Who were your big influences growing up?

Mitch Mitchell from Hendrix was the big one, but also a lot of jazz drummers without me realizing it. My parents would listen to jazz all the time. Elvin Jones, Philly Joe Jones, Joe Morello, Anybody who played with Miles Davis. I couldn’t play like them, but that was the influence. You know, Louis Bellson, Buddy Rich, Connie Kay from the Modern Jazz Quartet. Then I got into different guys like Danny Seraphine (Chicago), Clive Bunker (Jethro Tull), Ginger Baker (Cream)

You are one of few drummers who can safely say you’ve done it all, from rock bands to tympani. How has your experience with orchestral environments influenced the way you approach the drum set?

Technically, I learned to take my finger and wrist technique and apply it to a full body technique. When I played tympani I used just fingers, but when you play marimba it needs to be all wrists and you have to raise the sticks off the surface because they don’t offer any bounce. Then with snare drum it was all about single strokes, double strokes, etc. I just took those concepts and applied them to my arms, my shoulders, my back - the whole body. The technique of how hit a percussion instrument can be applied to your feet, your hands, and just about any other part of the body.

As far as the classical side of my training was concerned, it really taught me discipline. The reason I’m still able to do what I do is because I have learnt to apply all the hard work. The only way I’ve ever known it is where you work your ass off. Being in an ensemble and orchestra also really taught me how to listen and follow a conductor.

In some bands, it almost seems as though it’s a bunch of players trying to get to the end of the songs first - No one is really listening to one another.

Yeah! Listening is the big key thing to being a good musician.

You’re a player who is in very high demand. There are however, many highly experienced and capable players who complain about never being able to get their name out and get the big breaks. They do everything they can think of, but never get the calls. What can you suggest?

Man it’s tough, I’m lucky. I created a reputation for myself as a session AND a touring player. It helped that I made it in a band first. There’s your big lucky break. I teamed up with Mellencamp and he made it big. That being said, I don’t take anything for granted. I really feel for people who are struggling because I know that feeling.

So would you say that 'luck' is the key ingredient that is missing for these guys?

Man, there are so many things involved. I don’t know the actual answer - all I know is MY story because I got lucky, in a small town in Indiana.

Id imagine you’d have to have a good mind for the job, and for business?

Yeah you need a good, straight mind. You have to be able to get along with people. I made it as a drummer who "plays songs" so that kind of opened it up for me. If I was a heavy metal double-bass drum guy Id be very limited to what Id do and what Id get offered.

With your experience, looking back on the teaching side of things, do you feel there are concepts/techniques you learn whose importance is somewhat overstated? Or do you feel there are aspects of it that need to be drilled in a lot more?

The weird thing is that I only studied drum set for one year. Everything else was orchestral stuff, so I was basically self taught. Lessons I was taking were mostly about technique, and not about music. That’s the thing - even classical stuff - You learn scales, and modes and rudiments and stuff like that, but I feel a huge part of it is 'application'. When it came time for that I didn’t know where to begin! I just started transcribing and playing along to songs.

Do you think application can be taught or is it something that some drummers just do better than others?

Oh you can teach it for sure. Absolutely.

What is your motivation for doing drum clinics?

Its part of the three things that I do - Sessions, touring, and education. I like doing drum clinics because it kicks my butt! I get to play all those different songs and a drum solo, and I don’t normally get to do that sort of thing. On tour its usually one artist playing all their songs, whereas with clinics I have the freedom to play anything.

Can you give some insight behind your choice to play your rack toms reversed? (I.e. 12", 10")

That started a long time ago where I had a 4pc with John Mellencamp. I was using only one rack tom and one floor. When I eventually put my full kit back up I was so used to having the 12" tom right in front of me, I just switched it with the 10" tom permanently. Most of the time I’m playing a four piece anyway, where the other toms are there as extra.

How do you prepare for a show?

I have a routine of warm-up exercises that is all based on Moeller principles and different strokes Ill use while playing the drums. I’m always using all four limbs too, Ill do a double bass drum thing, ostinato stuff, and Ill do some multiple stroke work accenting the rebounds. Ill start with two hits, accenting the second note, then 3 notes, accenting the third note, then four notes, accenting the fourth, five, six, etc. Ill then play the hands combined as single stroke rolls, with the accents. It’s a great warm-up for the kit and most importantly it's what I call 'functional practicing'

What’s the best show you remember playing?

Oh man... too many!

Is there anyone you haven’t yet recorded with, that you’d like to?

Oh yeah, there’s a lot of people. *thinking* Oh man, I cant think of the top of my head, but Id find it fun to record with Paul McCartney, Eric Clapton, you know... It’d be fun to do a Black Sabbath record, it’d be great to go out with The Who, with (Led) Zeppelin - like doing the reuniting of Zeppelin. I wish I had been the guy that played with the reunion of Zeppelin, man that’d be awesome.

Family first though, Family first...

Absolutely!

What advice can you give to people suffering from "Red-light Syndrome" - where they freeze in a studio every time the record light goes on?

I don’t know, it just comes from practice. Just doing it over and over again. That’s part of the problem though - A lot of people don’t get the opportunity to get into the studio a lot of the time and so whenever they do, it’s scary.

Do you think it happens because players go in under prepared or lacking confidence in their playing?

To be uptight about something like that is so deep-rooted, its way beyond just being a drummer or a musician. You could be uptight because of past experiences, a fear of performing that’s upbringing. It could be triggered from your Dad or your Mum, or something you were faced with as a child that made you feel so uptight. What happens when you go into the studio is that your brain does something that makes you feel uptight and sends it right to your heart. Your emotional side freaks out and it is recalling the same experience you experienced as a child.

Do you get that in the studio at times?

Not usually. I get the opposite of that actually. When I get a little nervous, I find such confidence. But there are those moments where suddenly it’s like "Uh-oh...We’ve got a problem here... Mayday Mayday" I’ve got a switch that goes "Mayday Mayday, were in trouble!" and that’s where I REALLY concentrate. I had an experience where I had to do something that was programmed, and it was something Id never done - Triplets with my single kick. It was a shuffle up till that point, then I had to switch to the constant triplets - And I had not done that before. I practiced it for an hour to get it! I knew I was in trouble so I told the other guys to take a break - I knew I needed some time to get it down.

Your favourite band?

That’s very broad, but if I had to pick a band Id say probably Led Zeppelin or Hendrix

Your favourite food?

Steak and vegetables

Favourite Movie?

Well, it'd either be The Godfather I and II or it could be Apocalypse Now. Bram Stokers Dracula is pretty awesome too but, Apocalypse Now was cool.

And those films were "new releases" the last time you got a chance to see a movie? :)

Hah! - I watched my last film on the plane. Those films though, you can always watch them, doesn’t matter how many times I see them.

Thanks heaps for the interview

No problem man!

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