< PreviousModern Drummer August 2022 48 MD : The last drummer on Drumology 2 is Glen Sobel who I saw recently with Alice Cooper, and he was tearing it up. I’m so glad that you included him. RS : What he does with Alice is amazing. The drumming, the theatrics, he is masterful. But he also does so much more. Glen is actually on Volume 2 and 3. Glen’s first track is called “Moving Mountains.” We reunited Glen with his old friend (and guitarist extraordinaire) Jennifer Batten for a tune that will be on Drumology 3. After that track was done, I asked Glen to play some eight measure solo phrases over a click. It was some of the greatest rock drumming segments that I had ever heard. But I couldn’t figure out how to use them in the tune. I knew that I didn’t want to leave them on the cutting room floor, so I devised a plan to write a mellow tune that evolved slowly, like you were climbing up a mountain. By the time it got to the end (or the top of the mountain,) we would have Glen playing these amazing eight bar phrases. The tune started off sort of Pink Floyd-ish and soundtrack-ish. It starts off mellow and by the end it leaves you exhausted. MD : Isn’t there a special tune that includes three drummers? RS: Vinnie and Carmine Appice and me. I wondered what it would be like to be the third member of their Drum Wars concept, and we called Vinnie. I asked them to create a tom groove that we could do something with, and they came up with a great one. Vinnie did a whole Korg Wavedrum section in the tune, and Vinnie arranged and wrote an entire chart with specific sections for all of us to play. Then Michael fleshed it out with a little bit of everything: guitars, bass, organ, choirs…Matt Bollinger from Bach to the Future played bass. MS : It sounds like an Ozzy Osbourne instrumental! RS: I think it’s important to mention that one of the reasons that many of these drummers agreed to do this project was because of our association with the Neil Peart Cancer Research Fund. All of the proceeds from Drumology 1, Drumology 2, and Drumology 3 (which will be out this fall,) go towards that fund, which is very near and dear to our hearts. MD: Who is on Drumology 3? RS : The centerpiece of that record is a tune written and produced by Jay Oliver reuniting the entire Chick Corea Elektric Band (sadly, without Chick himself.) This one is quite special and was written as a triple drummer epic with Dave Weckl, Steve Gadd, and myself all playing together. That tune alone took years of coordination. Jay Oliver was in his glory putting it all together with audio and video, and Dave Weckl was integral in everything as well. I’ll have to admit, I took a back seat to Dave and Jay on that tune, they steered the ship, and I hung on for dear life! Jay had mentioned that the concept for the tune was partially inspired by the amazing piece that Chick wrote for the Master Plan album, later to become the title cut, “Master Plan.” At the time it was an innovative double-drummer piece that featured both Dave and his drum hero, Steve Gadd. Dave is my drum hero, so we have three generations of drum heroes. It was a “pinch me” sort of moment. One by one, each of the guys from the Elektric Band agreed to play. Dave actually wrote out parts for Steve and me to play which was handy because this tune was a monster! Maybe the greatest perk was that we were all able to fly out to Phoenix and be in the room when Gadd did his tracking session. We brought along a video crew as well. Of course, we were psyched that he did most of his legacy Gadd licks on this tune which was so cool! We even got to interview him. Modern Drummer is going to put that interview video out at some point. MD: Who else is on Drumology 3? RS: Our violinist Tracy Silverman has a separate project with Roy “Futureman” Wooten from Bela Fleck and the Flecktones. He is the master of the Zendrum Drumitar, an instrument that I play as well. In fact, I might have played more gigs on Zendrum than on drumset in my career. MD : For those that don’t know, what is a Zendrum Drumitar? RS : It is an electronic percussion instrument that you wear like a guitar. You play it with your fingers; it is a touch sensitive midi controller that you can attach to any sound source or computer. Roy “Futureman” Wooten invented that instrument and is my inspiration. We asked Roy to play on a tune, and to our surprise, not only did he agree, he brought in his brother Victor Wooten! That just fueled our fire, and so we then asked Bela Fleck if he would be interested. And HE agreed too! Mike wrote a very Bela Fleck type of tune, Roy went above and beyond to create a cool drum part, Victor played a masterful bass part, and Bela took it to another planet. MS : I composed the tune based on the Fibonacci Series of numbers where each number is the sum of the previous two. These numbers are found throughout nature. Roy