter McLean to the Ludwig
artist roster! Carter has been an acclaimed figure in the
music community for several years now. From Charlie
Hunter to the Lion King on Broadway, McLean has been
busy touring and doing studio work as well as having a
busy teaching schedule.”
WWW.MUSICRADAR.COM/RHYTHM
“We had a few drummers [in mind], we talked to a few
drummers, but we knew Tanner from the European tour we
did with Five Finger [Death Punch] and Of Mice & Men, cos
he was teching for Of Mice & Men.”
Anders reveals that having that insight into Tanner’s
personality was a driver in the decision to give him the gig.
“So we know the personality of Tanner,” he continues. “If
you wanna apply for In Flames, we know that you’re gonna
play good drums. But we don’t know you personally, and we
spend so much time in a tour bus, on a lounge, on a plane or
somewhere doing something with the band – not being just
onstage. And that is important that we function together. Not
only is he a great drummer, he is a great character and a
great addition to the band.”
In Flames’ new album, I, The Mask, is out now.
Carter McLean himself was similarly pumped regarding
the switch – in a social media post, he announced: “I am
now a Ludwig drum artist! I had a fabulous run for the last
six years with Dunnett/George Way. And I’d like to give a
really big thanks to Ronn Dunnett for being so great.
Fantastic drums but it’s time for a change and Ludwig was
my only choice. I think it’s a perfect fit for my sound and I’m
really, really excited for the future with Ludwig. They make
unbelievable instruments that I look forward to playing for a
long time.”
OZZY GRANTS
WISH
Drummer gets platinum record
Q You may remember recently we reported
that Lee Kerslake had issued a plea to be
granted platinum records for his work on Ozzy
Osbourne’s Blizzard Of Ozz and Diary Of A
Madman albums.
Kerslake revealed that he had been given
months to live and he had written to the
Osbournes saying that gaining those
certifications was on his bucket list.
Well, it seems that the letter was well-
received as Ozzy has shared an image on social
media of Kerslake with mounted platinum
records, saying: “I’m so glad that Lee Kerslake is
enjoying his Blizzard and Diary platinum
albums. I hope you feel better. Love, Ozzy.”
The news comes after many years of legal
wrangling regarding the records. Following
legal battles regarding royalties and credits
on both, the albums were re-recorded with
Faith No More sticksman Mike Bordin on
drums. However, Kerslake’s playing was
restored on the 2011 remastered versions of
both records.
Kerslake, who also enjoyed a lengthy stint
behind the kit for Uriah Heep, was part of
Ozzy’s band in 1980 and 1981, performing on
those two seminal records during that time.
The 71-year-old drummer is battling prostate
cancer, which has spread into his bones.
MOSLEY
MEMOIRS
Marillion man’s book on the way
Q Prog rock pioneer Ian Mosley is to release a
brand new book this month.
The Marillion drummer has worked with
Georgina Wistow to produce Do I Owe You
Money? The Collected Memoirs Of Ian Mosley.
The book hits the shelves on 19 March via
WizardofMos Publishing.
After hearing reams of stories from the
sticksman over the years, long-time friend
Wistow decided to press on with turning the
tales into a tome and the pair have spent the
last two years doing just that.
A statement on the book sets the scene for
what fans can expect: “From a misspent youth
in North London, through naked musicals,
Dutch prog bands, being a milkman and a Mini
Tone, this book follows the path of a boy who
just wanted to drum, to a man living his dream,
and all that that entails.
“You’ll laugh, you might cry, you will almost
certainly be offended at least once, but by the
end of the book you’ll love Ian Mosley one of
the greatest British drummers of all time, just a
little bit more.”
Meanwhile, Mosley, who has been behind
the Marillion drum stool since 1984, will head
out with the prog icons for a UK orchestral tour
in November.
APRIL 2019 | 9
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BEAT! PEOPLE | MUSIC | GEAR

We get our hands on the hottest new drum gear

FIRST LOOK
ISTANBUL XIST AFTERK
ION DARK SERIES DAR
CYMBALS
From £174 istanbulcymbals.com

Dark, dry and explosively quick, cymbals are bang on trend

right now – the ideal companion to modern, electronic-tinged
music. Istanbul have selected their established Xist Ion Series to
be dried out for a new range, Xist Ion Dark.
Istanbul’s original Xist Ion cymbals were notable for the holes
radiating from each bell, à la Sabian’s O-Zone and Zildjian’s EFX
range. The theory is that these sound wave interrupting holes
on the surface of each cymbal help shorten the attack, add
complexity and dry out the overall tone. These same hole
configurations can be found on the Dark Series.
So, what makes the Dark Series dark? The B20 bronze of each
cymbal is left completely unlathed and raw to elicit a much
darker tone and Saharan-dry response with quick decay.
There are currently five cymbals in the Xist Ion Dark line-up.
15" hats are crisp, cutting and electronic sounding; 17" and 19"
crashes are explosive and penetrating, but with plenty of
bottom end; the 21" ride has extremely articulate sticking and a
pronounced bell, but don’t expect to generate much wash.
Finally, the 19" Trash produces a super-fast, rough and ready
sound, ideal for accent blasts.

RAW TALENT
Dark series cymbals are based on
the original B20 Xist Ion series,
but left unlathed and raw to help
create that dry, earthy sound

DARK MATTER
Not only do the Xist Ion Dark
cymbals sound dark, but they
have a rougher finish compared
to their brighter siblings

12 | APRIL 2019 WWW.MUSICRADAR.COM/RHYTHM

 TRASH TALK
The holes in the Xist Ion Dark
cymbals help shorten the sustain
and add a more complex, trashy
element to the sound

THE PRICE OF DARKNESS

The 17" Xist Ion Dark crash costs
£174 and the 19" £220. The 19"
Trash, 21" ride and hats are £220,
£261 and £271 respectively

WWW.MUSICRADAR.COM/RHYTHM APRIL 2019 | 13

BEAT! PEOPL E | MUS

SONOR
E SERIES
PROLITE
From £2,318 sonorr.com
Q Big news from German ny at this year’s NAMM
Show was that the ProLitte range has received
some tweaks to size, finissh and configuration
options for 2019. For starrters, ProLite will now be
available in three- rather than four-piece
configurations. New finishes include Fiery Red
and Snow Tiger high glosss, and Elderr Tree semi
gloss. The previous 20"x117½" bass drum size has
been changed to 20"x16", and prices will start
from £2,318 for a three-ppiece setup consisting of
a 20"x16" undrilled bass drum,
d 12x8 tom, 14"x14"
floor tom and a 4000 serries hardware pack.

DRUM KIT
Hot new gear on the Rhythm radar…
BRITISH DRUM COMPANY
THE ARCHER SNARE DRUM
£TBC britishdrumcompany.com
Q Sticking firmly to their British roots, one of the BDC’s newest drums is handcrafted entirely
from English yew. The snare has been dubbed The Archer because, traditionally, yew was the
preferred timber for making longbows for medieval English archers, thanks to durable
flexibility, power and reliability. The Archer is built around a 14"x6" 10-ply shell with 30 degree
round-over bearing edges, which delivers a rich, warm tone with fast attack. As with all BDC
drums, the shell was constructed using the company’s unique cold press moulding process.
Other features include vintage-style mini-claws and Palladium lugs, gold-plated tension rods
and a golden badge embellished with green sycamore.

FLOYD ROSE
HEADPHONES
From £79.99 floydrose.com/jhs.co.uk
Q From jamming along to music at the kit to listening to
playlists on your commute, a decent pair of headphones is a
worthwhile investment for any drummer. Floyd Rose, the
brains behind the famous guitar tremolo system, have
branched out into the ’phones market with their Floyd Rose
Audio Collection and the results are impressive. Topping the
range is the powerful and stylish 3D Dual Driver over-ear
model, complete with two speakers per cup, dual moving
coils and a frequency divider board, working together to
produce the perfect blend of highs, mids and lows – ideal for
drum practice. For added luxury, try the Wired Wood model,
complete with mahogany lined cups, or go minimalist with
one of Floyd’s three Bluetooth earbud models.

14 | APRIL 2019 WWW.MUSICRADAR.COM/RHYTHM

A
ATV EXS SERIES
E-DRUMS
E
£T
TBC atvcorporation.com
QA ATV’s first foray into the kit world came via their
aDrrums series kits, complete with full-size drum
shells – the kit was designed for gigging, but it didn’t come
cheeap. Now ATV have set their sights on the traditional
e-kit market with the new EXS line-up. There are four kits
in the range, each buddying up with the new xD3 module.
Thee xD3 promises low latency, realistically captured
onbboard sounds and a new sound engine for a wider
dynnamic range and greater expression. The EXS-3 and -5
featture two-layer mesh headed pads, hi-hat pads with an
optical rather than contact sensor for greater precision,
plus realistic choke-able cymbals. The EXS-1 and -2 are
more compact, offering smaller pads, a pedal sensor-style
hi-h
hat and the option of a mesh snare and bass drum with
rubbber tom pads, or a full complement of mesh pads.

COZYDRUM PRO RODS

From £13.99 cozydrum.co.uk
Q Rods are an essential addition to any discerning drummer’s
stick bag – they’re ideal for extracting new tones from your
drums, or for those situations where a lighter touch is needed.
CozyDrum Pro Rods are handmade to order in drummer Richard
Horton’s Warwickshire workshop, with a focus on response,
weight and rebound. There are currently six rod models in the
CozyDrum range – alongside a selection of Brazilian percussion
products – offering different sizes and styles for all applications,
from specialist Pro Rods Foamers, featuring premium bamboo/
birch dowels with a shock-absorbing foam core, to Pro Rods
Rockers, comprising seven premium birch dowels for extra weight
and power. We’ve tried a selection and the quality is right up there
with the big brands, and the prices are fantastic.

YAMAHA FP9 SERIES

BASS DRUM PEDALS
From £300 uk.yamaha.com
Q Yamaha have always been praised for their approach to sturdy, streamlined and long-lasting
hardware. The new FP9 bass drum pedal line-up is no exception. The series includes
double-chain and direct-drive options in both single and double offerings (plus a left footed
double-chain model). Smoothness, responsiveness and customisation were Yamaha’s main
goals when designing the new pedals, and they have delivered exactly that courtesy of a
weight-adjustable beater and easily accessible pedal lock spring, an axle-stabilising bearing
chamber for smooth playability and adjustability, independent beater and footboard angle
adjustment and anti-skid heel spikes. The design is sleek and contemporary too; we can’t wait
to give them a test drive. Prices will start around £300 for a double-chain or direct-drive single
pedal, jumping to £576 for the double option.

WWW.MUSICRADAR.COM/RHYTHM APRIL 2019 | 15

BEAT! PEOPLE | MUSIC | GEAR
STEVEN
ANSELL
BLOOD RED SHOES
From punk rock to electronic beats, via hotel demolition
M
y main inspiration for taking up
drums was I was bored of guitar,”
explains Steven Ansell. From
slinging riffs in punk rock bands,
Ansell discovered his true calling for battering the
skins when he formed Blood Red Shoes with
Laura-Mary Carter. The raucous duo just released their
fifth album, Get Tragic, on their own Jazz Life label.
Note: they don’t play jazz.
You’re a self-taught player?
“Yeah. I don’t know anything about anything technical.
People sometimes ask me questions about something
I did, I’m like, ‘I have no idea what you’re talking about,
man. I just hit the damn thing.’ Laura is self-taught on
the guitar, so there’s this perfect unity where we both
just operate on instinct and chemistry.”
16 | APRIL 2019
How did your work with producer Nicolas
Launay on Get Tragic?
“We were trying to reinvent our sound, to explore new
places, to take influence from more electronic and
synth-led music. He pushed us further down that road,
so on some songs he made rules like, ‘You’re not
allowed to put any drums on this.’ There’s one track
where I programmed the drum beat, and another
track, ‘Find My Own Remorse’, we went to an
electronic producer and said, ‘Send us some beats for
this track,’ and I just didn’t play drums.”
Were you nervous about fans’ reaction to the
new sound?
“I wasn’t nervous, I was excited because I wanted to
freak people out. I actually kind of wanted to piss
people off. Reaction from our fans has been really
good and reviews have been really good. That’s really
cool, but the punk kid in me wanted to ruffle more
feathers than it did.”
How has your approach to recording
changed?
“Piece by piece we’ve learned a lot about using the
studio. When you first go into the studio, I think every
band finds it a bit sterile, a bit stifling, stiff and
sensible. Over time you start to learn the things you
can achieve in the studio that you can’t do live and
these extra possibilities become quite creative.
Gradually we learned that we have ideas that are
much bigger than what we’re capable of playing as a
two-piece, so let’s not worry about the fact that we’re
a two-piece and let’s do whatever sounds cool.”
What has been the highlight of life with Blood
Red Shoes?
“There is this French director called Olivier Dahan, he
directed La Vie En Rose. He turned out to be a big fan
of our band and he invited us over to this completely
insane party in Paris where they were demolishing a
seven-storey hotel. Keith Richards was there, Johnny
Depp was there, and he was making a film about the
demolition, so he wanted to shoot us reading poetry in
this room whilst people were throwing TVs out
windows and smashing it. It got so out of hand they
had to evacuate the building and they lost the
footage. It’s still one of the craziest things that ever
happened to me.”
WWW.MUSICRADAR.COM/RHYTHM
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 COMPETITION

WIN!
QUESTION:
BRITISH DRUM
COMPANY FOUNDER
AND ARTIST IAN
MATTHEWS PLAYS FOR
WHICH BAND?

BRITISH DRUM COMPANY A) Flat White Stripes

B) Beans of the Stone Age
COFFEE AND MUGS! C) Kasabian

C
offee is an ideal fuel to power you through
a hardcore session at the kit. We find that
a few cups of Joe during a shed keeps us
firing on all cylinders.
Just like drums, not all coffees are created
equal, but the new Pure Arabica blend from our
pals at the British Drum Company is sure to blow
your socks off in both the taste and performance-
boosting departments. BDC’s drum designers
have applied the same attention to detail and
craft that goes into their drums to create the
perfect coffee that’s described as, “a beautifully
balanced, well-rounded blend of premium
Arabica coffee beans with a rich body, fruity
acidity and pronounced malty flavours with key
notes of toffee, caramel, peanut and cookie.”
This month we’re giving away two bags of BDC
ground Pure Arabica coffee for your filter
machine or cafetiere, along with a pair of mugs
and coasters – featuring a cool lug and badge
blueprint design – so you have something to
drink your new brew from.
For your chance to win, head to http://bit.ly/
bdccoffeecomp and answer the question above.
Terms & conditions
This competition is open to UK entrants only. Under 18s must
obtain parental consent to enter this competition. Answers must
be received between 06/03/19 – 08/04/19. The winner will be
selected at random from all correct entries received between the
relevant dates and will be sent the prize free of charge. Winners
will be notified within 28 days of the closing date and will be
required to supply details of a UK delivery address. By entering
this competition, you consent to us using your personal details to
send you information about products and services of Future which
may be of interest to you. For full terms and conditions
www.futureplc.com.

22 | APRIL 2019 WWW.MUSICRADAR.COM/RHYTHM

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NOW
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R I T E M A G A Z I N E S .C O .U K
 FREE
BIG FAT
SNARE DRUM
INSTANTLY TRANSFORM THE SOUND OF YOUR DRUMS…
Engineered to transform any drum into a vintage, beefy, 70s-inspired BIG
FAT SNARE DRUM, BFSD lowers the fundamental pitch without hassle.
Place on top of your existing snare or tom skin for that sought-after deep
and warm tone with no need to retune or bring extra drums.

WOR
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£30

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WWW.MUSICRADAR.COM/RHYTHM APRIL 2019 | 25

BRANNDAILL
MASTODON
.Brann Dailor’s ferocious drumming style is well.
.documented, but it’s his fantastical commitment.
.to album concepts, songwriting and singing with.
.Mastodon that really sets him apart as a first-class.
.musician. Here he reveals his approach to.
.songwriting, why he’s never sung better.
.and what it takes to climb ‘drum mountain’.
WORDS: CHRIS BARNES PHOTOS: JOBY SESSIONS

26 | APRIL 2019 WWW.MUSICRADAR.COM/RHYTHM

OR

WWW.MUSICRADAR.COM/RHYTHM APRIL 2019 | 27

F
rom Neil Peart and Ringo Starr, to Phil
Collins and Roger Taylor, sometimes a
drummer comes along who transcends
the traditional timekeeping role in a band
with an aptitude for lyric and
songwriting, singing and more. Brann
Dailor has more than earned his spot on
that elite list of drummers with a special set of
songwriting, singing and artistic skills that has
him leading from the back and elevating
Mastodon well above other bands in the
prog world.
Everything, from the fantastical concepts that
theme each of Mastodon’s albums – from 2004’s
Moby Dick-inspired Leviathan to 2017’s tale of death
and survival on Emperor Of Sand – to the story-
telling lyrics and many of the riffs, is Brann’s work,
ably finessed by his musical cohorts Bill Kelliher and
Brent Hinds on guitar and Troy Sanders on bass.
Whilst self-deprecating about his songwriting
abilities, it’s clear that Brann is Mastodon’s lynchpin,
driving the band’s evolution from their ferocious
early metal sound, to epic hook-laden prog on
Emperor Of Sand, and bagging the band multiple
awards and legendary status in the process.
Brann’s drumming is a talking point on its own.
A master of rapid fire rolls and shifting time-
signatures, the self-taught drummer has developed
a deliberately busy style that perfectly matches the
unbridled shock and awe of Mastodon’s sound. That
he also contributes vocals whilst drumming at this
level is staggering and at times unbelievable,
particularly when experiencing it live.
As effortless as Brann makes it look, creating such
consistently deep and expansive music requires a
deep-rooted creativity and constant graft. The
drummer reveals that he works relentlessly behind
the scenes on lyrics and themes, sweats over making
his vocal parts presentable alongside his drumming,
and maintains a hardcore practice regimen to keep
himself match fit and away from the base of what he
calls ‘drum mountain’ – the band’s music may be
serious, but as we discover during our interview,
Brann’s personality is anything but…
As Mastodon hit the UK in January for more
foundation-shaking Emperor Of Sand shows, we
wanted to understand how Brann approaches
songwriting as a drummer, how he has evolved
as a player and where his wild ideas come from.
He also lets slip about the possibility of new
Mastodon music…
It’s been two years since Emperor Of Sand was
released. Is there any new Mastodon music on
the horizon?
“We actually just wrote and recorded something. We
basically had one foot in the studio and one foot on
the airplane to come over here [to the UK]. We
finished it up and we were pretty happy with the mix
and the master, so that’s exciting. We were just
gonna release it but, oh man there’s always red tape
wrapped around everything! Scott Kelly sang on this
song. The exciting thing for me is that we created
something new that sounds awesome and it came
out of our studio that we just recently finished
building in the basement of the rehearsal facility
that we have. We bought a building as a band a
couple of years ago. Phase one was tricking out
28 | APRIL 2019
“I’M ALWAYS EXCITED TO GET A NEW KIT BECAUSE I CAN DO
ANOTHER CRAZY PAINT JOB. I GUESS I’M MORE ART-MINDED
THAN I AM DRUM-MINDED. I LOOK FOR AESTHETIC IN
EVERYTHING AND IT MAKES ME HAPPY”
about 10 or 12 rooms of the main floor and then
there’s a basement so we’ve put 10 rooms down
there as well. Then we just built a studio. So to give it
its christening we’ve put some riffs together, got a
song going and we just recorded it to get tones and
to see what we got. What does our room sound like
for drums? Is it possible to go beyond demoing in
our own studio?
“In the past we’ve had some spots where we’ll
work on stuff, but we know that’s not going to be a
final product type of recording. I can’t put it up
against a Crack The Skye and be okay with it. Now
we’ve got this thing mixed and mastered, I would put
it up against anything sonically. The guy that mixed
it was like, ‘the raw tones I got were killer’. That’s
exciting news that we can potentially not pay those
astronomical studio fees and just record at our own
spot. Also it just opens up a lot of musical
opportunities for us. When we’re feeling excited
about a riff we wrote upstairs we can take it
downstairs and record it immediately. I love that.”
That’s a cool development for the band. Might you
start releasing individual songs in the future
instead of full albums?
“I don’t know. It’s the sound of dinosaurs dying, but
we’re kind of married to the concept of a full album.
I guess there’s a lot of groups who just release one
song and build a tour around it, because the only
way anyone can support themselves as a musician
these days is to keep your ass out there on stage.
Which is fine. I like playing live, but it can be
physically and emotionally taxing on a person. It’s a
lot of work and you’re tired all the time. As much as I
love that hour and a half on stage, there’s many
more hours to fill during the day. Depending on what
backstage you’re sitting in it’s either awesome or you
sink into some depression a little bit.
“These shows have been killer, so that changes
everything usually. You wake up in the morning, you
have your coffee, do your thing. Then there’s a dip.
You’re sitting back there, then it’s time to start
warming up, showtime, everyone goes crazy.
That moment I guess is what keeps us away from
our families.”
The band’s new facility sounds sprawling. Is this
something that’s open to other local bands too?
“It’s already filled up. Every room is spoken for by
two or three bands. We don’t make any money off it
currently but it gives people a place to go. I don’t
want to call it a crisis or anything, but in Atlanta the
two major practice facilities were closed at the same
time and knocked down and condos went up. I don’t
understand condo living – paying out the ass and
you can’t even turn your stereo all the way up.
“There’s lots of homeless bands in Atlanta and
lots of bands that weren’t able to start because
there’s nowhere to go or practise. If it wasn’t for
practice spaces [Mastodon] wouldn’t exist I don’t
think. We lived in apartments and there was just no
place to go. I was hearing about bands practising in
storage facilities. People were getting inventive, but
they needed a facility. Ours by no means fills that
void entirely, but it’s a step in the right direction. And
we needed a place to practise as well. And a place to
call home and keep all our junk. We have a ton of
stuff. We’re pack rats. We keep all our memorabilia.
Each guitar player has 200 guitars or something.”
You must have a lot of kits too?
“Lots of drum kits. They’re actually set up and
scattered throughout Atlanta. I got two in my
basement, my wife’s kit and my kit set up right
across from each other in our drum room. Then I
have probably three kits stacked up in my room that
has videos games and stuff in – I’ve got old 80s
Galaga and Ms. Pac-Man games. Bill’s got a little
studio over in his basement so I’ve got one of my
Randy Rhoads kits over there. I got my first Randy
Rhoads kit sitting at the practice space. Now in the
studio I have a chrome kit. Then I have my tour kit
that’s the blacklight sensitive one (see Don’t Fear
The Reaper) that’s ready to go in its boxes.
“We have a shipping container that we keep
everything in. My stuff is way at the back and it’s
completely barricaded. If I wanted to get to it I
would have to take everything out of the container
to get a cymbal stand. I try to make sure I have all
my bases covered. I have a small four-piece kit in
cases in my basement that’s ready to go, like if I
have to play for my wife’s band if their drummer
can’t do it or something, I know all the songs. Or if
I’m playing for one of Brent’s projects then I have
this kit that can go into a dirty club. I got kits spread
all over. I’m covered when it comes to drums.”
You’ve had some crazy kit finishes over the
years, but your configuration has barely changed.
Is experimenting with kit visuals your way of
mixing things up?
“I guess so. For some reason I don’t change;
that’s my configuration and it’s comfy. I wrote
everything with that configuration so I know where
everything’s at. I could be blindfolded and I would
know where everything is. I fear change when it
comes to drums I guess!
“Tama are an amazing drum company. They’re
really good to me and always say, ‘you want another
kit?’. I have ideas for themes for kits. I’m always
excited to get a new kit because I can do another
crazy paint job. I guess I’m more art-minded than I
am drum-minded. I look for aesthetic in everything
and it makes me happy.”
Do you have a facility to record drums at home??
“Not at the moment. It’s halfway there. I decided
to spend some money on my car instead of my
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 INTERVIEW
BRANN DAILOR

