INTERVIEWS WITH AUSTRALIAN DRUMMERS
Name
Kayley Langdon Where are you based? Melbourne How long have you been playing drums? And what initially drew you to the instrument? I started playing in 2017, I bought a used drumkit from Gumtree having never played before. I was living alone in the country and I just wanted to try and learn an instrument. It felt like the only opportunity I’d have to learn the drums and have nobody hear how shit I was. Do you play any other instruments? I play bass and keys. What bands/projects/collaborations are you involved in right now? I play drums in Blonde Revolver, bass in Future Suck and KLN (an interim name), and keys in CLS. What else have you previously been involved in (bands/shows/projects etc)? The only other bands I’ve formed and written songs for were Carper Burn and Minus Us. Do you write music or develop your own shows? What are they about/how have they come about? I both collaborate and write my own songs. I prefer collaboration as I am fairly new and inexperienced when it comes to playing and songwriting, so I enjoy the process of learning and working with others. What are your thoughts on collaboration in music and in the projects you’re involved in or the projects you run? I think collaboration is really important as a songwriter and player. I have never had music lessons for drums, piano, or bass so I can often get stuck in a way I self-taught. When you collaborate with others it’s an opportunity to learn how someone else does things or to hear feedback on how you are playing or writing and it ultimately leads to personal improvement. Who are you listening to/whose music are you enjoying right now? I tend to listen to a lot of the same albums and artists over and over again (i.e. The Beatles, Eno, Kendrik Lamar) but a couple of newer records I have introduced into my repertoire are Bar Italia ‘Tracey Denim’ and Dick Stusso ‘S.P.’. How would you describe the kind of musical projects you’re mostly involved in? And what kind of unique perspective/sound do you bring to these gigs? Each of my music projects is really different, which is why I enjoy having so many on the go. Not only do I get to move from drums to bass to keys, but I get to play punk or pop and experiment with things. I’m not sure if I bring any unique perspective but I do bring a lot of opinions. Does social media play a big part in how you promote yourself as an artist and your various projects? Do you promote your work in other ways? I’m definitely a slave to self promotion on social media. Mostly just sharing posters or gigs I have coming up. Do you make a living from music? What different types of work does this comprise? I definitely don’t make a living from my own music.. if anything I’m losing money by playing music. I do however make a living working at a community radio station in which does involve music. Where’s the coolest place that music has taken you? Future Suck went on a European tour last year which was one of the best experiences I have ever had. What kit/cymbals/gear do you play? I play a little Gretsch Catalina Club kit. My cymbals have mostly just been acquired as hand-me-downs so nothing special but I am keen to actually try some cymbals out to find out what I like. But the thought of testing cymbals inside a music shop sounds like my hell. If you could give your younger drumming self some advice what would it be? This is advice to my younger and current self: practice rudiments. Instagram - @cold_blooded_skayley @blonde.revolver
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Name: Chloe Kim (Yeajee Kim, 김예지; MMus Performance Research. she/her). Nat Grant interviewed Chloe in Naarm in April 2023. CK: My name is Chloe Kim. I am a 27 year old drum set player currently teaching at the Sydney Conservatorium's new and proud course called drum set course, where students can come in and instead of learning specific genres or styles of playing drum set, they are studying specifically about the instrument and how to approach them. I'm very happy to be doing casual lecturing at the Sydney Con and outside of uni times I would be freelancing as a performer mainly, doing rehearsals and gigs of many different types. NG: and what kind of projects are you involved in or working on or leading at the moment? CK: I think the more I do this career, I realize that there are lots of different projects that has to happen at the same time and some projects you can't really tell where the starting point is or where the ending point is but currently something I'm really excited about is this area of solo drumming and for me that properly began from 2019 and the more I do it I feel like I'm getting friendlier with the drum kit. I understand it more as if it's like my friend or a family member. But thankfully, doing that really teaches me about myself, not only musically, but also physical understanding, some of my limitations, some of my strengths, and emotional approaches and psychological approaches as well, so it's almost like writing a journal because I have to do self reflection on it, and so that's my main current project. But with other people, I have projects such as a Trio with Jonathan Schwartz, the bassist, and Hilary Geddes on guitar. And we launched our first performance last week in Orange. Supporting Hania Rani, an international artist. And yesterday I also launched a new project of mine called Music for 4 Double Bassists. But that might get expanded because I am making a big statement here, but apart from drum kit, double bass is the sound that I love the most. And I've just always wanted to work with more bassists. And... Prompted myself to write compositions for bassists, excluding my drumming sound. Other than that, I've also got ongoing projects with my friends in Sydney and Melbourne. NG: And can we talk about your compositional practice? Do you write notated music? CK: I think for other people I write notations. Yes. Or, you know, very shared universal musical language that can be discussed in one room or… not even in one room. But for myself, I tend to not think about notated systems. I like graphic scores