the magazine for drummers october 2015 | 247
25
vintage drums you need to own!
i r o n
m a i d e n
Nicko mcBrain "It's 92 minutes long. It's like a whole gig" Inside the drums on epic double album The Book Of Souls first look
istanbul agop mantra cymbals
learn to play
Iron Butterfly ‘In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida’ Single Stroke Combinations Odd-time backbeats Polyrhythmic grooves and more...
ash soan
On The Terminator, The Voice & how to survive the session scene
budget
drum mics
buyer’s guide plus
Jamiel Blake Sam Smith John Tempesta the cult Dennis Bryon the bee gees
Hello! Is a career in drums still possible?
Chris Barnes, Editor
Chris.Barnes@futurenet.com
We all daydream about landing a cool gig that appeals musically, pays well and takes in venues and conquers charts the world over. In reality there are few professional drum gigs these days that tick every box and it’s rare that bands truly last the course. It’s been a completely different story for cover star Nicko McBrain though, celebrating 33 years in the hot seat with Iron Maiden with the release of new album The Book Of Souls. Three decades on the same gig is impressive, but when the new release is a corking 92-minute-long double album with Nicko on full gas, you know this is no ordinary group of musicians. It’s the pushing of their own limits that has kept the band and the fans excited, and ...Souls is definitely worth getting excited about! We go behind the scenes on the sessions for the album, (page 26), and you can read our review on page 20. Ash Soan is another drummer who has been on the scene for a while, forging a varied and stable career in the session world. With his latest project, a professional home studio set up from scratch, he is hoping to protect his future career too. Find out how that’s working for him on page 38. We also have interviews with Sam Smith’s percussive weapon of choice Jamiel Blake and The Cult’s John Tempesta, recalling his time with heavy metallers White Zombie, and Geoff Nicholls looks at essential vintage gear for your collection. There’s in-depth reviews, lessons on your CD and the latest news too! Don’t forget to enter our competition to give you and your band the playlist chance to win a monster backline worth over £14,000. It Pumping on includes awesome gear from Pearl, Meinl, D’Addario, our stereo... ProMark and loads more. Enjoy! Foals
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What Went Down Jack Bevan and co pull it out of the bag once again. It’s mainstream enough to make them massive, but with enough of the quirks that made them appeal in the first place.
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Iron Maiden
This month’s experts Rich Chamberlain
Staff writer Rich chatted with our cover star Nicko McBrain, who revealed all about Iron Maiden’s colossal new album, and shared plenty of juicy detail on his set-up, playing and recording, and just what has kept him and the band in such good shape after 33 years. Find Rich’s interview on page 26!
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Geoff Nicholls
Rhythm’s gear guru is the go-to for all things vintage drums, not merely for his own considerable expertise, but also his packed phonebook of UK vintage collectors and experts. From page 64, Geoff runs down some of the most collectible bits of drum gear; a handy guide for wannabe drum collectors.
Tom Bradley
Tom is a UK-based freelance drummer with years of gigging, recording, teaching and music journalism experience. A degree tutor at the Academy of Music and Sound (AMS), this month he got his hands on two new mini-kits, the PDP New Yorker and DW Mini Pro. Find out what he thought on page 98.
The Book Of Souls Even after 40 years as a band, they’ve delivered and then some. Two discs-worth of energetic, galloping brilliance from Nicko McBrain and his heavy metal crew.
Bring Me The Horizon
That’s The Spirit Matt Nicholls’ beat writing is clearly maturing with age, driving every last monumental riff with metallic groove and expertly crafted fills. BMTH were already big. This will make them bigger.