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INTERVIEW
BRANN DAILOR
recording room. I got a stupid, crazy Cadillac. It’s
a 70s Coupe De Ville. It’s a funday Sunday car. I
take my wife out for a prime rib dinner and a baked
potato. It’s a show car. It’s painted like my drums
basically and it cost me way too much money. The
joke’s on me. Every rocker’s gotta have their cool car,
right? I think it’s a prerequisite.”
Mastodon are almost 20 years old and seven
albums in. Do you think your drumming has
evolved in that time and has anything got easier
or harder to play?
“I guess I feel it probably was easier to do the earlier
stuff back then. It’s hard to really know. I feel like I
play it fine now. I’ve learned to maintain a better
tempo I think. I’ve settled in, even with the older
material. When we played it live I would be so fast.
Listening back to recordings I’m like, ‘Jesus Christ,
this is so fast!’.
“When we record something that’s us deciding
that’s the speed it needs to be to have the impact we
want. Sometimes if you play things too fast it loses
something. I’ve always wanted to be mindful of it
but only in the past five years or so have I really felt
like I’ve been mindful of it and been able to execute
that mindfulness on stage. When you play live you
have this perception that things are too slow when
they’re not.”
Is that because of the energy feeding back from
the crowd – the excitement of playing live?
“I think it is the excitement. You tend to rush things
when you’ve got the adrenaline pumping. There’s a
perception in your mind when you’re hearing it and
you’re playing along where you think, ‘this is too
“I’VE LEARNED TO MAINTAIN A BETTER TEMPO I THINK. I’VE
SETTLED IN, EVEN WITH THE OLDER MATERIAL… SOMETIMES
IF YOU PLAY THINGS TOO FAST IT LOSES SOMETHING”
30 | APRIL 2019
slow’. You speed it up to where it feels right and
comfortable, but listening back it’s way too fast!”
Are you playing to click live to help tame
that beast?
“There’s a few songs to click because we do have a
few that have keyboard stuff that we wanted to keep
[live]. The only way to do that is to play to click and
have it kick in when it needs to. We don’t do any
tracks for vocals or guitars or anything. That’s like
crossing the line for us. We want it to be our own bad
singing, haha! Which I think has gotten way better
actually, and I think that I can safely say it’s the best
it’s ever been.”
What do you put that down to?
“Hard work and dedication. Practising all the time
and trying to be as healthy as possible on tour. The
last bunch of years of actually taking some voice
lessons, learning how to properly warm up and
warm down after the show. Really, honestly
approaching it as an important instrument. We’re all
reluctant singers in the band. We try to pass the
buck on every part, because you don’t want the
pressure live. It’s this added thing, especially when
you’re drumming…
“We had a singer when we first started, a guy that
would scream into the microphone and roll around
on the floor. Then two weeks before our first tour he
quit. Brent and Troy were like, ‘we’ll just scream s**t
into the microphone, it doesn’t matter’. It’s evolved
from there quite a bit.
“As far as my drumming style evolving, I think
that I’ve changed with the band. If the songs got a
little simpler, if the riff structure got simpler, I try to
WALK ON THE
WILD SIDE
THE INSIDE TRACK ON BRANN’S
GRUESOME APPEARANCE ON
GAME OF THRONES
Game Of Thrones fans Brann, Brent and Bill were
invited to appear as Wildlings in seasons five and
seven of the hit show. Here’s how Brann met his
grisly onscreen demise: “I fell in love with the
show from the first episode when I saw Eddie
from Iron Maiden on screen (the first White
Walker character on screen resembles the Iron
Maiden mascot)! I thought someone that’s
working on this show must be a metalhead
because that’s Eddie! Sure enough we met [GoT
creator] Dan Weiss at Sonisphere and he reached
out to us. We said we were starting a tour in
Belfast [where GoT is filmed] and we’ll come a
day early. He was like, ‘cool, we’ll put you guys in
as Wildlings in the epic battle scene’. I was beat
up pretty good. I was stabbed in the stomach
and had my throat slit multiple times. I
remember laying there in the mud and that
White Walker walked past me. I was looking at
him and I was like, ‘holy s**t this is so cool’.
When he rose that army it was super epic. One of
the most epic scenes of the entire series and we
got to be in it.”
just go with my gut instinct as to what fits the
songs the best. If something’s complex I try to play
along with that. I don’t feel like anything’s really
changed. I’ve become less busy because the music
has become less busy at certain points. I’m the
same guy and the same player, I’ve just learned
that I want that breathing room as well, for the
music’s sake.”
Have you done any work on your drumming
since the band formed, taking formal lessons,
for instance?
“I’m self taught. I have no idea what I’m doing, but
I’ll go down there in my basement and work on stuff.
I’ll pick a song I want to learn. Like, ‘I should know
how to play the fill from ‘Stairway To Heaven’…’, or
this and that. This will be in the rare moment in time
where we’re in between album writing and tour and
when I don’t have to be down there conditioning
myself for tour – which I’ll say takes a little longer
now – and try to never be at the bottom of what I call
drum mountain. I don’t ever want to be there.
“I’ll get home and I’ll stick to my regimen of five
days a week and I’ll play for an hour and half to
three hours. Sometimes I’ll go all out for two hours
solid. Sometimes I’ll have a two-hour setlist and just
play the whole thing. Or, in the rare instance that I
don’t have to do that, I’ll work on independence
exercises, or polyrhythms, Afro-Cuban, ‘oh I should
learn this Elvin Jones lick’. With YouTube there’s all
these incredible players giving free lessons online, so
I’ll take in those.”
So you’ve not felt the need to seek out a teacher?
“I had one lesson when I was a kid, around six or
seven. I was a little too young I think and it was
WWW.MUSICRADAR.COM/RHYTHM
INTERVIEW
BRANN DAILOR
boring. He had a practice pad and a music
stand and it was right left right left for an hour.
I already had a drum kit and I was having fun
bashing my uncle’s ‘68 Rogers kit. It was dilapidated
with two cinder blocks on either side of the kick
drum, a snare with no bottom head, hi-hat with
no clutch. I learned how to play on that. I had a
record player behind me, I’d put records on and play
along to Deep Purple, Rainbow, Nazareth, some
Judas Priest and all that good stuff. I’d be in my own
little world up there. I’d be up there for hours. I
never got into video games or anything, I just
wanted to play my drums all the time. When I
get home from tour I have a genuine desire to be
behind my drum kit.”
So you still get the same kick from playing as
you used to?
“Yeah. When I’m not playing the drums I’m thinking
about drums, I have beats going through my head. If
I leave my drums for too long I get depressed. I have
to have them I guess. It’s like a mood stabilising
drug. Me and my wife have a spot down in Florida.
It’s right next to the beach. It’s all good. We’re going
to go down there for two weeks. That sounds good,
but I know in the back of my head that’s going to be
too long ’cos I can’t do two weeks without playing
drums. I have a practice pad, but that’s a far cry
from playing drums.
“I’ll do the two weeks, but that puts me
somewhere around base camp. I don’t mind being
there, but I don’t want to be at the bottom of drum
mountain. I don’t need to be at the top of course.
32 | APRIL 2019
“WHEN I’M NOT PLAYING DRUMS I’M THINKING ABOU
DRUMS. IF I LEAVE THEM FOR TOO LONG I GET DEPRESSED.
I HAVE TO HAVE THEM… IT’S LIKE A MOOD STABILISING DRUG”
Right now I’m at the top of my personal drum
mountain, performance-wise, because I’m two
weeks into the tour. Two weeks after this I’ll be
making weird little mistakes. I think I get
overworked and I start to feel fatigued. This set is an
hour and 40 minutes and there’s almost no talking.
It’s almost all drumming. I work too hard y’know. I
need to teach myself how to not do that. I get up
there, it starts and I’m just all in. It completely zaps
me. I remember my buddy Dave Elitch saying,
‘honestly, you’re an incredible player, but you
work too hard’. I have trouble dialling it back
and relaxing.”
Do you still feel physically capable? Are you
confident you can maintain your current pace for
years to come?
“Yeah for sure. I feel zapped after the show, but I’m
alive and well and it makes me feel good, just like I
worked out hard. They did a study last summer
where they hooked up a calorie counter to my arm
to see what was going on during a full set. I burned
something like 900 calories, like I was on a mad
sprint for seven or eight miles. Because of that I
can have pizza, a cheeseburger, a couple of beers
and be fine!”
Your drumming is a key element of the band and
you’re a chief songwriter too. Is there a lot on your
shoulders as the backbone of the band?
“I don’t know about that. I’m a helper. I just have
ideas and I share them. I don’t prescribe to the thing
of, ‘what’s the last thing the drummer said before he
got kicked out of the band… I’ve got an idea for a
song.’ Ever since I was a teenager in bands I always
had riffs. I’m a musical player I think, I’m a musical
person. I have ideas.”
Has that always come naturally to you?
“Yeah, all the time. I offer them up. They don’t have
to use any of it. The more the merrier I think and it
makes it more of a collaboration with the guys. We
all welcome each others’ ideas. It literally takes all of
us to get an album finished. None of us want to do
all the work, that’s no fun. I think it’s much more
interesting in a band – in the true sense of the word
– to have everybody’s ideas in a song, because that
makes it ours. I just try to give as many ideas as I
can to help the cause.”
What is your approach to writing? Do you start off
at the kit, or is it guitar or piano first?
“Guitar usually. I’ll try to ham fist my way
WWW.MUSICRADAR.COM/RHYTHM
 WIRED FOR SOUND
GETTING YOUR DRUM SOUND
DIALLED CAN MEAN BETTER
TAKES IN THE STUDIO…

Playing drums in the studio can be a daunting

process, made harder if you don’t have a great
drum sound in your headphones. Brann reckons
a decent sound in your ears can boost a
performance, as he experienced on sessions for
2011’s The Hunter: “If the drums sound killer in
your cans you’ll play it better because you just
love how it sounds,” he says. “On The Hunter I
did this one fill two or three times throughout
the record because they had that barking tom
sound so dialled in. The first time I did it
everyone was so excited with the way it sounded
that I did it again!”

WWW.MUSICRADAR.COM/RHYTHM APRIL 2019 | 33

INTERVIEW
BRANN DAILOR

DON’T FEAR THE

REAPER
BRANN REVEALS THE
INSPIRATION BEHIND HIS UNIQUE
70S BLACKLIGHT KIT

“I have three kits painted by the same guy. His

name’s Dirty Donny. We were on tour with
Metallica and I saw one of Robert Trujillo’s
basses come through the backstage area. I could
tell whoever painted it paints 70s vans or
motorcycle tanks. Robert hooked me up [with
Donny]. He was a fan of the band. We did a kit
that’s all old-school 70s blacklight posters.
There’s a cobra with a big skull, a kraken on a
chopper, then there’s a wizard with a hydra.
There’s a grim reaper on my rack tom that no
one can see expect for me. I just want to keep
the grim reaper where I can see him. It’s good to
keep an eye on that guy. They’re not wraps,
they’re hand-painted. It’s all blacklight sensitive
and we had black lights all round the riser that
light up that stuff. There’s a big blacklight eyeball
on the front kick drum head that my friend
Skinner painted too. I try to be inventive with my
drums and have one of a kinds.”

34 | APRIL 2019 WWW.MUSICRADAR.COM/RHYTHM

 through it, because I’m really not a good guitar
player. But I’m good at rhythm so I can do that
part of it. Or I’ll hum it into something like that
[points to the dictaphone recording our interview].
My recorder on my phone has probably 300 riffs that
I hummed. Sometimes I’ll get one that’s good and I’ll
get a second one that marries up with it. Or I’ll get
something pretty finished. Songs like ‘Blood And
Thunder’ I had the whole thing on a dictaphone from
start to finish. Songs like ‘The Wolf Is Loose’, ‘Iron
Tusk’ or ‘Ancient Kingdom’ I’ll have three riffs, then
Bill will sit with it for a little while and have another
riff that comes out of that. A couple days later we’ve
got ourselves a song. The same thing happened with
the song we just wrote. We got this studio set up and
I was like, ‘I got two riffs, they go together’. Then I
had another one for the ending then we just needed
a bridge section. It happens like that sometimes.”

The band has such an established sound and

style. Do you find that your drum parts come
easily to you now?
“Pretty much. I like to sit with it for a little while and
play around and see if there’s anything more
interesting I could do. Then sometimes it ends up
being the first thing you came up with was the best
idea, the simplest approach. Or there is something
more interesting there. It just depends. Sometimes it
comes to you immediately, sometimes it takes
playing through it a bunch of times. I just try to give
it that much time. I don’t want to record stuff
immediately and then later be kicking myself like,
‘dammit, I wish I had ruminated on that for a little
while longer’.”

Can you identify a hook as soon as it’s written, or

do they take time to reveal themselves?
“Pretty much. You just know. There’s that magic
moment. There’s things in the practice space when
you start jamming on something and we’re like,
‘yeah, that’s doing that thing that we need it to do
where we all lock in and you get the hairs on the
back of the neck stand up’. There’s something special
there. That’s our divining rod.”
Mastodon’s arrangements can be super complex.
How complete are songs by the time you hit the
studio, or do you leave room for tweaks?
“Pretty much, but there’s usually a lot of room for
vocals. This last record was pretty figured out, but
there was a lot of spots y’know. You’d sit back and
listen and be like, ‘is this a musical section or are we
going to sing over it, who’s going to sing?’. We listen
through and the part might sound empty to me, or it
might sound fine without vocals. We tend to vocal
everything up, whereas in the past, when there was
a lot more screaming involved, there were a lot more
musical breaks.
“We listen through to the Remission stuff now
and I’m like, ‘wow there’s no vocals in this song until
three-quarters of the way through and then they’re
sparse. This is weird.’ That’s almost uncomfortable
for me now.”
Do you think the vocal element has grown
in Mastodon’s music because of your
newfound confidence?
“I feel like we search for vocal melody now and
our music mirrors the kind of music that we all
actually listen to with clean vocals, classic rock and
proggy stuff.”
Singing whilst playing drums is a tough job,
especially considering the complexity of your
drum parts. When writing those vocal parts, you
must have to really consider what you’ll be doing
on the drums?
“Yeah, I do. When it’s decided that I’ll be strapping
on the bit for that section of a song I’ve got to take it
easy on the drums. Usually when I’m singing it
seems to be a simpler moment in time in the
music. I kinda lucked out in that. ‘Aunt Lisa’ [on
Once More ’Round The Sun] is tough. There’s a few
where I’m like, ‘I don’t know if I can actually do that,’
and we haven’t played them live yet, probably
because of me.”
Once a vocal part is written do you spend a lot of
time working on it with the drums?
“Yeah, just to even get it presentable at practice. I’ll
just sit down there for hours working on it. There’s
been the odd song where I’ve been upfront with the
guys and said, ‘that’s not happening, let’s pick
another song, or I need more time with that’.”
Leviathan, Blood Mountain and Emperor Of Sand
all have distinct themes. What inspires those
concepts and does having a theme to write to
focus the songwriting process?
“It does for me. I kind of see all the riffs
cinematically. I’ll hear a riff and it conjures some
kind of cinematic vision in my brain. That’s the
jumping-off point for whatever the story is going to
be usually. For the last record it was the desert. I
start with an outline like any writer would, then just
figure out what the issue is, who the protagonist is,
what’s happening in that life and what’s gone down.
I start arranging my story ready to share with the
other dudes and see if they like it. That’s pretty
much my process.
“Then I’ll get up early in the morning, sit in my
underwear when it’s really quiet and the cat and dog
and everybody’s asleep, I have some coffee and I sit
and work on it. You’ve got to put the time in. I think
it’s a cool extra thing that people can really sink into.
I know that I appreciated it with King Diamond. You
could picture the story unfolding. We’re not as literal
with the stories. You have an overarching theme and
then tell the guys they can write whatever they
want. I don’t want to handcuff anybody to a certain
story. Usually they write stuff that makes sense
within those constructs. Genesis The Lamb Lies
Down On Broadway and King Diamond Them are
two of my favourite records because of the stories.
It’s not just a bunch of loose songs that don’t
really have anything to do with each other.”

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INTERVIEW
BRANN DAILOR
“I SEE ALL THE RIFFS CINEMATICALLY. I’LL HEAR A RIFF AND
IT CONJURES SOME KIND OF CINEMATIC VISION IN MY BRAIN.
THAT’S THE JUMPING-OFF POINT FOR WHATEVER THE STOR
IS GOING TO BE USUALLY. FOR THE LAST RECORD IT WAS
THE DESERT”
Aside from those bands, is there anything else
that inspires your writing? Did you read and
write fantasy stories at school?
“Not really. Reading yeah, but I don’t consider myself
a writer by any means. I try my hardest for my lyrics
to not be embarrassing. I try to read them out loud
to my wife without singing them. That’s how I know
if they’re okay or not, or at least passable. If you can
read your lyrics to somebody with a straight face…
“If we comb through some of my lyrics I’m sure
I’d pull out some lines where I’d be like, ‘I wish that
one didn’t make the cut’. After I’m done with my
drum tracks it’s like, ‘alright, get to work on those
lyrics because they’re not going to write themselves
and I don’t think anybody else is going to be inspired
to do it’.”
So the lyrics usually get written once you’re in
the studio?
“Not always, but a lot of them. I just got to get to
work. I kinda hate it, it’s my least favourite part. It’s
rewarding when it’s finished, but the process for me
is the hardest part about the whole thing: I don’t
want to be embarrassed and I don’t have a lot of
confidence when it comes to that aspect of it.”
You still feel that way despite the band’s success?
“I’m just self-conscious about it.”
36 | APRIL 2019
You have a lot of experience recording. In
your opinion, what makes a great recorded
drum sound?
“I usually have a drum sound in mind, a focal
point. Heart’s ‘Barracuda’ is what I said for the last
record. I think it’s good to have some idea of what
you wanna hear. I’d say Genesis Duke, too, for those
barking toms. I want it to sound like a modern
version of that. Usually the producer and engineer
want to do that. We also pick guys that are not
necessarily metal producers. We pick more rock
guys because I like rock-sounding tones. I consider
myself in the Bill Ward camp of metal drumming as
opposed to the Vinnie Paul side. Both amazing
players, but I hear more of myself on that side
when metal was first being born. For the people
who were playing it, metal didn’t exist yet. They
knew jazz, but they were trying to compete with
Marshall stacks so they have that fusion thing
happening. I feel like that’s where my sensibility lies
as far as drumming.”
Crack The Skye was the first album you recorded
to a click. You expressed a little trepidation at the
time, but you got over it quickly. Have you
recorded to a click ever since?
“Pretty much. I like it. Old reliable. Sometimes we’ve
faded in and out, but for the most part we keep it
BRANN’S GEAR
DRUMS
Tama Starclassic birch/bubinga – 10", 12", 13",
16" and 22" with a 14"x6½" Starphonic snare
CYMBALS
Meinl 15" Pure Alloy hi-hats (including Medium
top), 19" and 20" Classics Custom Dark crashes,
22" Benny Greb Sand ride and 22" Byzance Jazz
China ride
PLUS
Tama Iron Cobra pedals and Tama hardware.
Evans heads: G2 tom batters and G1 resonants,
a Power Centre snare batter (customised with
holes on the surface to increase dryness) and
EQ3 clear bass drum batter. Vater 5B wood
tip sticks
there. It takes the guesswork out of it. I don’t know if
it takes the emotion out. That’s what I was afraid of
at first. You naturally speed up and slow down due
to this and that, the feeling of the song. I feel like the
feeling of the song is still well-represented even
though it’s locked in with the click.”
Alongside the music, Mastodon are known for
cool videos and far-out visuals. Does your record
label give you a lot of artistic freedom?
“They’re supportive and they don’t really talk to us.
We tell them some whacky idea and they’re like,
‘that’s cool’. They let us do what we want. They
probably feel like we’re very much in charge of our
artistic journey and that it’s one less thing for them
to worry about because they probably have bands
they need to mould and shape. For us we’ve always
had a wealth of imaginative ideas for what to do, so
they just look forward to whatever we’re gonna
come up with. They trust us because it seems to
work – this mix of really heavy serious subject
matter, then this playful, extremely dry and
sarcastic side that somehow works together.”
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 INTERVIEW
GERRY MORGAN

WORDS: CHRIS BARNES PHOTOS: JOHN JOHNSON, ETHAN ROCK & JULIAN KONRAD

GERRY
MORGAN
The James Bay and Niall Horan drummer explains why
embracing technology has been the greatest tool in
realising his creative vision with pop’s biggest acts
© John Johnson