and giving different musical sections different mock titles, so working titles. Sometimes I relate to music performance with visual elements. So, I would have little paintings or sketches of thoughts and try to follow the line of those. So yeah, it is really varied. I definitely am more confident in writing music for myself at this stage. And drum kit, because even though there's only maybe eight or so... surfaces that we can touch on, depending on the physical speed and the direction and the weight - the sound changes. So I love experimenting with those details and so on drum surface even if they make one pitch, the sound depends on the way I play them… it's all different So just yet, I haven't come up with a clean coding system of how my drumming works in compositional settings, but in my body, it makes sense and I tend to go through different phases where I like certain sounds, then I would invest more in them, but I also make sure that I don't lose the senses in other dynamics. NG: What are your thoughts on collaboration in music and the projects that you're involved in or the projects that you run? CK: I think it's really inevitable to disregard people's personalities or ways of working and communicating in collaboration settings, especially in Australia… Not that I've ever worked music with international artists for a long period of time, but... As I'm reading things, learning things, I see that Australia does have a very tight community mindset. And because, I guess compared to say America or Europe scenes, we don't have as many numbers of working musicians. When we get together, we really need to be nice to each other in order to get gigs. Also, second of all, we are thinkers and there are loads of different things that people are interested in. Therefore, in order to communicate about it, we have to spend individual time in our own practice rooms to think about our practice, be articulate about it, and then in rehearsal we have to bring them in. But not just bringing them in. How to talk about it, I think, is very important. And I've been in such fortunate positions where so far a lot of people I've been working with have beautiful skills which I've been learning a lot from. So I just have a great hope that things in the scene have been beautiful and it's only going to get better, healthier, and more efficient. And as part of the community I'm excited to be continually building opportunities and platforms for us to get together and respect each other musically, financially, and emotionally. NG: Who are some of your favorite collaborators? Or do you want to talk about a few different long term relationships you have with other performers? CK: Yes, absolutely. I was very fortunate to be involved in the Australian Art Orchestra's intensive program called Creative Music Intensive. And it's a beautiful 10 days camp where lots of musicians come from all over Australia and sometimes internationally as well, and spend many hours of time talking about music and sharing creative practice processes and their own music etc. And I was so fortunate to have done that maybe about five, six times now. I started as a student, but I've also been translating for a guest artist called Il Dong Bae. Therefore I was there many years and it was just such a privileged platform to meet so many new people and spend a long time to get to know them which means now, any cities I go to in Australia, I would know at least one or more people from this Creative Music Intensive course. So, with many students and musicians from that course, across many years, they are now my favorite collaborators and a lot of them happen to be based in Melbourne. So when I come, I always see friends like Flora Cabo, Theo Cabo, Callum Mintzis and Iran Sanadzadeh and all these beautiful musicians. We don't sometimes even play music together. We just sit and eat and chat and laugh and hug. And even that makes us such close collaborators. And in Sydney also, I have long term friends from studying the jazz course at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music. One of my long term collaborators is Jacques Emery, an incredible bassist who lays down his double bass flat and drums on it, because he's an amazing percussionist as well. And we've been playing together since 2018 and we've shared so many different ways of playing games on our instruments and have different cues in order to stop and play music together. And we are expanding sonic space. So sometimes we would play the set on piano, on guitar, on percussion, just on the floor as well. So that for me is a really important space to teach music and share music. But I also love collaborating with people who are not in the same age group as myself. And so most importantly, I've got Dr. Simon Barker who is my longterm mentor and a colleague and a friend. And I play with beautiful role models like Sandy Evans and Jonathan Schwartz, Zela Margossian and Hilary Geddes. And we have an ensemble called Ammonation where we perform my compositions. NG: So part of your practice is as a solo drummer, and recently you did this incredible project where you played for 100 hours at Mona FOMA, as part of the festival. How did that come about? CK: In about 2020 or so, so during COVID, I actually went through two different heart surgeries. So not only because of COVID 19, but because of these health conditions I had to look after, there's been many hours I've spent time in bed. And it was lovely because I got to watch everything I wanted to. But at the same time, I was pretty bored and I love drumming. So I was just hoping that it would be amazing if I can just drum and not think about any other worldly problems such as doing laundry. But on top of that, I've also felt a little bit of need of a kick as working musician at this stage of my career. So I just wanted to play drums and I thought, how amazing would it be if I could just play drums every day nonstop, say a hundred hours. And so the initiation of the idea was very simple. And at first, I didn't mean to do it in such a short amount of time. I wanted to get out of the city and go to a