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Contents 38
ash soan The pop session man sees a future for his trade
Regulars
26
06 beat
All the latest news and hot gear, plus tips, classic sounds and more
18
introducing
New bands and drummers you need to have on your radar this month
20
Issue 247 October 2015
reviews
nicko mcbrain On the eve of the release of their most ambitious album yet, the Iron Maiden veteran talks sound and style
New stuff from Iron Maiden, Tesseract, Foals, Terri Lyne Carrington and more
112
ask geoff
Your kit conundrums solved by our resident gear guru
58
john tempesta The Cult
72
52
dennis bryon The man behind the Bee Gees’ funkiest grooves
buyer’s guide The 5 best budget drum mic sets you can buy
97
gear reviews
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| october 2015
81
lessons
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Highlights
People | Music | Gear
10 toolkit 12 top five tips An exercise to help develop Godsmack’s Shannon Larkin your single-stroke rolls
on spicing up rock grooves
Matt Sorum is the live drummer for starstudded supergroup, the Hollywood Vampires
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Hollywood Vampires includes Matt Sorum, Duff McKagan, Johnny Depp, Joe Perry and Alice Cooper
20 reviews New stuff from Iron
Maiden, Foals and more
Kings of Hollywood
Matt Sorum joins up with A-list supergroup
James Cumpsty
■■What do you get when you put a shock rock veteran, a Hollywood A-list megastar, an Aerosmith founder and Guns N’ Roses’ rhythm section in a room? You get the Hollywood Vampires.
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The ridiculously super supergroup brings together Alice Cooper, Johnny Depp, Joe Perry, Duff McKagan and Matt Sorum and takes its name from a legendary group of stars (including Cooper, Keith Moon and Ringo Starr) that would frequent LA’s famed Rainbow club. Cooper has revived the name for this collection of stars, with a pair of LA shows and a slot at the iconic Rock in Rio festival coming in September. There’s also an album out now, featuring the likes of Dave Grohl, Zak Starkey and Slash. Sorum, who will be at the kit for the band’s live dates, fills us in on how he became involved. “I’ve known Alice, Joe and Johnny Depp for at least 20 years as Alice sang on the Use Your illusion albums, I toured with Aerosmith many times and used to hang with Johnny in Hollywood at his club The Viper Room. When I heard about the band I checked in to see what their plans were for a touring band and let them know I was into it and it sounded cool. At that point I asked Duff if he would be into it as well. The
guys loved the idea and we were asked to join.” In a band full of A-listers, there’s one name that still manages to stand out, Hollywood royalty Johnny Depp. “Alice and Joe are of course guys you know and love and are heroes of mine as well so it’s a gas,” says Sorum. “Most people might not know Johnny Depp [as a guitarist], [but he] has been a musician longer than he has been an actor. He lives and breathes rock’n’roll and embodies the word cool.” Sorum will be using his Gretsch Brooklyn kit on the shows, as well as his new Zildjian Ks. He admits he’s pleased to be back alongside his old GN’R bandmate Duff McKagan. “He’s my rock, it’s like riding a bike playing drums with Duff, he’s even become more intense and proficient on his bass, jumping in other bands and playing different music. Music is always an education and Duff and I have [said] that branching out has been great fun.” And Sorum has plenty more on his plate already for 2016. He has another supergroup to focus on, the Kings of Chaos. The band features a revolving line-up of members such as Glenn Hughes, Joe Elliott, Slash and Steven Tyler and has toured sporadically through South America, South Africa and Australia since 2012. “[In 2016 I will be] building Kings of Chaos, playing shows all over the world and [working on] my charity for kids and music, www.adoptthearts.org, which is a full time gig. The music keeps coming and I keep playing – that’s all that matters.
Rockin’ Rio One Hollywood Vampires show in particular will bring back special memories for Sorum: “Rock in Rio was my first show with Guns N’ Roses [in 1991] – 140,000 people, so many amazing memories.”