38 | APRIL 2019 WWW.MUSICRADAR.COM/RHYTHM


P
rogression is important in any
career, and Northern Irish
sessioneer Gerry Morgan reveals
to Rhythm that he’s been
working hard to stay ahead of
the curve. The drummer got his
first major career break when he
joined forces with a little-known musician called
James Bay around five years ago. His old-school
approach to sound, style and playing for the song
suited Bay’s soulful guitar pop down to the
ground and their live shows were a triumph.
Once the cycle for Bay’s Grammy-nominated
Chaos And The Calm album ended, Gerry’s services
were quickly sought by fellow Irishman Niall Horan
for his first solo outing following the 2016 hiatus of
pop colossus One Direction. As musical director,
Gerry recognised that Horan’s music needed more
than just a killer live band to make an impact. To give
the music – and his own CV – a boost, Gerry
ploughed into the world of programming, MIDI and
triggers to bring sonic magic to the stage. Despite
initial reservations, he quickly learned that using
technology within music wasn’t rigid or soulless.
Rather, it was a tool that enabled him to be creative,
organic and dynamic in the live arena, from the
drum kit and beyond.
Returning to the road in 2018 for James Bay’s
eclectic 2018 album Electric Light, Morgan was
armed with new skills to deliver the album’s big
sounds and to take Bay’s live show to the next level.
We speak to Gerry on the phone from Munich,
during an all-Irish tour comprising headliners Snow
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“TECHNOLOGY ISN’T SCARY. I’VE LEARNED
THAT IT CAN BE ORGANIC AS WELL”
Patrol, alt-folk powerhouse Foy Vance and rousing
opener JC Stewart, for whom Gerry is currently
drummer and MD. It’s the perfect opportunity to
discuss his long-term tenure with James Bay, his
enlightening, musical foray into the world of
technology and why it’s never too late to learn
something new.
You teamed up with James Bay after his debut
album had been tracked. Did you record any
drums on Electric Light ?
“I did, although I wasn’t around for the whole time
James was tracking because I was on a different tour.
James did a lot of the drums himself and then
anything where a full performance was needed on
drums I came in and put it down. A lot of the record
was done by the man himself. He’s a little bit of a
genius when it comes to music.”
Which tracks did you play on?
“The singles, including ‘Just For Tonight’ and ‘Us’. It
was three or four tracks. We recorded in a church in
London. We did some sessions in Abbey Road studio
2 as well. It was funny, we were working on a thing
for Rod Stewart. Rod couldn’t make the session with
me, James and bass player, Tom, so we ended up
tracking one of James’ tracks instead! We were
© Julian Konrad
working with Giles Martin that day, which is nice. I’ve
gone on to work with him since then. We did a Faces
kind of thing with him in the studio before that. Then
I went on to do some of the soundtrack for the Elton
John movie [Rocketman]. I ended up doing that with
Giles and a couple of boys from Jamiroquai and Tom
Jones’ band at Air studios.”
Did James have a good idea of what he wanted
from the drum parts or were you bringing your
own ideas?
“It was a bit of both. I was coming up with my own
parts that worked. He would go, ‘Gerry do your
thing.’ We’ve been playing for quite some time now
and he knows what I get up to and how I sound, so I
think he trusts me on that side of things. Or he would
have put down a scratch and I would embellish on
his scratch ideas and represent what he was thinking,
servicing his original ideas and performing them as a
drummer would.”
Do you have go-to gear for the studio?
“I have a large collection of vintage drums. I usually
take a few different options to the session, so I have
different tuning options and different tuning ranges
on different kits. Sizes and dimensions will also
dictate that. I often take some of my Slingerland,
APRIL 2019 | 39
 INTERVIEW
GERRY MORGAN
Ludwig and Gretsch stuff. I’ll bring a few bags of
cymbals – different sizes of hats, rides, crashes
and effects cymbals. The kits [I end up recording] are
a mixed bag of my favourite Gretsch tom, my
favourite Ludwig kick and my favourite Slingerland
snare or something. I play what’s going to sound
good on the record.”
It’s important to be able to offer a range of sounds
for a session?
“Yeah, I’ve got this one 60s Slingerland and every
time any engineer (live or studio) hears it, they just
immediately want it on their record. I’m very happy
to have that kit. But sometimes that just doesn’t cut it
so you need a different size, for example. The reason
why I buy these drums is because whenever I’m
travelling around the world I’ll go to vintage drum
shops, collectors or dealers, and if it sounds great I’m
gonna have to buy it. It’s part of my job to supply
people with the best tonal sounds and colours
possible. You need your arsenal as a musician, a
recording artist or live performer.”
The reception to Electric Light has been great and
the shows have been getting much bigger. Has
your approach to playing with James evolved too?
“When I joined James it was just a two-piece. The
first gig we did was in Glasgow to about 30 people. I
was on percussion, piano and backing vocals. Then
we’ve gone on to do arena tours and some stadium
gigs. The development of sound and technology
within the live production has honed my skills in
terms of working with technology, with MIDI, with
© Julian Konrad
40 | APRIL 2019
triggering, MIDI mapping, having my samples change
throughout a verse and chorus, beat by beat if I want
it that way. I’m just trying to recreate the sound of
the record. The second record had distinctive sounds
that had to be recreated and represented in the live
arena. The only way I could do that for the second
record was to make use of samples, Ableton, triggers
and pads.
“The first [James Bay] record was much more
roots-y and organic. That was cool because that was
me and that still is me. That still is James and his
whole sound too, but as he moved I had to move
with him. It’s definitely given me so much more
knowledge, so much more possibility and so much
more to give as a drummer.”
You’ve always struck me as more of an old-school
drummer. Did you embrace the technology
reluctantly or was it something you knew was
required for the job?
“I went in kicking. I think I was naive, uneducated and
maybe a bit frightened by the new technology. Once
I got a sniff of the possibilities then there was no
looking back. If you can get your head around the
likes of Ableton or the Roland products, you can use
them in such a creative way.
“But you can also use it in an organic way. I’m not
just taking samples from loop libraries or anything.
I’m creating my own loops, I’m recording my own
samples. You might hear a snare drum sample, but
that’s one of my beautiful snare drums with a lot of
my percussion that I’ve collected from my travels. It’s
all me, but because I can’t play all those instruments
at one time I layer things. It’s still organic, but it’s
just allowing me to do so much more than is
humanly possible.”
How did you go about learning to use the
technology? Did you just start experimenting?
“Yes. I was working with QLab and the Roland
SPD-SX and triggers. That started when I got a new
job with Niall Horan from One Direction. That tour
was his first outing. I think Niall really enjoyed the
drums on the James Bay gig. He’s a big James Bay
fan and it turns out he was a fan of what I bought to
the table. He wanted to keep things natural and
organic, which is cool, but as soon as the songs
started to be serviced to me I knew that we needed
to run a programmed track. I started sampling the
sounds from the record as well as adding in my
additional instrument collection at home. It was
about experimenting, it was about failing, getting it
right and growing once I got it right.
“When I went back into the James gig, I was doing
exactly the same thing but we were using Ableton
instead of QLab. At the moment I’m on the road with
Snow Patrol, opening up the show with a new artist
from Warner called JC Stewart and I’m using a lot of
MIDI mapping and I’m running my tracks off Ableton.
I’ve been going in very deep so I can control
keyboard patches as well as my drum triggers. My
samples are changing with verses and choruses.
They’re setting off samples, but they’re also setting
off loops, so I could be playing a 6/8 groove but I
might have half the bar cut up into my kick drum
pattern, and then the other half of the bar cut up to
WWW.MUSICRADAR.COM/RHYTHM
 GRIN AND SHARE IT
GERRY WEIGHS IN ON THE GREAT
DEBATE OF DRUMMERS
PROMOTING THEMSELVES ON
SOCIAL MEDIA
“I love watching drummers online. It’s really
great. I learn a lot from it. I love watching Ash
Soan’s stuff, Carter McLean. Go for it, but just
do it in the right way. Be humble, but don’t be
afraid to self-promote yourself. I don’t do it so
much. Sometimes I wonder whether people
would care. I just gig and make records. You
can come and see me play and you can buy
records that I’m on. I just like being very
musical and organic. [If I was going to share
anything] I would have to just call over a lot of
friends and have a jam in the studio and put
that out instead of me just drumming. I drum
for songs and sound. If it’s just drums it’s kind
of pointless for me. Where’s the music? Drums
should accompany a whole sound, it’s meant to
be embodied in something so much greater. It’s
a piece of the puzzle.”

my snare pattern so that there’s simultaneously two

grooves happening. Importantly, they have a
humanistic feel because I’m setting them off. I’m
trying to get more musical with my approach. It’s
really interactive.
“When I went in deeper I got help off Si Francis
who is a lovely programmer and bass player for the
likes of Ellie Goulding and Kylie. He sat me down and
got me up to speed. I’ve a lot to thank him for.”

You must have felt the pressure to get it right for a

major artist like Niall Horan?
“It has to be of a stadium standard, whether it’s in a
small room or a big room. The production has to be
like a big-boy show. It has to be 100 percent
professional. That involved making live

© John Johnson
arrangements, making the actual show sound good,
creating a show, rearranging for medleys for TV
shows and awards shows, working with different

“IT’S PART OF MY JOB TO SUPPLY PEOPLE

artists for duets, working their songs into Niall’s
songs. There were a lot of changes happening and a
lot of my creativity within the show, which was good.
It was a great challenge and I really enjoyed it.”
WITH THE BEST TONAL SOUNDS AND COLOURS
You’re currently musical director for JC Stewart.
Why do you think drummers lend themselves to POSSIBLE. YOU NEED YOUR ARSENAL
AS A MUSICIAN, A RECORDING ARTIST OR
that role?
“Because they don’t take guitar solos! No, maybe it’s

because the drummer’s always the driver. You can
push and pull the feel of a song, you know where a
song should sit live because tempo and feel is very
much a part of your upbringing and understanding.
It’s the backbone of what you do. I think as musical
director you need to know where songs sit live. If
you’re always thinking about the big sounds from
behind your kit, you can do that in pre-production
with tracks and arrangements and sonics. I think
anyone can do it, maybe drummers just want to take
on that extra responsibility. I also want to show that I
understand harmony and melody. I studied music at
university, so I studied my jazz harmony and
arrangements; I like to use those skills.”
LIVE PERFORMER”
Do you enjoy the added pressure of being MD?
“I think the pressure has gone. There used to be
pressure, but I enjoy the responsibility. I get a kick
out of that and visualising something in my studio
with all the tracks, and then arranging it and
programming the parts and the instruments and I
enjoy translating that to the live arena.”
How early does that process start?
“It depends on how much material we’ve got to work
with. It depends if you want to service the songs as
they are on the record, or whether you can go in and
really recreate something live, structurally making it
different, making cool intros, cool outro sections.
Every gig is different. I could be there working for a
week, chilling out and working through the day with
gigs at night, or I could be doing them on the road. If
there’s a new song that comes in, you can be working
on your mobile studio on the road. I’ve recorded
additional guitar parts in a trailer backstage

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INTERVIEW
GERRY MORGAN
before the set because they’re just needed for the
live sound, it needs a little more drive. You record
them, line in, make them sound good, bounce them
down and stick them on the track. You just need to
be ready to go.”
Do you get a kick out of that off-the-cuff stuff?
“Yeah. It’s organic. That’s how I like playing music –
getting in the room and jamming with someone is all
about spontaneity. Just because you’re working on a
predetermined sound that’s locked in on a playback
system doesn’t mean it needs to be rigid. You can
have different sections if you’re using Ableton; you
can go round choruses another time if you want. It’s
very interactive. Technology isn’t scary. I’ve learned
that it can be organic as well.”
You have a new Gretsch kit for this tour
“I went for the USA Custom. It’s so versatile. On the
tour I’m playing one up, one down. We’re playing
arenas on this tour. It’s finger-tight tuning and just
slightly above that with the key. I can just play one or
two notes on a fill and leave space and let the drums
sing out in the larger rooms. It just sounds so fat. I’m
really happy with it.”
“WHENEVER PEOPLE TEST A DRUM KIT OUT THEY
DON’T SIT DOWN AND PLAY A 32ND-NOTE CHOP,
THEY HIT IT ONCE AND GO, ‘THAT’S SICK’”
42 | APRIL 2019
JC Stewart’s music sounds huge with plenty of
space between the notes...
“Everything counts with JC Stewart. His production is
impactful, bombastic. It sounds like it’s made for a
large room. You know, I really enjoyed planning this
set for the large arenas, because it kind of sounds
like it’s where it belongs. This music is all about
making statements. And I like to make statements
with tones. It’s so enjoyable to play a really sparse fill
and then just let the room do the work. Creating
space with your playing, letting the decay happen,
letting reverb ring out and letting the drums just sing
in this space.
“You can say so much more with one hit on a
crackingly-tuned drum. Whenever people test a
drum kit out they don’t sit down and play a
32nd-note chop, they hit it once and go, ‘That’s sick.’”
In your earlier years as a musician you
immersed yourself in music of a myriad
genres, playing every gig from orchestra,
to jazz band and theatre. Do you feel that
that upbringing gave you the versatility to
be able to do what you do now?
“I really do believe that my upbringing did help
© Julian Konrad
GERRY’S GEAR
DRUMS
Gretsch USA Custom in Espresso Burst finish
– 22"x14" bass drum, 13"x9" rack tom, 16"x14"
and 18"x16" floor toms (latter not pictured),
14"x6½" chrome over brass snare
CYMBALS
Zildjian – 14" K Light hats and a set of 50s 14"
Constantinople hats, 20" Constantinople ride
(used as a crash, sizzled), 22" Kerope main
ride, 20" Constantinople Bounce ride
(used as a crash)
PLUS
Remo heads: coated Emperors on toms,
Powerstroke 3 on bass drum and Controlled
Sound Coated Black Dot on snare. Vic Firth
SD10 Swinger sticks. DW 6000 flat-based
hardware (Gerry also uses DW 9000 series).
Ableton software. Roland SPD-SX and triggers.
LP percussion. Porter & Davies BC2
because I was trying to do as much as possible in a
wide variety of genres, and playing different
instruments. I have to say that I’m very glad that I’ve
left my violin playing behind though. I think it would
have been very unlikely that I would have gotten
employed in any musical situation! But it was
great for learning how to pick four strings. I love
strings, I just couldn’t play them very well. But my
theory and my knowledge of how the instrument
works is all there.
“Also, can I just make it clear that if you’re
reading this and you’re 17 or 18 years old, that really
doesn’t mean that you’ve lost out. Just get stuck
in now and you’ll be fine. You know, it’s never too late
to learn another instrument.”
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 BEHIND THE DRUMS
BRENT FITZ
THE CONSPIRATOR TALKS FIRST KITS, BIG SHOW NERVES
AND WHY IT’S SOMETIMES OKAY TO MEET YOUR HEROES
WORDS: RICH CHAMBERLAIN PHOTOS: GENE KIRKLAND

44 | APRIL 2019 WWW.MUSICRADAR.COM/RHYTHM


B
rent Fitz is about to hit the stage at
the London Apollo with Slash, Myles
Kennedy and the Conspirators. It’s a
pretty big show and one that Fitz
tells us stands out in the calendar
due to its location, but tonight’s
performance carries a little extra weight: “Tonight,
we’re filming in London for a live concert and there’s
nothing worse than me knowing that a head could
break or cymbals, pedals, sticks. We’ve been a little
more attentive to check the cymbals and make sure
none of them are looking fatigued.”
It’s reassuring to hear Brent tell us that even after
all of the huge gigs that he has played over the years
(including some absolute whoppers in his nine-year
stint with Slash and co), the nerves are still there
rumbling around inside.
“If you really care and you’re passionate, there will
be things that get to you. The idea is that the more
you do it you would think that it just gets easy; it
doesn’t. The nerves are always there. I talk to Slash
about this. We both go, ‘Man, I was nervous tonight’.
Being nervous is the best thing because if you’re
complacent and you don’t care, it will show and it will
be a lacklustre performance. Having that edge of
uncertainty… I don’t like it, nobody likes to be
nervous and stressed out… but it is a good thing. The
blessing is that I get to be nervous and I have this
great opportunity.”
And opportunities keep on coming, with the band
set for a lofty slot at this summer’s Download festival.
“Download always stands out on the calendar just
like being in London sticks out as a special night,”
Brent says. “Even though I’ve played it several times
before, it never gets to be, ‘Oh, we’re playing
Download today’. No, it is big. It’s a big, respectful
place to be on stage in front of a big audience. I’m a
kid from small-town Canada and all the monumental
events that have happened because of making music
for me is just great. To play somewhere once is
fantastic, to get to come back and do Download
several times, that is the ultimate gift. Every time I
think, ‘I can’t believe that I get to do this’.”
Ahead of another in a long line of jaw-dropping
gigs, we chat with Brent about his first kit, the
perils of being a multi-instrumentalist and his
secret weapon.
What was the first kit that you ever owned?
“I was 10 years old, it was 1980. My parents brought me
to a drum teacher in town after they had seen myself
and the kids in the neighbourhood do these concerts in
my parents’ basement to KISS records. We would dress
up as KISS and play along. During these concerts I made
my own drum kit from a Muppets toy kit I had gotten
years previously. I had modified it to look more like a
KISS Alive II kit. My parents saw then that I was
interested in drums but I had played piano ever since I
was five so they were like, ‘Look, if we get you into
drums you have to stay with piano’. So they took me to
a teacher, put me at a kit and asked him if he thought I
had any kind of drumming ability. The teacher heard me
play and said I had great ability so my parents bought
me a kit that day. It was a Yamaha Silver Sparkle double
bass kit. The two bass drums were different sizes, a 22"
and a 24". I never really ended up using both bass
drums because a lot of my drum heroes had a simple
one kick drum kit.”
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KISS were a huge inspiration to you and you’ve
since gone onto work with Gene Simmons, as
well as Bruce Kulick. Were you concerned about
the old adage of never meeting your heroes?
“To one day get to work with the people that inspired
you to have a career in music is full circle and is one of
the most satisfying aspects of what I have done in my
career. Playing with Bruce Kulick was my introduction to
the KISS family and we still have a close musical
relationship. I was asked in a very nice way if I would like
to do some solo dates with Gene; what’s the answer?
The answer is, ‘Of course’! To get a phone call to play
with Gene is a blessing.”
You have a background in piano and play guitar
and bass. Has that been useful as a drummer?
“It’s a blessing and a curse. I’m a multi-instrumentalist
drummer. So when I’m playing drums in a band I am
the drummer but I am very aware of the other
instruments. I’m not replacing Slash in a band, but I can
understand guitar when we write songs and work on
harmonies. There’s the infamous story of me filling in
on bass on tour with Slash and the reason that is
possible is because I play multiple instruments. But to
put myself in the pipeline with other drummers and if I
was asked to be part of a band, I would hope that a
benefit of my musical vocabulary and knowing music a
little more on the melody side as well as the rhythm
side… I would hope that would be a strong asset. I am
very respectful of other instruments; I’m not a selfish
drummer. The most important thing in a song to me is
the two and four, the rhythm and the tempo, and the
last thing I care about are the fills that connect the dots
between the verses and choruses. I’m a ‘less is more’
person because of my understanding of piano.”
Is there a piece of gear you can’t live without?
“I think all drummers have a snare drum obsession. I
have a few that I always lean towards. But I’ve done a lot
of sessions in different cities and you don’t always get to
have your own snare and kick pedal. I have been a fan
of the simplest add-on and I have used it live and in the
studio and that is the Big Fat Snare Drum. I’m using it on
tour now with Slash and I used it on the Living The
Dream record. In a five-piece rock band I find my
FEATURE
BEHIND THE DRUMS
favoured tuning is always a little lower and deeper but
what happens sometimes is when the snare heads are
detuned, you don’t always get that articulation and the
crispness of playing a tight snare drum. So, I tune the
snare up quite high and then add the Big Fat Snare
Drum. I can play buzz roles perfectly live and they come
out great in the PA and yet you have this snare that
sounds deep and fat like on ‘Back In Black’. I travel with
it and used it with Gene as well. We used a lot of
backline kits on the Gene tour where we would do fly
dates where we might do two dates in Japan or South
America and then into Europe and I didn’t have all of my
gear. I thought at least if I had the Big Fat Snare Drum
even when I was having a tough day I’d have a decent
snare, because some days I’d turn up and it’d be a
five-inch snare with an Ambassador head on top and I
knew I’d play right through the head in the first song.”
How much of a challenge is that to fly in and use
completely different gear?
“We have the best of the best with Slash where I have
my own drums and we have two sets of gear, so I have
an A and B rig. With Gene, it is a backline kit; we request
a DW kit but sometimes it doesn’t happen. We might
play a festival in front of 30,000 people and the drum
kit is nothing of my spec. I’m used to one tom and two
floors but I changed my spec with Gene – I went with
three toms. I didn’t fly with cymbals either. I went from
all my comforts to having whatever was available that
day. But I grew up in the clubs playing bars and I think a
lot of keeping it on a simple level and lowering my
expectations and in those days not having good
monitors, cymbals or drum heads, and understanding
the nuance of the gig, helped. You can get by with even
the crappiest gear, that is my mentality. Some of the
volatility of wondering what I would get each day makes
it exciting. Sometimes the kick drum pedal might look
like it has been through a war zone but you just go,
‘Well, this is what I’ve got today,’ and you make it work.”
What’s your biggest onstage nightmare?
“I’ve broken kick drum heads in the first song and had
the drum tech sit there trying to tape it up for the rest of
the set. I’ve blown out snare drum bottom heads on TV
shows. If it can happen, it’s happened to me.”
APRIL 2019 | 45
INTERVIEW
MIKE JOYCE

MIKE JOYCE The Smiths went from indie rock innovators to

cult heroes in just six years. Drummer Mike Joyce
looks back on his rhythmic contributions hat
helped fuel the musical magic
INTERVIEW: COLIN WOOLWAY WORDS: CHRIS BARNES PHOTOS: JOBY SESSIONS

46 | APRIL 2019 WWW.MUSICRADAR.COM/RHYTHM

WWW.MUSICRADAR.COM/RHYTHM APRIL 2019 | 47
INTERVIEW
MIKE JOYCE
W
hen bass player Andy
Rourke, guitarist
Johnny Marr,
outspoken singer
Morrissey and
punk-loving drummer
Mike Joyce joined
forces to form The Smiths in 1982, little did the
Mancunian quartet know that they were about
to rapidly and explosively scale the summit of
indie rock mountain.
From the opening beats on The Smiths’
self-titled debut album it became clear that Joyce
was the band’s understated anchor, carrying the
weight of such seminal tracks as ‘How Soon Is
Now?’ and ‘This Charming Man’ with solid rhythms
and musical flourishes. Sudden flashes of
percussive brilliance, like the tribal toms of ‘The
Queen Is Dead’, cemented his reputation as a
drumming anti-hero – he wasn’t a flashy player, but
his beats were absolutely vital to the music.
Six short years later and it was all over,
although the band’s influence still ripples through
indie land. Mike’s reputation preceded him and the
gig offers came flooding in. Subsequently he
appeared behind the kit with everyone from Sinéad
O’Connor and Julian Cope, to Buzzcocks and Public
Image Limited.
Rhythm’s own Colin Woolway sat down with Mike
at the 2018 London Drum Show to talk about
48 | APRIL 2019
“I NOTICED I WAS LIKING FAST AND AGGRESSIVE SOUNDS.
I HAD THREE STYLES OF PLAYING, FAST AND LOUD, FASTER
AND LOUDER AND FASTEST AND LOUDEST.”
creating legendary music with The Smiths, being a
team player and the secret to happy touring. Here’s
what went down…
Mike, you’ve played with a number of artists
through your career, but you don’t really regard
yourself as a session drummer. Do you see
yourself as more of a band player?
“Yeah, very much so. The reason why I wanted to
play drums in the first place is because I went to
see a band called Buzzcocks play in Manchester
and I fell in love. They were a punk band and I
always thought that punk rock was fighting and
spitting and aggression. I loved the fact that it
looked like a team effort to get to the point of
sounding like they did. Nobody stood out, really. It
was the sound of them all playing together.”
John Maher was a very good drummer.
“He was a brilliant drummer. Like I said, it wasn’t so
much what he was doing – obviously I liked what he
was doing and that’s what I wanted to play – but it
was more about listening to the sound that all four
“I don’t want my drums to stand
out… I’ve always played drums for
what I think is an empathy for what
I’m hearing from the songwriter”
of them made together. And that inspired me to
start playing. When I did start playing [with other
musicians] it just felt like a collaborative effort to
get to where we wanted to be. I never really
wanted to play anything outside of what I thought
was right for the song.
“Somebody posted what they thought was a
disparaging Tweet a few months ago. They said,
‘I’ve listened to your drums and none of the drum
tracks you’ve played on stand out’. That’s the best
compliment I think I could have, because I don’t
want my drums to stand out. I never wanted them
to stand out. I’ve never tried to play drums to
impress, I’ve always played drums for what I
think is an empathy for what I’m hearing from
the songwriter.”
Playing parts that gel with the whole band
rather than focusing on flash?
“Absolutely. Look at Charlie Watts. I don’t hear
people say, ‘Look what he’s doing on the drums,
he’s fantastic’. I’m not putting myself in that league
by the way, but what I’m saying is that in terms of
WWW.MUSICRADAR.COM/RHYTHM
his application towards playing drums in a band, he fast and aggressive sounds. I had three styles of presented to you it’s not so much of a shock as it
just plays the right drum part every time for every playing, fast and loud, faster and louder and fastest was for me.”
song. That to me is more important than being able and loudest. That was about it really. I had a great
to do things that are technically brilliant. It’s time with that band. It was a fantastic experience The Smiths’ music was quite eclectic.
personal taste and personal choice obviously – and they were really good friends. “That’s down to the versatility of Johnny’s playing
everyone has their own interpretation of what they “Not long after that I was introduced to The and songwriting. The Smiths were a very different
want to do in a band – but for me it was always a Smiths. It was quite a shock to then be asked to animal from most of the bands I’ve played in,
collaborative team effort.” play along to tracks like ‘I Don’t Owe You Anything’. because how can you categorise The Smiths? What
It was quite a departure from what I’d been used to kind of band is it? I still find it difficult to do now.
When you were starting out did you always want and to be honest I struggled with it. I had to get up The musical styles were so varied, we covered just
to join an originals band? to speed with it and I had to learn to play like that, about every base.”
“I’ve spoken to session players and sometimes I’ve through necessity really. All the young players
been quite envious of the fact they’re going in there reading this, I can’t emphasise enough how What has your relationship been like with
like, ‘Hiya, how do you do, play the song, finish, important it is to play different styles of music, to producers you’ve worked with?
seeya, goodnight.’ But then they’ve said to me, get out of your comfort zone. Play different kinds of “It’s a strange beast. Some younger players
‘yeah but you feel the triumphs’. When you’re things, rock, funk, punk, reggae, anything. When it’s might not have experienced being in the studio
playing the Royal Albert Hall or Glastonbury, that
feeling can’t be replicated. You can’t buy it; it’s
something that really stands out and is something
you can treasure forever.
“The thing is, I’ve never wanted to play in a band
that I didn’t like, and that’s something I’ve kept true
to myself from when I started playing when I was
16. I’ve been offered some great gigs, but I’ve
turned them down because I didn’t think I’d get on
with them. The first thing I did in the past when I
played with other bands, is I wanted to know
whether I’m going to get on with these people and
whether I’m going to be friends with them. It’s that
old adage, it’s not the hour and a half on stage, it’s
the other 22 and a half. That’s what concerns me –
when I’m doing that nine-hour journey through
Colorado, I want to be with friends. Luckily it’s
worked out like that each time.”

