I consider every drummer that ever played before me an influence, in every way.
Because I write the music, I write the lyrics, I write the vocal melody lines – I write everything. Just because I let somebody sing something doesn’t mean they’re more important than the bass player or the keyboard player or the drummer.
Everyone knows deep in their hearts that the drums are the coolest instrument, and that a band is only as good as its drummer. So I’m all for drum solos. I’m all for drummers hamming it up. I’m all for drummers standing up and kicking over the kit.
When I first set up my big band, I only had Gilson Lavis, the drummer from Squeeze, with me. He was the core element. Whenever a group hits the big time, they always get a new drummer because they really need that. You can make do with rubbish elsewhere.
I started out as a drummer, and when I was 9, my drum teacher had an album out. He was the rudiment king! He signed it for me, ‘Rudimentally yours, Frank Arsenault.’ How cool is that?
I think every band is a little cautious when the drummer starts to write tunes.
At this point, I think I would garner a lot of hate mail if I was now on the cover of Modern Drummer seeing as I’m not a modern drummer anymore.
I was a singing guitar player as a kid, and I found it really embarrassing, so I stopped singing and became a drummer.
Hip Nip just sounds groovy. A drummer laid it on me.
I don’t want people to think that I think I’m this great drummer because, to me, I’m just a kid playing drums, and I love music.
I was a drummer, and I did a little singing too.
Sonic Youth played one show before we even had a drummer. It was just me, Kim, and Thurston. The lights slowly went down, and the set was just 30 minutes of feedback.
The drummer; he inspired me to play like no one else I have ever met.
I can’t play anywhere near like I used to, and I was a hot drummer. It doesn’t bother me, because frankly, if you get to that point where you can’t hold a drumstick properly, there are many other things in life which are far more important, like cutting a loaf of bread or a piece of cheese.
Phil is a real drummer’s drummer.
They’re simply following what was laid down in front and they play the same thing. So, there’s no great challenge In being a classical drummer.
I’m a pretty good drummer. I’m pretty good at guitar, bass and piano. I can play accordion; I’m not virtuoso. I’ve played cello before. My sister played it, and I know how to play it, but I’m not the best. Violin is kind of the same thing.
If a man does not keep pace with his companions, perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer. Let him step to the music which he hears, however measured or far away.
It’s much easier to have a diversified career as an electronic musician than it is as a drummer. Nothing against drummers. If you’re a drummer, you just wait around for people to ask you to play drums. But if you have your own studio and can make music, you have the ability to approach music a lot differently.
I was a drummer in the bugle band in cadets. I marched. It’s probably quite funny to look back on it.
I’m the best live rock drummer. That’s what I think of myself. That’s who I am. I can’t help it.
In the Foo Fighters, my main job is to be the drummer, and that’s enough.
I try to keep my ear to the streets without sacrificing who I am as an artist. If a song needs a drum machine I’ll use a drum machine. If it needs a drummer, I’ll use a real drummer.
Michael Giles the first drummer of King Crimson, never agreed to the name King Crimson. But then, if you’d knew Michael, you would know he didn’t agree to the album cover either. So maybe Michael didn’t agree to the point of definition with many things.
Lars Ulrich is not a jazz drummer, but he grew up listening to jazz. Why? Because his father, Torben – an incredible tennis player – loved jazz. Jazz musicians used to stay at their house.
I think you get to a point where you watch something just to enjoy it. I don’t think it’s really done so that you’re supposed to feel, Oh, he’s the most wonderful drummer. I think the whole lot is what’s more enjoyable.
The one thing I do know is that I’m the best Taylor Hawkins drummer there is, and that is all I can hope to be. And when it comes to music, musicianship and skill, there is no such thing as better or worse because so much is personal opinion, and I can see that now.
I was a drummer in a group called Three Plus. We were performing at a club in New York, and my mother signed me up for tap classes. I fell in love from the door… so you can blame it on my mother.
It was probably when I met Jeff Hamilton, the drummer I’ve been working with for the last 20 years. He’s the one who brought Ray Brown to hear me sing at a restaurant in my hometown.