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Beat! People | Music | Gear
Portnoy says he’s playing blast beats for the first time on the Metal Allegiance album
Portnoy’s All-Star Metal Jam Mike Portnoy pledges his Allegiance to the power of Metal ■■“I’ve had this incredible musical bachelor spirit the last couple of years doing all these different bands and projects and fulfilling all these different sides of my musical taste, but I hadn’t had a true metal outlet,” says Mike Portnoy. He may be the busiest drummer in all of rock, balancing multiple gigs with the Neal Morse Band, Twisted Sister, Flying Colors and now the all-star monster that is Metal Allegiance. The concept began with a bunch of friends – including Portnoy, Anthrax’s Charlie Benante and Megadeth’s Dave Ellefson – playing their favourite songs together. “It was us paying tribute to the metal heroes we grew up with – Black Sabbath, Iron Maiden, Judas Priest, Motorhead, AC/DC, KISS,” says Portnoy. “It
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was always just a live cover thing and at some point last year a few of the core guys started talking: ‘Hey, what if we made an album of original material with all these guys?’” So Portnoy, Ellefson, Alex Skolnick and Mark Menghi set to work in the drummer’s home studio in New York. “The four of us wrote everything together in my studio, jamming and playing together and laying down the basic tracks,” says Mike. “The next stage was getting all the special guests.” That guest list includes heavyweights like Phil Anselmo, Cristina Scabbia, Troy Sanders, and Chuck Billy lending their vocals to the album. With everyone busy in their day-job bands, it wasn’t practical to bring them all to New York. “A lot of that was done through guys sending their tracks in. Inevitably that was the only way to get all of those people on board, but some people did come in and do it in person,” says Portnoy. “Randy Blythe’s vocals were done with us, he came in to New York and recorded with us. Gary
The Talented Mr Benante Metal Allegiance founding member Charlie Benante has an unexpected role on the record. “We wanted to get him involved,” says Portnoy, “and given that the drums were already done, we said, ‘Hey, do you want to play guitar on the album?’ And he ended up playing guitar on three tracks.”
Holt did his guitar tracks with us when Slayer was coming through town, so we tried to get the personal touch in as much as we could.” Having been on the lookout for an outlet for his metal influences, Portnoy found the motherlode with the Metal Allegiance material. “There is probably more doublebass drumming on this album than anything I’ve done in my career,” he says. “I was able to do some blast beats for the first time. The speed of some of the stuff is really intense. You listen to the drumming on ‘Can’t Kill The Devil’ or ‘Pledge Of Allegiance’, it’s like oh my god, here I am at 48 years old playing blast beats for the first time in my career!” With Metal Allegiance, Portnoy has fully satiated his metal drumming hunger. “I went from not having a metal outlet to doing an album with the guys from all these bands and all the bands that pretty much make up the entire scene,” he says. “It ended up becoming the ultimate metal project in my life.” Metal Allegiance is out now on Nuclear Blast.
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Loz Colbert
Ride
Ride reformed last year, more than 20 years since you split. How did the reunion come about?
What had you been up to during the band’s downtime? Is it correct that you studied at Drum Tech?
“It was at a kind of end of year meet up we did, which left the idea hanging. Then mid-year last year it became a more realistic prospect. It was mainly down to logistics – everyone not only wanted to do it when the subject came up again, but they were actually around and available.”
“It is indeed. I did a year diploma course there and I spent about a year afterwards working on the material. A lot of people thought it was an odd move, but it wasn’t for me. I guess I believe in the maxim ‘a good musician never stops learning’. I’d basically gone as far as I could with my instinct for drumming, and I needed to learn some new things – like skills, and a bit of technique! I was always an unschooled ‘feel’ drummer, I would look at schooled technical drummers and think – I don’t want to be you, but if I had even an ounce of technical ability with my feel it could be a great thing. After that it was playing for Supergrass, The Jesus And Mary Chain, Damo Suzuki and now Gaz Coombes, with bits of session work in between. I’ve been lucky enough to play on four tracks of Gaz’s current album Matador.”
