It might be
said that behind every guitar great, there is an equally great drummer. One drummer
substantiating that theory is Jonathan Mover. Mover has, thus far, built a career backing
some serious rock guitar heavyweights: Steve Hackett and Steve Howe while with GTR, and,
more recently, Joe Satriani. Thankfully, Jonathan plays anything but a subordinate role in
the projects that he has been involved with. Whether he's playing fusion, metal, or
progressive rock, Mover typifies a strong physical and sonic presence. Describing himself
as a "linear, often polyrhythmic, and always emotional" player, Mover, as anyone
who has seen him live can attest, pushes drumming to a more focal point in whatever
setting he's in.
With only three recorded projects to his credit, some might conclude
that Jonathan has led a charmed professional life. His name has become a buzz in the
industry. He's parlayed his abilities into gigs with international exposure: Marillion,
GTR, Mike Oldfield, Satriani. He's backed up Steve Vai and Mick Jagger. Not bad for a guy
still in his 20's.
Over a cup of tea in his Manhattan digs (he's a recent New York
transplant), Jonathan is asked how important drumming is to his life. He responds with
childlike wonderment when he says reverently, "There's just something about
them. I just saw a film that I can best equate my feelings for drumming with, Field Of
Dreams. Do you remember the part where Shoeless Joe Jackson said that he loves the
smell of the grass, the smell of the glove, everything about the sport of baseball? I feel
the same about drums as that character does about baseball. I love the feel of sticks in
my hands, the feeling of hitting the drums and creating the sounds and textures. I could
never do anything else."
Jonathan gives credit to an animated film and '60s acid-rock band Iron
Butterfly for turning him on to music and drumming in a big way. "I first got into
music when I was a kid through a cartoon called The Point by Harry Nilsson,"
he says. "I went wild when I saw it; it had great music and a great story. My parents
got me the record - it was either Jim Gordon or Jim Keltner on drums, and the whole gang
of musicians associated with them. That was the thing that really got me into music, and
from time to time I still actually listen to it.
"As far as Iron Butterfly is concerned," he continues,
"my older brother had the In-A-Gadda-da-Vida record, and once I heard the
drum solo on that, it completely hooked me."
Mover credits the whole English art/progressive rock movement as having
the most galvanizing musical influence on him. "I was about seven when I first heard
my older sister's ELP albums - she was an absolute ELP freak - and that got me started
onto the whole English rock scene. With the exception of Zappa, Utopia, the Tubes, and
jazz, there weren't any American bands that I was into. Yes, Genesis, Jethro Tull, Pink
Floyd, U.K., Roxy Music, and Gentle Giant were the bands that got me going, and in fact,
that music was what led me to move to England when I was 19."
From the minute he took up drumming at 13, Jonathan practiced with a
vengeance. He studied with a local teacher, learning the basics: beats, reading,
application of the drumkit. After class, he'd head home and play for hours every day.
"My parents had absolutely no trouble getting me to practice," he recalls.
"In fact, they had to drag me away from my drums to eat dinner."
Jonathan was encouraged by his first teacher to move on when he felt he
had taught him all that he could. After those initial lessons, much of what he learned was
through music he enjoyed listening to. "Zappa, Tull, the Tubes, Jeff Beck, Stanley
Clarke, Roxy Music - I was really into those heavy players," he comments, "and
the drummers who played that music: Steve Smith, Andy Newmark, Barriemore Barlow, Prairie
Prince, and most especially Terry Bozzio, Simon Phillips, and Vinnie Colaiuta. Those last
three are like the gods of Mt. Olympus to me." Jonathan also cites non-drummers like
David Gilmour and Roger Waters of Pink Floyd, Jaco Pastorius, and Stravinsky as having an
influence.
"Next, I studied classical percussion, which was great because it
gave me a better understanding of the melodic side of music." He explains. "I
had the rhythmic understanding down, but that opened up a whole new area for me."