Did you join a band straightaway when you

started out?
“Yes, it was a little punk band called The Hoax.
When I first started playing, I noticed I was liking

BRITISH LEGEND
MIKE REVEALS HOW HE JOINED
FORCES WITH BRITISH DRUM CO.

“Over the years I’ve used Rogers, Gretsch,

Slingerland, Tama. My go-to kit was a 9000
Series that I bought in 1985. It was a brilliant
sounding kit. I played that on every Smiths
song from 85 onwards and I took it on the
road, knocked it about. I saw Ian Matthews
from Kasabian playing one of the BDC kits
and it sounded great. I got in touch with
them, paid them a visit and asked which kit
Ian was playing. It was the Legend series.
They started showing me all the finishes and I
was like, ‘it’s getting too confusing now
because I want them all!’. They showed me
Wiltshire White and that was the finish I went
for. I liked the fittings for the Lounge series so
they put them on the Legend. When it arrived Playing with The Smiths was
at the factory I was just thrilled to bits. It’s the a shock at first: “How can
best looking and sounding kit I’ve ever had.” you categorise The Smiths?
I still find it difficult now”

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INTERVIEW
MIKE JOYCE
with a producer. Imagine if you went in the
studio, you played the track through and asked,
‘what do you think?’. And imagine if the producer
went, ‘it sounds great, why do you need me?’. They
can’t say that because of course they’d be out of a
job! So they’ve got to do something and change the
track for the better hopefully.
“When we did the first album there was a track
called ‘What Difference Does It Make?’. There were
two separate recordings of that track. The first was
for an album called Hatful Of Hollow. That was an
album of sessions that were done for the BBC.
That’s when you go in and record three tracks in a
day, recorded, mixed, the whole lot. That’s a great
tester for any musician. That can sometimes be
difficult because obviously you want it to sound
great. The part I recorded for that was really skippy
and bouncy. When I heard the riff that Johnny
played I thought about putting in little inflections
and I thought it sounded great.
“John Porter, the bass player from Roxy Music
was the producer of both Hatful Of Hollow and our
first album. For the single release [of ‘What
Difference Does It Make?’] he said, ‘Mike I think it’s
a bit too busy, can you straighten it up a bit?’.
Morrissey stood up for me and said he liked the
way I was playing it, it was busy, it was exciting.
Mike has had an eclectic
career and advises young
drummers to play a
variety of styles of music
50 | APRIL 2019
“I did it, and I thought the single release of the
track was really boring! The Hatful Of Hollow
session was miles better. What John said was,
‘When you play it live play it like that, then for the
record we’ll keep it straight and square. When you
go and play it live you can make it as busy as you
like.’ We did and it was the biggest hit that we had.
It’s interesting really when you’re in a studio
environment and you stand in front of somebody
who says, ‘It should be like this.’ Production is a
strange art. They can’t make anybody play better,
but what they can do is harness what they’ve got.”
As you said before, you want to do what is right
for the song. Do you have any other stories of
your Smiths drum parts taking shape?
“The demo version of ‘The Queen Is Dead’ was
played on the floor tom, but we hadn’t worked out
the best way to play it. We really liked that low
jungle-y, floor tom-y sound, but the problem was
“I’VE NEVER WANTED TO PLAY IN A BAND THAT I DIDN’T
LIKE, AND THAT’S SOMETHING I’VE KEPT TRUE TO MYSELF
FROM WHEN I STARTED PLAYING WHEN I WAS 16”
that when I was playing that pattern, any time I
played any kind of fill we were losing that.
“[Engineer] Stephen Street suggested recording
just the floor tom pattern and looping it. Then you
can overdub the cymbals, the kick, the snare, the
hats. I was like, ‘Hold on a minute, that’s cheating’.
He was saying we’d get the best floor tom sound
I’ve ever heard in my life and we’ll isolate it and it
will sound absolutely fantastic. I said, ‘What about
live?’ He said to play it as I was playing it originally.
The amount of times I’ve played that song and
nobody has ever said it sounds different from the
record. The vast majority of people aren’t going to
be jumping around saying, ‘Did he play it like that
on the track?’. It took a lot of convincing for me to
realise that.”
Drummers are unique in that guitar players
have access to pedals and amplification. Drums
are a totally acoustic instrument. We fall
WWW.MUSICRADAR.COM/RHYTHM
between ‘How do you want my drums to sound
on this session?’ and ‘These are my drums, this
is how they sound’. How did you fit in with that?
“It’s down to the individuals you’re working with.
Once we got that team together, including engineer
Stephen Street, we had an affinity with each other.
It’s a bit like any kind of relationship, even outside
of playing music. When you’re with someone and
you meet them for the first time and you get on
well with them, the next time you see them you
know what they like and want. You get a feel for
them as people.
“Once that sound was originally created we felt
really comfortable with each other. People talk
about The Smiths rhythm section being really tight.
I never played with Andy, I played with Johnny.
That’s what the Stones did. Andy’s bass playing was
so intricate, you could take Andy’s bassline, put it
on a song and it would be a song in itself…”

People always talk about locking in with the

bass player, but a lot of the time when you’re
dealing with original songs you’re hearing the
guitar part first…
“I always found that really frustrating. One, you’ve
got the drum track down with the guide guitar, then
they’d zero the desk and start putting the bass on.
Then Johnny would start writing these most
incredible guitar lines. I used to get a bit frustrated
and wanting to go back! There’s a track called ‘The
Headmaster Ritual’. When we played that track it
was just a basic riff. When I played the drums on
top I played a drum riff or motif. Afterwards
[Johnny] put a guitar on top of that and then
Morrissey sang a vocal that actually went with the
drums. They were following me and it actually
made the song. I was so frustrated so many times
that I couldn’t go back.”

When you were recording The Queen Is Dead did

you feel you were making a legendary album?
“No, it was just another album. We knew it was
getting better. The first album that we wrote and
recorded was based around our first set of songs
that we’d ever played. Those were the songs that
we’d rehearsed and we got known for. There’s a
reason it’s called the difficult second album,
because it’s got to be different, but you can’t
make it so different that it alienates all the people
that liked the first album. We’d had that with
Meat Is Murder.
“Johnny’s guitar parts were so prolific that the
styles of the tracks were so different and disparate,
so unusual. I think when it really kicked in for us all
was the last album, Strangeways…[, Here We
Come]. By that point, even though we knew we
didn’t have anything to prove to anybody, it was an
album that we all felt most comfortable with.”
You also toured with Julian Cope and Sinéad
O’Connor?
“Sinéad was the first thing that I did after The
Smiths. We knew a guy in London who said he was
working with this new artist, an Irish girl called
Sinéad. I had a listen and I thought she was
brilliant. That girl can sing. We met up with her and
she was fantastic. As an artist and as a person she
was brilliant. That was lovely to play with her. That
was myself and Andy Rourke.”
How did it feel coming out of the comfort zone
of The Smiths and playing with people like
Julian Cope?
“It was brilliant. We went out and hung out for a
while. I played with PiL for a couple of years, too.
Ten years prior to that I was jumping around with
spiked hair to PiL songs, then I’m on stage with
Johnny Rotten. I remember we were in rehearsals,
it was in John Henry’s in London. I went into the
café and he was having a coffee. He’d not been
Mike recalls how when he first
met Johnny Rotten, they
exchanged insults, then bonded
by getting drunk together
down to the rehearsals yet. I saw him there and
thought I’d best go and say hello, I’m in his band! I
said, ‘I’m your drummer, I’m working with you’. He
said, ‘I’ve heard you’re s**t’’. I said, ‘it’s funny you
should say that because you’ve not heard me play,
but I’ve heard you and I know you’re s**t!’. We sat
down and we got drunk together. That was a way
for us to hang out and do a bit of bonding.
“I’ve done that with everybody that I’ve played
with. I like to feel that we can get on and speak
together. Doing those 15-hour drives across
America. Man, that’s tough. Or when you arrive at a
gig and it’s midday and the sound check’s at 6.
Who’re you going to hang out with? Your mates.
Luckily every band that I’ve been with has been like
that and I’ve made sure that if it’s not I’m out.”

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TRIBUTE
TED MCKENNA

52 | APRIL 2019
 TED MCKENNA
MARCH 10 1950 – JANUARY 19 2019
Former manager of The Sensational Alex Harvey Band remembers a
much-loved stalwart of the session scene
B
ack in January 2019, the UK
drum community lost an
institution in Ted McKenna,
drummer with The Sensational
Alex Harvey Band, Rory
Gallagher, Michael Schenker and
others, as he passed away aged
68. If there’s an upside to his passing, it’s that
the last eight years or so of his life were some of
his happiest.
Born in 1950, he explored various musical
instruments at school in Coatbridge, near Glasgow,
before following the call of an old snare drum given
to him by a family member and settling on
percussion. After learning his trade on the
burgeoning Scottish rock’n’roll scene in the mid-60s,
Ted became part of heavy rock band, Tear Gas,
appearing on their second album before they
became The Sensational Alex Harvey Band in 1972.
The next five years were a blur of near-constant
touring and the release of eight albums, during which
time the quintet embraced an astonishing breadth of
musical genres from vaudeville to prog. Often
dismissed as a novelty act because of their 1975
, with a pattern that worked logically, but not
Ian Dickson/Redferns
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WORDS: MARTIN KEILTY PHOTOS: PRESS
cover of Tom Jones hit ‘Delilah’ (released without
their knowledge), the truth of SAHB’s value lies in the
range of artists who credit them as influences, from
The Cure’s Robert Smith to the Sex Pistols’ John
Lydon. Ted, guitarist Zal Cleminson, bassist Chris Glen
and keyboard Hugh McKenna (Ted’s cousin) proved
to be the powerhouse Harvey needed to shape the
strength of character he’d always had, and the
message of love he delivered with ferocious energy.
“We opened the Reading festival one year and
headlined it the next,” Ted said proudly. “No one had
done that before.” Ted had a standard line: “Alex
could dominate a room just by entering it.” With
SAHB behind him, the ceiling came down, too.
By the mid-70s they were the highest-grossing live
band in the UK, although attempts to break through
in the States failed. They split amid health and
personality issues in 1977, and Ted went on to join
Rory Gallagher’s band, staying until 1981 and
becoming, he’d point out, the only member ever to
quit instead of being dismissed. A stint with Greg
Lake and Gary Moore followed before he replaced
Cozy Powell in the Michael Schenker Group, leaving
in 1984, after a rollercoaster ride which, he said,
Back in the hair day:
the Alex Sensational Harvey
Band at Reading Festival, 1973
depended on the moods and the state of inebriation
of his band mates. He went on to work with Womack
& Womack, Fish and many others, although he
rejected offers to work with a number of the
world-class rock bands of the late-80s. “To be asked
meant you were in that league; everyone knew you
could do the job. But there was nothing musical to
learn,” he said.
Always passionate about education, he became a
lecturer in applied arts at north Glasgow College
in 1996, and remained until 2011. SAHB staged a
ATTENTION!!
HOW TED PROMOTED THE ROLE OF
DRUMMING TO SIGNAL CHANGE
Ted was an advocate of drumming rudiments,
arguing that if you didn’t know the basics of
your instrument you couldn’t truly understand
what it was for. During clinic sessions he’d
make a potentially dull talk about the early
history of drumming into a captivating flight
through time, stepping away from his giant kit
to sit in front of the crowd with a snare or a
practice pad and explaining how, in the past,
drums were used to announce to soldiers on
the battlefield that a change of instruction was
about to be given. He’d follow that through into
how modern drummers use fills to announce or
emphasise changes in a song. Thus astonishing
young students who didn’t realise their main
role was to provide musical punctuation.
He could be persuaded to capture the
attention of groups of people in the pub – even
if they weren’t drummers – by explaining his
approach to “making musical sense”. He’d beat
his hands on the bar along with whatever song
was on the jukebox, demonstrating how he
could generate a pattern that moved the music,
and then how he could then destroy the flow
musically, astonishing those people who like to
think drummers aren’t musicians.
Both those attitudes were most
entertainingly presented when he played
rhythmic jokes with other drummers from his
own league. I remember him disappearing into
corners with the likes of Nicko McBrain, Ian
Paice and others before a rattling on tables or
walls would be followed by childlike laughter
from the pair.
APRIL 2019 | 53
 TRIBUTE
TED MCKENNA
number of reunions with varying success until
2008, and he also worked with a number of blues
and jazz musicians, forming his own bands on
occasion. One of his high points was playing a show
with Cream’s Jack Bruce. In recent years he’d been
busy with Band Of Friends, founded with former
Gallagher bandmate Gerry McAvoy; they’d released a
live album and two studio records. Along with bassist
Glen, he’d also returned to large-scale touring with
Michael Schenker Fest, who’d recently announced
the commencement of work on their second album.
Ted’s belief in rudiments made him a dream
session hire because he was able to understand very
quickly what was required of him (he was known for
listening to a song twice, taking notes while he did,
then banging out two takes – job done). However, his
passion for education could get the better of him:
college students speak affectionately of having not
been taught the prescribed course work because
he’d gone off in a fascinating, valuable but not strictly
relevant direction.
Ted – who’d often introduce himself as ‘Teddy
Toddgrass, Bromsgrove Five’ with an accompanying
silly accent – frequently spoke about making “musical
Tom Hill/Getty Images
54 | APRIL 2019
“His passion for education could get the better
of him: college students speak affectionately of
having not been taught the prescribed course
work because he’d gone off in a fascinating,
valuable but not strictly relevant direction”
sense” on one’s instrument of choice, and the pros
and cons of working with people who shared or
opposed that sense. He frequently argued the value
of being a listener in any band – one of the reasons
Alex Harvey nicknamed him ‘The Buffer’.
There’s no doubting he was incredibly empathic,
which, of course, made him a great artist. During my
time as SAHB manager, when the wheels were
coming off, he took to pointing at me during
meetings and saying, “Let’s make this better.” That
didn’t improve my sense of desperation because I
was trying to do just that. Eventually, he explained
what he meant: “I get you. That’s your attitude – ‘Let’s
make this better!’” I’d like to think he was right.
Ted at the Macon Coliseum in
Georgia: “I do one thing well,
I can play drums like f*ck”
Like many, he struggled with the black dog and
resorted to self-medication when things weren’t
going well for him. I recall several incidents of terror
when I realised, while he was driving me somewhere,
that he was drunk. When things got really bad he had
a Jack and Coke between each song on the SAHB
setlist, and those were the nights to worry. “I can’t
have a drink,” he accepted once. But in recent years
our liquid lunches consisted of Guinness for me and
soup for him.
Ted seemed to be happier every time I saw him
from around 2011 on. I’m sure part of that was the
relationship with his close friend Claire Taylor, who
was never backward about coming forward when she
thought he should be doing something he wasn’t, or
vice-versa. He responded well to her support, and I
think they remained each others’ favourite people.
She was with him when he died.
He retained a relationship with his former partners
and spent time thinking about past regrets and
putting them to bed. He was attending gyms
STOP MAKING SENSE
TED WAS AN ADVOCATE IN
LISTENING AND PERFORMING
JUST FOR THE SONG
Ted believed that the role of the drummer in
any band was to be its main listener. That
meant actually playing drums as little as
possible, in order to pay attention to what
everyone else was doing and find the “musical
sense” in the middle of it all. That approach
made him a highly desired session artist, not
only because he came prepared, but because
he delivered exactly what was needed quickly
and efficiently.
He developed a personal notation system,
which he used to translate other people’s
‘musical sense’ into his internal language.
It didn’t mean anything to anyone else and it
didn’t need to. Ahead of a recording session he
could be seen in the studio control room,
asking the producer to play back the song he
was about to record for. He’d listen once then
move into the live room, record two takes and
ask if anyone needed anything else. They
almost never did.
It was all always about listening for Ted. One
night I was in terror because he’d come to see a
function band I was playing with. He saw my
fear and sat himself in a position where I
couldn’t see him, and I went on to play my first
of three 45-minute sets. Afterwards, I thought I
should probably face the music and went to ask
him what he thought. “Try holding your sticks
like this,” he said, demonstrating, and made
me three times the drummer I’d ever been in
that moment.

Performing with Band Of Friends
at Fairport Convention’s
Cropready Festival
Steve Thorne/Redferns
regularly. He had previously struggled with the book
that he wanted to write; we were actually set to
discuss the possibility of doing it together two
weeks after his operation for a hernia. I think, at last,
he knew what he wanted to say, and the realisation
of that had brought him great contentment. It would
have been a great book.
More importantly, Ted was loving being out on
tour, doing session work, and particularly a
freeform-based performance art in Shamanic: a trio
with Fay Fife of the Rezillos and artist Maria Rud. He
was out there, expressing himself, making musical
sense, and being generally encouraging and warm to
everyone he met.
C Brandon/Redferns
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The word ‘authoritative’ enters my mind when I
think of his playing. Evidence of his versatility is in his
catalogue of over 60 album appearances; evidence
of his accuracy is in the way only a small central
circle of each drum skin seemed to ever be struck,
leaving the rest untouched; evidence of his
personality is in the thousands of photos and videos
where he’s seen beaming out from behind his kit,
whether it was a double-bass behemoth with a forest
of cymbals or a simple cajon for a folk jam.
“I do one thing well,” Ted used to insist. “I can play
drums like fuck.” That wasn’t the whole story. He was
a fascinating balance of loud and quiet, and brilliant
at being both.
Ted on stage with Gary Barden,
Doogie White and Robin McAuley
at the O2 Forum Kentish Town
SIX OF THE BEST
SOME OF TED’S FINEST MOMENTS
SAHB: ‘MIDNIGHT MOSES’ (1972)
How a riff can be made to feel heavy even if it’s
not being played in a heavy fashion. The lesson
Alex Harvey taught was how to let the song do
the work, which required an intricate
understanding of how to leave space between
the instruments (including the lead vocal).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VMz9CDvveRQ
SAHB (WITHOUT ALEX):
‘SMOULDERING’ (1977)
A side-project by SAHB designed to fill a gap
created by Harvey’s illness, the Fourplay album
gave his band the chance to show what they
could do in their own right. It’s much more
musically complex than SAHB but still controlled
and structured.
https://youtu.be/Esb48O4Y5E4
RORY GALLAGHER:
‘SHADOW PLAY’ LIVE (1979)
Ted at full live power in a band that was all about
full live power, but he still exerts control in a
manner that’s all about experience rather than
forethought. On hearing some remastered
Gallagher material some years ago, he told me:
“I can’t play like that. I could never play like
that!” But, of course, he could, and did again
with Gallagher’s offshoot Band Of Friends.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=go9J9REtfdA
MICHAEL SCHENKER GROUP:
‘BROKEN PROMISES’ (1982)
This track benefits from Ted’s awareness of the
drummer’s role in announcing change – in fact, it
would disintegrate without it. There’s more to it
than just realising everything else is so busy that
the drums need to remain simple, and that’s
proved by the moments he stops keeping it
simple, even though it still feels simple. That’s
what it’s about.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=707Ti9X2JB0
GWYN ASHTON:
‘GET UP, GET OVER IT’ (2006)
A prime example of the solid lock-in that Ted
achieved with bassist Chris Glen. What could be
a so-so heavy blues outing becomes a
tension-laden rock experience as the drums
exercise precise control over the slightly-slower-
than-you-want delivery, then when Ted lets rip
with a rare roll, there’s a real sense of release.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ExVtaiuK8s
MICHAEL SCHENKER FEST:
‘TAKE ME TO THE CHURCH’ (2018)
With the promo video containing plenty of
cutaways to Ted’s kit, we get to see how
irritatingly easy he makes it look – you’d swear
he was putting in almost no effort at all. Again,
though, with so many musicians crammed into
one lineup, his secret is to be as sparing as
possible while also delivering as much character
as possible.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9o34ooePv-E
APRIL 2019 | 55
56 | APRIL 2019 WWW.MUSICRADAR.COM/RHYTHM
 The interview

“JON BON JOVI CAME INTO OUR DRESSING

ROOM AT THE END OF THE TOUR AND
GAVE US ALL ONE OF THOSE YELLOW
WATERPROOF SONY DISCMAN. HE CAME
IN WITH THIS MASSIVE BAG, HE’D TAKEN
A HELICOPTER INTO LONDON.
£500-WORTH OF PRESENTS MUST HAVE
COST HIM ABOUT EIGHT GRAND! “

Mark Richardson
As Skunk Anansie reaches their 25th anniversary, we sit down
with Mark Richardson for an open and candid look at one of the
most varied and interesting drum careers in UK rock
WORDS: STUART WILLIAMS PHOTOS: PRESS

Let’s go back to Little Angels - you were 21 when
Jam was released, what was that like?
“Just this morning I was comparing the inside of 10
Miles High to the inside of the new Skunk record.
Those collages never get old, the laminates, broken
drum sticks… and spliffs! There were some pictures in
the 25 Live box set, and there’s loads of me still
drinking in there. I haven’t had a drink in 15 years, but I
had 10 years of good times before that! It’s weird
looking back at that stuff.
“I grew up in Whitby, and I was at college in
Scarborough. At the time I wanted to go into the
armed forces and become an electrician. That was my
fallback, even though I thought, ‘I will be a musician
and a drummer in a rock band’ there was also the
realistic side to it. That seed was mainly sown by my
dad going: ‘You need to have a proper job, son.’ I was
in my own bands – King Louie and Black Ice and all
sorts of crap names. Good little bands, but none of
them went anywhere. I went to see this band called Mr
Thud [Little Angels’ early name] at the Stephen Joseph
Theatre In The Round, which is more of a dramatic
theatre, really. But they also had this little venue at the
other end that held about 100-150 people. They
played there every week or two and I got to know
them a bit, then eventually started helping them out
loading their gear. I thought, ‘The life of a technician
isn’t too bad, maybe that’s something!’ They went
from there to a bigger theatre in town: about 2,500
seater, and they’d fill out the ground floor.
“Then to cut the story short, they were building this
amazing reputation and got management and were
signed to Polydor. They got a new drummer called
Michael Lee who we all know and love. I always like to
tell it this way round: I have Steven Adler’s heroin
addiction to thank for my start in the music business.
Steven Adler got fired from Guns ’N Roses, then Matt
Sorum moved from The Cult to replace him, and
Michael Lee moved from Little Angels to The Cult, and
I moved into Michael Lee’s seat.
“They rang me when Michael left, because I’d
basically made a nuisance of myself! I’d auditioned