is very into numbers, so I thought that he might appreciate that, and he did. And we named the tune 8 CHANNEL TRANSFORMER COUPLED CLASS A MIC PREAMP WITH PREMIUM 24 BIT 192 kHz ADC www.heritageaudio.com The sound of yesterday..... built for tomorrow. UNLEASH THE FULL POWER OF YOUR AUDIO INTERFACE The perfect solution for self-recording drummers MARCELO NOVATI Juanes “I´ve finally found the sound I´ve been after... ...and my drums have never been so easy to capture” Photo by Mario Alzate ©Modern Drummer August 2022 50 “Fibonacci Pie.” RS: We also have the previously mentioned tune with guitarist Jennifer Batten (Michael Jackson, Jeff Beck) and Glen Sobel. Eric Mariental and Larry Kornfeld play on that tune as well. When I was at the last NAMM show, I stopped into the Baked Potato and drummer Gergo Borlai was playing there, and I was floored. We had to have Gergo on Drumology 3, and we brought guitarist Jaime Kime to play on a tune called “Jaco’s Dream.” Jamie and Gergo knew each other, so there was already some chemistry there. For these tunes we are always looking for chemistry, and it’s always nice to include musicians that already knew each other. MD: How did you find the space to add any other drumming to Gergo’s tracks? He can really fill up a lot of space. RS : Oh man, Gergo’s tracks are amazing, he’s quite a talent, and a true pro. There was a lot of creative editing on his tracks to create a drumming dialog, that’s one of the best parts about working on these Drumology records. MD: And then there’s Gavin Harrison, another amazing drummer on Drumology . RS : Right. Jay Oliver had brought up Gavin Harrison’s name. He had known of Gavin from Steve Orkin’s Drum Fantasy Camp. I’m also a big fan of his from the band Porcupine Tree. So Jay wrote a tune called “Sevenish,” that cleverly jumps between 4 and 7, and even 6 in some spots. Jay is really influenced by Celtic music and one his heroes is Bill Whelan who composed the Riverdance soundtrack, so the melody has that Celtic feel, but in 7/8 if you can imagine that! On the original demo Jay laid down a reference midi drum part, which blew our minds. It was so realistic and cool. In fact, a little aside, Jay is coming out with an app for musicians that will be a game changer for every drummer. Seriously. After sending the demo to Gavin, I wanted to give him free rein to create a drum part that was unique to him. To our surprise he came up with an awesome double drum part that involved interlocking grooves crossing over the bar line in seven. He recorded both parts and panned them to each side. I chose one of the parts, replacing his reference track. It was easier said than done! But the end result is us playing this super groovy interlocking groove in seven, and it came out great. MD: And the last tune is called “Sailing.” RS : Yes. The last tune was done with the great percussionist Gumbi THE JOEL ROTHMAN PUBLICATIONS NOW AVAILABLE AS EBOOKS THE BIBLE OF LINEAR DRUMMING— A MUST HAVE book for anyone looking to play rock in the most u-to-date way—in the linear way. ROCK & JAZZ DRUMMING IN STRANGE & UNUSUAL TIME SIGNATURES — a study that breaks new ground containing material not seen in any other drum book. AMBIDEXTERITY— Guaranteed to help you develop the Holy Grail for any drummer—total independence with your four limbs. BASIC DRUMMING—considered one of the best and most important drum books ever written—contains every aspect of drumming. MINI MONSTER BOOK OF ROCK DRUMMING —this best-selling book worldwide contains everything you have to know about rock drumming. SON OF THE MINI MONSTER— The Monster’s first son has written a study concentrating entirely on developing bass drum patterns in many different time signatures. “My close friends have produced two bloody great rock books.” Dracula These books, along with many other titles in eBook form can be obtained by clicking: https://hudsonmusic. com/joel-rothman-collection/ To view all of Joel's close to 100 hard copy books go to www.joelrothman.com If you teach drums and have never been contacted by Joel please email him at info@joelrothman.com MPORTANT: Joel is offering FREE, his book, ROCK BREAKS WITH A 12/8 FEEL. Simply email him to receive the book: info@joelrothman.comModern Drummer August 2022 52 Ortiz. We have run into Gumbi on and off for years through opening for Al DiMeola, and through hearing Gumbi’s own fusion band in the Tampa area. We got St. Louis drummer Jamie Brauner and Gumbi to play on this beachy vocal tune written by singer/songwriter Paul Molkenbur that features a whole latin percussion section. Then Gumbi composed and performed a big breakdown section that he sings and plays on, and it’s just brilliant. The bass was done by Jimi Blake who I play in a Latin/funk project with. Casey Adams returns for Volume 3 as well playing the tune “Falcon 9.” He plays the first tune on Volume 