Jonathan enrolled at the Berklee School of Music after graduating from
high school, a topic that induces a laugh. "Yeah, Berklee," he says with a
bemused grin. "That turned out to be a series of bad incidents. I went there
specifically to study with Gary Chaffee; Vinnie Colaiuta, who is a big hero of mine, had
studied with him. I also figured that there would be a lot of great players there for me
to hook up with. But I found out that Gary was no longer teaching there, although he was
teaching privately; so I did hook up with him not too long after that. Strike two came
when, in my drumset class, there were five students besides me - and four of those five
were beginners who were just learning 8th notes! I felt so held back in that
situation."
"The real breaking point," he continues, "was when, on
the first day of a class, one of my teachers asked me what shoe size I had. I figured,
'Wow! This class must involve some serious pedal technique.' As it turned out, the teacher
was selling used clothing on the side, and he wanted to know if I was interested in buying
anything."
Mover soon hopped on the first bus back to his parents' home in
Peabody, Massachusetts, a suburb of Boston. His father, once a professional musician
himself, was empathetic to the Berklee fiasco, and agreed to comply with Jonathan's desire
to study privately with Chaffee. After about six months of intensive study, Mover
expressed an interest in attending PIT on the West Coast, a decision that his parents also
consented to. But PIT ultimately proved to be another disillusionment.
"They were advertising Peter Erskine and Casey Scheuerell as being
on staff - two more of my favorite players," he notes. "I went out there a week
before my semester began, while the other students were just finishing up their term. I
went into a practice room to do some shedding, and the next thing I knew there were all
these drummers asking me, 'Are you one of the teachers coming in for the next semester?' I
was blowing out all the Chaffee chops I had just learned - all the stickings and
polyrhythms. Those guys hadn't seen any of that during the whole year they were
there."
Upon learning that Erskine wasn't actually teaching there and that
Scheuerell was visiting faculty, Mover opted to go back home once again and continue his
studies with Chaffee. "I called my folks when I decided to go back," he laughs,
"and said, 'Dad, you're not gonna believe this...'. But he was great about it; both
my parents have always been supportive."
Mover never took the cover-band route, preferring to practice on his
own, sometimes as much as ten hours a day to compensate for what he perceived as lost
time. "Most of the great drummers I've always looked up to started playing when they
were three or four. I started in my thirteenth year, so I took the attitude that, 'If I
work twice as hard and practice all day long, I'll have a better advantage.' When it came
to gigging, I definitely was not into making the local band scene just to get exposure.
When I was younger, I was totally into playing in my basement, studying the Chaffee
lessons, and accumulating as much knowledge as I could. When I knew that I was ready to go
out and play, I split for London."
| Besides the long-standing
passion for British progressive bands, Mover adds that Simon Phillips also prompted his
eventual U.K. migration. "After speaking with Simon, who I met at a clinic and was
fortunate enough to spend several hours with, I got a really good vibe for London. A few
small gigs led from one thing to another, and I started to establish contacts." |
|
One of those contacts resulted in an audition
for Marillion. "When I came back to the States after my visa ran out, I got the call
for that audition. I went back to England, got the gig, and did short stint with the
band."
Marillion was Jonathan's first foray into the all-too-precarious world
of the music industry. He explains: "The day after the audition, I flew to Germany
with them to do a live recording - I didn't know any of the material, I just went for it -
and flew back to England, then on to Wales, where we started writing and recording the
next album, Fugazy. I'm not on the record because I was in the band for
the writing and pre-recording stages only. Anyway, we were writing the material together,
but there was a serious personality clash between the lead singer and myself. That was my
first eye-opening experience in dealing with a fragile ego. At the time, I didn't know how
to handle it, and I was saying, 'What's the deal? How come you're acting like a baby?' I
know better now how to deal with that, and it was a very good learning experience for me.
At the time, I was this hard-headed wise guy who was cool about everything except working
with immature people who have fragile egos. We eventually all decided that it was better
if we didn't work together, so I went back to the States."