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The interview
for them a couple of years before but I was a bit
too green at that point. They called and asked if I
could do this TV show with them. I didn’t realise at the
time that they were testing me out, the following day
they asked if I could come and replace the drums on
these drum machine demos they had recorded. So
they tested me in the studio, but I think the biggest
thing with Little Angels was that we were from the
same town, same sense of humour and I could do
what they needed me to with the drums. They knew I
could play, and they knew they could get on with me.
You’ve got to have a laugh and you have to get on.”
“The biggest thing with Little Angels was that
we were from the same town, same sense of
humour and I could do what they needed me to
with the drums. They knew I could play”
58 | APRIL 2019
Have you ever got to tell Steven Adler that story?
“No, I’d love to meet him though! I hope he’s doing
alright. It would have been so good if he was back in
on the reunion, I guarantee it would mean more to
him than anyone else.”
So you went from being at college to playing in a
signed band fairly quickly
“Yeah, and going from dreaming about it: waking up
everyday and thinking, ‘I have to be a drummer in a
rock band, otherwise I don’t know what I’m going to
do.’ Because I couldn’t sit in an office every day, I
Mark enjoyed years of
chart-soaring success
with Skunk Anansie
couldn’t work in a warehouse every day. I worked
in a warehouse sat at the end of plastic moulding
machines cutting the excess off Hoover crevice tools
for eight hours a day. I made plaster of Paris moulds
for false teeth. I did all sorts of jobs just to get money
to buy drum sticks!
“But I sort of knew I had to do it, I didn’t know how,
but I just had this belief that it was going to happen.
There was no doubt in my mind, and I don’t know
where that came from. It was just there. So then when
it actually happened it was just incredible. I was this
kid who had grown up dreaming of the bright lights,
then all of a sudden I was in London living in a
rented room in Wood Green going, ‘How the f*ck
did I get here?’”
What were those first sessions like?
“Well, it wasn’t my first time in the studio. The studio
where I replaced those drum machine parts, I think it
was called Samurai, near London Bridge. I definitely
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felt the red light fever. But, yeah, it was fairly relaxed,
but there was a weight to it where I knew how
important it was to get it right. I’ve never been an
extremely fancy drummer, I’ve never needed to be. I
love what I play and what I’ve recorded and in some
respects it’s been sort of a blessing having a more
simplistic overview of a song. I was just listening to
that artist, Fink – just beautiful patterns, really well
played. And that’s what I love about drums, when you
can listen to a beat and just float away.”
How much of that do you credit to the way
you learned to play - self-taught playing along
to records?
“I never had any lessons… actually that’s not true, I
had about six lessons from a guy called Fred Adamson
who used to be Bruce Forsyth’s TV drummer, funnily
enough. But that was it. I was never a big one for
practising. Give me a drum kit, put on Queen’s
Greatest Hits and I’ll play it note-for-note, you know?
I was just always a huge fan of playing along to other
people’s music.”
And as well as picking up beats and fills, you were
probably subconsciously picking up a great
appreciation of songcraft
“Yeah, transitions, and how simple 99 percent of
popular music is. The stuff I was listening to was Iron
Maiden, Queen, Led Zeppelin, The Police, Blondie, Thin
Lizzy, all these brilliant bands. But one thing all of
those guys had in common was that there was an
obsession with supporting the music and not being
flash and showing off. Not saying that I wouldn’t love
to be able to do that flash stuff, of course I would! But
it’s not something that ever really interested me, I put
a lot of work into playing simply really well. ‘How can I
play the section before the chorus in order to make
that chorus even better than it already is?’ It’s more
that thinking that I come from. There are tonnes of
brilliant drummers out there doing clinics and all that
kind of stuff, doing unthinkable things with all four
limbs and I admire it immensely, but it’s never been
attractive to me to learn. It’s hard to say that without
sounding like a) I don’t want to put the work in or b)
that I haven’t got the talent. It’s not that, although both
of those might be partially true! It’s about a love for
simplicity of music.”
being in the studio. Everything from choosing the right
drums and heads, tuning, cymbal selection, what
sound suits the song. He knew how to tune the kit to
get that massive explosive sound, he was very
generous. It was an awesome time, and it was my first
big session in a big studio. It was intimidating and
daunting, if you look at the inside sleeve you can see
the weight on my shoulders. I’m first in the frame,
looking down having a bit of a break and you can see
I’m thinking, ‘Fucking hell, this is tough!’ But I’m
surrounded by drums and having a great time too.”
Then it went to Number 1…
“Yeah, my first big record I was involved in and we had
a Number 1 hit! That’s kind of the only Number 1
album I’ve been involved in.”
You did some big tours with the likes of Bon Jovi and
Van Halen too…
“Yeah. I’ve played supports with some big bands
throughout my career, and one thing I’ve noticed is the
bigger they are, the nicer they are. A lot of the time
the smaller the band is the more attitude they have.
It’s strange, but makes a lot of sense as well. There are
so many stories. We toured with Bryan Adams, he was
like a brother, just so nice – he’s on ‘Too Much Too
Young’ and he’s in the video. We toured with Bon Jovi,
and got to ride on their private jet. They said, ‘Why
don’t you come on the plane with us!’ It was amazing.
Jon Bon Jovi came into our dressing room at the end
of the tour, which was Milton Keynes Bowl, and gave
us all one of those yellow waterproof Sony Discman
when they first came out. He came in with this
massive bag, and he’d taken a helicopter into London.
£500-worth of presents, must have cost him about
eight grand! But it was so nice, just to say thanks for
being the support on the tour. Bon Jovi and Bryan
Adams were amazing, but somehow Van Halen
seemed to have this extra gravitas to them. They
hadn’t been to Europe before with Sammy Hagar, and
we were supporting them. They were lovely, and
Michael Anthony really taught me to drink. You
wouldn’t see it now, but their stage went up with these
wings at the side of the stage. Their techs were
underneath these risen wings at the side of the stage,
and on Michael Anthony’s side one of his flight cases
turned into a bar! You lifted the top off and there were
all these optics, ‘What do you want, Jack Daniels or
Jack Daniels?!’
“We’d go down there to watch the show from there
and there was a stripper pole in one corner, and you’d
get given half a pint of JD and half a pint of coke. That
happened every night for the whole time, it sounds
really wrong these days but it was incredible! Nobody
died, nobody got hurt, it was just good innocent fun.”
From there you found your way into Skunk Anansie
“After Little Angels split, Bruce, Jimmy and I started
B.L.O.W. We released a live EP and a couple of bits and
bobs on our own label. We got put up for an award at
the Kerrang! Awards in 1995 for Best New Rock
Band. The week before the awards – I was living in

Your body of work wouldn’t sound the way it does if

you were trying to throw polyrhythms over them…
“And actually, all the songwriters that I’ve played with
– I’ll put complicated and interesting things forward,
always, because I want to know where the boundary
is. Things like ‘Skankheads’, ‘Charlie Big Potato’ will get
through, but more often than not it comes back to
providing a very simplistic bed on which the song can
build from.”

The drums on Jam [Little Angels] sound huge - you

got a taste of that sound right at the end of the ‘hair
rock’ production trends
“It was incredible. Pete Thomas [Elvis Costello]
recorded a bit of it, and I recorded some of it. Because
I came in late and it was a big expensive studio, they
needed to guarantee that they were going to get it
down. They were still using two-inch tape and it was
being edited and all of that kind of stuff. Pete was
amazing, he taught me an incredible amount about

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The interview
Nottingham at the time – me and a mate saw the
video for ‘I Can Dream’ in a kebab shop! We went
and saw them at Rock City and it blew me off my feet. I
saw them over the other side of the room and went
over (a little bit pissed) and said, ‘I saw your gig and I
loved it, but your drummer’s a bit shit!’ and I didn’t
mean to say it like that, and I apologise every time I
tell this story because Louie is such a lovely guy. I just
meant that he didn’t have the ‘oomph’. Skin just
laughed and invited me to audition. I went along and
that was that!”
It all happened quite quickly for Skunk didn’t it?
“Yeah, Robbie France recorded the first album and
then they had an appearance at Glastonbury early on
the bill. But inbetween that ‘Little Baby Swastika’ came
out and got played by John Peel. They did two gigs at
the Splash Club, one for friends and family and one for
the industry. By the end of the night they were signed.
I joined and then ‘Weak’ came out.”
With the toy drum kit and you playing traditional
grip in the video!
“Yeah, which I don’t ever play, that grip, but I had to on
that kit. The story behind that is that the label One
Little Indian didn’t want to pay to release another
single. We went, ‘You have to release the single, it’s the
best song and the biggest chance we have of a hit!’ So
the short version is that we were in the US on tour and
we said, ‘You have to release this song’ they said, ‘We
don’t, and we’re not paying for another video.’ So we
said, ‘We’ll pay for the f*cking video, will you release it
60 | APRIL 2019
“The amount of people who come up to us
even now and say, ‘Those songs helped me
through a really rough time,’ It’s really humbling”
then?’ And they did. So we paid for the video and shot
it very quickly and cheaply at an airport in Santa
Monica. We shot it in between flights taking off! We
had the same problem later with ‘Hedonism’! There
was no rhyme or reason. We’d saved that song from
the first album so we would have a hit on Stoosh then
we had a fight on our hands, again. Labels are just
weird, and that’s putting it politely!
“Sounds weird, but when you get a song like
‘Hedonism’ – a lot of bands get sick of playing songs
like that – but for me that song, and ‘Weak’, it’s a
celebration. Those songs paid for my flat. When all I
dreamed of was being a drummer in a rock band and
maybe make enough money to save up for a deposit
on a house, along comes a song that pays for it.”
And when fans are paying to see you, they want to
hear their favourite songs played enthusiastically...
“Exactly, you have a duty to play those songs and be
proud. Not fart around while you’re playing and chat
to each other, but to do them justice. Those are the
songs that the fans are really invested in. The amount
of people who come up to us even now and say,
‘Those songs helped me through a really rough time,’
It’s really humbling.”
The toms sound big on Hedonism too…
“Yeah, and that’s all Al Jackson! I was listening to Al
Green at the time and I was playing a straight groove
to ‘Hedonism’, Skin asked if I could do something a bit
more interesting so I went, ‘Yes I can, thank you Mr
Jackson!’ Mr Jackson, whose fills consist of opening a
hi-hat and hitting a single tom!”
Skunk has always had a strong sense of groove - an
ability to make people’s heads move, that’s partly
down to you
“When we had our break and got back together, the
first thing we wrote was ‘Tear The Place Up’, which is
sort of drum’n’bass, gets you moving, so, yeah, we do
like to consider making the audience move when
we’re writing!”
You came into Skunk after Robbie France, what was
that like?
“I used to watch Robbie’s drum videos. What an
amazing drummer – I always find that the jazz players
who turn rock are the most interesting. Like Jimmy
Chamberlin, Robbie and Charlie Watts to some extent,
I guess. It’s just a unique take on the kit. But, weirdly, I
took to Robbie’s parts a lot easier than some of Jon
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Lee’s stuff in Feeder. Jon was incredible, there’s some
really tricky bass drum parts in there, especially in the
earlier stuff. On some of the longer songs there are
these really cool patterns that make you go, ‘Bloody
hell, how did you come up with that?’ Taka is always
16ths on the bass, so that freed Jon up to put the bass
drum wherever he wanted. When I joined Skunk he
just said, ‘Just make it your own, don’t try and play like
Robbie.’ So that’s what I did. In all three bands I
replaced really great drummers – Michael Lee in Little
Angels, Robbie France in Skunk Anansie and Jon Lee
in Feeder. So I’ve not been in any of them from the
start, apart from B.L.O.W. so I was in this position
where I had to make the songs my own, but keep the
essence the same. That was really fortunate because a
lot of artists might have said, ‘Do it exactly the same’
but I’ve been allowed to be myself within these songs.”
Does the first Skunk album feel more like ‘yours’
after so many years?
“It does now that the live album has come out. I was
listening to ‘Intellectualise…’ for example. The way I
play it is much simpler, but much heavier in some
respects than how Robbie used to play. His tuning was
higher, his sticks were smaller, he was a lot more ghost
note-led than I am. And not that I don’t play ghost
notes, but they won’t cut through the gates. It just
sounds a lot more dense… for want of a better word!
“It becomes more about ‘What are they hearing at
the back of the room?’ a lot of the time these big
arenas are so echo-ey and crap sounding that the
simpler you play, the better.”
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Your drumming became heavier, more industrial for
Post Orgasmic Chill.
“Yeah, we brought in more electronics, which we’ve
always loved to do. We’re going to do some writing in
March, and that’ll be the same. That’s where we
experiment and go way out there with ideas and then
bring it back to resemble something that Skunk
Anansie would play!”
Was there a learning curve to using electronics and
loops?
“It started off being a very different thing. Like the
intro for Charlie Big Potato, for example. We never
really thought about how we’d integrate that into the
song because it was just a separate piece. On that
record and Stoosh there were electronic segues
between the songs. It wasn’t really until the
Wonderlustre tour – Skunk Part II – where we started
over-laying samples live. ‘Black Traffic’ has six or eight
kick drum samples, and my acoustic one. We came up
with this mix of samples with Chris Sheldon. In the
studio on ‘I Hope You Get To Meet Your Hero’ I played
the song twice: all the way through on the electronic
kit then all the way through on the acoustic kit, then
we just mixed the two.”
So you’re playing these loops live in the studio?
“Yeah, we tend to always do that. We’d rather make up
our own electronic loops with stuff that we find
interesting. There’s a track called ‘Spit You Out’ which
is really electronic on one hand, but on the other it’s
real early-80s punk: that real stiff hi-hat hand, which
was a very deliberate feel that I wanted. Solid eighths
on the hi-hats. We’ve always mixed and matched the
electronic stuff, and we used a lot of orchestras to. On
the last album we had a song called ‘Love Someone
Else’ which is almost entirely electronic. I think one of
the reasons we can get away with it is because when
we’re writing we go way beyond what Skunk Anansie
is, then bring it back and find the boundary of what we
can and can’t do.”
You’ve worked with some great producers over the
years, what was it like working with GGGarth
[Richardson]?
“That was interesting… Let’s just say I struggled. I think
we’re just very different people. He wanted a very
different thing out of me than what I was capable of
giving. It’s not always smooth sailing with producers
and you don’t always get on with everyone. Different
producers have different agendas, the best producer
I’ve worked with by miles was Andy Wallace who
worked closely with us beforehand to get the best out
of us as players, for the song and to work with us on
them so that when it came to recording we knew
exactly what we were doing. The guy’s amazing, he’s
just done so much.
“With GGGarth, I’d go into the cutting room and
they’d be cutting out all the human-ness out of my
drum tracks. I’d do my take and then Doug, his
engineer, would spend all day cutting it up and
removing all the gaps which was essentially my
groove. My argument is, ‘That’s my personality that
you’re cutting out.’ It was tough for me, and it
APRIL 2019 | 61
The interview
“A little tip for any drummers who are going in
to record in a studio for the first time – keep the
mics open so you can hear what’s going on”
completely shattered the little confidence that I had
built up to that point. I was fortunate that the band
had my back.
“I knew something was going on, because I’d be sat
in the live room after doing a take, and they say, ‘Yeah,
just hold on there for a minute’ and you can’t hear
them chatting. So now I always insist that I have an
open mic to the live room, so that I can be involved in
the conversation. That’s a little tip for any drummers
who are going in to record in a studio for the first time
62 | APRIL 2019
– tell them to keep the mics open so you can hear
what’s going on.”
Gil Norton, who you’ve also worked with, is
notoriously hard on drummers.
“Gil is a really good person and knows how to get the
best out of somebody. He’d communicate with me
directly saying, ‘Can you give me a bit more of this,
less of that, bump it up a couple of BPM, try this
pattern…’ I’m really easy going, but the one thing I
can’t stand is when people are uncommunicative. I can
take criticism, but when you ask someone how to
improve something and you get nothing back it just
doesn’t work.
“Gil was very cool to work with, I think my favourite
tracks I did with him were on a little EP we did in
Feeder for Japan called ‘Seven Sisters’. I love the
records we did together, especially Comfort In Sound.
Probably one of my favourite drum sounds: analogue,
old-school drum sounds on that old Yamaha. I loved
working with Gil, he had done a lot with The Pixies,
obviously, and Foo Fighters so he had all these
great stories.”
It must have been unimaginably difficult joining
Feeder after Jon Lee passed…
“It was horrendous. I remember introducing myself to
one of the women in the office. I was so nervous, I
said, ‘I’m Mark, I’ve taken over from Jon, I was at his
funeral.” It was so wrong, one of those things that you
forever regret. It wasn’t that I was saying, ‘Hey! I’m the
new guy!’ I was trying to humbly introduce myself, but
it was just too soon. But, yeah, it was horrible, because
Jon and I had a lot of great times together. We met up
at a lot of festivals all over the world and we had a
very good time. He was a great drummer. That’s the
other thing, not only have I replaced drummers in all
three bands, but they’ve all died. That was a big part
of my sobriety, and giving up messing about.
“Stepping into Jon’s shoes wasn’t exactly pleasant, I
don’t think the fans really wanted to accept it. And why
would you? You want your Feeder back, with Jon Lee.
But it was either accepting someone else or the band
doesn’t carry on. Grant was very much of the mindset
that not only did he want to carry on, but Jon wouldn’t
have wanted the band to fold. So they asked me, and
Skunk had been over for a year so I said, ‘Yes.’”
Was there a point between Skunk and Feeder where
you were unsure about what to do next?
“Yeah, I did little projects, but nothing of note. I’d
actually applied to do a tradesman’s course, because
session work just wasn’t on my radar at the time. I’d
had two amazing, life-changing opportunities by that
point and the chances of getting a third seemed pretty
slim. I thought, ‘I need a trade, I need to be able to
make a living if music doesn’t happen.’ I don’t know
why I thought that, because I could have done
functions, there’s lots of playing stuff I could have
done. But then I got the chance to join Feeder. Grant
wrote an amazing set of songs on Comfort In Sound. It
just made it so easy to play to.”
It must have been cathartic?
“Yeah, I really think it was. Especially for Grant. His way
of dealing with everything and anything that happens
is to write a song about it. It’s why he’s so prolific, his
work ethic around songwriting is just completely
incredible. I’ve never met anyone like him – really, he’ll
easily write a song a day. So that album was very easy
to play to, he could hear the whole album finished in
his head. So if it wasn’t what I was playing he’d just
very gently redirect me and because of that we got a
great record. We went on to do another two in the
same sort of way, really. Some of those songs on the
subsequent albums were songs that didn’t make
Comfort In Sound. Obviously he’d written a lot of new
stuff by then too.”
WWW.MUSICRADAR.COM/RHYTHM
The album and singles were hugely successful, it
seemed like it was being played everywhere
“I think the hardest bit for Taka and Grant, and Matt
their manager, was that by that point the band were
perfectly poised to make that next jump into the arena
circuit, which is of course what happened. They had
‘Buck Rogers’ and ‘Just A Day’ between records, they’d
made these huge strides up, and then Jon wasn’t
around to enjoy it, which was just really sad, and that’s
another reason why I ended up starting the Music
Support charity. There’s so many people in the
industry, musicians and crew alike that need mental
health support. It’s a tough environment, touring. In a
way, bands get it easier because they come in and do
a soundcheck, have a bit of food, do the gig and then
go home. Whereas the crew are in there from early
doors, first in last out. They’re in there all day with no
natural daylight, rigging and putting up PAs. If you’re
struggling mentally in any way, then it’s a really tough
environment to work in. It was something I’d always
wanted to do, so we managed to set that up. They
work alongside other charities like MIND and Help
Musicians UK.”
Tell us about how the charity started
“There were four of us who started it, and we took it in
turns to answer the phone. We didn’t have any
protocols in place, just, ‘Hello, Music Support, how can
I help?’ The thing that stuck with me most of all was a
guy called. He was sat in his car with a pipe from his
exhaust into his window and he was about to switch
the engine on. He thought he’d give us a shout just to
see if there was anything anyone could say to stop
him. I just spoke to him and said, ‘Will you do me a
favour and just not go through with this today?’ He
had three kids, married. He was depressed and it turns
out his meds were all messed up, he’d been on the
WWW.MUSICRADAR.COM/RHYTHM
same ones with too heavy a dose for too long and
they’d stopped working. He went back to the doctor,
got them adjusted. Then he called back and said,
‘Thank f*ck you were there to pick the phone up,
otherwise I’d be dead.’
“Even if we went through all of that shit, just for that
one phone call, it was worth it. It’s a huge problem.”
25LiveAt25 spans the whole gamut of Skunk
Anansie’s career, what are the highlights of a set
for you?
“I really love playing Robbie’s stuff from the first
record. I was listening to it this morning. The second
track in is ‘Intellectualise…’ and it just makes the hairs
on my arms stand on end. The only way we could get
all the songs in was by using different shows, so it’s
mainly one in Italy and one in Poland and then a
couple of others. But there are lots that I look forward
to: ‘Skankheads’, ‘My Ugly Boy’, ‘Charlie Big Potato’,
‘Intellectualise...’, ‘Selling Jesus’…
“It’s such a fun set of songs to play, and the tours
are never that long that it gets too much these days.
It’s a long set, it’s two hours. That’s quite a long time
when your wrists are f*cked, your back’s f*cked, and
you’re just a bit old and f*cked really!”
You’re known for being an incredibly hard hitter…
“Don’t do it kids, it’s not good for you! I’ve mellowed a
bit now, mainly because a few years ago I put a couple
of discs out in my neck. I guess from years of bad
posture and headbanging. My left arm went
completely numb, and I couldn’t lift it! My wife plays
with us now doing backing vocals and keyboards and
percussion and stuff, and she looked over at me like,
‘What the f*ck’s wrong with you?’ I finished the set off
with mainly one hand, and the rest of the tour with not
much more. So, I’ve stepped back a little bit, mainly
from the headbanging because I’ve been doing that
since I was 10! That shit takes its toll, not only on the
mush of your brain but on the bones as well! I’ve just
had to rethink how I play, and realise that the sound is
no different out front whether I’m headbanging or not.
And actually what happened was that the band all
turned round and said, ‘It sounds really good!’ because
I wasn’t performing as much, and therefore much
more accurate in my playing. I’ve just reigned it in
from going completely mental.”
You were involved in the Tuner Fish Lug Locks...
“I was hitting the snare so hard, it would detune all the
time. I spoke to my friend Mike Bigwood who made
drums and said, ‘Surely there’s a better tuning lug lock
than these plastic things?’ So we came up with this
design over a few prototypes and it ended up being
fish-shaped. Mike said, ‘How about we call them tuner
fish?’ It was only ever going to be something that we
made for me, but then people started asking for them.
Now there are loads of people out there using them – Abe
Laboriel Jnr uses them, Thomas Lang loves them.”
You’re playing Tama these days too.
“They’ve been really amazing. They supply me with
gear all over the place. I play a matt black Starclassic
and it’s just gorgeous. You can tell which one it is on
the live album too, it’s really obvious to me because
the toms just sound amazing. I felt like I needed to
thank Yamaha and Sakae on the record too, because
I had been with them for so long too.
“I’ve played Zildjian my whole career and it’s just
the most incredible company to have been with, same
for Remo and Vic Firth. They’ve always been there and
been really supportive to me. Whenever I need
anything, all of these brands just get it. It’s amazing to
have that support after 25 years of drumming. Z
Mark (far left) with Grant
and Taka in Feeder
APRIL 2019 | 63
EXCLUSIVE VIDEO & AUDIO DRUM LESSONS

THIS MONTH’S GUEST TUTOR

TOBY
DRUMMOND
Toby Drummond is an ACM Drum Tutor who has performed
with artists such as The Seahorses, Shaun Ryder, Russell
Watson, Ray Davies, Celia Imrie and Cliff Richard. Toby has
depped on over 20 West End shows including Wicked, Billy
Elliot, Chicago, Jersey Boys, Motown, The Lion King and We Will
Rock You. In this month’s Pro Corner, long and short note
phrasing using a 2:3 son clave mambo.

YOUR TUTORS

PETE RILEY
Rhythm’s CD editor also has
a number of instructional
books and a DVD entitled
Technical Difficulties under
his tutorial belt.
JASON BOWLD
Rockschool contributor
Jason is also the full-time
drummer for Welsh heavy
metal giants Bullet For
My Valentine.
ERIK STAMS
Erik built up an impressive
résumé studying and
recording in New York.
He is currently Head of
Drums at BIMM London.
KYLE CULLEN
Kyle is a Bristol-based drum
teacher, session drummer
and the author of tuition
books Paradiddle Creativity
and How To Practise Drums.
COLIN WOOLWAY
A professional drummer for
30 years, long-standing
Rhythm contributor Colin is
originator of the Drumsense
teaching system.
PAT GARVEY
As a busy freelance
drummer, Pat has played on
hundreds of recordings and
on TV. He is now Head of
Drums at BIMM in Brighton.

