"When I see people playing fast and flashy, I'll I'm aware of is that I'm witnessing a regurgitation of some incredible amount of practice… and I find it really boring. I can see you've practiced it to death, so what am I witnessing? I'm not witnessing any music, I'm not witnessing any expression. I'm witnessing you doing a circus act." ... Gotta love truth.
I've been a fan of Steve Jansen since the later years of Japan and it was quite interesting to hear Gavin show appreciation for Steves style and emotional content. Steve J was the first drummer I heard who played drums that made you want to cry. Not in a bad way .. but simply drawing out such intense emotion from a simple rhythm.
This dude is dead on! Anybody can have crazy chops. It's subtle little things that make somebody's playing different or stand out. A simple thing can change the the whole outlook!
The way he talks about how he's inspired by smaller tasteful things is basically exactly how his playing inspires me. This video made me realize I can already play anything I want; all I need to do is think of it
This is what I have been wanting to say but couldn't express. The flood of drummers...(some even "internet sensations") performing the fastest flurry of tasteless notes.... that kids all look to as "teachers" is so disheartening. When I was recently purchasing a kit and wanted to hear how different drums sounded...I couldn't hear the tones of the drums in the video's i was flicking through from so much over playing. Gavin...Thank-you. Your awesomeness is much appreciated!
As a guitarist I must say Gavin is very insightful and all musicians, not just drummers, can learn from this. He is the most musical drummer I've ever heard!
That's really great! I'm glad to see a drummer whose foundation is creativity :). Drummers are not musical? Maybe a lot of them aren't... Just people who had hours of practice a week.. Gavin Harrison, you're great!
3:58 - Mentions Steve Jansen, one of my favourite players. I wouldn't say he doesn't have chops or technique though. The late Neil Peart also rates Steve highly.
Great points. And true. I like Andy Newmark's drumming in Roxy Music - particularly "Avalon" - for its taste, impeccable time and his ability to throw in original licks without going over the top. His restraint is as important as his facility. He can say a lot with a little...
Wow, that's really nice, i was listening first to Japan and i really enjoyed Steve Jansen grooves, then i found out richard barbieri was in Porcupine Tree, next ot find out Gavin Harrison also like Jansen, that's really great. Love their sound.
so much wisdom. Especially the part about practice pad playing. I've been working on my hands LOADS the past few months, and now i play with a huge amount more control, but I sit at a kit and try to coordinate an idea, and find I can't do it! the idea's jumbled or doesn't fit or is uninspiring. There's really no substitute to working at ideas on a kit.
I love you man!!! Just came across these videos of Gavin tonight. This section, of the interview.......I FEEL YA BROTHER!!!! You think the same as I....
I just discovered this guy only a couple of weeks ago when I found those Letterman drum week clips. I thought the guy was good. So I decide to check out some more clips here on youtube and man, he is way more amazing than I realized! I am 52 and a bit out of touch I guess. Spend too much time looking at old Weckl ,Gadd and Vinnie clips. Great stuff of course, but need to check out other cats too! Also, what he says about about not having ideas, man, that is one of my problems I have struggled with over the years!
I agree with him, He is the one of the best Drummers around the world. I saw him in 2010 in the Porcupine Tree tour in Mexico. He is a fantastic drummer.
Just like with people at different ages, drummers are at different stages of development, and just like with a child, in the early stages rudiments, imitation, rote, etc. is extremely important to build the foundation for later stages. Adults 20-40 years old are in the strength and production years of their lives, which later gives way to the wisdom and perspective years. But there's no wisdom and perspective years without first going through the strength and production years. My point? It's Ok to be in those earlier stages, and in fact, there is no skipping them to get to the more creative and nuanced stages that Gavin Harrison is talking about. What he experienced is what most drummers will eventually experience in the natural course of things: After years in the power and technical stage of drumming, a dissatisfaction may set in as a cue that it's time to move on. But that doesn't negate the value of where you've been; it only shows you're growing and are ready for new things.