Unfortunately, the break was not a clean one, due to royalties. "I
co-wrote their first Top-20 single, 'Punch And Judy,' as well as another single of
theirs," he says. "I was completely green when it came to publishing rights and
royalties. I had written the songs with them, went back home expecting them to be honest,
and the next thing I knew, they had a hit single and I had an empty pocket. I got screwed
out of a lot of money, but I suppose that everybody has got to go through that at one
point or another. Marillion left a bad taste in my mouth as far as the music business
went. One minute I thought I had my foot in the door, and the next thing I knew I was back
in Boston wondering if I was going to have to go back to selling tuxedoes, which I had
done briefly one summer.
"One of the things that got me through that period was an article
in MD on Narada Michael Waldin," he adds. "I remember reading it over
and over again during the rough times in London. He talked about having a big gig, losing
it, having to work as a bellboy in a hotel somewhere, and then getting a great gig with
McLaughlin. I could really relate to that. Another thing he talked about was his beliefs
in karma: everything you do- -good and bad- will come back to you, and that's basically
where I'm coming from. Marillion had stiffed me, people had stolen equipment from me, or
hadn't paid me...but I wasn't going to let those things change me. I have always tried to
be a really nice guy, to always try to go for the things I want to go for without stepping
on anybody. I've always felt that it doesn't pay to badmouth or be spiteful to people who
have hurt you because it just creates more bad feelings in the end."
"Students often ask me at clinics about how to handle it when
those kinds of things happen," he elaborates, "and I have one piece of advice
for them. I'm not sure who said it, but somebody did say that this business has a tendency
to weed out the weaklings. If you're not strong enough to endure the hardships, then
you're not meant to be in it."
Upon his departure from Marillion, Mover returned to Boston, deciding,
after nailing down a few more gigs in New York, that he wanted to go back to England with
"more permanency in mind." Determined to make his mark abroad, he soon hooked up
with ex-Genesis guitarist Steve Hackett, with the two later joining ex-Yes guitarist Steve
Howe to form GTR.
The group commenced with rehearsals in November of '84, yet their debut
release didn't surface for another year and a half due to personal strife between Hackett
and Howe. Jonathan explains that this experience proved to be such a disappointment that
he has serious reservations about ever joining a band in terms of an indefinite
commitment, a feeling that he still harbors to this day. "I don't think I'll ever get
into an actual band situation again," he says somewhat remorsefully, "unless
everything concerning the group was divided equally amongst its members. When you belong
to a group, you're working with each other all of the time, so it's like a marriage. If
everyone is not getting their fair share, it makes it real tough. GTR was especially tough
for two reasons: They were so lethargic that it took long periods to get anything
done. I was with them for a little more than two years, and in that time we only got one
album and one average-sized tour in. Most groups would have accomplished twice that
much."
Personality conflicts once again rendered problems. "The two
Steves didn't get along, so it was like working with two children. They had different ways
of working, and neither would cooperate to find a happy medium. At first I thought, 'Wow!
Working with two legends like Howe and Hackett is serious shit!' But from day one, they
would complain about sitting next to each other on the plane, about having their own
limos...ridiculous things were always a hassle, and the rest of the band always ended up
in the middle."
"Another thing that I prefer about not being in a band," he
continues, "is that I like to keep myself open to playing with other people. While in
GTR, I was under contract not to work with anybody else. There I was, finished with all my
drum tracks and my percussion overdubs within one week, while the rest of the album took
nine months to complete. I basically had eight and a half months of sitting-around
time."
Jonathan put that downtime to productive ends, observing the recording
and production processes, which are of major interest to him. "Production, aside from
drumming and songwriting," he begins, "is the only thing that interests me
musically. I spent those eight months picking up as much as I could watching [producer]
Geoffrey Downes do the arrangements and effects, controlling the board, synching things
up, adding and subtracting tracks. Every time I go into a studio, in fact, I'll check out
the effects situation, the miking - all of that."