64 | APRIL 2019 WWW.MUSICRADAR.COM/RHYTHM

 JAZZ CONCEPTS
SOME SAMBAS P67
ESSENTIALS
EVERYTHING YOU NEED TO KNOW P68
TECHNICAL DIFFICULTIES…
TRIPLET LINEAR PHRASING CONCEPT P69
GET CREATIVE WITH…
PAD CRUNCHING 2 P70
RHYTHM CONCEPTS
JAZZ IN 3/4, PART 1 P71
ACM PRO CORNER
LONG AND SHORT NOTE PHRASING P72
JAZZ CONCEPTS 2
METRIC MODULATION P73
RUDIMENT OF THE MONTH
THE LONG ROLL P74
FOUNDATIONS OF DRUMMING
CREATING 16TH-NOTE ACCENT FILLS P75
URBAN ROCK
ORGANIC TRAP P77

WWW.MUSICRADAR.COM/RHYTHM APRIL 2019 | 65

 Make great music

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Available digitally on these devices

DVD
 DRUM LESSONS

JAZZ CONCEPTS

SOME
SAMBAS
A little bit of Latin jazz!

P
laying drums with a Latin feel is
something that occurs in jazz quite
frequently and usually involves some
kind of Bossa Nova or Samba. Here are
a few ideas for playing Samba using a couple
of techniques. Example 1 is a fairly standard
Samba using CROSS-STICK in a Bossa Nova
style. Keep the bass drum light and try and
play the right stick on the hi-hat as a shaker.
Example 2 is a little more lively, playing a
broken eighth-note rhythm on the ride cymbal,
samba on the snare, and the bass drum and
stepped hi-hat matching the cymbal rhythm,
what I call the ‘samba feet’ pattern.
with sticks, giving us a more gentle feel with
access to different sounds on the drums.
HEADS UP!
Example 3 changes the feel a bit, using The Practice Challenge involves using a stick CROSS-STICK
The technique of laying the stick across the
brushes playing eighth notes, alternate strokes, and a brush, with the brush in the right hand
drum, striking the rim with the butt of the
accenting the Samba rhythm. This is a making a sweeping motion in an eighth-note stick to replicate the sound of claves
particularly nice alternative to playing Samba pulse. Apply the ‘samba feet’ underneath. (not a rimshot!). YOUR TUTOR
COLIN WOOLWAY

01
colin@drumsense.com
Samba beat using cross-stick and hi-hat, bass drum playing a repetitive figure underneath (ostinato).

÷ ‰ ‰ ‰

02 The ride cymbal plays a broken eighth rhythm and Samba rhythm on the snare drum; note the ‘samba feet’ pattern
underneath.

03 This time using brushes, alternating strokes...

Brushes
> > > > > > >
÷

04 Practice Challenge: use a brush in the right hand to imitate a shaker, play Samba rhythm with cross-stick.

Brush
on
Snare
Z
÷
Z Z Z Z Z Z Z Z Z Z Z Z Z Z Z

WWW.MUSICRADAR.COM/RHYTHM APRIL 2019 | 67

 DRUM LESSONS
GET STARTED
DRUMMING ESSENTIALS
Everything you need to know before you start playing the drums
01 MATCHED GRIP
Both hands hold the sticks in the
same manner: thumbs on the side of the
sticks; forefinger opposite the thumb;
middle, ring and little fingers curled under
the sticks; palms held down, facing
the floor.
02 TRADITIONAL GRIP
The right hand is as matched grip,
but the left-hand stick is held differently (vice
versa for left-handed players). The stick is
lodged in the fleshy bit between the thumb
and forefinger and the fore and middle
fingers curl over the stick, while the ring and
little fingers curl under to support the stick.
03 QUARTER NOTES
Also known as ‘crotchets’. If a
standard bar of music is regarded as a
‘whole’, then four evenly-spaced notes
within that bar are regarded as ‘quarters’,
hence the term ‘quarter note’ (in other
words, four beats in a standard bar).
04 EIGHTH NOTES
Classically referred to as ‘quavers’. If
a standard bar of music is regarded as a
68 | APRIL 2019
‘whole’ and four evenly-spaced notes within
that bar are regarded as ‘quarters’, then
eight evenly-spaced notes within that bar
are regarded as ‘eighths’, hence the term
‘eighth note’ (in other words, eight beats in a
standard bar).
05 EIGHTH NOTE TRIPLETS
The musical definition of a triplet is
‘three evenly spaced notes occupying the
same space as two evenly spaced notes’.
With eighth note triplets, three eighth notes
would be played in the same amount of time
as you’d usually play two eighth notes.
06 OSTINATO
An ostinato is a repeated pattern.
This is usually not very long, and is often
made up of three or four notes played over
and over again in the same pitch. One of the
most famous classical drum ostinatos is the
snare drum pattern in Ravel’s ‘Bolero’, but
contemporary drummers often refer to ‘bass
and hi-hat’ ostinatos.
GETTING STARTED
S
itting behind a drum kit for the first
time can be a daunting thing. However,
once you get to grips with the basics
you’ll be playing in no time. And if
you’ve never picked up the sticks before we
can help you. Each month on Rhythm’s
Drum Lessons CD (print) and in the
interactive pages of our digital edition
(iPad and iPhone only) you will find the
following content just for beginners. This
content can also be accessed from the
links provided here.
07 16TH NOTES
Also known as ‘semi-quavers’. If a
standard bar of music is regarded as a
‘whole’, then 16 evenly spaced notes within
that bar are regarded as ‘16ths’, hence
‘16th note’.
08 CROSS-STICK
Played on the snare by holding the
stick at the tip end, laying it across the drum
and striking the rim with the ‘butt’ end,
keeping the tip in contact with the head.
09 RIM SHOT
Played by striking the head and the
rim of the drum at the same time. It makes a
loud, sonorous sound, good for accents in a
snare pattern or heavy rock backbeat.
10 HEAD TYPES
The ‘batter’ head is the drum head
you strike and the ‘resonant’ head is the
head on the underside of the drum that
gives it a full and resonating sound.
Q Take your first steps into reading music
with our guide to drum notation:
http://bit.ly/notationguide
Q Find your way around the kit with our
anatomy of a drum kit guide:
http://bit.ly/kitanatomy
Q Five video drum lessons covering basic
rock, funk jazz and the shuffle:
http://bit.ly/firstdrumlessons
Q Video guides to accompany the
drumming essentials above:
http://bit.ly/drumessentials
WWW.MUSICRADAR.COM/RHYTHM
 DRUM LESSONS

TECHNICAL DIFFICULTIES

TRIPLET
LINEAR YOUR TUTOR
PETE RILEY

PHRASING
p.riley@mac.com

CONCEPT
Using the left hand to fill
in the missing triplets.

T
his issue’s Technical Difficulties begins an
exploration of a triplet phrasing concept
based around the idea of playing a
01 Example 1 looks at developing the fundamental combinations of either the snare or bass drum
playing the downbeat while the left hand fills in the missing triplets.
rhythmic figure between the bass drum
and snare and filling in the missing triplets
> 3 > 3 > 3 > 3 3 3 3 3

with the left hand. The right hand notes are

all played as accents and can be moved freely
R L L R L L R L L R L L L L L L L L L L
around the kit, while left hand notes should
be played as ghost notes on the snare.

02
With this approach the ultimate objective is Next we introduce some movement between the accents, in this case using a
be able to play whatever right hand and foot paradiddle type movement between the bass drum and snare.
combinations come to mind while the left
hand freely fills in the triplets; however,
in order to maintain a degree of momentum
> 3 3 > 3 > 3 3 > 3 3 3

the left hand will always be limited to playing

two notes.
R L L L L R L L R L L L L R L L L L L L
To develop this fluid-sounding approach
we first need to develop some familiarity with
the fundamental motions. One of these is the
familiar right, left, left figure, which can be
seen in the first bar of Example 1. However,
03 This example features a 3/4 figure moving over the barline.

more challenging will be the second bar

where the bass drum replaces the right hand
> 3 3 3 > 3 3 3 > 3 3

note on the quarter-note. Once comfortable

with each bar practise it as a two-bar pattern.
R L L L L L L R L L L L L L R L L L L
Next in Example 2 we introduce the idea of
the figure moving between the snare and
bass drum. Here the more eagle-eyed
amongst you will have noticed that now the
right hand/bass drum are, in fact, playing a
04 Example 4 alternates the accents between snare and bass drum on each
beat.

> > > >

paradiddle style combination with the left
hand again filling in the triplets. 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3
Examples 3 and 4 continue this theme
with a three-beat figure being used in
Example 3 and an alternating snare/bass and R L L L L R L L L L L L R L L L L R L L

bass/snare combination in Example 4.

Finally, in Example 5 we begin to pave the
way for more syncopated phrasing by moving
the accented snare or bass drum notes to the 05 Our final example introduces our first look at syncopation with the accents
now moving to the upbeat or third partial of the triplet.
upbeat. Once again, feel free to work on each
bar separately before playing it as the 3 > 3 > 3 > 3 > 3 3 3 3
notated two-bar example and also try
stepping 2 and 4 or quarter notes with all of
the examples. L L R L L R L L R L L R L L L L L L L L

WWW.MUSICRADAR.COM/RHYTHM APRIL 2019 | 69

 DRUM LESSONS

GET CREATIVE WITH

PAD CRUNCHING 2
Cheese with that flam accent?

I
n the last intalment of Get Creative With...
we explored a lovely little rudiment called
the flam accent. This month we’re delving
into the world of hybrid rudiments and
we’re going to be turning the flam accent
YOUR TUTOR into something called ‘the cheese’.
The cheese is the name given to one of
PAT GARVEY
pat@patgarvey.net the more basic HYBRID RUDIMENTS.
These more advanced patterns make great
work for the hands and lots of them are
applicable to drumset playing, the cheese in technique, your repertoire, your vocabulary means is that you cut the note in half so
particular, so there is a lot of mileage in and your creativity – so it’s well worth the you play two notes in the space of one – so
exploring it. practice time invested here! you ‘diddle’ the note.
As we established in the last instalment in By the way, if you’re looking at the
Rhythm 291 the flam accent is already a
very popular sticking for developing fills,
notation this month and scratching your
head and wondering what the dash is
HEADS UP!
HYBRID RUDIMENT
chops, licks, groove embellishments and through the first note of each group of A style of rudiment that consists of two or
solo ideas, so taking it a step further with three, it’s called rhythmic abbreviation, and more elements of already existing
the cheese will help to further develop your what that single dash through the stem rudimental sticking patterns

01 The accented eighth-note triplet. Play using alternating strokes and really look to control your stick height.
©»¢º + > 3 > 3 > 3 > 3

÷ .. ..
R L R L R L R L R L R L

02 The flam accent as studied in issue 291.

> 3 > 3 > 3 > 3

÷ .. œ ..
R L R L R L R L R L R L

03 Example 1 but with the accent ‘diddled’. Take care to control the diddle and maintain an even stick height throughout the pattern in relation to
the necessary articulation.

> 3 > 3 > 3 > 3

÷ .. œ ..
R L R L R L R L R L R L

04 Combining the flam and the diddle to form ‘the cheese’. Enjoy!

3 3 3 3

÷ .. ..
R L R L R L R L R L R L

70 | APRIL 2019 WWW.MUSICRADAR.COM/RHYTHM

 DRUM LESSONS

RHYTHM CONCEPTS

JAZZ IN 3/4, PART I

Make sure that the snare drum notes do not
interrupt the time flow of the ride cymbal
pattern. Play each exercise slowly and quietly
with a metronome for 16 bars, beneath the
volume of the ride cymbal.
Comping in 3/4 time Example 3 illustrates all of the offbeat eighth YOUR TUTOR

T
note placements. These are meant to be ERIK STAMS
his month we’ll be exploring ways to approaches to coordination and comping in swung, like the ride cymbal pattern. Be www.erikstams.com

further develop jazz coordination skills
using a simple ride cymbal and hi-hat
ostinato in ¾ time.
When learning to play jazz, drummers
generally start out with the familiar, traditional
‘spang-a-lang’ ride cymbal and hi-hat ostinato
in 4/4. Once enough skill has been achieved
with this ostinato, we can work on
coordination, comping, phrasing, melodic
interplay trading fours, etc. The study of jazz is
a lifetime’s work but an important skill to
develop is the ability to swing in ¾ time, which
is a common time signature in jazz. By
practising the same time-honoured
3/4 that we have previously practised in 4/4 we
can develop further freedom of expression on
the instrument.
Example 1a illustrates the classic jazz ride
cymbal and hi-hat pattern notated using
triplets. Example 1b shows the same pattern in
straight eighth notes, which is meant to be
interpreted as swung eighths using the
previous triplet feel. This is common practice in
the jazz idiom. Swing the eighth notes in all of
the subsequent exercises. Example 2 illustrates
a series of quarter note comping exercises to
be played on the snare drum against the
previous ride cymbal and hi-hat ostinato.
conscious of where the hands fall in unison and
where they do not. Again, play each exercise
for eight or 16 bars slowly and quietly, beneath
the volume of the ride cymbal. Example 4
shows an alternative, two-note stepped hi-hat
pattern that can be applied to all examples.
HEADS UP!
COMPING
Short for ‘accompanying’ or possibly from
the verb, to ‘complement’. These are the
chords, rhythms and counter-melodies
that instrumentalists use to support
improvised solos or melody lines.

01a Jazz ride cymbal and hi-hat ostinato in 3/4. 01b Written as straight eighths. Interpret all eighths with a
swing feel.
Ex 1b
3 – –
qq=qce
q=qce
÷ ‰ .. ÷ ..

02 Quarter-note comping exercises, to be played against the 3/4 jazz ostinato.

Ex 2a Ex 2b Ex 2c Ex 2d

÷ .. .. .. .. ..
Ex 2e Ex 2f Ex 2g

÷ .. .. .. .. .. ..

03 Eighth-note comping exercises, to be played against the 3/4 jazz ostinato.

Ex 3a Ex 3b Ex 3c Ex 3d

÷ .. .. ‰ .. ‰ ‰ ..
Ex 3e Ex 3f Ex 3g

÷ .. .. .. .. ..

04 Alternative stepped hi-hat ostinato.

÷ ..

WWW.MUSICRADAR.COM/RHYTHM APRIL 2019 | 71

 DRUM LESSONS

ACM PRO CORNER

‘LONG & SHORT’

NOTE PHRASING
Long and short note phrasing
using a 2:3 son clave mambo

YOUR TUTOR
TOBY DRUMMOND
is an ACM Drum Tutor who
has performed with artists
such as The Seahorses,
Shaun Ryder, Russell
Watson, Ray Davies, Celia
Imrie and Cliff Richard.
T
his month we will be developing ‘long &
short’ note phrasing within a traditional
2:3 mambo. Latin music is based around
a pulse known as the ‘clave’. There are
two traditional clave variations, the ‘son’ and
the ‘rhumba’, which can be played forward or
reversed to give us a 2:3 son clave, 3:2 son
clave, 2:3 rhumba clave or 3:2 rhumba clave.
In Example 1 the hi-hat is playing a pattern
traditionally played by the timbale player
called the cascara pattern. The lines and dots
shown above the hi-hat phrasing in bar 1
indicate the note lengths and positioning, ie
‘lines’ are long using the shoulder of stick and
the ‘dots’ are short notes using the tip of stick.
In Ex 1, once you are able to play the correct
notation, also develop the two-bar phrase
saying he correct note lengths: ‘long, long,
short long, short long, short long, long, short’.
In Example 2 we add grace notes between
the cascara phrasing and if you practise using
a mirror this is a great way to see the shape
and note lengths developing. In Example 3;
we add the 2:3 son clave using cross stick on
the snare but you’ll still need to be saying the
note lengths (cascara pattern) whilst adding
the new voicing. In Example 4: all key
elements are in place with the addition of a
‘bombo’ note, which is derived from the
Latin American bombo drum. The bombo
note is traditionally played on the second
eighth note of the bar within the three clave
as per our example.
Example 5 take us up onto the ride
with the addition of a pedal 1 and 3 hi-hat
using a 2:3 son clave and traditional bombo
note phrasing.
The Academy of Contemporary Music (ACM) is a leading music
industry education provider. Having trained musicians, producers,
songwriters and entrepreneurs for careers in the music industry
for over 20 years, with state-of-the-art facilities, world-class faculty
and extensive industry connections, ACM offers music programmes
that develop students to their maximum potential and instantly
immerses them in the music industry. Visit www.acm.ac.uk

01 Positioning and voicing note length. Right hand 2:3 clave.

      

02 Voicing long and short notes whilst adding the left hand.

         

03 Adding cross stick and 2:3 son clave.

       

04 Adding the bombo note.

       

05 Ride, cross stick, bombo and pedal hats on 1 & 3.

       

72 | APRIL 2019 WWW.MUSICRADAR.COM/RHYTHM

 DRUM LESSONS

JAZZ CONCEPTS

METRIC MODULATION H
ere’s another idea using a neat little
syncopated phrase. Example 1 shows
our two-bar phrasing preceded by two
bars on ‘time’; play the phrase with
Syncopated phrasing becomes a new beat! both hands.
Example 2 is a nice little exercise in itself,
YOUR TUTOR
splitting the phrase between snare and bass,
COLIN WOOLWAY
which would be left hand and right foot for colin@drumsense.com
most players; try and keep the stepped hi-hat
on 2 and 4.
Example 3 is where it starts to get really
interesting, dividing the phrase into groups of
four; playing three notes on the bass and the
fourth on the snare, we get a ‘rock shuffle’
pattern, syncopating across the beat. Play the
phrasing with the right hand on the ride
cymbal, to give the impression that the whole
thing has taken a different rhythmic turn!
Your Practice Challenge is to see how far
you can take this. Keep steady time with bass
and hat, and play our syncopated phrase
HEADS UP! across the top, and when you feel brave
enough, try to apply the bass and snare as in
STEPPED HI-HAT
Producing a note by playing the hi-hat Example 3 and see how far you get without
with the foot pedal as opposed to losing time! A metronome of some sort is
striking the closed cymbals with a stick. essential for making sure you know where you
are. Check the video footage for ideas.

01 Two bars of jazz time, two bars syncopated phrase played double-handed on snare and ride.

3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3
‰ ‰ ‰ ‰ ‰ ‰‰ ‰ ‰‰ ‰ ‰‰
÷

02 Example 2 splits the phrase between snare and bass.

3 3 3 3 3 3
" Time " ‰ ‰ ‰ ‰ ‰ ‰ ‰ ‰ ‰
÷
‰ ‰ ‰ ‰ ‰ ‰ ‰ ‰ ‰
3 3 3 3 3 3

03 Example 3 evokes rock shuffle by phrasing with bass drum; play snare every fourth note.
Practice Challenge: extend the phrase over three or more bars. See how long you can keep going!

3 3 3 3 3 3
‰ ‰ ‰ ‰ ‰ ‰ ‰ ‰ ‰
÷
‰ ‰ ‰ ‰ ‰ ‰ ‰ ‰ ‰
3 3 3 3 3 3

3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3
‰ ‰ ‰ ‰ ‰ ‰ ‰ ‰ ‰ ‰ ‰ ‰
÷

WWW.MUSICRADAR.COM/RHYTHM APRIL 2019 | 73

 DRUM LESSONS

RUDIMENT OF THE MONTH

THELONGROLL
the second note is snapped out of the first.
Chances are this is reasonably comfortable
in your right hand but achieving the same
sound and feel with the left might well
unearth the Achilles heel in a drummer’s
YOUR TUTOR Develop a strong and even double-stroke roll double-stroke roll. The exercises in Example
3 and 4 should help to develop this and

D
PETE RILEY
p.riley@mac.com
eveloping an effective double-stroke
roll is one of the more technically
challenging elements of rudimental
drumming as it requires the
implementation of relatively strong and fast
reflexes in both and hands, executed evenly.
One of the most under appreciated aspects
of a double-stroke roll is the requirement to
be able to play the second note in each hand
louder than the first. In other words, simply
bouncing the stick to achieve a second note
won’t be enough to generate an even sound
and one that should hopefully sound like
even single-strokes.
If we look at the notation in Example 1
you’ll notice that here the second note of
each double-stroke is accented and this is
how the long roll is both notated and to be
practised. In essence, the motion required in
each hand is not dissimilar to that used
when playing a shuffle rhythm, a motion
often referred to as a PULL-OUT, where
should definitely be practised leading
with either hand before played as the
two-bar examples.
Example 2 shows how the long roll, with
the emphasis on the second note, can be
practised using the bass drum to maintain
the pulse and avoid being ‘pulled’ into the
upbeat accents. And this same approach can
be taken with Example 5, where the inverted
double-stroke roll now means the accented
part of the double-stroke will now land on
the 16th notes.

HEADS UP!
01 Example 1 shows the long roll with accents placed over the second note
in each hand.
PULL-OUT
Refers to playing an accented note

> > > > immediately after an unaccented

note. This is often done by playing the
first quiet note using an upward
motion so that the hand is already
in a high position ready to play
R R L L R R L L the accent.

02 Placing the bass drum on quarter-notes can be useful when attempting to pick up the tempo whilst maintaining the
upbeat accents.

> > > > > > > > > > > > > > > >

R R L L R R L L R R L L R R L L R R L L R R L L R R L L R R L L

03 This two-bar example is based around playing a shuffle rhythm in each hand, excellent for developing the pull-out
motion.

> 3 > 3 > 3 > 3 > 3 > 3 > 3 > 3

..
R L R R L R R L R R L R L R L L R L L R L L R L

04 Here we apply the pull-out motion in a 16th-note rate with an inverted double-stroke roll sticking.

> > > > > > > >

..
R L L R R L L R R L L R R L L R L R R L L R R L L R R L L R R L

05 We can also practise the inverted double-stroke roll with the accented
second note now landing on the beat.
> > > >
R L L R R L L R

74 | APRIL 2019 WWW.MUSICRADAR.COM/RHYTHM

THE FOUNDATIONS OF DRUMMING

CREATING HEADS UP!

16TH-NOTE
ACCENTS
Fills like this really work when your
dynamics are under control. Your accents YOUR TUTOR
are loud notes while the snare should be
played softer to allow them to stand out. KYLE CULLEN

ACCENT FILLS
kyle@kylecullen.com

Use structure to
feel creative

T
his lesson will have you creating fills using tom
and crash ACCENTS with a bed of snare
notes filling out the 16th-note feel. Start by
playing 16ths on a snare and accenting a few
notes. It may be easier to write out a bar and pick a
few places to accent, rather than improvising them.
Once the pattern feels comfortable move those
accents to the toms. You can start with the right
hand on floor tom, left on rack tom before
exploring other ideas. Get used to playing this as an
exercise before trying it as a fill. The third example
is the same accent pattern now played between
crashes and snare with the kick drum supporting
the crashes. Take your time with this as any crashes
that fall with your left hand will feel strange at first.
Feel free to learn these examples but then
create your own. Creativity is something to be
practised. Being creative inside a set of parameters
can help open the freedom to create more
interesting and complex fills.

01 I have chosen to accent the ‘&’ of 1, 2, the ‘e’ of 3, 4 and the ‘a’ of 4.

> > > > >

÷ .. ..

02 Now move those accents to the toms. Keep the snare ghosted to allow the toms to sing.

> > > > >

÷ .. ..

03 When moving the accents to the crashes it’s typical to play kicks with them. Be sure that
the crashes and kicks are nicely in sync.

÷ .. ..