1 and the last tune on Volume 3. Casey is my best friend, and we bounce everything off of each other such as our love for Rush’s music and studying and improving as drummers. MD: What have you learned through these collaborations with all of these legendary drummers? RS :When I get the raw tracks from each drummer, I get to hear the true sound of their drums. All of their drums sound very different. I get to hear what each of these drummers would send to a well- known artist if they were working for them. And I get to hear what their drums would sound like BEFORE they are mixed and produced. Some guys even labeled what mics they used on each drum. It was just so interesting to hear all of the different ways a drum set can sound. MD : That’s what makes this an art form. There are so many different “answers to the question” of how a drum set should sound, or how to create music, or what should or shouldn’t be played on a drum track. RS: These are human beings, and believe me, everything I got wasn’t “perfect.” MD : Thank God! RS: For instance, I got to hear all different versions of what great drummers consider to be a “perfect” bass drum sound. The same with snare drums. Some snare drums were much lower in pitch than I thought they would be. I learned that they did that because of how the snare would sit in the mix if it was a little lower in pitch. It was always cool to see what questions each drummer would ask. Some would ask about the tempos, and some would ask about bit rate. It is just interesting to see how each guy prefers to work. MD : Another thing that makes this an art and not a science, is that there is no absolute “right” way to do anything. It’s what works, it’s personal preference. MS : It was interesting to hear how all of these A-list drummers could have such different touches on the drums too. For instance, Steve Smith played powerfully, but much lighter than I thought he would. In contrast to that, the Appice drummers play right through the drums. It’s liberating to see that a drummer can “just” be himself, and it’s fine. Like you said, it’s all about what works. MD : What I think defines art, is that the end DOES justify the means. If it sounds good, it is good. Yet what sounds “good” is always very subjective. RS : I agree. MD : How did you decide what to play on these tracks after hearing what the guest had recorded? RS : It was a lot like when you hear a song, and you improvise a different part on the song based on what you would have played on that song. After listening to their tracks for a long time, I would replace different drum sections of songs based on what I would like to hear on the track. But it could get tricky. MD: Double drumming is such an interesting (and hard) approach, and there are so many ways to do it, how did you approach it? Did you play complimentary parts, or did you try to create unison drum parts? RS : We had a few different approaches. The parts where the guest and I were playing in unison were usually in the final stretch of the song, where the energy was at its highest point. It was like playing along with a record of your drumming hero. Then there were times where it was a dialog back and forth. The third way was when FROM THE RISER A DRUMMER’S PERSPECTIVE ii OVER 270 LIVE ACTION PHOTOS 130 LEGENDARY DRUMMERS 184 PAGES FOREWORD BY NEIL PEART “IT’S A FANTASTIC BOOK THAT EVEN WE COULD NEVER TIRE OF FLICKING THROUGH” Rhythm Magazine Book Only Available to purchase from www.music-images.co.ukAvailable in print and digital format at moderndrummer.com or from your favorite music retailer DIGITAL DOWNLOAD CODE INSIDE Presents: 80 pages of extensive and new in-depth interviews Exclusive Erskine Recordings Pictorials of Weather Report, Peter And Friends, The Early Years Peter’s analysis and insights on 40 + pages of drum transcriptions Digital Download Component EXCLUSIVE PHOTO SECTIONS! Legends DIGITAL DOWNLOAD CODE INSIDE DIGITAL DOWNLOAD CODE INSIDE Everything you ever wanted to know about Hi Hat Rhythms. Infinate patterns to play all styles of music. DIGITAL DOWNLOAD CODE INSIDE Brand new content and interviews Insight, analysis and drum transcriptions The Fabric of Rhythm drum solo recordings MD archive of Steve’s cover/feature interviews Photos/analysis of Smith’s drumsets through the years DIGITAL DOWNLOAD CODE INSIDE Legends Applying the Moeller Technique to the Bass Drum By Michael Packer The Bass Drum Owners Manual BASS DRUM OWNERS MANUAL LYING THE MOELLER TECHNIQUE TO THE BASS DRUM ICHAEL PACKER MODERNDRUMMER.COM DIGITAL DVD DOWNLOAD INCLUDEDboth of us were playing interlocking parts that created a singular groove that works for the song. That was actually inspired by Dom Famularo’s book Drumset Duets. MD : My double drumming bibles are the John Tropea record Live at Mikell’s with Steve Gadd and Rick Marotta. It’s great because they are finishing