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Colm,when did you start drumming?
As a young kid I was always beating ( with knitting needles or wooden
spoons) on upturned pots and pans to my Dad’s rich and varied record collection
which consisted of Scottish pipe band music , The Gallowglass Ceili band, Joan
Baez, Johnny McEvoy, John McCormack etc. I then progressed to four plastic
buckets of different shapes and sizes , then I somehow persuaded my parents to
buy a snare and hi-hat.I remember one Christmas my sister got a Chris DeBurgh
and a Queen album , we thought we were the coolest !! Eventualy I got a
bass drum, all purchased from a music shop off Capel St , now gone. When I was
13, I worked all summer long in a fleece processing factory and used my savings
to buy my first kit, a black Maxtone 5 piece with cymbals. The first time
I played drums on stage was at a school band competition and our intro song was
ZZ Top She's got Legs. We were a terrible band with some original material and
an equally terrible name ( During Stone Down )
Did you take drum lessons?
I studied under the great Monica Bonnie for a very short time and
latterly under Swapan Chaudhuri on tabla. I have always been fascinated with
drumming and the rhythm section. I remember my dad taking me to see The
Chieftains in the national concert hall and trying to get as close as possible
to sit in the wings above the drummer on kettle drums and going to Elvis
Costello in the Stadium on the south circular road because I knew Jim Keltner
would be on drums. I went up to him after the set and talked for a bit, he gave
me one of his sticks which I held onto for years. I love his style of playing
and Elvis was good too.
Apart from Jim Keltner, what other
drummers do you admire?
I absolutely love Brian Downey’s playing with Thin Lizzy and I would
study songs, playing them over and over and the same with Topper Headon of The
Clash , Simon Crowe of The Boomtown Rats , Nick Mason of Pink Floyd, Steve
Gadd on everything. I find different styles of playing drums fascinating
regardless of the music genre , like how one drummer can have a totally
different way of approaching a song or phrase to another and how players develop
their own style of playing , and where does that come from.
What drum gear do you use?
In my days with Whipping Boy I had a Tama Crestor 5 piece 12" 13" and
16" toms and 24" bass drum and a Ludwig 4 " black beauty. I still
have them and they sound good but the hardware is terrible on that model, Paiste
cymbals long trashed with holes and cracked to bits and yes, still have those
stored. I now play a Yamaha maple absolute grey to black sparkle 12",14", 16" toms, 24" bass drum and I have a selection of snares I made myself, a
7" x 14" solid wood cherry , a 4" x 14" solid walnut and a
7" x 14" stainless steel and I have Zildjian K series cymbals.
What projects are you currently
involved in?
Last year we just finished recording our debut album, Rivers End, with
Fran's artwork on the cover . Fran is a really gifted visual
artist. The album was recorded at Helfire recording in the Dublin mountains with
Joe McGrath mixing and Stano producing. It was a long drawn out process but in
the end we are all really happy with the end product. We are now in the process
of ideas for videos and are looking forward to some more recording with Stano later in the year. We found his approach to recording very organic , not rigid
and very quick to make ideas or ditch 'em which really helped everyone relax throughout the recording process.