WWW.MUSICRADAR.COM/RHYTHM APRIL 2019 | 75

 PINK FLOYD
50TH ANNIVERSARY EDITION

ON
SALE
NOW

NEW INTERVIEWS STORIES FROM STUDIO & STAGE

ALBUM ART EXPLAINED 50 YEARS OF MUSIC
FROM THE MAKERS OF
 DRUM LESSONS

URBAN ROCK

ORGANIC
TRAP
Gear changing grooves

R
e-engineering an electronic style of
drumming into the acoustic realm is great
for encouraging new approaches and
techniques. This month explores the
‘trap’ genre using this process. Trap has a lot

HEADS UP!
of gear changes on the hi-hat, which we will feel that gradually builds into triplets
use with its characteristically slow kick and before a buzzed 16th roll in bar four. The
snare patterns. In the videos, I use a splash hats then open up in Ex 2 and the kick ACCESSORIES
on the snare for a trashy clap sound, and a drum pattern becomes busier with Accessorising different parts of the drum
mini tambourine attachment on top of the occasional 16th bursts. Ex 3 is played on kit is fun but challenging. The splash/
hi-hat stem for texture – try experimenting the ‘normal’ snare drum and the kicks snare combo has to be played with YOUR TUTOR
control to avoid the splash disembarking!
with your own ACCESSORIES. All of the become even busier with more double-kick and played consistently to achieve that
JASON BOWLD
jase@jasonbowld.com
following examples last eight bars with a fill bursts. The triplet power fill in bar four even, electronic sound. Instead of the
played on the repeat in bar eight. keeps the gear changing vibe present and tambourine attachment on the hi-hats
Ex 1 features the gear changing hi-hat the trashy clap snare joins the ‘normal’ you can also try hitting the side of the
hi-hat stand and the bell of the hats.
pattern starting with a linear/rudimentary snare in bar eight for a quirky fill.

01 There’s a lot to learn in this groove. Bar the occasional unison open hi-hat and snare, it’s all linear based comprising a lot of
rudimentary stickings. The two different hi-hat pitches take advantage of this to create a varied sound.
All examples to be played at 150 bpm
o
..

o o
R R L . R R L R L . R L R R L R R L R L R . R R L . R R L R L .

1 3 3 2
z z z z
..
R L R L R . L/R R L R L

02 This is all about building intensity on the kick drums. Eighth notes with occasional 16th-note bursts gear change into

o o
eighth-note triplets in bar four. Try and focus on locking the hi-hats with the correct foot at this point to avoid a messy sound.
o o o o o o o o
..

1 o 3 o 3 o 3 o 3 2 o o o
..

03 The double-kick drumming here is more intense with more 16th-note bursts and the triplet fill in bar four is a test of your
timing. Playing along to a click really does help with gear changing – especially when it’s played between the feet and hands.

..

1 3 3 2
3 3
..
L . R L . R L R R

WWW.MUSICRADAR.COM/RHYTHM APRIL 2019 | 77

 100 GREATEST
DRUM BEATS & HOW TO PLAY THEM

PLUS
LEARN TO PLAY
DRUMS TODAY!
Includes beginners
guide to get you up
and running

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84
90
STAR RATINGS EXPLAINED
During the review process
we investigate three key
areas in detail
Build quality Is it consistent? Are
components up to the task? Are shells
round? And so on.
Playability Does the product
convincingly do the job it was
designed for?
Value for money Does the price reflect
the product fairly, and how does it
compare with competitors?
Each area receives a star rating out of
five. These ratings are then collated to
arrive at an overall Rhythm Rating.
POOR: SUB-STANDARD PRODUCT
AVERAGE: ACCEPTABLE BUT UNINSPIRING
GOOD: ABOVE AVERAGE
EXCELLENT: SUPERIOR PRODUCT
OUTSTANDING: IMPOSSIBLE TO FAULT
WWW.RHYTHMMAGAZINE.CO.UK
LOOKING FOR A PPARTICULAR REVIE ?
S, ROUND-UPS AND BUYING
IDES W MUSICRADAR.CO
92
94
Look out
for these
The Rhythm Recommends
award is given to those
products that score four out
of five. These are products
that, although not scoring
top marks, are strong
products in their field. The
Contents
Rhythm Star Buy is awarded
to those products that score REVIEW ORIOLLO FERROMANG SERIES DRUMS 84
five out of five for design,
construction, function REVIEW ROLAND TM-1 TRIGGER MODULE 88
REVIEW BRITISH DRUM CO THE DUKE LIMITED EDITION SNARE 90
and value.
REVIEW ROGERS DYNO-MATIC BASS DRUM PEDAL 91
REVIEW ZILDIAN 2018 K/K SWEET/ORIENTAL CYMBALS 92
REVIEW ALESIS STRIKE MULTIPAD 94
VINTAGE GEAR A F MATTHEWS POPULAR BALLROOM OUTFIT 96
APRIL 2019 | 83
GEAR REVIEW
ORIOLLO
FERROMANG
SERIES DRUMS
From £385 Oriollo’s unique drums
are built in Serbia and available in a
variety of seamless spun or cast metals
WORDS: GEOFF NICHOLLS
D
rums made in Serbia on the
banks of the mighty Danube
river. That’s surely a first for
Rhythm and most welcome
too. Oriollo is a young company started
by Vukan Karadzic with the mission to
build snare drums and full kits from
seamless cast and spun metals. Absolutely
no sign of any welds or studs. Aluminium,
copper, brass and bronze are all available,
while for review we have spun manganese
steel in Oriollo’s Ferromang Series. The
drums are made available in the UK by
Betta Drums.
Build
Oriollo’s main selling point is its mission to
offer several ranges of drums in various
metals, with every shell produced
seamlessly by either spinning or casting.
Most metal drums are made by rolling
sheet metal into a circle and welding,
brazing or simply studding the join. This
obviously creates a discontinuity in the
shell. With cast and spun shells there is no
join. Repeated spinning is said also to
‘realign the grain structures’ of the metal,
hardening it and clarifying the resonance.
You can watch a video of Oriollo’s spinning
process at http://bit.ly/OriolloProduction.
Oriollo has three spun series:
Ferromang (manganese steel), Phantom
(aluminium) and Bakar (copper); plus
three cast series: Forte (steel), Cadenza
(brass) and Bellmaker (bell bronze). Snare
drums are available in all of these series,
plus one extra choice, which is spun brass
and called Giramondo.
That’s a pretty impressive selection
right there, and we have just one to
examine this month – a spun Ferromang
Series kit in sizes 20"x14", 12"x8" and
84 | APRIL 2019
15"x12", accompanied by a 14"x6½"
snare drum.
Along with the series options Oriollo
has four different shell profiles. Cast shells
are either ‘Straight’ with flat sides and a
standard, default thickness of 3mm, but
with the option to increase that up to
8mm (which in passing it’s worth noting is
colossal). Alternatively, ‘Reringed’ cast
shells have 5mm reinforcing style rings
added to the top and bottom of the shell,
giving a broader platform for the bearing
edges. And the bearing edge profiles, by
the way, are customisable.
Spun shells are termed ‘Classic’ – with
rounded top edge and 45 degree bottom
edge – or ‘Oriphonic’, which is what we
have here. Oriphonic is most unusual,
having a 45 degree flanged top edge
coupled with a bottom edge that has a
strengthening bead and then an angled
lip. Vukan explains: “Having a flanged
edge on the bottom wouldn’t offer as
much resonance or liveliness and would
only raise the production costs. So... two
birds with one stone.”
Finish-wise our toms and bass drum
have a textured black Sable Noir powder Small toms are supplied without
coating, while the snare drum is a shiny intrusive mounts, meanwhile, floor
Hibiscus Red. Other finishes include Sable toms have the requisite three legs.
Blue, Piano Black and Natural Steel. Check There’s a good range of sizes,
UK dealer Betta Drums’ website (see box grouped from 10"x7" up to 16"x14".
out for details) for examples of the many Bass drums are 20" and 22", up to 14"
snazzy customisable finishes also on offer. in depth.
"LUGS ARE NOT PLATED BUT INSTEAD
ARE POLISHED STAINLESS STEEL,
WHICH IS CERTAINLY NOT SOMETHING
YOU SEE EVERY DAY"
WWW.MUSICRADAR.COM/RHYTHM
 Essential spec
FERROMANG SERIES SHELLS
All Oriollo drums feature seamless
shells, either cast or spun, like these
Ferromang Series grade 316 steel shells

PRICES
Review kit: 20"x14",
£767; 12"x8", £385;
15"x12" floor tom, £631;
14"x6½" snare drum,
£415; Toms: 10" diameter,
up to 7" depth, £335; 12",
up to 8" depth, £385;
13", up to 9" depth, £431;
Floor toms: 14" diameter
up to 12" depth (with
legs), £559; 15" to 14"
depth, £631; 16" to 14"
depth, £671; Bass drums:
20", up to 14" depth,
£767; 22", up to 14"
depth, £863
CONSTRUCTION
Seamless spun
(pictured) or cast metal
AVAILABLE
SERIES
Spun: Phantom

TRIDROP LUGS (aluminium); Ferromang

(Manganese steel);
Oriollo lugs are cast from stainless Bakar (copper);
Giramondo (brass, snare
steel and thus are not plated but drums only); Cast: Forte
are given a polished mirror finish (steel); Cadenza (brass);
Bellmaker (bell bronze)
METAL GAUGES
1mm to 3mm for spun
shells and 3mm to 8mm
for cast shells
SHELL PROFILES
Oriphonic: 45 degrees
flanged top edge and
flat, beaded and angled
bottom edge; Classic
Spun shells: rounded top
edge and flanged 45
degree bottom edge;
3-5 Re-Ringed Cast:
3mm thick wall with
5mm thick top and
bottom sections.
Optionally 3 to 8mm
thick. Customisable
edges; 3 Straight Cast:
3mm thick wall; 3 to
8mm thick
FINISHES
AVAILABLE
Sable Noir, Sable Blue,
Piano Black, Hibiscus
Red, Flame Patina on
steel, Raw Copper,
lacquered or brushed
aluminium, or brushed
natural steel
SHELL
AVAILABILITY
10" to 22" diameters,
depths up to 14"
SHINY STEEL CLAWS CONTACT
Like the lugs, the bass drum claws oriollo.com
are polished cast grade 316 stainless bettadrums.co.uk
01268 987957
steel with a triple faceted design
info@bettadrums.co.uk

WWW.MUSICRADAR.COM/RHYTHM APRIL 2019 | 85

GEAR REVIEW

They say…
VUKAN KARADZIC
Vukan Karadzic is the founder of
Oriollo Drums in Serbia, leading
a team of three
How did Oriollo
start?
“As a drum shell
manufacturer,
supplying seamless
metal drum shells
to many big and
small drum
companies. In the
spring of 2015 we
introduced our first snare drum, the Phantom;
in December 2016 we launched the world’s first
seamless spun aluminium drum kits.”

What is the concept behind Oriollo?

“Seamless metal shells exclusively. Paired with
lightweight and small-footprint hardware, to
enable the drums to show their full potential.
Our drums can go really low without sounding
cardboard-like. Some drummers would say
they ‘sing’, with nice overtones.”

What’s next?
“We have many new and interesting things
coming out. A new strainer is in development,
and also a tom bracket, new type of shells
as well.”

Why the unique Oriphonic shell profile?

“The ends of the shell is where it’s weakest. So,
since we have a hefty top edge (with a flange),
we had to reinforce the bottom edge. My idea
was to use a bead along with an angled flat
edge. That way there’s enough reinforcement
while retaining the ‘normal’ look (no beads on
the visible surface of the shell).”

In keeping with Oriollo’s aim

eventually to manufacture all its own
component parts the lugs are also special.
They are not plated but instead are
polished stainless steel, which is certainly
not something you see every day. What’s
more, Oriollo uses extra hard and durable
316 grade stainless steel with its higher
resistance to corrosion. Said lugs add
considerably to the already weighty shells.
Shape-wise the lugs are inspired by the
classic teardrop profile with three facets,
hence the TriDrop description. They are
hollow and feature a particularly high
bridge – in fact, you can pick up the drums
just by looping your finger inside the
bridge. This is particularly easy with the
double-ended snare lug design. I’d
hazard these are the most durable
lugs on the market.
"BECAUSE OF THE PRECISION OF THE
Complementing the lugs, Oriollo’s
TriDrop bass drum claws are likewise cast
and polished steel while the hoops, you’ll
not be surprised to learn, follow the
Ferromang steel formula.
This brings us to the snare drum,
which has a slightly different shell profile.
It’s still called Oriphonic, but instead of a
single lower convex bead it has double
convex beads in the centre, snare drum
style. Fulfilling the strainer/throw-off
duties, Oriollo has designed a small but
effective cast Butterfly strainer. As for
wires, these are Oriollo’s standard 20
Also try… strand German Bronze.
Hands On
Steel shells may conjure up the memory
of a wayward metallic clamour. This is
often our first experience when starting
out with one of those basic cheaper-than-
chips budget snares. But that’s not the
1 case with these Oriollo Ferromang drums
TAMA SLP BOG at all. On the contrary, they are focused
BLACK STEEL KIT and dark, surprisingly almost sombre at
We say: “With 1mm first. In particular, the classically
steel shells and minimal proportioned 20"x14" bass drum is tight
Starclassic lugs to
and tough. It’s a thumper not a thwacker,
maximise resonance,
this is an attractively taut not flappy.

HARD STEEL SPUN SHELL, IT IS EASY

priced alternative.” Actually, as per preconception, I’m
expecting more ambient ring, so – thus
TO TUNE HIGH OR LOW – THE HEAD intrigued – I stick my head close to the
bass drum batter head and play the pedal
DOESN’T FLAP OR FLUTTER" by hand, whereupon I am startled to hear

86 | APRIL 2019 WWW.MUSICRADAR.COM/RHYTHM


just how deep the report is. The
fundamental frequency is seriously
sub-bass.
The no-join spinning process results in
an uninterrupted cylinder that has a clear
yet wide frequency range. But it does not
reverberate in the way a light and thin
wood shell does. It’s too rigid for that. The
structural stability seems to make not only
the shell but also the tone somewhat rigid.
The result is it’s a hard and sort-of
unforgiving response – modern in a
sampled, dancey way. Almost electro in its
fierce thud. Terse but profound.
The toms have a similar precision. Steel
is arguably more neutral in timbre by
comparison with the more complex
so-called ‘musical’ metals, brass and
bronze. That seems the case here. The
small tom is clarity personified. But
because of the precision of the hard steel
WWW.MUSICRADAR.COM/RHYTHM
BUTTERFLY SNARE STRAINER
There’s a pull-down bracket on the
throw-off side and a tension knob on
the butt. It’s ultra-simple but effective
spun shell, it is easy to tune high or low –
Also try… the head doesn’t flap or flutter. At high
tuning you get a pure bebop sort of short
and focused note – reminiscent of classic
Max Roach.
The in-between sized 15"x12" floor tom
seems the most rangy of all four drums. It
retains the same crispness, but adds
plenty of spread when tuned down a bit.
2 Again, it doesn’t turn flabby, just low,
DRUM broad and punchy.
WORKSHOP Oriollo’s suggested shell size range is on
COLLECTOR’S the shallow side, which implies there’s no
SERIES need for a deep shell to get a powerful
STAINLESS low tone from these seamless metal tubs.
STEEL KIT When all this is applied to the 14"x6½"
snare drum the result is a snare that
We say: “Beautifully
built kit that packs a achieves a rare, stark lucidity. Sticking is
serious punch. The marching band articulate – snappy,
price though is through clipped in the extreme, but in a forceful
the roof.”
manner. The clarity can make the tone a
SMART BLACK FINISH
Toms and bass drum are in Sable
Noir, a sprayed powder coated finish.
The snare is Hibiscus Red paint
bit hollow, and some slackening of the
bottom head and the wires is needed to
fatten up the backbeat.
The neat small-footprint Butterfly
strainer has a partly vintage vibe, but it
works perfectly well. Wire tension is applied
at the butt end, while the throw-off is a
modest pull-down bracket, tiny but deftly
engineered like everything else.
VERDICT: Oriollo is refreshingly
different, offering seamless cast
or spun shells in various metals.
Integrity of construction is reflected
in the sound of this steel kit, which is
also realistically priced.
BUILD QUALITY
PLAYABILITY
VALUE FOR MONEY
RATING
APRIL 2019 | 87
GEAR REVIEW

ROLAND TM-1
TRIGGER MODULE
£140 Roland helps players take their first
step into the world of hybrid drumming
WORDS: TOM BRADLEY

A
nnounced at the 2019 Winter
NAMM show, the TM-1 joins
Roland’s ever-growing product
line aimed specifically at the
hybrid drummer. The new e-module is
part of a slick new series that also includes
the SPD::ONE, TM-6 PRO and RT-MicS. Due
to hit the shops in the spring, we’ve
managed to get our hands on one ahead
of release.

Build
The small and lightweight unit
(150x95x60mm, 550g) features a blue
plastic body with a protective black metal Also try…
cover. Its sleek colour combination is in
keeping with Roland’s other hybrid
products and resembles the aesthetics of
BOSS guitar pedals (another Roland
Corporation brand). What makes the TM-1
special is the fact that it’s the first
e-module designed as a foot pedal. The 1
main controls are two guitar pedal-style
stomp switches, which enable toggling
ROLAND TM-2
We say: “The TM-2 is an
between the 15 inbuilt kits. These switches affordable addition to
can also be programmed to perform a
multitude of other functions. A single
your kit and could well
divert the sample- PRIMAL SCREEN
digital LCD screen displays the selected kit
hungry hybrid A single digit LCD screen
drummer’s attention
(1-9 through A-F) and small physical dials from shelling out on an
displays the selected kit
allow control over the two trigger inputs. SPD-SX.” from 1-9 and A-F
These offer sensitivity, pitch, decay and
volume control for each trigger. Both
inputs are mono, although a dual trigger
can be used by employing a splitter cable to add custom samples, the software out when the other is triggered. The TM-1
to enable separate head and rim control. comes bundled with a further 150 sounds allows a maximum sample length of six
Sounds are controlled via the to get you started. Sounds can be set to seconds, which makes it best suited to
accompanying TM-1 Editor software, which one-shot, loop or gate modes and triggers one-shots and short loops.
is available not only for Mac and Windows can be linked for blending sounds or mute The module can be powered by USB
but also Apple and Android mobile
2 grouped so that one sound is cancelled (although only by computer), battery
devices. Connected via the USB input on ROLAND
the rear of the unit, these devices can be TM-6 PRO "ONCE OUT OF THE BOX, THE TM-1 IS
used to assign user samples, re-order kits We say: “Considerably
and customise trigger settings. With two pricier than the TM-1,
but when combined UP AND RUNNING IN THE FEW
MINUTES IT TAKES TO ATTACH THE
sounds per kit and a total of 15 kits, the with a set of triggers the
TM-1 only has the capacity for 30 samples sounds, functionality
at any one time, but the plug and play
nature of the app allows for quick
and flexibility on offer
make this a great setup TRIGGERS TO OUR ACOUSTIC KIT AND
customisations. In addition to being able
for hybrid power users.”
CONNECT THEM TO THE MODULE"
88 | APRIL 2019 WWW.MUSICRADAR.COM/RHYTHM
 POWER UP
The module can be
powered by USB, battery
or a separately available
power adaptor
FILE TYPES
In addition to the standard WAV
format, the TM-1 accepts MP3,
AIFF, AAC and Apple Lossless
powered using the included 9v or with a
eparately available power adapter.
Hands On
Once out of the box, the TM-1 is up and
unning in the few minutes it takes to
attach the triggers to our acoustic kit and
onnect them to the module. We’re using
Roland RT-30 triggers, although any brand
s compatible. The 15 on-board kits are
pre-programmed for the most part with
kick and snare samples, starting with a
election of metal and rock options, then
anging through funk, hip-hop and house
tyles. These kits serve as a useful starting
WWW.MUSICRADAR.COM/RHYTHM
TRIGGER WARNING
Small dials enable individual
control over sensitivity, pitch,
decay and volume for each trigger
STOMP BOX
The small and lightweight
module features guitar
pedal style stomp switches
point for beefing up our existing acoustic
sound, the decay function coming in
particularly handy for tweaking the
sounds available from each kit. The TM-1
truly comes in to its own when we get to
work with the accompanying editing
software. We tested it using Mac and
iPhone, although a lightning to USB
adapter was required for the latter. The
TM-1 Editor splits down into three menus:
Edit, Move and Setup. Assigning sounds
within the Edit screen is a simple drag and
drop procedure on desktop or achieved by
opening folders on a phone or tablet. The
ability to use MP3, AIFF and AAC formats
Essential spec
PRICES
TM-1 Trigger Module:
£140;
BOSS PSA Adaptor: £26
KEY FEATURES
2 trigger inputs;
15 kits;
30 in-built sounds;
30 user sounds;
Over 150 bundled
samples;
in addition to the standard WAV eliminates Battery or USB power;
3 hours battery life;
the need for file conversion and boosts Durable foot pedal
the convenience of adding custom switching
samples – this should be music to the ears CONNECTIVITY
of less tech-savvy drummers. ¼" headphone output;
Kits can be rapidly rearranged in the ¼" mono master
Move menu by simply dragging them into output;
a preferred order. An unlimited number of 2x ¼" mono trigger
inputs;
user setups can also be saved and DC In (power adapter
recalled, which makes switching between available separately);
set lists or even separate bands a simple USB In (for using editor
process. Both of these features serve as a or MIDI)
real time saver in a performance setting, CONTACT
although it’s worth noting that loading a roland.co.uk
saved configuration can take between 10 01792 702701
and 15 minutes. The TM-1 is still fully
functional whilst connected through the
app, which means that devices can be left
connected whilst performing. This comes
in useful if you’re prone to forgetting
what’s been programmed or like to tweak
as you go, perhaps in a rehearsal setting.
As a foot controller the module is
exceptional and feels rock-solid positioned
on the floor next to our hi-hat pedal. The
degree of functionality from the stomp
buttons is impressive – they’re
programmable to cycle through kits, jump
to any given kit, mute selected triggers
(toggle or momentary) and can also act as
triggers themselves for assigned sounds.
Being able to react differently according to
the demands of the drummer makes the
TM-1 a practical add-on in almost any
musical situation.
VERDICT: The TM-1 represents a
user-friendly entry into the hybrid
world at a remarkably affordable
price. The clever device has plenty of
tricks up its sleeve for more advanced
users too.
BUILD QUALITY
PLAYABILITY
VALUE FOR MONEY
RATING
APRIL 2019 | 89
GEAR REVIEW

BRITISH DRUM CO Essential spec

THE DUKE LIMITED

EDITION SNARE PRICES
£949
SHELL MATERIAL

£949 Emerging from the misty peat bogs of East Anglia

English bog oak,
approximately 3,000
years old
this special snare drum, hand-crafted from ancient CONSTRUCTION
METHOD
bog oak, is the first of a limited run of 50 Cold-pressed ply
NUMBER OF
PLIES
10 plies, 6mm thick, plus
WORDS: GEOFF NICHOLLS 2-ply reinforcing rings
BEARING EDGES

W
30 degrees with slight
hile the British Drum round over. Impeccable
Company made big strides
this past year in establishing FINISH
Hand-rubbed Satin Oil
its regular series, big chief
Keith Keough is also long renowned for his HOOPS
one-off and limited-run specials. This English 4.5mm rolled steel
hoops, vintage style mini
bog oak beauty may be his best yet. claws and 24 carat gold
plated tension rods
Build SHELL
Carbon dating has established that the bog oak AVAILABILITY
used to make The Duke is around 3,000 years 14"x5½"
old. That is, the oak has been preserved in the LUGS
peat bogs of East Anglia for all that time before 10 BDC Palladium lugs
surfacing, harvesting and careful drying out.
I’ve only seen stave wood bog oak drums
SNARE STRAINER
BDC Palladium Mk II
previously, but the Duke is 10-ply and 6mm strainer and butt
thick, with two-ply reinforcing rings. Since the
timber can be brittle, huge care is taken to
SNARE WIRES
BDC 20 strand
ensure the cold-pressed ultra-thin plies are brass wires with gold
snapped into the mould without damage. fabric straps
The resulting 14"x5½" shell is open-grained CONTACT
and rich brown, finished with hand-rubbed britishdrumco.com
Satin Oil. The textbook bearing edges are 30 info@britishdrumco.
degrees and rounded. com
Vintage design aspects reflect the ancient 0161 804 4720
timber. Thus the hoops are chromed 4.5mm
flat-rolled steel, rounded off for kindness to
sticks, held down by mini claws and 24 carat
gold plated tension rods.
Contemporary bits are 10 of BDC’s VINTAGE APPEAL ALL THAT GLEAMS
Palladium lugs, Palladium Mark-II strainer/butt The use of mini claws and Gold-plated tension rods and
and 20 strand BDC brass snare wires with gold flat profile hoops is a nod to gold ribbon snare straps offset
ribbon ties. vintage designs, reflecting the the deeply-polished chrome of
Gold, chrome and brown combine for a ancient shell material BDC’s bespoke hardware
harmonious, opulent look. Each drum comes
with a certificate declaring it one of only 50 to drum remains focused at all tensions. The thick
VERDICT: Slipping the Duke on to your
be built. flat hoops allow the drum to breathe, rim shots snare stand it’s glaringly clear that
are epic and ping the shell into life. The mini every aspect of BDC’s design and build
Hands On claws are a slight distraction, but unless you’re is world class. Limited to a run of 50,
This elegant instrument evokes the master wildly inaccurate they’re not an obstacle. The Duke is a collector’s dream.
wood models of the 1920s/30s, but is Here is a drum to cherish. Honestly, you BUILD QUALITY
thoroughly modern where needs be. The tone could just sit and stare at it all day. It's probably PLAYABILITY
is immediately dark, fat and warm. Oaky in a too precious for the road, but for special VALUE FOR MONEY
word, but with a slight dryness. Head tuning projects and recording it sounds as dazzling as RATING
and snare straining are smooth as butter – the it looks.

