Kevin Lawlor - Composer and Jazz Drummer

Who inspired you to take up drums?

I was always a big fan of music when I wa a kid and played piano for

a year before taking up drums. The drums themselves were the attraction

before seeing anyone playing. Tommy Davitt was one of my drum teachers

and really inspired me to make the things I was learning, my own.

Who are your favourite players?

Max Roach, Jim Black and Brian Blade have always been my go to jazz / 

improvising drummers. They all play musically but with different approaches. Steve Jordan is my biggest influence for anything groove related!

What drum gear do you use?

I play Vic Firth F1 sticks and use a range of Zildjian cymbals. I have a set of 60's hats that I was given and use 20'' Complex Dry Ride on my left and a 20'' Constantinople Renaissance Ride on my right. I also sometimes set up some 10'' stack hats and a 16'' efx crash depending on the gig.

Your favourite songs or albums?

Study in Brown by Clifford Brown (Max Roach)

Left End by Rick Peckham (Jim Black)

The Bad Plus + Joshua Redman (Dave King)

Lateralus by Tool (Danny Carey)

Real Book Stories by Wolfgang Muthspiel (Brian Blade)

What have you been working on recently?

I've just released my third album 'Last Days of Summer', album link is here; https://soundcloud.com/kevin-lawlor-music/sets/last-days-of-summer-album-2018/s-4n7BN 
I'm doing some gigs to promote it in the next few months. I've recently

done a short tour with UK jazz musicians Chris Montague and Ashley John Long. We'll be recording an album later this year.

What upcoming projects are in the pipeline?

I put on jazz gigs in Wexford to promote the music and also have

the opportunity to invite great musicians to play here. I've a gig with

the music of Sonny Rollins in Sky and the Ground on Sat 30th March

and a showcase of 'Great Jazz Drummers' on in Wexford Arts Centre

for UNESCO International Jazz day on Sunday 28th April. 

What advice would you give someone wanting to take up drumming?

Enjoy it! Drums are a great instrument and a really great way to meet 

other drummers and musicians in general. One thing I would say is that

its easy to get sucked into the 'gear' thing. Get some beat up old drums

and learn how to make them sound good by tuning them and learning

how all that works first

The Photo Credit is Nikki Stix Photography

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Morty McCarthy - Author, Teacher & Drummer with Sultans of Ping

Who inspired you to take up drums?

I think the biggest influence on me for sure was Adam and the Ants when I was 10 in 1980.

Kings of the Wild Frontier was their second album released and I thought the drums sounded fantastic on that, especially the use of the lower toms.

They had two drummers, Merrick and Terry Lee, which made the sound even more spectacular. Malcolm McLaren was their manager at the time and he had introduced Adam Ant to the Burundi Beat and persuaded him to change the band's sound.

I then bought their debut LP, Dirk Wears White Sox and to this day I think it's my favourite snare sound captured on record.

McLaren was also looking after another band around the same time called Bow Wow Wow and they had a similar drum sound on their two singles C30 C60 C90 Go and I Want Candy.

I started playing along to songs with pens on pillows then and drove my class mad at school for constantly playing pretend drums on my desk.

My grand uncle Jimmy Mintern had been the drummer in a Cork band called The Dixies so he encouraged me to get a kit so I bought my first one at Christmas in 1983 and rehearsed in my grandmother's house.

The local music scene in Cork was very strong  around then and there were some great local drummers around like John Kilkenny (The Belsonic Sound) and Mark Healy (Cypress,Mine!).It was fantastic to sneak into shows in places like Mojos and Sir Henrys and get to see local bands regularly so I then took the next step and started a band with some friends at school and we played our first show the year after.

Who are your favourite players?

Stephen Morris has always been my favourite drummer, the drums in both Joy Division and New Order were like a song within a song.I loved the different patterns he played.

When I was learning to play I was able to play along to their songs and my timing improved quickly. There were a lot of great drummers in the 80s' whom I thought were superb like Nick Knox from the Cramps,, Marky Ramone and Mike Joyce from the Smiths.

Larry Mullen Jr. from U2 was a massive influence as well - he is a fantastic drummer.

Nowadays my favourite drummer is Todd Trainer from Shellac.

Your favourite songs or albums?

My favourite album would be the Smiths debut LP. I like loads of Fall songs - some superb drumming on those records by the various different drummers who played with them.

There were some great  drummers in the various 80s - Ska bands as well like John Bradbury from the Specials.

U2's Boy is a standout record for me as well.

What’s it like to be playing Tipp Classical this year?

The last time we played in Thurles was way back in 1993 at Feile then so it's great to go back and play there again after all these years and complete the circle.

We will also be doing a few songs with the orchestra there so I am looking forward to trying to keep in time with them!

You wrote a book about Cork slang “Dowtcha Boy”.Any plans to write more material?

No plans on any other books at the moment. I spend most of my time teaching Swedish people to speak with a Cork accent.

What advice would you give someone wanting to take up drumming?

If you want to be good at anything you have to put the time in and there's no substitute for hard work if you want to learn, find a friend or two who want to play music and take it from there.

Sultans of Ping - U Talk 2 Much (Fanning Session)

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Mark Healy - Musician and Drummer with Cork band Cypress, Mine!

I originally started playing guitar and then noticed there was a gap in the market, for drummers in Cork, so I made that switch. I started going to gigs when I was 15 and managed to go to a few in the Arcadia in Cork, before it stopped. As a result of that I was able to see local Cork bands who often played support. It meant seeing bands like Nun Attax and Microdisney and the realisation that came with it that you could be in a band, in Cork.