After the album release and the tour in late '86, it was apparent to
everyone involved that GTR's days were numbered. "After the tour of the U.S., Canada,
and Europe, Hackett and Howe were fighting like cats and dogs - the whole childish deal,
the whole time - and we found ourselves back in England planning the next album amongst
more conflict. I said, 'I'm just not into this.' So I flew back here, took some time off
during the Christmas holidays to think, and as soon as I was ready to do something I
hooked up with Joe Satriani."
In between GTR and Satriani, Mover did some other gigs, including
playing with Mike Oldfield for a spell. "I was fortunate to go in and replace Simon
[Phillips]. I was playing lefty at the time because I had to sync up to the parts that
Simon played on the original tracks, which were ridiculous. He has hands and feet going
every which way, and it's all flawless. It was a good workout trying to cop what he was
doing."
Jonathan initially met guitarist Satriani when their mutual equipment
manufacturer set up a jam session. Mover soon joined the trio as a performing member and
toured in support of Not Of This Earth, the breakthrough Surfing With The
Alien, and this year's Dreaming #11. "Joe's music covers
everything," Jonathan says. "Every gig we play we do thrashing punk, funk,
metal, a little bit of jazz, blues, fusion, and we even do a boogie. Plus, I get to play a
lot of the Chaffee chops: the linear stuff, a lot of the stickings, some of the easier
polymetric figures, and a lot of four-way independence, because I also play the sitar,
guitar, keyboard, and percussion lines with the Octapad. So I've got one arm
doing those effects, and one arm playing the kit; it's a lot of fun. Joe originally
brought up the idea of maybe bringing in a fourth person to play those parts, but I said
'No, I'll do it.' I think it's really neat, and it looks real good, too. And, dare I say,
people were calling us the Mahavishnu of the late '80s. I can see the other two falling in
that category; I'm certainly no competition for Mr. Cobham. But it was thrilling being
called that, and when you have that kind of reaction from people, you want to maintain
that level and take it even further.
"On a couple of songs, Stu [Hamm, bassist] employs this two-handed
tapping technique where one hand is covering the rhythm and the other is playing melody
and guitar lines. He's doing two parts, I'm doing two parts with the effects, and Joe is
covering the rest. It adds that much more to a live show. Bands usually go out with tape
loops, Fairlights, and extra people to cut what the three of us do on our own."
Mover has worked in a variety of band configurations. When asked if he
cites a distinction between, say, a conventional five-piece rock-band format and a power
trio such as Satriani, he responds that the differences are quite radical on a creative
level. "With GTR, I had specific parts to play," Jonathan explains. "I
could wander a little bit - I could change a few fills here and there - but in some cases,
I needed to play those parts. When you've got that many people in a band with everybody
doing something at a specific time, you have to keep it direct to keep it tight in a
performance. In a trio like this, not only do you have to but you also want
to fill up a lot more space. This is the first gig where I've gotten into the open hi-hat
type of playing, a la Alex Van Halen. You need that type approach because of needing to
fill space."
"I only feel as good as the people I'm playing with,"
Jonathan says. "And with Joe and Stu, I feel really good about my playing. I'm not
where I ultimately want to be, but I do feel really comfortable so that if I want to base
my fill on quintuplets or play seven over three, I can do it, because when I come down on
1, they'll be there. A lot of the things I did on the GTR album were edited and erased
because they wanted to make a pop album. It was very hard to swallow because it was my
first big recording experience. I had put in some special touches that fit well and
allowed me to take risks. Unfortunately, when the album came out nine months later it
turned out to be a pop record - totally different from the way that it was recorded."
"During the first few days of the GTR tour," he continues,
"I played a lot of what was initially on that record, and there were expressions of
horror on the faces of Howe and Hackett. I was told, 'We can't follow that, no way. We've
gotta hear the four; put your hi-hat through everything and don't go too far out.' I had
to say to myself, 'Okay. Being a professional, I have to accept this and make it sound the
best for the band, not just for me.' So I did cut loose a little bit, but anybody who saw
us during the first week of dates saw that I was really going for it. Since I wasn't able
to take a solo - it was a guitar band - I did learn how to sneak in things here and
there."