Thomas Lang is not on the same planet as Gavin Harrison as an overall musician & 'drummer'. Personally I don't seem keen on him, (a bit smarmy perhaps??), but he his undoubtedly a very good drummer for sure, if you like that kinda thing....
+alfie There are two types of people that are involved in music: technicians and musicians. The first ones can play technically unbelievable things and can't create a single piece of music that are worth listening to, while second ones can have almost no technique at all but we listen to their records everyday.
Same here! I quitted though, but it's the same story. I wanted to create something unique and harmonic, not just a composition of things done earlier by others. Gavin is a genious, no one opens my eyes like he does!
My remedy for that is on the pad do more then just stick workouts. I do grooves, polyrhythms rudiments, play around time, lock in time, ect. I also use my legs in conjuction with my pad, and I force myself to play open-handed(I need to do that more)
Delighted to hear him mention Steve Jansen(Japan),and then he spoils it by saying that Steve had no chops and couldn't play fast to save his life. He obviously hasn't listened to the Quiet Life,Polaroids and Tin Drum albums. Steve and Mick Karn were a rhythm section like no other.Truly innovative and influential.
@LordAssortedBits correction: I think it seems mindless because people are just following scene cliché's instead of using them *to create interesting deviations.
This should be titled "the video Mike Portnoy needs to watch RIGHT NOW" Unfortunately, I've had very little patience for music lately, i.e. I've been wanting something I can just rock out to rather than something that you have to kind of sit back and really listen to intently. That jazzy groove Gavin plays later in this video really got me though, so maybe that will rekindle my desire to listen to something deep and musical.
@jsbattlenet I think it seems mindless because people are just following scene cliché's instead of using them. It's not just metal, punk has that tendency as well (and often uses the same polka-beat (the skank) as those fast metaldrummers do). But what Gavin said in this video (that he values ideas and nice touches) also applies to that sort of drumming, some put in nice accents during blastbeats to give a whole different feel to a track.
Finally this! I hate fast drumming it doesn't sound musical. There's no musicality to it. No style. Gavin sounds wonderful, Bernard Purdie is amazing. That's real imaginative, musical drumming to me.
@LanceDirk : agreed Mike Portnoy is really just technique to the extreme... but unlike many other, I find it fitting quite good to Dream Theater, I mean it's a band founded at Berkeley, they are amazing muscicians and live by showing off their talent together, and therfore is Mike Portnoy the right drummer, and plays what is right to DT... IMO
Modern music times...yeah and guitarists and drummers,you learn the fastest hardest parts,and once you sink all that time you realise its not as important as the originality Btw he probaby misunderstood Steve,listen to Art of parties,hes a pretty technical drummer,but not a super fast and makes you appreciate the groove,and when you hear him play you know its him
With the competition in the art of drumming technical chop based player's will try and convince you that if a drummer can't play the 26 rudiments at a high speed on the metronome that groove based player's are at an intermediate level yet some chop based player's say nothing musical with their drumming
Yeah, my bad. After doing little research I found out I've been wrong a big part of my life. Don't remember where I got the "brain is a muscle" thing, thanks for the correction.
He's talking like a jazz player. Jazz players often play the way he's describing, but that's why most of jazz fans are musicians, because everyone else can't hear the subtle ideas they play. On the other hand rock music is way more flashy, and pretty much every good rock live performer tends to act as if the stuff they do is way harder than it is. But can you imagine how much rock would've sucked if jimi hendrix never played guitar with his theeth?
"When I see people playing fast and flashy, I'll I'm aware of is that I'm witnessing a regurgitation of some incredible amount of practice… and I find it really boring. I can see you've practiced it to death, so what am I witnessing? I'm not witnessing any music, I'm not witnessing any expression. I'm witnessing you doing a circus act." ... Gotta love truth.
Fantastic to hear someone acknowledge the genius of Steve Jansen. massively talemted and criminally under rated drummer...
Agreed, Steve is one of the most elegant, talented drummers around...not sure Gavin's ref was much of a compliment though...talk about arrogant.... 🙄
I have watched this video at least 4 times now. And i'm not even a drummer but this is still inspiring!
