Dweezil Zappa’s Ryan Brown

When he took over the drum chair with Dweezil Zappa more than four years ago, Southern California–based drummer Ryan Brown had to expand his setup in order to accommodate all of the sounds required in the extensive catalog that the guitarist was pulling from, which comprises mostly compositions by his father, Frank. “Before this gig, I was a four-piece guy,” says Brown. “But this kit has the minimal amount of gear that I need to pull off everything that you hear on the records. In the song ‘Inca Roads,’ I do a run at the end that starts on the 6″ Rototom and goes all the way down to the 18″ floor tom.

“This setup took a while to get use to,” Brown continues. “But I’ve always been a die-hard Frank Zappa fan. As a kid, I would play along to his records, but I never had all the gear to do it exactly like the recording. The extra toms, splash, bell, China, and stack are there to play the Bozzio-era stuff. For the cowbells, we decided it would be easier to put them into a sampling pad instead of trying to mic them up every night. I also use the pad for timpani and synth drum sweeps.”

When asked if there’s a specific tuning method for this kit, Brown says: “There is. I get out a piano app on my phone and hit an ‘F’ for the 6″ Rototom. Then I go down in triads, à la ‘Camptown Races.’ The 6″ Roto is an octave up from the 10″ tom, and the 16″ is an octave below it. The 18″ tom is a fourth lower than the 16″. When I go down the drums, it sounds like a chord. The toms are alternately panned—left, right, left, right, etc.—so the audience hears them bouncing from side to side. That was a Frank thing.”

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