Ytsejam

You left for England in pursuit of a career in progressive rock, was that a tough decision or one you thought you would have to make if you were going to make it big? it wasn't a tough decision to make at all. i knew i was going to have to leave the small town that i grew up in and my choices for music reasons were los angeles, new york, nashville or london. london appealed to me more than the others due to my love for english rock and that it seemed so much more exciting to go to another country rather than just another state.

You've got an impressive list of musicians you've played with - is there any person or band you haven't yet played with but would like to? there are plenty, but off the top of my head my favorites would be: roger waters, david gilmore, adrian belew, peter gabriel, todd rundgren, emmylou harris, joni mitchell, james brown and jeff beck to name a few.

You were in legal battle with the owner's of Albert Einstein's estate for the use of his name... what was it like? Did you ever think of just changing the name and getting it over with? it was an expensive pain in the ass! everyone, including my lawyer advised me to change the name, but i just thought it was so ridiculous that the estate wanted me to sign over rights and pay monies. so, on principal, i changed it just enough to get by legally by spelling einstein with lower case letters and i flipped the first 'e' upside down. don't they have more important things to deal with... i mean you can walk down the street and buy an einstein's bagel, so gimme a break. seems to me like a lot of lawyers are getting rich off of poor old albert.

Of your impressive catalogue, which performance are you most proud of? to be honest with you, i really don't listen to myself very much, so most of what i've played on, i've not actually heard the end result. from the little that i do check out occassionally, i'd have to say i like 'sunburn' by fuel, both einstein cds, hank decken (not released yet) and a new recording with a band in nyc called shimmerhead. i like them most, not necessarily for my playing, but more because i really like the music.

What is your all time favourite album without thinking of the drumming? 'avalon' by roxy music, regardless of the awesome drumming!

Do you have a preferred style? Such as Aretha Franklin style stuff versus Joe Satriani or GTR? not really, i just love to play great music with great players. saying that, aretha franklin, skollie, steve lukather and most recently shimmerhead are all preferred.

Will you continue to use your monster-style kits or do you prefer 4- or 5-piece kits? i'm very happy to continue playing all size kits, as long as it's right for the gig. using a variety of kits keeps things interesting for me. i always find myself exploring new ideas when i'm sitting on a fresh set up. that was one way i kept the satriani gig interesting, by using a different kit every time i recorded and/or toured. the thought of playing 'ice nine' on the same kit for 9 years makes me cringe. although i'm so totally in love with my new 26" pearl mahogany kick that i can't even imagine playing anything else right now!

How did you gain so much speed in your single kicking? i'd have to say that the speed came about in two ways. i was primarily a double kick player from early on, until one magical day when i discovered bonham. at that point, 90% of my kit got broken down and put away, leaving me with a 24/12/16 set up. from then on it was over-dosing on bonham, newmark, gadd, mattacks (the single kick masters) etc. etc. but, i didn't want to give up a lot of the double kick grooves and fills that i was playing on the big kit. so, it was natural to just work my single kick up to play as much as i could to compensate for the loss of the second kick drum. this came about in two ways. 1) working with gary chaffee's fat back and linear exercises and 2) practicing to 'space boogie' (jeff beck w/ simon phillips) everyday until i could play it start to finish and still walk afterwards!

Where do you personally plan to go from here? Solo performing, session playing, a band situation or something else entirely? well, i've got a few directions that i've been traveling in as of late. all of which i'll continue i'm sure for a long time. primarily, i'm still a freelance/session player, having recorded recently with fuel, oleander, amy fairchild, deni bonet, hank decken, shimmerhead, the broken poets, andre fratto and swim. i also own a state of the art recording studio in manhattan known as skyline studios. we've got a1000 square foot main room with 4 isolations booths, a neve vr60 with total recall, automation and flying faders, 24/48 tracks of studer analog, 48/96 tracks of sony 3348 and studer 1/2" digital, as well as a full 5.1 protools outfit. eric clapton, david bowie, madonna, bonnie raitt, robert palmer, paul simon, santana and many others have all recorded and/or mixed there and steely dan just started their new one with us a few weeks ago. i'm also producing quite a bit and hope to further that as well. there are a few artists that i've worked with that are now gaining momentum and enjoying some moderate success, so i hope to travel in that direction even more. i'll always compose, so there'll be more einstein, as well as collaboration projects.

What's the one thing you would like to do before you die? find out that there's an afterlife. then dying probably wouldn't suck so much!

What kind of music do you listen to in your spare time? pretty much everything. since i'm on a flight to buenos aires at the moment, i'll tell you what's in my cd case. the who "join together live", david gilmore "about face", emmylou harris "spyboy", steely dan "aja", aretha franklin "live at the filmore", happy the man "crafty hands", joaquin rodrigo "fantasia para un gentilhombre", yes "yessongs", group 87 "group 87", jane's addiction "nothing's shocking", shimmerhead "porn reign".

When listening to a song for the first time, do you listen mainly to the drums or the song as a whole? i always try to listen to the song, but it depends. if i'm on a session to replace someone or to record a song from scratch, i'll listen to the drum part first to get an idea of what i'll be basing my track on. from there i'll talk to the artist and/or producer about what i'll be playing and so on. if it's listening to a favorite artist or seeing someone live for pleasure, i'll listen to the song, but still notice the drumming.

Are you into improvisation or are you more geared towards composing? once again, it really depends on the situation i'm in. for instance, with satriani and frank gambale, a lot of our nights were improv and just going for things at the spur of the moment, playing off of each other at different times. i loved that! on the other hand, playing with say fuel or shimmerhead or einstein, the parts are very well thought out and composed. saying that, there's still room for a bit of improv and embellishment too. aretha's gig was all about reading the charts, laying down a groove and hitting the right phrases with the horn section, beyond that i could do what i wanted.

If you were able to re-do the drum tracks to one of your albums, what would it be and why? hmmm, that's a tough one! i'd probably like to re-do them all if i could. i assume when you say 'your albums', you're talking about einstein... so, if i had to pick just one though, it would be the outro to 'pain'. it was dead in the middle of winter and we were recording up at longview farm in the barn. it was a last minute decision to go back in and lay that down to add on to the end of the song. needless to say it was freezing in there and a bit uncomfortable to play. listening to that track, i can hear how cold i was!!!

What do you think is the best quality a drummer could have? And what is your best and worst quality as a drummer? the best quality for any drummer is to support and play for the artist and not themselves. i think my best is a combination of that and being able to tackle any situation that's thrust upon me, my worst is that i get bored too easily.

If someone was to ask for 3 albums to buy that would sum up your playing, what would they be? "einstein"- einstein, "porn reign" - shimmerhead (not released yet), "title unknown" - hank decken. i'd choose those three because of the variety of styles covered between them. einstein is very progressive, incorporating every time signature except 4/4. shimmerhead is very modern alternative, with a zeppelinesque r & b undertone. henk decken is country/blues with really deep pockets of groove.

If you could have 3 people at a dinner table with you, who would they be? i'd have helena bonham-carter for breakfast, michelle pfeiffer for lunch and audrey hepburn for dinner!