I've been a fan of Steve Jansen since the later years of Japan and it was quite interesting to hear Gavin show appreciation for Steves style and emotional content. Steve J was the first drummer I heard who played drums that made you want to cry. Not in a bad way .. but simply drawing out such intense emotion from a simple rhythm.
This dude is dead on! Anybody can have crazy chops. It's subtle little things that make somebody's playing different or stand out. A simple thing can change the the whole outlook!
53 here, i’m halfway this doc series ..and it already feels life changing for me..if only i was 30 years younger. Wish i discovered him earlier.
What's the documentary called?
Steve Jansen’s feel is what set him apart from so many drummers. His accents, off-beats, tuning and on-the-nose timing was drumming perfection.
Steve Jansen played with Mick karn an iconic bass player. Japan were not a frilly shirt new wave band. They were very good musicians
The way he talks about how he's inspired by smaller tasteful things is basically exactly how his playing inspires me. This video made me realize I can already play anything I want; all I need to do is think of it
This is what I have been wanting to say but couldn't express. The flood of drummers...(some even "internet sensations") performing the fastest flurry of tasteless notes.... that kids all look to as "teachers" is so disheartening. When I was recently purchasing a kit and wanted to hear how different drums sounded...I couldn't hear the tones of the drums in the video's i was flicking through from so much over playing. Gavin...Thank-you. Your awesomeness is much appreciated!
Come to the guitar world, it's even worse!
As a guitarist I must say Gavin is very insightful and all musicians, not just drummers, can learn from this. He is the most musical drummer I've ever heard!
im a guitarist. this guy inspires me more than any artist playing my own instrument
what an incredible interview
Yes! And I was thinking Steve Gadd when he was talking about the little things, then he mentions Gadd! wow!
Your comment on Steve Jansen is SO true. Thank you
Just listening to him brought a broad smile such simplistic approach towards creating expressive musicality
Incredibly profound and well stated… This is why he is such a phenomenal drummer and musician.
That's really great! I'm glad to see a drummer whose foundation is creativity :). Drummers are not musical? Maybe a lot of them aren't... Just people who had hours of practice a week.. Gavin Harrison, you're great!
3:58 - Mentions Steve Jansen, one of my favourite players. I wouldn't say he doesn't have chops or technique though. The late Neil Peart also rates Steve highly.
Great points. And true.
I like Andy Newmark's drumming in Roxy Music - particularly "Avalon" - for its taste, impeccable time and his ability to throw in original licks without going over the top.
His restraint is as important as his facility. He can say a lot with a little...
Wow, that's really nice, i was listening first to Japan and i really enjoyed Steve Jansen grooves, then i found out richard barbieri was in Porcupine Tree, next ot find out Gavin Harrison also like Jansen, that's really great. Love their sound.
so much wisdom. Especially the part about practice pad playing. I've been working on my hands LOADS the past few months, and now i play with a huge amount more control, but I sit at a kit and try to coordinate an idea, and find I can't do it! the idea's jumbled or doesn't fit or is uninspiring. There's really no substitute to working at ideas on a kit.
great drummer
+max scientist one of England's "crown jewels".
Great MUSICIAN
Great to hear Gavin,thanks...
Love is comments on drummers who just play fast and how he loves the little touches!
He is so intelligent and charming!
I love you man!!! Just came across these videos of Gavin tonight. This section, of the interview.......I FEEL YA BROTHER!!!! You think the same as I....
Love his comments on drummers who just play fast and how he loves the little touches!
He is so intelligent and charming!
Very few drummers at this level of everything (chops, musicality, originality).
Thumbs up if you went and checked out Steve Jansen.
I love those little bell cymbals. Lovely.
@1:53 well I don't know if we can "all" do it..but I agree with Gavin! Very interesting..very good!
Very informative and simply amazing.
Hey thanks for the vids jez12 and keep up the good work! This interview is priceless.
