drums & percussion

an interview by Marcus Lopez, drummer

ML: How long have you been playing drums and what got you started?
           
A: I’ve only been playing three years (if you don’t count a small stint I did in
1999 on a practise pad kit) which isn’t much at all in the scheme of things, but I’m very lucky because I play a lot of other instruments that have helped me develop my sense of rhythm and timing so I have fast tracked a bit, I suppose.

ML: Who were some of your early drummer heroes?

A: When I first had the urge to play drums when I was about 28, I was really getting into a lot off jazz fusion off the community radio stations, like Weather Report and Mahavishnu Orchestra,  so I was listening to those kinds of players mainly. There were also a lot of fusion guys that played on pop albums and even though they were playing something basic or simple, it didn’t sound simple, because of what they were putting into it. Jeff Porcaro was one of those guys, and Omar Hakim on Sting’s Bring on the Night blew me away. There were so many.

ML: Did you know then what you wanted to sound like?

A: Well back then I’d never really played on a real kit, so I really didn’t know, I just wanted to sound like this particular guy on this particular song, you know? It was very general.

ML: So when you finally got to playing for real, did you study formally with anyone?

A: Yes, I spent the first 8 months of 2004 studying furiously with Darren Perkins who teaches out of Revolver in Melbourne. He had studied with Chad Wackerman and a whole bunch of cool cats. But it was more that we were both Virgos and we got a long really well. He knew what I wanted to achieve in a such a short space of time and he set about helping me to do that and gave me a great base from which to build.

ML: What did he focus on?

A: Mainly getting my hands sorted out and then just rudiments, rudiments, rudiments! There’s no getting around it, you just have to do it, and in the end it really shows, believe me.

ML: What was your first kit?

A: My first kit was a borrowed Mapex run of the mill with a pretty boring cymbal pack, but it was a free loaner and I got to learn on it, so I never even thought to complain! I also had access to a lot of DW and Yamaha kits toward the end of that loan which helped me wean off that kit without too much pain!

ML: What sort of set up do you generally play?

A: I play a natural finish DW custom kit set up left handed with a remote
hi- hat so that I can have them almost vertically opposite my snare. I generally use 10” and 13” mounted toms, and a 16” floor, with another 16” floor on my right side which is tuned way, way down. A ride on each extreme side and two crashes in the middle right in front of me. Pretty simple really. Sometimes if I can borrow a china and a splash I’ll add those and I sometimes drape a chain over the ride for that shimmery sound but that’s about it. I’m not into cowbell or tambourine or anything like that.

ML: What are your favourite cymbals that you own?

A: My set of Zildjian ‘A’ customs, they are beautiful and shimmer just the way I like them to.

ML: Hats too?

A: Yep, hats too, although I prefer the Paiste new beat 13’s but I don’t own a pair.

ML: Do you go and see many live drummers or drum clinics?

A: Never. I hate clinics. They never deliver anything worthwhile, they’re just ego fests on testosterone. When I was much younger and into jazz fusion, my friend and I used to go every week to see Virgil Donati play with his band ‘Loose Change’ at the Grainstore in Melbourne. I also went to see Billy Cobham when he came out a few years ago. I just had to. It was pretty cool. Other than that, not really.

ML: What’s you’re favourite drumming video?

A: I feel the same way about drumming videos as I do clinics, but I bought the John Blackwell video, because he was playing with prince and I thought ‘this guy must have much to share’, but it turned out to be a bit of a show reel and not much education in there, unless you want to learn to twirl sticks which is just plain silly if you’re not in a marching band.

ML: What are your favourite studio techniques for recording drums?

A: My favourite way to record now has come from ‘Mixing with your Mind’ a great studio technique book by Stav, an American who’s been living in Australia for 20 years or so. Basically, he starts with the floor tom when setting up, to get that ‘wow’ factor, finds the spot, and then sets up the rest of the kit around that sweet spot. This in itself is a revelation. I engineered on many session and pulled some great drum sounds for others if I do say so myself, but this new way is just so much better. Beyond that, I have my favourite mics and when I can I always use a second kick mic about 3 feet back for a big fluffy sound, and also top and bottom snare which almost always sounds better than just the top, if you remember to invert the phase!