place like Tasmania where I could be friendly with nature and spend about a whole month, so 30 days, 3 hours a day of 100 hours drumming. I wanted to do that, but because of the logistical problems, Mona Museum asked would you be able to do it across 10 days. I said, well that sounds impossible but I think I would love to try it! So I took on the challenge. It was in a way a very good constraint. And because I've said yes to it, I had to get it done. And I think in general, I, as a person, have this tendency of saying yes to things first as a deadline and then working towards it… and because as a practitioner, what I believe is that when we practice and work on something, we need some form of output in order to keep going. Because with no product, there's nothing that we can look back on. Tthere's no form of documentation we can look into and celebrate it in the future. So, anyway, therefore, I said yes to Mona Foma and started working out every day for about two hours. I spent two hours every day at the gym a for a very slow walk, and only by the end of two hours of walking, I would run for two minutes. So as I continued that practice for about four months, my body and my emotions were ready for a hundred hours. And I really enjoyed it. I thoroughly enjoyed the whole process of a hundred hours of solo drumming. NG: What did you learn about yourself (it doesn't even have to be a musical thing) from doing this? CK: I love sharing this story. So after 10 days of 10 hours of drumming each day, it took me exactly another 10 days to sort of wake up from this dreamy state because every night I woke up with nightmares: one, either thinking that I fell asleep while drumming, so I thought I was running behind the schedule, that therefore I had to be awake until 2am in the morning in order to make up all the hours of drumming, or two, I would wake up thinking I ran late to 7am or 8am call time, um. And for some reason, I did cry quite often. It wasn't like a sad cry, it was just tears that came out of me with no specific reasons. And I can't really put into words exactly what that symptom means. NG: Did you ever feel like you were going to run out of ideas about what to play? I'm assuming it was all improvised? CK: It was all improvised, but I don't think I was scared of not having enough ideas. Because I trust that... The sound is the secondary and primary is my body movement. So if I were to run out of ideas, I could have simply changed one degree of my angle of my wrist and it would create a completely new sonic space where my brain and probably my passion for music wanted to take on board and start experimenting and improvising with that again. So, thankfully I wasn't afraid of running out of ideas. NG: Who are you listening to? Whose music are you enjoying at the moment? CK: You know, it's interesting because I feel like I'm always learning. I was born in Korea and grew up listening to gospel music, and ABBA, 80s disco, and classical music. So only since I moved to Australia when I was 15 years old that I got introduced to jazz music. Because at high school, I wanted to continue playing drum kit, and the only options I could take was either classical orchestra or jazz band. So I would consider myself still very new to the jazz and other genres of music that my friends grew up listening to. So, I recently found out about artist Nick Drake and love his voice. And Adrianne Lenker and Sam Amidon, also singer songwriters. I think I have a tendency to lean towards music either with lyrics or strings. And that navigates my drumming, which I find it interesting. So I feel inspired and encouraged and excited by listening to percussion focused music. But to learn, I listen to music with... Not so many drum features. So Nick Drake I listen to. There's also a beautiful singer songwriter based in Australia called Martha Marlow so I listen to her music a lot as well. But, here's an album suggestion I have. I just randomly found this on a Spotify recommended playlist, and I ended up listening to them every night during 100 hours of drumming. Yeah. Um, it's an album called From Left to Right by Bill Evans. It's from 1971. And a specific track called Children's Play Song I listened to every night in the bath with some epson salt in it. It made me cry many nights. Just something about that music represents the texture of my heart that I want to carry as a musician. NG: Do you have a particular warm up or practice routine or favourite exercises? CK: I do single and double strokes but the way I do it is very technical. I really, really focus on the technique. I was very lucky to learn this ergonomic technique from my teacher, Simon, which I've been doing every day during and since my university bachelor degree. Every morning I spent three hours doing it. And so, I'm confident now that my body knows it, but still doing that is my only way of warming up and it is my favorite way of understanding the gravity and the function of my arms, weight, speed, and direction. NG: What kit, cymbals, gear do you play? CK: I use Canopus, it's a Japanese Brand drum kit. Canopus jazz bop kit. It’s small. I use a Zildjian ride cymbal. Turkish, Istanbul. I use two ride cymbals actually. Then Ziljian K hi hat. I have a jungle snare drum, which I sometimes bring around as an alternative to a regular snare drum because sometimes even carrying a normal standard snare drum feels very heavy. I also recently on Facebook marketplace bought Tama mini timbales. They’re 8” and 10” and I can tune them up to a really high pitch. And sometimes I use them as an alternative to rack tom, or as an addition to rack tom. Yeah. And I also bring around jam blocks, and I love playing jam blocks with drumsticks. there's some frame drums, which I've got from my friends. I use a super diverse range of percussion and I just collect them everywhere I go. Some of my recent favorite ones have been Kashishi that I bought at Ceres. I use a service bell as well and cowbells, agogo bells that I've been given by a beautiful friend of mine called Milson who was a drum tech For 100 hours. He woke up every morning at like 5 a. m and went to the venue because I played at different locations every day, and he would set up everything for me, including fan on a hot day, and a heater on a cold day, and then he would pack up everything at the end of the day and drive around with the van, so I really want to thank him especially. https://www.chloekimdrums.com/ Name: Caitlin Thomas
