October 2020 Issue – Volume 44 • Number 10
Articles in October 2020
Meat ’n’ Potatoes—With Some Spice
This month’s KOTM is a hybrid rig that the owner uses on semi-acoustic shows with his rock band Floater. The “groovy meat ’n’ potatoes” of Portland, Oregon–based drummer Mark Powers’ set consists of a vintage Yamaha bass drum, a new…
Zildjian - I Family Cymbals
A modernized approach to entry-level bronze. Released earlier this year, Zildjian’s new I Family of cymbals was designed to provide bright and expressive sounds at ultra-affordable prices. These traditionally finished B8 bronze additions replace the discontinued ZBT series and comprise…
The Great Jazz Drummers
Sidney “Big Sid” Catlett Though Sidney “Big Sid” Catlett came out of the swing era, he is best remembered for a drumming style that had a marked influence on the bop drummers of the 1940s. Catlett bridged the gap between…
RECORDINGS
Haken Virus The U.K. prog-rock sextet’s latest album may adhere to a lyrical narrative, but according to drummer RAY HEARNE, they’re still dedicated to evolving their sound. Embracing the mystery of their curious Cockroach King character, Haken’s new release, Virus…
Chad Smith’s Three Basic Beats to Infuse with Your Own Thing
You can get ten different people playing on a basic drumset, playing a basic rock beat, and they will all sound different. We each have a signature, and that’s a beautiful thing. It’s not “my way or the highway”—it’s about…
Remembering Neil Peart
Part 2: “De Slagwerker” Drum Solo Neil and I often talked about improvisation. He told me why his solo in “De Slagwerker” was so important to him. What follows are some of Neil’s own words, taken from his Drum Channel…
Rick Shutter
“Day by Day,” the gargantuan hit single from the Grammy-winning musical Godspell, gets by with some tasteful cymbal swells and tambourine shaking—until drummer Rick Shutter blasts the ride-out with a driving rock groove. It’s a classic moment on a timeless…
John Herndon
The drummer and cofounder of the influential Chicago band Tortoise details the gear and methods he used to get “jagged and weird” on his new solo album. John Herndon is best known as a drummer/percussionist in Chicago’s Tortoise, the instrumental…
Trivium’s Alex Bent
The metal phenomenon has an irrepressible drive to succeed—and he’s done so stunningly, slaying two of Trivium’s best albums to date, earning a Grammy nomination, and touring Europe and the U.S. extensively since 2017. Alex Bent has lived many metal…
Covet’s Forrest Rice
The drummer, who’s honed his skills with a number of math-rock groups, brings ever more sophistication and fire on the new Covet record, Technicolor. MD interviews him and also chats with the band’s compelling guitarist, Yvette Young, to learn about…
Samba Funk
Modern Fusion Beats Based on Traditional Brazilian Rhythms Hi, everybody! It’s a pleasure to be back writing for Modern Drummer and sharing some of my Brazilian culture with you. This time I am talking about my application of samba funk…
sE Electronics - V Pack Arena Microphone Kit
A perfect set for capturing the punchy, full tones of a five-piece drumset. Chinese musician/composer Siwei Zou started sE Electronics twenty years ago in an effort to improve the design of some of the microphones that were coming out of…
Chad Smith
The longtime Red Hot Chili Peppers drummer is enjoying a wave of great reviews for his work on the new, critically acclaimed Ozzy Osbourne album, Ordinary Man. The takeaway? If there’s one contemporary drummer on the planet who wholly embodies…
Stick Technique Revisited
Part 4: Alley-Oop The alley-oop technique is what I call a wrist/finger combination used for playing double strokes (diddles) and triple strokes. While it can be likened to the push/pull technique, which is a wrist stroke followed by a finger…
“Getting the Sound”
Detailed tutorials for recreating classic recordings from a drumming, engineering, and mixing perspective. We first checked in with Hoboken, New Jersey–based session drummer/engineer/online educator Dylan Wissing back in November 2013, when he had just gotten his studio, Triple Colossal Studio,…
In the Studio With Miles McPherson: Touring Pro Turned Session Ace
Miles McPherson moved to Nashville in 1986, when his father, Jerry, relocated the family there so he could work in the studios as a session guitarist. Miles was expecting to be a guitarist—until he sat at a drumset for the…
Philly Joe Jones
Miles Davis was the only group I gave up New York to go out with. That was in ’54, and it was my greatest experience in the music business.I don’t think I’ll ever be associated with four people like Miles,…
Amy Aileen Wood
The drummer played an outsized part in bringing one of the most anticipated and well-received albums of the year to fruition. Amy Aileen Wood is a comfortable conversationalist, modest and engaging even when she downplays her immense skill as a…
Rudy Royston
His new solo album, PaNOptic, gives listeners—especially drummers—the opportunity to commune with the mind, heart, and soul of Rudy Royston, perhaps more fully than ever before. Modern Drummer has often praised the marvelous first-call jazz drummer Rudy Royston for meeting…