What were those first rehearsals and shows like? “The first rehearsal may have been tentative, but the first live show definitely wasn’t! With rehearsals, yes the first few songs you initially feel self-conscious. So much of it is physical with drumming as you know. It was a very weird thing to do consciously as a man what you did subconsciously when you were a teenager. But it is also very natural to reclaim all the moves and patterns. It all came alive when we played our first gig though. The gigs have been off the scale for Ride. I think we’re way better now than we were then!”
Is any new material in the works? “Hasn’t been much time to think about that – but hopefully!”
© Piper Ferguson
The kings of shoegaze return
Loz Colbert, second from the left, with the reformed Ride
Do you approach playing Ride’s material any differently since studying at Tech?
Out now
Ride embark on an eight-date UK tour in October
“Absolutely. It helps you be more selfless, and I approach it in the same way that I approached the Jesus And Mary Chain stuff – listening to the recording and formulating a way to recreate that sound or feel live. It is most often a technique issue: technique gives you the sound you want, even if it is the sound of bad technique that you want! Of course, I’ve got the drop on anyone else because I remember exactly what I did in Ride, so I can improve on the clarity of what I was doing, or spruce it up a little if I want to. That’s great feeling… it’s like remastering.”
This month at musicradar.com/rhythm Highlights from the online home of the UK’s best-selling drum magazine
Steve Gadd
Paul Simon, Rickie Lee Jones, Steely Dan, Chick Corea and more – we round up some of the many classic records featuring the hands of Gadd.
All-new Musicradar
Want the latest drumming news, reviews, interviews and videos? Then you’ll want to head over to our brand-new website Musicradar.com/rhythm, where you’ll find even more awesome content than ever before, with advice, interviews, gear reviews, and practically anything drum-flavoured you could want.
Iron Maiden
Can’t get enough of Maiden after our huge Nicko cover feature? Then take a look at the five things we learned from the band’s epic new album.
Mike Wengren
Arena titans Disturbed are back, and to celebrate, drummer Mike Wengren has talked us through some of the songs that shaped his life.
Plus The latest reviews, sound gear buying advice, plus interviews, videos, tutorials, news and much, much more… www.musicradar.com/rhythm
october 2015 |
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Beat! People | Music | Gear
Drummer’s tool Kit
Single-Stroke Combinations
An exercise aimed at developing single-stroke rolls
R Your tutor Pete Riley
p.riley@mac.com
01
hythm reader Dafydd Jones emailed regarding exercises specifically aimed at developing single-strokes – so Dafydd, here is a suggested exercise as promised. Firstly there is more than one way to skin a single-stroke roll and it can be beneficial to vary your approaches. The examples here are ruffs which are basically single-stroke combinations that move hand-to-hand. Ex. 1 is essentially a single-stroke five-stroke roll, Rhythm - 2 4 7
Rhythm - 2 4single-strokes. 7 Essentially a five-stroke roll played with Ex 1 Rhythm -247
> >œ >œ
Ex 1
while Ex. 2 is like a seven-stroke roll. However, when we phrase a combination of them both over two bars we create the challenging figure that’s shown in Ex. 3, where it should be noted that it will start in the opposite hand when repeated. Mastering this exercise and picking up the speed whilst paying attention to the dynamics should develop the single strokes as each side takes its turn in ‘leading’. You could also try playing each group on a different drum as a kit application. Pete's Drummers' Toolkit
Pete's Drummers' Toolkit Pete's Drummers' Toolkit
> œ œ œ œ >œ œ œ œ œ >œ