Where are you based? Melbourne (Thursday – Monday) and Shepparton (Monday – Thursday) How long have you been playing drums? And what initially drew you to the instrument? I have been playing for about 12 years. I always went to see live bands and felt that if the drummer was tight, the band was good. I thought the drummer had a lot of influence over the product of music and wanted to learn as much as possible about that. Do you play any other instruments? I first started playing guitar before I began drumming and have picked up some shabby piano skills throughout my music career. I also really enjoy singing. What bands/projects/collaborations are you involved in right now? I lead a project called Alpaka Maraka, which is heavily inspired by The Cat Empire. I also regularly play in a folk band called Dylan and the Observable Universe. I also fill in for other projects here and there as required. What else have you previously been involved in (bands/shows/projects etc)? Far too many to name. Do you write music or develop your own shows? What are they about/how have they come about? I love writing music and have been doing it for several years. I love the community that can be created around music-making and music-sharing. I believe strongly in doing my best to contribute to the arts community by virtue of providing opportunities for musicians to get together, play and perform. The most active project I am writing for currently is Alpaka Maraka. I am long-standing friends with most members of the project and had always wanted to be in a project that mimicked what The Cat Empire was doing. The songs are usually a mix of pensive lyrics party-based grooves that celebrate life, love and the mysteries of the human experience. What are your thoughts on collaboration in music and in the projects you’re involved in or the projects you run? I really like collaboration, but I think the parameters of collaboration are unique to each project. The idea of writing a song collaboratively will look different depending on the circumstances. I think that it is usually good – even in highly collaborative settings – to have a clear idea around where the group is going or what a group is trying to achieve, and usually the articulation of that idea rests on the shoulders of a smaller subsection of the group. With that direction being clearly defined, there’s less room for misunderstanding and – I believe – more room for creativity. I think that for people to ‘think outside the box’, the box needs to be given a specific definition. Only after than can the rules be broken, and conventions ignored. But if you’re going to be sophisticated about breaking rules, you need to know what they are first. Who are you listening to/whose music are you enjoying right now? I have been enjoying a great German folk band called Bukahara, and an American band called Ripe lately. They’re both very fly. Do you have any favourite drummers? Or other musicians who inspire you? why? One of my favourite Australian drummers is Salvadore Adione, who is the drummer for the band Closure in Moscow. His drumming actually inspired me to move to Melbourne and study at Monash. I ended up being taught by his same teacher, Tony Floyd. That was really cool. Tony Floyd was very inspiring, and a little bit whacky, which was even more inspiring. I also received a lot of encouragement from Al Kerr, and really enjoyed all of the Brazilian music he teaches and plays. I’m also really inspired by the members of Alpaka Maraka – I love working with them and am always learning so much because oft hem. How would you describe the kind of musical projects you’re mostly involved in? And what kind of unique perspective/sound do you bring to these gigs? Alpaka Maraka is upbeat, highly energetic and fun-loving music that has some pretty introspective lyrics. Dylan and The Observable Universe is much more mellow music that you could lose your thoughts in, and I think it is equally as introspective. Do you have a particular warm up or practice routine? Or favourite exercises? Not at the moment, I have to say. Most of my practise is actually on piano these days, and I usually start by playing this Montuno pattern that Luke Drohan (the piano player of Alpaka Maraka) wrote. I love it so much. Does social media play a big part in how you promote yourself as an artist and your various projects? Do you promote your work in other ways? Social media is not my strong point, but I am lucky enough to have people around me that are all over it. I only learned what a B-reel (?) was thanks to a guitarist friend of mine, and am still learning how to navigate Instagram stories. Do you make a living from music? What different types of work does this comprise? (no worries if this is a bit personal) I do not make a living from music, currently. This was a pretty deliberate decision in the short-term following COVID-19. However, every decision I am currently making is done in a way that I believe will maximise the potential to eventually make a living out of music while also ensuring that I keep sane. Where’s the coolest place that music has taken you? I did an awesome tour around Australia a few years back, including to some pretty remote parts of the Northern Territory. That was really special. Big thanks to Tony Flloyd for getting me that gig. What kit/cymbals/gear do you play? I have a Tamar Jazzstar kit and Sonor Soundforce kit and will use whatever is most appropriate for a given gig. My cymbals are mainly Zildjian K Custom mixes, with a few Avedis and Istanbul cymbals thrown in too. What piece of gear would you buy if money were no object? Goodness me. Probably some really, really, really good in-ears, actually. If you could give your younger drumming self some advice what would it be?
