MD: Between Nels Cline, Charlie Hunter, Wil Blades, sideman work, and of course your own groups, how do you juggle all these relationships? Scott: At the end of every year I look back and think, Well, that’s how that year went. I don’t have just one name gig. My relationships with Charlie and Nels are over twenty years old, and [I’ve worked with] Wil Blades for ten years. Charlie and I have been doing a lot of duo stuff over the past few years, so that becomes a priority, because Nels is in this huge rock band, but when they’re dormant, the Singers will start working. Charlie and I played together for so long and then didn’t do anything for a while, but the relationship has been very important to us. I don’t want to be on the road for eight months anymore—and
you just hope that you don’t have to be. But I love touring and playing with these creative people. It would be nice if it was easier, but it’s never going to be easy when you’re not playing music that appeals to millions of people. [laughs] But then I’ll play with Mike Patton’s Mondo Cane to huge audiences in South America. MD: Do you turn down lots of gigs? Scott: I’ve turned down gigs if I didn’t think I’d enjoy them night after night. And I’ve never regretted it, because maybe that wouldn’t have lasted and I wouldn’t have gotten a chance to do
these other things. All the people I play with really push me and inspire me. MD: From a purely economic standpoint, duos must be nice, with fewer people to pay. Scott: That’s very true. It makes a lot of sense, especially today. But if it wasn’t fulfi lling musically, we wouldn’t do it. MD: You groove, swing, rock, and play free, but you have a uniformity of sound in your recordings. Are you using the same gear or switching stuff out? Scott: That’s interesting, because there was a time when I did a lot of gear switching. I needed to use certain things for certain bands, and I still do that, but it’s becoming more refi ned. I used an 18" bass drum for so long, and I was on a bit of a mission with it, but lately I’ve been favoring a 20". I also want to be able to translate a sound in diff erent situations.
There’s a psychological element of tuning your drums higher because you’re playing a “jazz” gig, or bringing a bigger kit because you’re playing more R&B and soul and shuffl es. But with the Nels Cline Singers, Nels is a force. He sets up right next to me super-tight and wants to be practically in the drums. I had been using bigger cymbals but decided one time to bring in the [smaller] cymbals I was using in other situations. And I played a certain way,
January 2016 Modern Drummer 65
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