Jonathan points out that one of the many roles a drummer has to master
in a rock-band format with several members is that of diplomatic negotiator - sometimes
out of basic necessity. "I find that with a lot of people I've worked with, you're
getting urged to speed up or slow down by different people. With Marillion, the lead
singer wanted to sometimes hear the time speeded up while the guitarist would want to stay
back on the beat, and the keyboardist was always right with me. So I'd be on stage,
playing the tune at the speed it was intended for, and I'm getting these looks to either
slow down or speed up, and I don't want to do that for anybody because it makes me look
bad. I didn't study ten years with a metronome to let the time wander. So when that
happens, you've got to convince all of them, using facial expressions, that you're doing
what they want you to do. Facially and physically, I'd look as though I was responding to
whoever was looking at me. Sometimes that's the way you have to work in order to relate to
the whole band."
"With Joe, I find myself listening to his playing instead, because
he really speaks with his guitar. I don't think it has that much to do with playing in a
trio verses a five-piece. It has more to do with the songs that Joe writes - not the
typical verse-chorus-verse, because it's an instrumental group - and the way he
plays."
With Satriani, Jonathan is able to pull out all the stops in a highly
discursive drum solo. What's his basic line of thinking here? "There are three things
I go for in a solo that must work off each other: I want to please the audience, I want to
please myself, and I want to use that spot as a catalyst for getting across a lot of what
I'm not able to do with the group I'm playing in. The ideal gig for a Chaffee-type
polyrhythmic student would be with Zappa or [Alan] Holdsworth, where you're playing all
these incredible rhythmic groove parts. One of the situations where I did get to utilize
the Chaffee polyrhythms was in a drum duet that Gary wrote for Steve Smith and Vinnie
Colaiuta to record. It's on par with Zappa's 'The Black Page.' I worked on it with Gary;
Vinnie and Steve are going to eventually record it. It's definitely a milestone because
it's very complex, totally out there."
"Getting back to the solo," he continues, "I'll do some
things that will please me, some of the faster cliché things that are audience pleasers,
and I'll also throw in some things from my linear, polymetric background in a way that
won't bore the non-drumming audience. If you just play a polyrhythmic solo with nothing
underneath it, there's really no interest for the audience. I like to base a lot of my
polyrhythms over four against an open/closed hi-hat with my left foot. It's the kick
heel-toe technique that Vinnie, Gadd, and Weckl, among other guys, use. So you get an
open/close hi-hat on 2 and 4, then you can play the polyrythms over that. Then I'll go
into a samba type of groove, playing different structured polyrhythms in either three,
four, or five over that. To round out the solo - the next song we do, which is 'Lords Of
Karma,' starts out with the sitar on the Octapad - I'll go into 3/4 samba with a
4/4 straight rock beat over that, accenting every seventh note. That's the cue for Joe and
Stu to come in. It's a well-constructed solo, but I don't do the same things night after
night either; there are different polyrhythms, different linear grooves. If I were playing
with Elton John or Madonna, I'd be doing the kind of grooving that keeps the whole band
together. With Joe, everything is hot and wild to begin with so in my solo, I can take
off. I can go to '11'."
A song like "Satch Boogie" (from Surfing With The Alien)
is very freewheeling and open-ended. "I have the basic song structure," he
remarks. "But as far as fills, grooves, or turning the beat around at the bar line,
those things just happen at the moment. I listen back to the tapes quite often and
sometimes I'll hear things that I did that sound great. Other times I'll hear things that
just don't work. In fact, I think it's important to listen to other drummers as well as
your own tapes - not so much to hear great licks to cop, but to hear some bad stuff as
well. I'm not saying that you should listen to bad players, just listen to mistakes and
bad habits that you shouldn't cop and try to learn from them."
Jonathan likes to vary his setups and switches between right-and
left-handed playing depending on the gig he's involved with and its inherent demands.
