Sometimes, if you play with a guitar player or a bass player, they have the ability to bring it down very quiet, the dynamics. They can get sounds out of it that are just. Also, with improvising, with free improvising, drummers that really interest me are ones who can do things without really having to strike the drums in a traditional way. When I sit down, I really do love to play the drums, just I like the idea of making music. I like that more and so the drums… I don’t know… I wish sometimes that I could play piano better. No, no, no, you have to pay attention, ‘cause there’s things that you need to do while the band is happening or that could happen so that we’re all participating all the time. That instead of being soloists obviously there’s always a solo, that is one of the big parts of jazz music, but like with the quartet, with People, Places and Things, I never wanted the band to be where one guy takes a solo while another guy goes over there and stands and waits. And I also think that way for jazz and improvising. I really like the idea of having a unit, a team. And so it kind of worked with my personality, too, and the way that I think about things. They were like, “ no, you serve a function, you keep time, you support the rest of the band”. When I finally started to take real lessons, people didn’t teach me that way. I just wanted to play in the music and share in it, you can hear it in most of the records on which I play. I like being part of the band instead of being the focal point. Had I started with nothing I’d probably be playing keyboards or something else, but I just had drums already so I didn’t have to buy an instrument (laughter) If you listen to the music that I make for my bands, I don’t solo very often and so the music is not “drummer’s music”. So, why I really played the drums was because when I went to the University and I met people who were really into music, some of them were really good musicians and we shared some musical interests like jazz and blues records and some rock records and stuff like that and I thought, “ I want to play! And you know what? I have these drums. I thought for a second, “ Oh, it would be great to be a DJ, or be in a hip-hop group”, or whatever. Sometimes, every three or four months, I’d play a little drums for a couple of days. And then, like most teenagers, you’re thinking about driving cars and playing sports and it was just another thing that I had. Very much into country music, like Waylon Jennings, like Willie Nelson. Finally when I was going to high school, you know, you have a celebration and people give you money, so I had this money and they couldn’t stop me from buying a drum set! I took a few lessons and kind of knew how to do some things and my older brother is a musician who played guitar and my grandfather was very much into music. Maybe they’d give me a little toy drum here and there, but I really wanted a drum set and they were like, “ No”. I think I was watching the Muppets Show, and Buddy Rich was on it… and so that’s how I think I discovered I was into drums! And then, I was always telling my parents, “ I want to play drums, I want to play drums”. One, this is like the typical answer for people: when I was young, I became fascinated with the drums. Jason Roebke + Mike Reed Ziga Koritnik©2010įrancis Hofstein: So, straight on, why are you a drummer? Interviewed by Alexandre Pierrepont and Francis Hofstein
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