of the Art Matt Garstka Stella Mozgawa
“The future of drumming is going to be changed by technology,” Matt Garstka of the contemporary metal band Animals of Leaders says. “The Internet has already had a huge impact on the drumming community and everyone’s access to information. “But it’s a double-edged sword.
For example, when the gospel-chops scene began, it helped drummers to better themselves and push the boundaries. But you lost some musicality in the mass population. There’s always a dual eff ect. “Generally, there will be more people who use technology. It’s already
“The creative process for drummers is opening up with the ease of technology,” Stella Mozgawa of the alternative groove band Warpaint says. “A lot of popular music is sample based, and under- standing that is part of the skill set for drummers. But technology is changing all the time. With Native Instruments’ Mouth, for example, you can sing into a computer and it will translate it into MIDI, which can be changed into a drum-machine pattern or a melody or a synth pattern. With technology, drummers can just play the drumkit, or they can play the kit and transpose those ideas into diff erent textures. It opens up diff erent parts of the drummer’s brain.
“The most exciting technology I’ve seen do
this is Sunhouse’s Sensory Percussion,” Mozgawa adds. “Triggers have been around for decades, but Sunhouse is using triggers with seven or eight diff erent possibilities, as opposed to the basics. That allows drummers to have the capacity to infl uence the music so much more than when they were only playing the kit or a sample pad. Sensory Percussion triggers samples and uses the actual drumkit. It will enable drummers to start marrying the two in a really successful and creative way. Then drummers will have control over a larger part of the music that’s being produced. “There are a lot of purists in the drumming
world who have shied away from electronics, because there are certain feels you can’t get unless you’re actually playing the drums. This kind of technology, where the electronics are incorporated into the drumset and are so sensitive in the moment, might bridge the gap between the drumset purists and the people who program drums. It will be a catalyst for more technologies to incorporate human touch and human feel and ideas. If drummers can invite the positive elements of technology, there can be a healthy collabo- ration between technology and the mind of a drummer—together they can make something that can’t be replicated.”
happening—drummers are programming ideas that they can’t play, or they’ll audition an idea using technology before they learn it. “As far as my style of drumming in the jazz-metal scene, it’s more typical for
people to use technology to program an idea than to play it. In the future, I hope people use technology more as a learning tool than as a writing tool—a vehicle to help you learn 11/16 or 15/16 or other diffi cult time signatures. You can program those over a quarter note. “The drumming community overall is growing. As you do now, you’ll see drum-
mers playing to videos online who don’t think of quality control. But the drummers who are willing to put in the extra time and research are going to fi nd greater inspiration and information. Those people are going to be the future of drumming. Those people will excel.”
Meytal Cohen
“I believe the greatest evolution in drumming will appear not in the art itself but in the way we consume it,” suggests Meytal Cohen, whose career was built on her widely viewed drum-cover videos and who is currently promoting Alchemy, the debut album by her hard-rock band, Meytal. “New media has
transformed the way in which we are now able to learn new techniques as well as showcase them for the entire world to see.”
Mark Guiliana
When asked to name a specifi c player he thinks is pushing the art of drumming forward, Mark Guiliana, whose Jazz Quartet recently released its debut album, Family First, chuckles and says, “The fi rst person who comes to mind is Tony Williams. Tony’s so timeless. I keep returning to those records. And they’re still just impossible. The second would be Aphex Twin, who technically is not a drummer. But his programming has infl uenced me in such a profound way—dare I say it, almost as profound as somebody like Tony. He’s truly at the forefront of developing a new language that people are trying to emulate, but it’s coming from a non-drummer perspective. And one of my biggest modern-day heroes is Jim Black. I fi rst became aware of him when I was in college and I started going to all of his gigs. He kind of blew me away, and still does.”
January 2016 Modern Drummer 59
Robin Laananen
Deneka Peniston
Alex Solca
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