ML: How did you set out to make the drums sound on ‘Unravel’      

A: I wanted 'Unravel’ to be very quiet, quite prayerful and so I wanted the drums to be soft and fat and fluffy. I wanted it to be like jazz, but without all the busy stuff. Just a soft groove. I also wanted the toms to sound really dramatic and tuned really low like the guy from Pink Floyd had on ‘The Wall’. I wanted the cymbals to be fairly prominent as if in a dream, awash with shimmers and subtle inflections. I also had to work around my actual skills to develop this sound while still playing it in one go and not overdubbing anything.

ML: Was there any overdubbing in the end?

A: A couple of ride parts I just couldn’t nail and the odd kick inserted where I hadn’t played one, that’s about it really. I just practised really hard!

ML: How do the subsequent albums sound different from a drumming perspective?

A: Well ‘Threshold’ (the second album, unreleased) is a much darker, more processed sound. It will sound less like a natural kit and more like a sampled kit, but with real feel. ‘Burning the Temples’ (third album, unreleased) is more of a rock guitar album, really, more so than the other two, so that is more of a straight ahead rock kit sound, where I’m hitting a lot harder than I did on ‘Unravel’. ‘Residual Effect’ (fourth album, unreleased) is samples all the way and is an electronic album, so there’s no actual playing on it just programming. They’re all really different as far as drums are concerned.

ML: Do you use a lot of different snares and cymbals during a recording session, or do you just stick with the same kit.

A:  I try to stick to the same kit for the whole session to bring some sort of basic tone set to the songs, but if the snare definitely doesn’t work, I’ll retune it or find another one that gives me the kind of sound I’m looking for.

ML: What is your approach to tuning?

A:  Usually, when I take up a new instrument, I like to know the lay of the land and the tuning right off, you know? But with drums, I soon realized that there simply was no standard way of tuning. I searched for ever to find a table or a list to get a basic pitch for the drum based on size and materials, but it just doesn’t seem to exist. I’ve read a lot about tuning, but it’s a bit like dancing, you can read about dancing, you can watch someone dancing, but ultimately, to know what it’s like, you have to just do it. It’s in the doing that you come to know what it is and that changes all the time. I try to stay away from the tonic key of the piece, and I just tune hi when I want casual or jovial personality to the drums, or I tune low when I want a dark, dramatic personality. It’s a lot of trail and success, really!

ML: Well, I hope your album is also a success, thanks for letting me interview you.

A:  Thanks, I appreciate it.

kindly printed with permission ©2007

marcus lopez
drummer/percussionist

percussion

notes on percussion by amarevois

I’ve always marvelled at the guy up the back of the orchestra who sits through 200 bars of nothing only to have to summon the very devil within for a cymbal smash followed by a run down a xylo followed by several massive bashes on the bass drum and finished off with a dainty little lash at a gong with a triangle afterglow. These guys are super musicians. Surrounded by a sea of things to hit and a score that stretches halfway down the street, the percussionist is the king or queen of the orchestra and far more conspicuous and exposed than the conductor thinks he or she is. It’s a tough gig. I also know this because in my ‘day job’ I’ve set up about a zillion orchestra rehearsals and concerts and I’ve seen these same devils, who look far too calm and relaxed, turn into monsters of attitude and enthusiasm when comes their time to make some serious noise.

I prefer to meet my instruments one-on-one, using a maximum of two mallets or beaters at any one time. On ‘Unravel’ I wanted to blend the sound of orchestral percussion with the sound of a band with drum kit. To do this, I recorded the parts one by one so as not to intimidate myself. I also decided not to write any score, which would only slow me down on account of the fact that I can’t read or write percussion score. I decided to just wing it, and I did. Bass drum, snare drum, timpani, triangle, cymbal, assorted toms, log drums and vibraphone all made it to the final list of traditional percussion for the album sessions.

I think Vibraphone was the most interesting discovery during that process of recording percussion, because it was such a rewarding instrument. David Sylvian’s last album (snow borne sorrow) had just come out and again he had turned me onto the sound of the vibes, which sat beautifully with the bell like quality of the piano. I can’t for the life of me figure out why they don’t paint the accidentals on a  vibe a different colour like on a piano keyboard, because I was almost passing out from dizziness just trying to keep up with where I was on the board. They all look the same, with their metal grey glint.

I had a lot of fun playing with what the high brows call ‘extended techniques’, which is really just techniques other than hitting it, like bowing the bars with a viola bow, or trying to get harmonic textures. I did try four mallets with some success, but it started feeling like a Larson cartoon, so I stopped just in the nick of time. I’ve discovered that whilst the drum kit feeds a more savage and immediate need to hit things hard, traditional percussion is light and fluffy and 99% fat free. Delicious.