November 2021 – Volume 45 • Number 11

Tré Cool

Green Day’s Gear Geek Tré Cool has a drum warehouse. Few people outside of the Green Day family likely know exactly how many drums are in there, but after talking to Cool about his collection, I’m kind of thinking it…

Sonor

Perfect Balance Jojo Mayer Signature and Standard Pedals When the futurist, educator, and genre-bending drummer Jojo Mayer turned his agile brain to designing a kick pedal, he distilled his concept into a single sentence: “The Perfect Balance pedal was designed…

New Gear for the New Year

Wouldn’t it be marvelous if 2022 offered drummers new opportunities, savvy ways to improve their technique, and just tons more fun? Cross those fingers, gang. If you’re up for some cool tools to help bring on that brighter, happier new…

Creating Hooks

How should drums fit into a song, and how can you make the drums become another hook within a song? When you think about the word “hook,” it’s something you get hooked on that you want to have over and…

November 2021 - Volume 45 • Number 11

Dominic McNabb

It doesn’t take long to become enthralled with South African drummer Dominic McNabb. His chops are next-level, his creativity is beyond-his-years masterful, his grooves are extremely tight and tasty, and he plays with an electrifying, inspiring energy. He has been…

Lynn Perko-Truell

Punk-Rock Pioneer Drumming found Lynn Perko-Truell at a sweaty punk-rock show in the basement of a house in Reno, Nevada, and the spell that was cast transformed her into one of the iconic drummers of the hardcore and grunge scenes…

David Garfield Salutes Vinnie Colaiuta

Vinnie Colaiuta is considered by many in the international drumming community as one of the most accomplished drummers of all time. In his early years, however, after arriving in Los Angeles from the East Coast, there was surprisingly a bit…

Patrick Wilson

Weezer’s Commander of Feel The waiting must have been brutal on the ferociously industrious Weezer camp. Two albums done, dusted, and ready to go—the orchestral OK Human and the hard-rocking Van Weezer—and an epic Hella Mega Tour looming, and then…

Bubinga Bonanza!

It took nearly two years of research, more than a couple of strategy and design meetings, and gear from four very different companies—including some rare Dragon Drums—but Ed Coughenour finally built his dream kit. There was also some hand wringing…

Tony Succar

Percussion Powerhous The brisk, social-media tidbit on producer/percussionist Tony Succar is that he is a wildly successful musician who has won two Grammys. There’s also the temptation to credit Succar’s accomplishments to some wild-eyed DNA profiling forged by his grandparents…

Ian Paice

Recording Deep Purple’s Turning to Crime When fans and critics talk about the pantheon of British greatness in heavy-rock drumming, there are the beatmasters, such as John Bonham, Ginger Baker, Keith Moon, Cozy Powell, Phil Rudd, Bill Ward, and so…

Hella Fun!

The 2021 Hella Mega Tour Revived Stadium Shows A stadium tour during a global pandemic could have been a disaster of epic proportions. But thanks to vaccinations being finally available, as well as stringent COVID-crowd controls, open-air venues, and a…

Andy Hurley

Fall Out Boy’s Disciple of Discipline Andy Hurley is ripped and super healthy. He committed to self-care early in life, becoming straight edge when he was 15 years old (no drugs, alcohol, tobacco, or any other such poisons), and going…

Jesse Bivona

The Interrupters’ Family Affair It’s clear that Sly Stone is a musical genius, but is he clairvoyant, as well? When he sang the chorus to “It’s a Family Affair,” could he have been beaming from the ‘70s into the late…

Moments in the Mist

I didn’t realize how badly I had mucked it up until years later. I started Sound & Vision Studios in 1983—transforming the former annex of a metal shop in San Francisco’s bohemian-artist backwater of Potrero Hill—with band mate Neal Breitbarth.…

Clem Burke

February 1983 “In rock and roll, the idea and the attitude are more important than the actual playing. If you don’t have ideas, you’re not going to achieve anything worthwhile. I mean, if you can learn to play Beethoven’s Fifth,…

Donn Bennett’s Drum Vault

Tré Cool’s Burnt Slingerland Kit Tré Cool is one of my favorite drummers. He is also one of the most interesting people I’ve worked with. He’s certainly one of few drummers who can ride the razor-thin line between control and…

Graeme Edge

March 30, 1941 - November 11, 2021 All the greatest bands have memorable drummers: Charlie Watts, Ringo Starr, John Bonham, Keith Moon. They are the furnace that powers a band’s engine. We have to add Graeme Edge to that list,…