"It lends a fresh approach to each gig," Jonathan says, "and it helps to
keep my playing challenging. With Marillion, I was playing a single kick with a few racks
and a floor tom, drumming right-handed. With GTR, I went to a double-kick setup with more
rack toms. I started playing right-handed when we were still doing progressive rock. But
as the songs became more simplified, I switched to lefty to keep my interest. I lowered
the hi-hats down to the level of my snare, put the ride on the left-hand side - like Simon
Phillips was doing at the time - and played the record that way. It kind of put me on the
spot because I had to learn it in a week, rather than giving myself a year to get used to
it."
"When I got the gig with Satriani, I took a new approach again,
going back to a single kick, very few toms, and right-handed playing, and dividing my grip
between matched and traditional."
In situations where Mover plays single bass drum, he is often accused
of playing a double pedal (no doubt in part due to his amazingly frenetic foot technique).
Sorry, folks, but if you see a single bass drum, then he's using a single pedal.
"There are some really nice things you can do with a double pedal, especially if you
like the small size bass drum setup. Chad Wackerman, for example, is one of the best
double pedal players I've ever heard. For my tastes, though, if I'm going to play double
bass, I want two bass drums there. To me, it feels much better than playing two beaters on
one head. I also like the look of the single pedal, and I like the way it feels. I use the
Tama nylon strap. It's a real inexpensive, simple pedal, but it just seems to work the
best."
And what about learning to play those fluid double and triple bass drum
strokes? "That comes about be skipping the ball of my foot across the foot plate. So,
depending on how many beats I want to come out - two, three, four - will be how far back
I'll move my foot and how many times I'll skip forward to get that many beats. I taught
this to myself because it was the only way I could actually get four notes or a triplet
with one foot. I know that Weckl and Gadd use the heel-toe technique on the bass drum, but
my foot is too big to do that. My heel is off of the plate, and I play heel up all the
time, so I really couldn't utilize that. And if I want to get a straight 16th note pattern
like a double bass drum, then I'll just find a comfortable position on the plate where
there's the right amount of spring tension and velocity for kicking and going into the
head. I just flutter my ankle to get the 16th notes that come out. That's why everybody
thinks I'm using a double pedal, although you don't need one to do it. Obviously there are
things that you can do with two pedals that you can't do with one. But there are a lot
more things that you can do with one than most people think."
Due to his previously mentioned ambidexterity, Jonathan doesn't hit his
crash cymbals as a right-handed dominated player would. In fact, his propensity for
switching things around has opened up his playing considerably. "That was the result
of the influence of those drummers I mentioned, like Phillips and Cobham. When I decided
to change, I worked out a lot of things I did as a right-handed player, but leading with
my left hand. That leaves me open to do a lot more with my left. Whereas most drummers are
going to come up with their right hand to crash, I'm going to use my left hand. That
leaves me room to expand a lot. Ninety-nine percent of all drummers go left to right in
their fills, from high tom to low tom. With left-hand lead, you go right to left up the
toms, and it won't screw up your stickings. You can also move around the kit in different
directions. The first incorrect thing that most drum teachers tend to teach is to always
use right-hand lead: You start your rolls, paradiddles - everything - with your right
hand. But in reality, your left is just as important as your right."
Being ambidextrous also helps Jonathan's hi-hat work. "For
example," he ways, "A lot of people who play the 6/8 shuffle will lead with
their right hand while crossing underneath with the left. I don't have to do that. I'll
lead with my left, and that leaves my right hand free to go around the kit. So depending
on what the groove is, I'll lead with my right or left hand on the hi-hat. It also has a
lot to do with the Dennis Chambers type of 'double two-handed riding,' when he puts one
hand on the ride and one hand on the hi-hat. I can do the same thing: I can start a lot of
my figures on the hi-hat instead of on the ride, using the ride for the fill-in notes.