90 | APRIL 2019 WWW.MUSICRADAR.COM/RHYTHM

ROGERS DYNO-MATIC
BASS DRUM PEDAL
£295 Following the respectful
re-imagining of the DynaSonic
snare, Rogers marches on with
this super-clever bass drum pedal
WORDS: GEOFF NICHOLLS

R
ogers’ 1959 Swiv-O-Matic system VERTICAL TENSION SPRING
revolutionised drum hardware,
Spring tension can be accessed
heralding the modern era. The
and adjusted from the sitting
Swiv-O-Matic bass drum pedal
position while playing
was a favourite of many famous 1960s
drummers. The pedal was a major leap in
both vision and functionality. Last month we
enjoyed the new Rogers DynaSonic snare
drum, faithfully reproduced from the 1960s
Essential spec
blueprint. Hardware though is a different
beast, massively beefed up since the 1960s. SINGLE POST
Thus this new Rogers pedal, whilst The support post with internal
clearly honouring the vision of the column can easily be raised, thus
original Swivo, is necessarily elevating the footboard angle and
toughened for today’s drummer. beater striking position
Hence the change of name to
Dyno-Matic.
PRICES
Build Dyno-Matic pedal: £295;
The original Swivo sported Dual surface quick flip
beater: £32.95
knockout innovations. Namely, the
single pillar, which was height FINISH
adjustable while supporting the upturned Chrome plate
tension spring. The latter adjustable from the SPECIAL
playing position. These key features have been FEATURES
Quick-release lever
retained and improved.
hoop clamp;
HOOP CLAMP
One change from the original is the way the Height adjustable to
pedal attaches to the bass drum. The Swivo enable 18" to 30"
tried too hard with a separate hoop clamp; the Secure attachment is made diameter bass drums;
Quick-flip dual surface
Dyno has a massive quick-release lever clamp via a hefty lever action
beater head;
that makes attachment easy and secure. quick-release bass hoop clamp Easy-reach spring
The new pedal can still fold flat for ease of tension adjustment
transport and it comes with a padded carry while playing;
bag and full instructions. Simultaneously, the angle of the footboard gets are perplexing. The Dyno-Matic, however, is Adjustable toe stop;
Independent axle
steeper. In fact it can reach 45+ degrees, which blissfully intuitive. release for pedal
Hands On is almost unplayable! Realistically though, it positioning;
Fans of the original Swiv-O-Matic rave about enables you to thwack bass drums from 18" Independently
VERDICT: Rogers’ new Dyno-Matic adjustable beater hub;
the smooth action. The new Dyno-Matic has right up to 30" in diameter, without having to
pedal is a worthy successor to the Adjustable spurs
inherited that and more. It’s easy to set up and alter the beater stroke or length. Clever stuff. legendary Swiv-O-Matic. Beefed up for
has an efficient, graceful action. Chain has The other smart feature is the inverted the modern era, it has all the flexibility INCLUDES
replaced the leather drive strap, which tension spring, elevated into sitting/playing of the original plus its legendary Padded fabric bag with
smooth action. shoulder straps.
inevitably snapped. reach without you having to bend over double. Detailed instructions
The single vertical support column has been The beater head itself is spring-loaded: depress
BUILD QUALITY CONTACT
re-cast with its easily-adjustable height column it to toggle between the dual hard and soft
PLAYABILITY rogersdrums.co.uk
shaft and non-slip clamp. This raises the entire surfaces without using a drum key.
VALUE FOR MONEY Thanks to Drum Shop
horizontal axle assembly and thus the point of Modern pro-level pedals all have multiple
RATING UK for supplying the
contact of the beater and the batter head. adjustment possibilities and some, I’ll confess, pedal (drumshop.co.uk)

WWW.MUSICRADAR.COM/RHYTHM APRIL 2019 | 91

GEAR REVIEW

ZILDJIAN 2019 K/K

SWEET/ORIENTAL
From £275 From something sweet to something ugly, with a trio of
characterful crashes in between, Zildjian’s winning streak continues
WORDS: STUART WILLIAMS

I
t’s been a successful couple of years
for Zildjian, as it has unleashed
consecutive augmentations to the K
Series, aimed straight at the hearts
and minds of contemporary players.
Starting with the revised K Custom Special
Dry Series, we saw the Big Z reclaim some
of the drier ground that was partially
ignored during the line’s early tenure. Next
up was 2018’s K Sweet series, taking the
tonal character of the popular Sweet Ride
and applying it to a whole set.
This year’s NAMM show brought us
plenty more from Zildjian’s Purple Patch
– the head-turning FX Stacks, along with
the cymbals we have here: K Cluster
Crashes, a ‘standard’ sized set of 14" K
Sweet hats (not included in the original
Sweet launch) and the monstrous 22"
Oriental Crash Of Doom. Also try… CLUSTICE FOR ALL
Those little bumps are key to the
Cluster Crashes’ added harmonics,
Build placing these somewhere between a
Let’s start with the Cluster crashes. These regular crash and an effects cymbal
K Series additions fall somewhere
between a crash and something a little
more effect-y available as 16", 18" and 20" 1 which takes the dare of Dennis Chambers
models. The cymbals are extra thin, B8X BALLISTIC up a notch to give us a warped, beaten,
featuring unlathed bells and undergoing
Zildjian’s regular K hammering process,
CRASH wide-lathed animal of a crash that will
out-size many people’s bass drums. don’t have to subject them to any more of
We say: “The Ballistic
but – most notably – they’ve been issued crash will definitely pay a hammering than they’ve already had.
some additional ‘clustered’ hammer off for cash-strapped Hands On And when they do crash, the resulting
heavy hitters.”
marks. Similarly to Sabian’s B8X Ballistic The Cluster crashes are noticeably thin as sound is more musical than we might have
crash (albeit more subtle), these molehills we put them on the stand, and while those expected. There’s a trashy edge, with a lot
disrupt the pattern of the cymbal’s funky hammer marks might suggest of harmonics adding to this, and the
soundwave, giving you an ‘alternative’ something extreme, these cymbals are unlathed bells provide an additional
crash sound. surprising from the first strike. The lighter brightness, but these are by no means
Next up are those hi-hats, and Zildjian weight means that they rise and bloom unconventional crashes. We found them to
are sticking with the thin design: at least very early in the dynamic range, so we play perfectly nicely with our A Custom
for the top of the hats. Taking the thin/ 2
heavy combo that works so well on New
ZILDJIAN K "AS A CONCEPT IT’S DEFINITELY A
Beats to a more extreme example, the
cymbals contrast massively in weight with SWEET CURIOSITY, IN REALITY, IT WILL BE AN
We say: “Introduced
ACQUIRED TASTE THAT REQUIRES A
a thin on top, extra heavy on the bottom. last year, the other
These hats also feature the K hammering hi-hats in the K Sweet
pattern, and like the others in the Sweet
range includes unlathed bells. Finally, we
range are 15" and 16"
respectively if bigger
BEATING TO PLAY AS A CRASH. GET
have the mighty 22" Crash Of Doom –
hats are your thing.”
YOUR EAR PROTECTION READY"
92 | APRIL 2019 WWW.MUSICRADAR.COM/RHYTHM
 CHINESE DOOMOCRACY
The reputation of the Oriental C.O.D
precedes it, this 22" version builds on
the formula to go one bigger
HELL’S BELLS
Zildjian has gone big with the
unlathed aesthetic for 2019. And
the raw finishes here offer a
brightness and a boost when
cutting through
and Sabian AAX crashes. The 16" sounds
most conventional, while moving up the
sizes yields a progressively drier sound.
These cymbals are quick, musical and
traditional enough to fit within a setup.
It was a curious omission for Zildjian to
not include a pair of 14" hi-hats in the
original K Sweet range, but for those of us
who like our hi-hat foot to sit in the usual
position (without having to overlap our
snare) will rejoice that the Sweets are now
available in a regular size. The difference
between weightings of the two cymbals is
apparent immediately, with the bottom
feeling comparatively beefy and thick next
to its counterpart. There’s a lot of stick
and pedal definition to these hats,
however, the dark sound is still maintained
at the edge and on the bow. Likewise, we
WWW.MUSICRADAR.COM/RHYTHM
POWER TRIO Essential spec
The Cluster Crashes are available
in 16", 18" and 20" variations
PRICES
K Cluster crashes: £275,
£329, £379
K Sweet Hi-Hats: £459
FX Oriental Crash Of
Doom: £329
ALLOY USED
Zildjian B20 alloy
FINISH
K Cluster crashes:
traditional/unlathed bell
K Sweet hi-hats:
traditional/unlathed bell
SWEETTREATS FX Oriental Crash Of
Doom: traditional
The much-missed 14"
version of the K Sweet hi-hats MODELS
AVAILABLE
joins the current line-up K Cluster Crashes:
16", 18", 20"
K Sweet Hi-Hats:
14", 15", 16"
Oriental Crash Of Doom:
20", 22"
CONTACT
Headstock Distribution
this twisted beast over the edge you really 0121 508 6666
have to lay into it. When you do, you are WEB
rewarded with a deafening cacophonous zildjian.com
found that they get sloshy without crash, with gong-like overtones. There’s
becoming abrasive. While the bell might cutting through, and then there’s this! As a
not be the default playing position for concept it’s definitely a curiosity, however,
many of us, the Sweet’s – again, unlathed in reality, it will be an acquired taste that
– offers the perfect cutting character for requires a beating to play as a crash. Get
quick, biting ska-style off-beat barks. your ear protection ready.
We brace ourselves as we hoist the 22"
Crash Of Doom onto our boom stand. This VERDICT: Zildjian has pulled it out the
gigantic crash follows the template of it’s bag with these releases, continuing a
streak for the most part with the
smaller (yet hardly small) 20" brother. It’s
Cluster Crashes and K Sweet hi-hats.
ugly from the off, looking gnarled and The Oriental C.O.D is certainly a
grizzled like it’s suffered at the hands of statement, but whether you’ll get it
an angry cymbalsmith. And it has an tonal past a noise limiter for the average
attitude to match. The sound is dry and pub gig is debatable.
muted – the perfect canvas for a stack
BUILD QUALITY
cymbal, if you can find something to sit
PLAYABILITY
atop that bulbous bell or underneath the
VALUE FOR MONEY
cymbal. It sort of works as an
RATING
unconventional ride cymbal, but to push
APRIL 2019 | 93
GEAR REVIEW
ALESIS
STRIKE
MULTIPAD
£599.00 Alesis ups its sample pad
game with the new Strike MultiPad
WORDS: TOM BRADLEY
F
ollowing on from the SamplePad
4 and SamplePad Pro, Alesis’
new MultiPad shares its title with
the company’s flagship Strike and
Strike Pro e-kits. This completely reworked
machine is crammed with new features
and promises to rival the industry
standard alternatives from Roland
and Yamaha.
Build
The MultiPad features nine velocity
sensitive rubber pads – six large
(105x93mm) pads and three shorter
(105x32mm) shoulder pads. Situated
below each one is a narrow LED light
that can be programmed to do
some rather clever things, but more
on that later...
Controls are housed in a large panel at
the bottom of the unit, accompanied by a
substantial 4.3" colour display. Two A-Link
dials to the left of the screen are
customisable to control pad volumes,
panning and FX parameters for quick
adjustments on-the-fly. Six buttons
beneath the screen are used to select
various menu items whilst a main rotary
dial to the right handles scrolling duties.
The black rubber sheathing of the
playing surfaces extends across the
squared body, which offers added
durability for a life on the road. The
screen is protected beneath a thick layer
of rigid plastic that covers the entire
control section.
The MultiPad has a massive 32GB of
in-built memory, which should be more
than enough to handle the sampling needs
of most players. There are 30 preset kits
and space for 70 user kits with over 8,000
onboard samples ready to go. To put those
stats into perspective, they only use
94 | APRIL 2019
around 6GB of the unit’s overall memory.
An inbuilt sampling tool allows direct
recording via stereo jack inputs on the
back of the module. The MultiPad also
functions as a 2-in, 2-out audio interface
Also try… that allows sound to be captured using the
USB audio. Existing samples can be
imported from flash memory using the
USB input or transferred directly from a
computer. Unfortunately, there isn’t yet
any accompanying software, so each
sample needs to be assigned manually
from within the unit.
1 For those who prefer creating samples
ROLAND SPD-SX in a desktop setting, Alesis have also
bundled Pro Tools First and Ableton Live
SAMPLE PAD Lite, which should come in useful for
We say: “This is a
unlocking the machine’s MIDI capabilities.
must-have product that
could make us run out Other features include an onboard
of adjectives describing looper function, a powerful multi-FX
it – suffice to say the engine, USB and 5-pin MIDI, ¼" and
SPD-SX is as stunning as mini-jack headphone outs on the front of
it is formidable!”
the module, stereo master and routable
aux outputs, inputs for four (including
hi-hat control) external triggers and four
foot controllers.
melodic instruments, our highlights
Hands On include the Vangelis-inspired atmospheric
Despite an abundance of advanced synths of the Knife Jogger kit and the
features, the MultiPad’s user-friendly aggressive drum and bass loops of Ham
2 interface and fantastic selection of kit And Beans.
YAMAHA presets makes it a joy to play straight out
of the box. With a combination of quality
Navigating the menus does take a bit of
getting used to but ultimately they are laid
DTX-MULTI 12 drum samples and addictively enjoyable out in a logical fashion under kit, pad,
ELECTRONIC
PERCUSSION PAD "DESPITE AN ABUNDANCE OF
We say: “As far as an
out-of-the-box, onto the
stage solution, the Multi ADVANCED FEATURES, THE
USER-FRIENDLY INTERFACE AND
12 presents a very
convincing argument.
And that alone makes it
worth investigation.” GREAT KIT PRESETS MAKES IT A JOY
TO PLAY STRAIGHT OUT OF THE BOX"
WWW.MUSICRADAR.COM/RHYTHM
 PULL THE TRIGGER Essential spec
The MultiPad features nine
velocity sensitive pads with plenty
of room for external triggers

IN YOUR FACE PRICES

The module functions as a £PRICE TBC BY TOM
2-in, 2-out USB audio interface KEY FEATURES
Customisable RGB lights;
4.3" colour display;
32GB inbuilt memory;
8,000 onboard samples;
30 preset kits and 70
COMPUTING POWER user;
Nine velocity sensitive
The Strike MultiPad comes pads;
bundled with Pro Tools Four external trigger
First and Ableton Live Lite inputs including HH
control;
Four foot controller
inputs;
Powerful multi-FX
engine;
Velocity layered samples
CONNECTIVITY
¼" and mini-jack
headphone output;
Left and right master
jack outputs;
Left and right
aux outputs;
Left and right sampler
inputs;
1, 2/3, 4/5 and HH
control trigger inputs;
1/2 and 3/4 foot control
inputs;
5-Pin MIDI in/out;
Audio/MIDI USB;

LINKED IN External memory USB

CONTACT
A-Link dials are alesis.com
programmable for on-the-fly inmusicbrands.com
parameter adjustment

flash the tempo of the loop, even when

sound and utility buttons. When delving
into the inbuilt samples it becomes
apparent that the 30-kit presets barely
scratch the surface of the 8,000 plus
sounds onboard. Using the main control
dial to select samples for each pad is a
little fiddly as there is a lot of back and
forth between category headings and
sample lists in order to explore all the
sounds on offer.
A killer feature that the MultiPad offers
is the ability to assign two separate
samples to one pad, triggered by a chosen
velocity. This can be used to great effect
to switch between an open and closed
hi-hat sound or different snare sounds,
dependant on how hard a pad is struck.
The looper function is a welcome addition
and offers the ability to layer
compositions in up to 16 bar sequences,
which can themselves be saved directly to
the user samples bank.
Probably the most intriguing attribute
of the MultiPad is the customisable RGB
lights that sit directly below each of the
nine pads. These can be individually
programmed to any colour and set to
react differently, reflecting what is
assigned to each pad. This allows, for
example, the categorisation of different
samples types, ie blue for kicks, yellow for
snares, white for loops and so on. Colours
can also be altered depending on whether
a sample is playing or not – perhaps red
when off or green when on. This
functionality becomes even more useful
when using loops as the LED strips can
it’s not running. It can also act as a
volume meter or display how far the
sample has elapsed.
From a live performance perspective,
the lights also increase visibility in a dark
stage environment and in performance
mode the name of each sample is
displayed on the colour screen directly
below – an absolute blessing for those
prone to forgetting what’s what whilst
feeling the pressure of an audience.
VERDICT: The Strike MultiPad comes
with a huge memory and an enormous
number of samples out of the box. It’s a
joy to play and the customisable LED
lights are a masterstroke.
BUILD QUALITY
PLAYABILITY
VALUE FOR MONEY
RATING

WWW.MUSICRADAR.COM/RHYTHM APRIL 2019 | 95

GEAR REVIEW
VINTAGE GEAR
A F MATTHEWS
POPULAR BALLROOM
OUTFIT
This typical early dance band kit was made by a well respected
but sadly-departed London based drum manufacturer
WORDS: GEOFF NICHOLLS PHOTOS: JAMES CUMPSTY, SIMON JOHN VINTAGE DRUM SHOW
I
n the 1920s there were several smaller
UK companies in the business of making
drums for the dance, theatre, hotel,
orchestral and military markets. One
such was A F Matthews, based at 17b
Aylesbury Street, Clerkenwell, London EC1. It’s
not known what the A and F stood for, but the
1927 catalogue plays on the initials with A
(All), F (Finest) M (Make).
Typical of the pre-Krupa era this month’s
’kit’ is simply a bass drum and snare drum
with a handful of accessories. It belongs to
Alan ‘Sticky’ Wicket, who says: “The Deluxe
bass drum is 26"x12", which was quite
compact for its day. The shell is constructed in
‘seasoned ash wood’ with original ‘Ivory’
finish and gilt fittings. There is a round trap
door through which to insert a lamp/heater
to illuminate the front bass drum head and
the Burgess’ Dance Orchestra’s ‘front piece’,
as well as maintaining temperature and
moisture levels to benefit stable tuning of the
calf heads.”
The legend ‘Drumcraft, London’ appears
on the bass drum shell and the underside of
the trap door. “This was most likely the
original retailer’s name and where the trap
Q NICKEL ON BRASS SNARE
The Popular Eclipse model snare drum has the elaborate AFM
logo within a circle stamped into its shell.
96 | APRIL 2019
door was created, as the factory fitted doors
were generally square/oblong. The bass drum
also has two small fitted folding spurs.
“The 14"x4" nickel on brass Popular Model
snare drum bears the AFM logo and has 10
single tension thumbscrew tuning rods. It also
comes with its own original round, polished
wood case. Tension rods are attached to the
top hoop by ‘spherical fittings’ and pass
through similar hollowed-out fittings on the
bottom hoop. Both counter hoops are flat (not
flanged) stick-chopper types and made of
nickel plated brass. An interesting sign of
quality is where the spherical fittings are
attached inside the hoops as they are all brass
plugged and also nickel plated.”
The original snare strainer is a copy of the
Leedy Presto, which was a market leading
“THE KIT PLAYED VERY NICELY AND
SOUNDED FINE FOR ITS PERIOD, BUT I
WAS PARTICULARLY TAKEN WITH THE
26"X12" BASS DRUM, WHICH IS LOVELY”
OWNER ALAN ‘STICKY’ WICKET
Q HINGED TRAP DOOR
The bass drum has a circular trap door in the top, which enabled
an electric lamp to be inserted inside the shell.
Circa
1928/30
design of the late 1920s. Sticks adds, “It has a
short throw, which is not particularly effective,
and is stamped AFM on the lever. The snares
are 12 individual wire round strands, and all
the heads are calf vellums.”
Also included are matching 12" cymbals
bearing the Turkish half-moon and star
stamp, suspended from a hoop-mounted
T-bar. “There is also a two-tone woodblock,
or ‘clog box’ as they are often termed in
early catalogues.
“I have never used this kit on a gig or
workshop but I have recorded a piece with it
for the Next Level Chops YouTube channel.
[nextlevelchops.com]. It played very nicely
and sounded fine for its period, but I was
particularly taken with the 26"x12" bass drum
which is lovely.”
Q EVERYTHING HOOP MOUNTED
The bass drum hoop has woodblock, external damper and 20s
Popular Model pedal, “a simple device with good action”.
WWW.MUSICRADAR.COM/RHYTHM
 CLASSIC KIT

Need to know
Q FLIMSY STANDS
The period stands are of lightweight
easily transportable construction,
including the snare stand, ‘T’ bar
cymbal support and bass drum spurs

BURGESS’ DANCE
ORCHESTRA
Likely hailing from the
Sheffield area, an historic
picture shows the kit
with the ‘orchestra’
– of just four players!
A F MATTHEWS
Drum historian
Alan Buckley says:
Q BURGESS’ DANCE ORCHESTRA “Matthews was a main
The original hand painted canvas bass drum manufacturer, supplying
‘front piece’ is attached to a flesh hoop and smaller companies. They
suspended from the bass drum tuning taps made timpani as well as
supplying the military”
HEY PRESTO
The American company
Leedy was pre-eminent
in drum design in the late
1920s and many UK
companies adopted
Presto-style strainers

IN ASSOCIATION WITH…

Q GILDED HARDWARE
The bass drum has a sprayed Ivory
finish with gilt fittings including 16 tap
handle tension bolts and stud lugs

WWW.MUSICRADAR.COM/RHYTHM APRIL 2019 | 97

 THANK YOU.
ADVERTISING & MARKETING
Commercial Sales Director Clare Dove
clare.dove@futurenet.com
Music Sales Director Lara Jaggon
lara.jaggon@futurenet.com
Account Sales Director Alison Watson
alison.watson@futurenet.com
Registered office: Future Publishing Ltd, Account Sales Director Guy Meredith
Quay House, The Ambury, Bath, guy.meredith@futurenet.com
Somerset, BA1 1UA Advertising Sales Director Steven Pyatt
Tel 01225 442244 steven.pyatt@futurenet.com
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