Other thoughts/info I do really like trumpet. Website www.cthodrums.com.au Name Emma Ford Where are you based? Originally from Sydney Australia, but now based in New York City. How long have you been playing drums? And what initially drew you to the instrument? I’ve been playing drums for 18 years and playing professionally for 10 years. I’ve always loved music, Clarinet was actually my first instrument, but I always had my eyes on the drums. It wasn’t until I sat down at a drum kit when I was 10, played some beats and realized that was the instrument for me! I’ve been obsessed with playing drums ever since. Do you play any other instruments? Just Drum Kit and Percussion. What bands/projects/collaborations are you involved in right now? I am currently subbing for Moulin Rouge on Broadway and as of May 2023 I will be the drummer for the new Broadway Musical Comedy, Shucked. What else have you previously been involved in (bands/shows/projects etc)? I have subbed on drums for a number of Broadway Musicals including, Head Over Heels, Come From Away, Tootsie, Jagged Little Pill and Almost Famous. In 2022, I held the drum chair for Paradise Square and Broadway-bound musical Come Fall In Love. What are your thoughts on collaboration in music and in the projects you’re involved in or the projects you run? I think collaboration is very important in the Broadway world, especially because there are usually so many musicians in each orchestra/band for each show, working in a very small pit together. It’s very important that we can all contribute equally to the music and work together seamlessly to provide the soundtrack for the stories that are being told on stage. Who are you listening to/whose music are you enjoying right now? I’m really listening to a mix of music but I will always find my way back to Anderson Paak, Masego, Lawrence, Tom Misch, Vulfpeck and Emily King. Do you have any favourite drummers? Or other musicians who inspire you? why? My favourite drummers would have to be Nate Smith and Steve Jordan, their grooves are so solid and in the pocket. I love really funky grooves with a strong backbeat and those guys just lay it down! How would you describe the kind of musical projects you’re mostly involved in? And what kind of unique perspective/sound do you bring to these gigs? I mostly play for Broadway shows and to do that you have to be a very versatile musician that can play a number of different genres and styles. I have been lucky enough to study Jazz Drumming, Classical Percussion and have played many different genres including Rock, Pop, RnB, Funk, all of which have prepared me for a career in Musical Theatre. Do you have a particular warm up or practice routine? Or favourite exercises? I usually warm up before each show with full body stretches to get the blood pumping and then a variety of rudiments to warm up the hands. Does social media play a big part in how you promote yourself as an artist and your various projects? Do you promote your work in other ways? I have never been great at regularly posting on social media, however I do use it to promote the big projects I’m working on at the time. I mostly use it for networking and inspiration but I’m hoping I can get more into posting videos. Do you make a living from music? What different types of work does this comprise? Yes I am a working musician, mostly playing for Broadway shows but I also freelance and play drums for various concert’s, cabaret’s, gala’s, gigs and artists. Where’s the coolest place that music has taken you? A few highlights include playing at Carnegie Hall, The Sydney Opera House and I toured in the United Arab Emirates. Very grateful for all the amazing places I have been lucky enough to play! What kit/cymbals/gear do you play? I play Pearl Drums, Sabian Cymbals, Vic Firth Sticks and Remo Heads. What piece of gear would you buy if money were no object? I would buy a new Rock N Sok Drum Throne with a back rest! Sitting on a stool without back support for 3 hours during a show, can be very tiring and uncomfortable. It is a welcomed relief to sit back on the stool in between songs, so that would definitely be my first purchase. If you could give your younger drumming self some advice what would it be? Keep working hard, believe in yourself and your ability, you’re going to achieve those dreams that you thought were impossible. Website www.emmaforddrums.com |
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