Most of the time, drummers play a groove, and while the ride line is going along with the
tune, everything else is holding it down and filling it in. I'm doing the same thing, but
with different voices. There are so many different voices that people never explore. Manu
Katche' uses different textures of his drumkit and splash cymbals to play off of. And if
you pick up a Zappa record you'll hear Vinnie hitting rims and using a cowbell and the
hi-hat at the same time. That's something I got from Chaffee: using all the textures and
voices dynamically from every available part of the drumkit. Many people in rock bypass
that approach. A guy like Andy Newmark gets more out of a four-piece kit than some of
these guys who are playing four bass drums."
 |
Gary Chaffee was also an
influence on Jonathan's style of hitting, which is very much of a snapping motion.
"That goes back to Gary's down/up technique," Jonathan explains. "It is
actually a snapping of the drumstick. Most drummers start with the stick down on the drum,
then they lift it up and then down to strike it. Gary starts you off in the air so that
it's half the energy and effort, and half the time to strike it. I use that technique on
the cymbals and the drums." |
Besides the previously mentioned area
of ambidexterity, another area Jonathan feels drum teachers unnecessarily shy away from is
odd times. "Teachers only tend to show students all the even counted beats: 2/4, 3/4,
4/4, and 6/8. They stay away from five, seven, nine, eleven - all the stuff that has a
tendency to scare students. They think the odd times are weird or taboo because they're
not even. Of course, that's not true. I tell students that those time signatures should
not be considered as odd. Take a measure: what you have is point A to point B in which to
do a certain number of notes in a certain amount of time. Say it's seven notes: It's still
seven notes played evenly, even though you're playing in seven time. Same thing as when
you play in 15/16 or 19/16. Instead of having four quarter notes, you have 19 16th notes
that still have to be played correctly and be evenly spaced. Students seem to understand
that and the way it's subdivided, which takes away a lot of the strain and misconceptions
about how difficult it is to play odd time. Once they have that figured out, then
polyrhythms are much easier because you're basing one rate of time in a rhythm grooving
against another."
"I think I had a head start because I grew up listening to the
music I did - progressive, odd-time, 'out there' music. So I didn't distinguish between
odd and even time. When I first started playing by ear I just played everything. If it was
in 11 it didn't matter to me. When I learned what everything was, it was that much easier
for me to be comfortable in playing the straight stuff as well. If you start out in 4/4
and then someone says, 'Tackle this tune in nine,' you might be daunted. It's much easier
to take two steps further and then have to take two steps back."
Mover has been primarily playing instrumental fusion music lately. In
addition to his work with Satriani, he recently appeared on bass player Stu Hamm's solo
effort, Kings Of Sleep. Does he have to creatively psych himself up for these
similarly formatted projects? "Well, it's more of the mentality where you have to
look at every gig you do in terms of professionally pleasing the person you are working
for," he comments. "I'd like to always please myself as well, but that's not the
main objective. Working with Joe and Stu on their projects, a lot of direction comes from
them, so you have to work around it to get your little bits and pieces in where you can.
Sometimes they don't like something I'll do because they wrote it with something else in
mind. Sometimes they don't notice, and sometimes they do like what's thrown in. It's a
give and take, feedback type of thing. But with instrumental music it's really easy to get
lost in what's going on, because a lot of times it's pretty much the same beats, and
you're not following a vocal line or lead track because you're just recording your rhythm
track. So it's up to you to keep it from getting dull, even it if means just adding or
subtracting a bass drum, or breaking from the hi-hat to the ride, or maybe using an
alternate accent on your snare drum just to enhance it a bit.
Mover is also making inroads with production work, having produced a
host of Boston-based bands in the past few years. "I do most of my production work in
Boston. I've done about a dozen projects, everything from acoustic rock to pop/funk
sessions to heavy metal things. I want to be able to get my hands on everything, and I
usually play on most of the stuff I produce. One of the things I like about producing is
that you're helping someone to create an end result, which is radically different than
going into a session just for three minutes, then leaving it to somebody else to take it
forward. This way, I get to work with vocal harmonies, melodies, and arrangements - all of
which is so satisfying to me. It's another way for me to express myself. I don't think
that I'm ready to tackle a Top-40 project at the Power Station - which is the level I'm
hoping to get to someday - but the feedback on the things I've done in the Boston area has
been overwhelming and very encouraging. I'm grateful that I seem to have an ear for
producing."