I found out I got ‘The Little Drummer Girl’ and my BAFTA nomination in quick succession, and I just didn’t expect it to be like that. I thought there would be a lot more time in between. It’s been an overwhelming experience.
Without a drummer, you’ve got that sort of running, chicken-chasing, rhythmic thing happening with the banjo in the top end – it’s what gives our music a lot of its momentum, a lot of its energy.
Because Larry, by then, was a drummer, who would sort of get bored and tired, and rather stand up and blow kisses to people. So we needed the bass to sort of drive along.
Being a drummer, I’m always like, ‘Oh, that’s got a funky beat. That’s cool,’ and I like to dance.
If a man does not keep pace with his companions, perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer. Let him step to the music which he hears, however measured or far away.
That’s the nice thing about being in Mr. Big, is I’m not only the guitar player. I’m the background singer, and so I get to do both of those things. Sometimes we even switch instruments and I get to be the drummer.
I’m an identical twin, and I felt that with my twin brother, we sort of formed this unassailable force, and it gave me the confidence to be different. Even if I was a goofball, my twin brother was a goofball with me, so I didn’t have to worry about fitting in as much. I was able to march to my own drummer.
Mahavishnu’s drummer Billy Cobham was the best I’d ever heard. Not loud, that’s not the secret – powerful as hell when he wanted to be – but 90 per cent of the time, he was just dancing with the drums, you know? Just like a butterfly, all over them.
Everybody besides my piano player has been with me since the very first day. We were a four-piece band for a solid two years. It was me playing acoustic and rhythm electric guitar, a bass player, a drummer and a lead guitar player. For a couple of years, we sounded like the Foo Fighters.
It was that famous joke: What’s the last thing the drummer said before he got kicked out of the band? ‘Hey, I wrote a song.’
It’s nice when somebody says that you’re their ‘favorite’ drummer.
First and foremost I am a drummer. After that, I’m other things… But I didn’t play drums to make money.
I’m a terrible drummer; I almost cannot play the guitar nor sax nor trumpet.
When I listened to Elvin Jones, man, for the first time I heard a drummer that had all the technique plus emotion, passion, feel, and just – good God!
First time that I cried at a work of art was at a drum solo that I saw. A drummer named Winard Harper, part of the Billy Taylor Trio, gave back in – I would have been in high school – 2005 or something.
In 1962 I wrote for ‘Jazz News,’ using the pseudonym Manfred Manne, which I picked because of a jazz drummer with that name. I later dropped the ‘e.’
As far as being a drummer, to me it’s a positive that he’s my father. To be mentioned alongside him… I mean, you Google his name and mine comes up, too – wow! Not too shabby.
The drummer in my first band was killed in Vietnam. He kind of signed up and joined the marines. Bart Hanes was his name. He was one of those guys that was jokin’ all the time, always playin’ the clown.
Every time I’m home, it’s like a vacation, but I’ve been playing in bands since I was 11. I guess our goals were always small goals. It started off my goal was just to be in a band. Then it was to have a drummer that would show up.
When I was thirteen I only wanted to be a drummer.
When I produce a record, I roll up my sleeves; I’m not one of those passive guys. I really get in there and make sure every note is measured. I tell the bass player, ‘You have to play it like this,’ or I tell the drummer, ‘It’s got to be like this.’
I think at one time every drummer wanted to play like Krupa or wanted to win a Gene Krupa drum contest. This is the big inspiration for drummers and naturally it has to be the same way for me.
Hellhammer is the best drummer ever, and Euronymous is a musical genius.
I played cover gigs and traveled the country in my mom’s old car, and my drummer and I set up a fake email and sent it out to agents. We pretended to be our own agent.
The drummer is stereotypically the dumb guy. Maybe that’s why I always respect drummers who do more than drum.
A band is as solid as its drummer is.
Mahavishnu’s drummer Billy Cobham was the best I’d ever heard. Not loud, that’s not the secret – powerful as hell when he wanted to be – but 90 per cent of the time, he was just dancing with the drums, you know? Just like a butterfly, all over them.