Completely connects with how I feel about the drums after being classically trained on other instruments first. This guy deserves a lot of respect.
I just discovered this guy only a couple of weeks ago when I found those
Letterman drum week clips. I thought the guy was good. So I decide to check out some more clips here on youtube and man, he is way more amazing than I realized! I am 52 and a bit out of touch I guess. Spend too much time looking at old Weckl ,Gadd and Vinnie clips. Great stuff of course, but need to check out other cats too!
Also, what he says about about not having ideas, man, that is one of my problems I have struggled with over the years!
Great video, it's nice to see someone make sense.
Thx Gavin, like so much your musical ideas
A brilliant man and one of the tastiest drummers around.
Ahhhh, awesome!! He talks about Stewart Copeland, he is another of my three favorite drummers along with Gavin and Cato Bekkevold.
Applies to every musician who truly wants to go over the top with his/her playing.
Great Interview, Gavin's the man !
I agree with him, He is the one of the best Drummers around the world. I saw him in 2010 in the Porcupine Tree tour in Mexico. He is a fantastic drummer.
still love it!!
Just like with people at different ages, drummers are at different stages of development, and just like with a child, in the early stages rudiments, imitation, rote, etc. is extremely important to build the foundation for later stages. Adults 20-40 years old are in the strength and production years of their lives, which later gives way to the wisdom and perspective years. But there's no wisdom and perspective years without first going through the strength and production years. My point? It's Ok to be in those earlier stages, and in fact, there is no skipping them to get to the more creative and nuanced stages that Gavin Harrison is talking about. What he experienced is what most drummers will eventually experience in the natural course of things: After years in the power and technical stage of drumming, a dissatisfaction may set in as a cue that it's time to move on. But that doesn't negate the value of where you've been; it only shows you're growing and are ready for new things.
Yeah, I did! Benny is so inspiring and creative!
Very well spoken on things here!
what an amazing lesson...
These opening Gavin's words should be tattooed on the Thomas Lang's forehead and drummers like him.
hahaha! He's not that bad.
Thomas Lang is not on the same planet as Gavin Harrison as an overall musician & 'drummer'. Personally I don't seem keen on him, (a bit smarmy perhaps??), but he his undoubtedly a very good drummer for sure, if you like that kinda thing....
+alfie There are two types of people that are involved in music: technicians and musicians. The first ones can play technically unbelievable things and can't create a single piece of music that are worth listening to, while second ones can have almost no technique at all but we listen to their records everyday.
Same here! I quitted though, but it's the same story. I wanted to create something unique and harmonic, not just a composition of things done earlier by others.
Gavin is a genious, no one opens my eyes like he does!
1:40
mr garrison has billabillabillabillabillabilla's that are lovely and nice too! that's the reason i like him so much!
Este video inspira a cualquier músico independientemente del genero o el instrumento, Gavin es realmente un musico que toca desde el corazón
My remedy for that is on the pad do more then just stick workouts. I do grooves, polyrhythms rudiments, play around time, lock in time, ect. I also use my legs in conjuction with my pad, and I force myself to play open-handed(I need to do that more)
its funny when he talks about ideas impressing him and not crazy chops...seeing as he has some of the coolest ideas going.
@thecrevd Sorry but the audio just seems to cut out at 6:11. Must be some technical problem! ;-)
4:59 my exact reaction when listening to bonnie the cat for the first time
Delighted to hear him mention Steve Jansen(Japan),and then he spoils it by saying that Steve had no chops and couldn't play fast to save his life. He obviously hasn't listened to the Quiet Life,Polaroids and Tin Drum albums. Steve and Mick Karn were a rhythm section like no other.Truly innovative and influential.
+NIGHTFRIGHT2011 I understand your point, but I think that Gavin was speaking comparatively.
NIGHTFRIGHT2011 I think of all people he probably has listened and examined and given his judgement on whatever he is speaking of
so inspirating :)
This man is a TRUE musician.
Brilliant. And by the way this doesn't just apply to drums but to every single instrument.