each other ideas and fitting together like peanut butter and jelly. Another is Joe Cocker Organic with Jim Keltner and Kenny Aronoff. Of course, the standard (for me) is Joe Cocker Mad Dogs and Englishmen with Jim Keltner, Jim Gordon, and Chuck Blackwell. But I can’t tell you enough how interesting it is to hear about how you have turned double drumming into a genre of music. What do you look for when you are selecting drummers for the Drumology records? RS: It’s an emotional choice for me. It’s because I’m a fan of their body of work. These are drummers that have touched me, influenced me, and with whom I feel an emotional bond. That bond usually comes from the music that I have heard them play. However, there are a few (like Gergo,) that I haven’t listened to a whole lot, but who are just ridiculously good and HAD to be included. MD : You guys also run a record label called Autumn Hill records. MS : We are the largest streaming independent instrumental music label in the world. We have 950 albums available, and stream about 3 million tracks a day. The last few years have focused on jazz and jazz-fusion. We also produce some live jazz festivals as well. Autumn Hill has recently signed the Dave Weckl Band, released Tom Kennedy’s solo album, Gary Meeks’ record, and we’re in talks with Jay Oliver for him to do a solo album. He’s a hard one to crack but we’re working on him! Jeff Lorber and myself put out a record together, I also just did a record with Eric Marienthal. Both John Pattitucci and Eric Marienthal have put out records on our label too. RS : Michael is too modest to say so, but he is the most streamed solo pianist in the world, with 14 number one albums on Apple Music. MD : Lastly, what drums and cymbals are you using on all of these records? RS : I am a Yamaha artist, I have a few of their kits and I love the PHX drums, I play Sabian Cymbals, and I have a huge gong collection. The gongs find their way onto most of my records. About 30 years ago I was reading Modern Drummer and I saw an ad for the Zendrum Drumitar, and I got one. It has become my other main instrument. There is about 1,000 Zendrummers in the world, we have a FaceBook group, it’s a real thing. I am also an official endorser for the Zendrum. MD: Who haven’t you been able to get for Drumology yet? Here is your chance to put the call out to the drum world. Who would you like to include on Drumology 4? RS: Will Kennedy, Dom Famularo, Jonathan Mover, Bobby Blotzer, Dennis Chambers, Thomas Pridgen, Mike Mitchell is an amazing gospel chops drummer, Nicko McBrain, Eric Moore, Tico Torres has agreed to do a track. That’s a good sampler of who I’m hoping to get. MD: Your phone should start ringing soon! Check out Rob’s Modern Drummer profile page at moderndrummer.com If you hate snare buzz, you’ll love the Satisfaction Guaranteed EASY, RELIABLE AND COMPLETEEASY, RELIABLE AND COMPLETE CONTROL OF UNWANTED SNARE BUZZ CONTROL OF UNWANTED SNARE BUZZ List Price $295 Introductory Offer $249 “I’d like to share an amazing and much needed new drum product. 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Verbeuren’s fine-tuned ear, impeccable musical memory, sensitivity to structure, and ability to read and write rhythms, made him a highly in-demand session drummer nearly overnight. In 2004, Verbeuren joined the Swedish melodic death metal band Soilwork with whom he recorded and toured worldwide for twelve years. He also managed to find time to record and/or perform with a multitude of established artists, including Danzig, Testament, Sasami Ashworth, Devin Townsend, Fredrik Thordendal, At The Gates, and Satyricon. A long-term collaboration with Swedish software company Toontrack has resulted in the Library of the Extreme, the first ever collection of MIDI metal beats and fills. In May 2016, Verbeuren was asked to take the drum throne for Megadeth. A few months later, band leader Dave Mustaine officially announced Dirk Verbeuren as the new permanent drummer of Megadeth. Today, Verbeuren has made his recording debut with Megadeth, and he actually co-wrote two songs for The Sick, the Dying… and the Dead! The band’s sixteenth studio album is slated for release in September 2022. As you will read, Dirk takes this gig and Megadeth’s musical and drumming legacy, VERY seriously. He is the perfect drummer for Megadeth, and The Sick, the Dying… and the Dead! proves that fact. Verbeuren also runs Die Crawling Studio, which incorporates the most recent innovations developed by Roland and Toontrack, as well as Northwood Sound Studios. Dirk has been a teacher since 1995. He offers in-person and online drum lessons sharing techniques, exercises, and career advice to a growing community of drum students. Now we can all be students of his depth of knowledge and deep insights into drumming and music.September 2022 Modern Drummer 57 Jarrod AnthoneeNext >