Drum throne. Confessional booth. Same difference. I wrote for Modern Drummer for over a decade. Backstage passes to the church of groove. I knelt at the altars of the real deal: Elvin Jones, Art Blakey, Terry Bozzio, Steve Smith, Jake Hanna (I mention Jake cause he was and is my favorite!) … the list goes…
The kit is sold. The vans no longer pull up. The phone is silent. Most walk away. Some pretend they never played. A few keep the time in the dark. No crowd. No paycheque. Only the oath remains—spoken once, in smoke and sweat, behind a curtain that will never rise again. Pactum Batteria is not…
“If you tell the truth you don’t have to remember anything. ~ Mark Twain” That tangle of half-truths and hedges—the gig where you shave the flubbed fill’s edge in the retell, the rehearsal fib that “yeah, I nailed that ghost note” when it ghosted right through? They knot up quick, a mental maraca shake you…
“Gear. Drums are round they sit on the floor and you hit them. (attributed to a number of drummers) Be careful of being gear focussed or thinking a better piece of gear will make you play better. It won’t. Just make sure your gear is serviceable, well cared for, of sufficient quality, and serves you…
“Booze and drugs. For the record I’m not against either. However if you think booze or drugs make you play better it’s probably that these assortment of lovely mind altering substances just make you think you’re playing better. Play straight. Embibe after. ” Booze and the haze-makers? Hell, I’m no puritan preacher—I’ve raised a glass…
“Playing a song you have three or four minutes to make the audience laugh or cry or just feel something. On those moments play for the song. Play with emotion. ” Three minutes, four if the bass player’s feeling generous—that’s your window, your wild-card wager, the kit’s confessional booth where the room hangs on your…
“Playing complicated fills and busy drum beats will often crowd the musical landscape and smother anything else trying to make it to the audience’s ears. It takes a level of maturity, and a high level of awareness to be a good drummer. ” Flashy fills and frenzy fills? They’re the drummer’s temptation—the cheap thrill…
“If you have to ask for it it loses its value whether it’s love loyalty or support. ” That quiet lock-in with the band, the nod from the crowd that says “you nailed the pocket,” the late-night text from a road mate that reads “got your back”? When it flows unbidden—love that doesn’t ledger the…
“Regrets hurt more than failure … don’t hold yourself back. ” That flinch before the fill—the one where your wrist whispers “safe, not sorry,” and you pull the punch on a polyrhythm that could’ve cracked the sky? Failure’s a bruise: stings sharp when the stick flies wide, echoes in the awkward hush after a dropped…
“You’ll stop worrying what other people think about you when you realize how seldom they actually do ~ David Foster Wallace” That phantom crowd in your skull—the one critiquing your grip mid-paradiddle, tallying every ghost-note ghosted, whispering “fraud” when the fill flies wide? They’re mirages, mate. You’ll quit the fret when the truth taps you…