Funny thing is, a lot of Gavin's playing (more than half) was a bunch of crazy rudiment chops that fit in the technical category
But he's tasteful with it though (90% of the time at least).
I fucking love this guy. :**
@LordAssortedBits correction: I think it seems mindless because people are just following scene cliché's instead of using them *to create interesting deviations.
He is one of the top 3 drummers ever
This should be titled "the video Mike Portnoy needs to watch RIGHT NOW"
Unfortunately, I've had very little patience for music lately, i.e. I've been wanting something I can just rock out to rather than something that you have to kind of sit back and really listen to intently. That jazzy groove Gavin plays later in this video really got me though, so maybe that will rekindle my desire to listen to something deep and musical.
Good ideas ... yes they take time to develop .. and maturity I think !!!
He says that he doesn't like flash and chops, but most of the playing he does here is exactly that.
i agree. Totally!!!!!!
@runtifish
Great player this guy and great guy this player :)
@jsbattlenet I think it seems mindless because people are just following scene cliché's instead of using them. It's not just metal, punk has that tendency as well (and often uses the same polka-beat (the skank) as those fast metaldrummers do).
But what Gavin said in this video (that he values ideas and nice touches) also applies to that sort of drumming, some put in nice accents during blastbeats to give a whole different feel to a track.
fuck hes amazing... like a sage
5:38 so so so sooo tru!
Finally this! I hate fast drumming it doesn't sound musical. There's no musicality to it. No style. Gavin sounds wonderful, Bernard Purdie is amazing. That's real imaginative, musical drumming to me.
This man knows his shit. Listen well, and learn
One word: Wise
That's what I call.... INTELIGENCE
@LanceDirk :
agreed Mike Portnoy is really just technique to the extreme...
but unlike many other, I find it fitting quite good to Dream Theater, I mean it's a band founded at Berkeley, they are amazing muscicians and live by showing off their talent together, and therfore is Mike Portnoy the right drummer, and plays what is right to DT... IMO
How does one listen to a picture?
What a genius
gavin is the MAN
Modern music times...yeah and guitarists and drummers,you learn the fastest hardest parts,and once you sink all that time you realise its not as important as the originality
Btw he probaby misunderstood Steve,listen to Art of parties,hes a pretty technical drummer,but not a super fast and makes you appreciate the groove,and when you hear him play you know its him
i want to go jam out on the drums so bad now.
Gavin and Benny Greb, true musicians.
thecrevd's account is not available because he closed it, probably guitarists caused that.
He's so lovely, it's like Roger Federer, impossible to hate him!
With the competition in the art of drumming technical chop based player's will try and convince you that if a drummer can't play the 26 rudiments at a high speed on the metronome that groove based player's are at an intermediate level yet some chop based player's say nothing musical with their drumming
Yeah, my bad. After doing little research I found out I've been wrong a big part of my life. Don't remember where I got the "brain is a muscle" thing, thanks for the correction.
I agree with that because I would apply the same criticisms I make of Portnoy to the other members of Dream Theater.
what is it a competition to you?
Gavin Harrison is to drums, what David Gilmour is to the guitar:)
Haha the beat in the end is really deceptive :D
He's talking like a jazz player. Jazz players often play the way he's describing, but that's why most of jazz fans are musicians, because everyone else can't hear the subtle ideas they play. On the other hand rock music is way more flashy, and pretty much every good rock live performer tends to act as if the stuff they do is way harder than it is. But can you imagine how much rock would've sucked if jimi hendrix never played guitar with his theeth?
Inspiring. Even for a bass musician like me!
He was speaking figuratively. Sometimes I feel as if the movie Idiocracy is springing up all around me.
smart guy,
no kidding....check it out mike
@jez12
Dang, he looks like he's 29!
@jez12 46!? He looks ten years younger..
How do you play as good as you really are, when your own your own?? but when in front of a crowed/?
Even though he plays as technical as fuck...great player this guy!
@dcairol No, he's talking about Portnoy the whole time.
So I guess this guy doesn't like Thomas Lang?