One project Jonathan worked on was the theme song for the Special
Olympics. "I have been working with a guitarist named Paul Julian on and off for the
past few years. I produced and arranged 'Special People' for him, which was the 1988 and
possibly will be the '89 theme song for the Special Olympics. The results from that were
so positive that it led us to work together on another theme song for a charity called
'Heaven's Children'."
Another composition that Jonathan wrote, produced, and performed on
premiered in MD in the form of a flexi-disc. Entitled "Put Up Or Shut
Up," it was also received positively. Has he considered working on a solo album? The
reason I did that in the first place," he answers, "is because several record
companies who saw Joe Satriani out on the road last year approached me and said, 'The
other two guys in his group have solo albums out. Why don't you do the same?' So after
hearing that several times, I decided to put some live stuff down on tape to see what I
could to with it." He plans to continue working on his own material whenever time
allows.
In addition to his own projects and
backing up more progressive artists like Satriani, Jonathan has also worked on some more
straight-ahead gigs. Last year, he gigged with blues singer/harmonica player James
Montgomery. "It was great," Jonathan enthuses, "It was just for a couple of
gigs that I did after I came back from Paris with Satriani. We did all the traditional
blues and R&B standards, some Blues Brothers tunes, and some of his originals.
Montgomery's been around for ages; he's legendary. It was a completely different type of
experience for me, and it was really fun to do. Hopefully, if I have the time, I'll do
more things with him here and there."
Jonathan has also been playing New York clubs with a band aptly called
the Blue Suits (who, with the exception of Mover, give new meaning to the phrase
"corporate rock," since the band is comprised of business executives).
"It's a lot of soul stuff as well," he offers, "so I've been listening to
some Bernard Purdie stuff and the songs that Steve Jordan did with the Blues Brothers.
It's really a blast. I play a four-piece kit, and I don't take a solo; it's just groove
playing all night." Jonathan also recently did an eleven week tour of Russia with a
group called Skollie, subbing for the group's regular drummer, Anton Fig.
With Jonathan getting the chance to be creative in so many areas at a
relatively young age, which way does he wish to navigate his career? "There are three
avenues that I want to take," he begins. "One is playing with people in the
music industry who I respect, whose music I enjoy, and who I want to work with, like Frank
Zappa, Roger Waters, Peter Gabriel, or Carly Simon. There are lots of people in that
category. On the other hand, I also want to pursue my own writing and playing side as
well, and get involved in a band project it the right elements are there. Finally, as
we've discussed, the producing side of music is definitely a goal in a long-term sense.
That's the third side that you'll see coming from me, but you will see all three, I'll
guarantee that."
Does Mover see himself taking the studio route, or is he inclined to
continue touring and recording? "There's still a part of me that loves and needs to
tour. So, eventually, I think getting to the point where I'm recording maybe a dozen
albums a year with different artists and still doing three to six months of touring would
keep me balanced. It fluctuates, too, because if you're on the right tour, you may want to
hang out longer. Then again, if you're really doing some great studio projects you might
only want to go out with somebody for a two-month tour. To have the choice as to where I
want to balance recording and touring - as well as producing - is the point at which I'll
be most comfortable and happy. It might take me a little time to get to that spot, but
that's okay-no complaints. I'm only at the beginning of my career. I haven't played with that
many people, because I've always been thought of as a band player, which on one of the
myths that I'm trying to break right now.
"You come off the road with someone like Satriani after four
months, and people think, 'He must be taking a break,' or 'He must be busy recording the
new album.' That's not true. I want people to know that when I'm off the road, I want to
work with other artists. That's one of the main reasons I moved to New York - to be in the
middle of what's going on. It seems to be going in that direction." |