œ œ œ œ .. ÷ 68 Ex 1 œR œL œR œL .. L R L R L ÷ 68 R œL œR œL œR œL œR œL œR œL .. ÷ 268 œR Ex We use the same approach with a seven-stroke roll. > > 02 R L R L R L R L R L Ex 2 œ œ œ œ œ œ >œ œ œ œ œ œ œ .. ÷ 44 >œ Ex 2 œL œR œL œR œL œR >œL œR œL œR œL œR œL .. ÷ 44 >Rœ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ . ÷ 344 œR Ex > R LL > RR LL RR> LL RR LL > RR LL > RR LL RR LL . Ex 3 œ œanœexercise œ >œ that œ œ will œ œstart œ œ >œ hand œ œ when œ œ >œrepeated. œ œ œ œ œ œ .. ÷ 44 to>œcreate >œ inœtheœ opposite 03 And here we’ve combined Exthem 3 ÷ 44 >œR œL Rœ œL Rœ >œL Rœ œL Rœ œL >œR œL œR œL Rœ >œL Rœ œL œR œL >œR œL œR œL œR œL œR .. ÷ 44 œR œL Rœ œL œR œL œR œL œR œL œR œL œR œL œR œL œR œL œR œL œR œL œR œL œR œL œR .. R
L R L R L
Euan Leslie was the winner of 2015’s Young Drummer Of The Year contest
R L R L R
L R
L R L
R L R L R
L R L R L R
Young Drummer Of The Year under-16s drum talent search opens for 2016 ■■The Young Drummer of the Year competition is back for 2016. The event shines a light on the finest drummers aged 16 and under, with past competitors including the likes of Dexter Hercules (Rita Ora), Paul Stanley Mckenzie (Gorillaz Sound System), Jen Ledger (Skillet), Brad Webb (Jamie Cullum) and Emily Dolan Davies (Bryan Ferry/The Darkness). Think you’ve got what it takes? To enter drummers must submit a two-minute solo drum performance with a completed entry form which can be found at www. youngdrummeroftheyear.co.uk. Entries must be made between 1 October
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and 15 November. All drummers must be 16 years or younger on 7 February 2016. Zildjian, Tama and the Academy of Contemporary Music are competition sponsors. Bob Wiczling, Zildjian’s International Marketing Manager, commented: “Zildjian are proud to be part of such a great initiative and support an event that is promoting the art of drumming and encouraging the next generation to get the best out of themselves. Zildjian can’t wait to see which great young players this competition will discover.” The grand final takes place on 7 February at the Spa Centre, Leamington Spa. For more, got to www.youngdrummeroftheyear.com.
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‘Dreadlock Holiday’ 10cc
Paul Burgess recalls a ’70s reggae-pop cracker What are your memories of recording ‘Dreadlock Holiday’?
“The way that the band worked, it was never a case of, ‘Right, you are definitely going to play this and you are definitely going to play that.’ On that particular day I travelled down to the studio in Dorking from Manchester. I travelled quite late that day, I arrived at Manchester Airport after a gig in the Isle of Wight and I passed Graham Gouldman who was on his way to Gatwick. I drove down to the studio so didn’t arrive until mid afternoon and they had already started on ‘Dreadlock Holiday’, Stuart Tosh was playing kit, so I played percussion.”
How did the song come together?
“It was always a case of experimentation with 10cc. There was nothing ever set in stone, no particular formula that was followed. If somebody came up with an idea, no matter how outlandish, it was tried. If it
worked, great, if it didn’t we’d try something else. Because the band had their own studio they had time to do that, there was no clock watching going on.”
Album: Bloody Tourists Year: 1978
You were recording the follow-up to the successful Deceptive Bends, did that bring a level of pressure with it? “By the time the next album came, we
“There was no formula. If somebody came up with an idea, no matter how outlandish, it was tried” had a new band with new members. 10cc was then a six-piece band. Ideas were flying about all over the place and it was a case of trying Stuart [Tosh] playing on a track and I’d play percussion. There was always a democratic vote on things like that.”
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It was an unusual song for 10cc, did you think then that it would be a hit?
“You could never tell what would be a hit. What the band likes and what the public likes are two different things. We were happy with most things that we did. There was never a point where we put out something we didn’t like. Musicians are never satisfied though, you look back and wish you had played this or that. But once it is committed to the recording, that’s it, you can’t go back.”
What do you think of the song now?
“It’s still good to play, it’s a popular tune and is one that is played all the time. It has stood the test of time as a great song.”
FURTHER DETAILS AT
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