However, not really knowing any other musicians this meant lots of “practicing” along with records, as you would. Joy Division, Echo and the Bunnymen, were all on heavy rotation. Things like Twenty Tens by the Virgin Prunes, definitely had an impact on me and steered me in a certain direction.

Locally, in Cork, the jazz festival provided a stream of great jazz drummers. Kenny Clare and a fantastic Buddy Rich gig in the Opera House spring to mind.

I subsequently played with a revised version of Urban Blitz with Dave O’Connell and Sean Linehan. That lasted a few months and then I met up with Ian Olney and Denis O’Mullane and with Sean Linehan on vocals we thrashed out what would eventually become Cyrpress, Mine! as Sean left to join the Guards and was replaced by Ciaran O’Tuama.

Who are your favourite players?

I was lucky enough to see Lol Tolhurst with the Cure when they played in Cork. I was also a big fan of the late Pete de Freitas from Echo and the Bunnymen and Stephen Morris from Joy Division. I saw Stephen Morris at Electric Picnic a few years ago and he was as good as ever.

I'm a big fan of Brian Calnan and his Moving Hearts stuff and also the youthful enthusiasm of Keith Walker from Power of Dreams

I was also really fortunate to see Art Blakey in Dublin in the 80’s.

Your favourite songs or albums?

Drum heavy songs that I would have really liked

Atmosphere – Joy Division

Westworld – Theatre of Hate

Hymn from a village – James

Where’s me jumper – Sultans of Ping

Heaven Up Here - Echo and the Bunnymen

More recently I really like Philip Selway in Radiohead, Christopher Bear in Grizzly Bear.

Were you happy with the reaction after Cypress,Mine! rereleased, Exit Trashtown?

We were happy to see the album re-released as it gave us an opportunity in particular to commit to vinyl some tracks that weren’t released first time around. Although it was a labour of love by all involved to track everything down in order to put it together.

Any plans to release any more material?

Not at the moment!

What musically are you involved in at the moment?

I still play the drums whenever the opportunity presents itself. Post Cypress, Mine! I recorded an as yet unreleased album (https://lift.bandcamp.com/track/youre-not-my-kind). I also played bass with Ian Olney's band Cat Meat last year which was great (https://catmeat.bandcamp.com/). For the last few years I’ve been consumed by syntheisizers and it’s a veritable rabbit hole of creativity lending itself to percussive ideas at every turn (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u4Bljlantdg). You can also find some of my recent music here https://soundcloud.com/imfromcorcke

What advice would you give someone wanting to take up drumming?

Once you start, stick with it! Try and find some friends to play with. Buy decent hardware and cymbals! Learning to play with a click track won’t do you any harm :




Photo credit; Anne O'Halloran (not 100% sure)

Check out http://cypressmine.com/ includes link to buy the album

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David Lyttle - Musician,Songwriter and Producer

Who inspired you to take up drums?

I've loved drums for as long as I can remember and played different drums from a very early age before getting a drum kit  when I was around eight years old. I never had any formal training on drums but was classically trained on cello right up to my music degree. I played folk music with my family and got a lot of experience with them but it wasn't until I was eighteen and heard jazz in 'A Charlie Brown Christmas' that I became really serious. My research into jazz led me to Miles Davis and Charlie Parker, then Art Blakey, who would become my biggest influence.

Who are your favourite players?

Of the giants, probably Art Blakey and Roy Haynes would be my favourite but I've learnt something from all of them. Of the modern players, Brian Blade, Bill Stewart, Jeff 'Tain' Watt, Ari Hoenig and Carl Allen.

What drum gear do you use?

Most of my work is abroad and I'll just ask for jazz sizes and hope for the best. I only travel with my cymbals which are Istanbul Jazz 20" and 22". My hi-hats are 13" Sabian Manhattan Jazz. I've had that set-up for almost fifteen years and I've no plans to change it. Lately I've been doing quite a lot of touring Ireland as part of a project to bring jazz to more people. My drum kit is a bottom-of-the-line Gretsch Catalina, jazz sizes and they work great. I have a Pearl Master Birch and a Gretsch Round Badge from the '60s. I've had these since the start too. The only change has been switching to Tama's incredibly lightweight and compact hardware last year, which has been great for the island ferries on these Irish dates.

Your favourite songs or albums?

That's hard because my favourites change all the time and they're always diverse. Lately I've been listening to Bill Evans, '60s Burt Bacharach and the rapper Curren$y.

What have you been working on recently?

I played quite a lot with Dutch guitarist Jesse van Ruller last year and that was great. I was in China twice last year with my solo show 'Tapes & Drums' and that was really interesting. I just did two nights in Paris with American pianist David Kikoski and that was exciting. He's played with everyone, including Roy Haynes whose band he was in for a few years. The rural Irish touring has been a lot of fun and very rewarding because most people have no idea drums can be played the way we play them in jazz and it's nice to see them be so surprised. They just associate drums with rock and obviously the original drum kit players were jazz.

What upcoming projects are in the pipeline?

Lots of good things coming up including plenty of trips abroad to interesting places. I'll be touring Ireland for a month in June with my trio, which will be my longest tour. I collaborate with American bassist Michael Janisch a lot. Last year with did a project with Kurt Rosenwinkel and we have some gigs coming up with Logan Richardson and then with Mark Turner.

What advice would you give someone wanting to take up drumming?

You have to understand music to be a great drummer. Focus on feel and less on the technical aspects of drums. You need to have good technique but that's not what will get you gigs.

 www.davidlyttle.com | www.lyterecords.com

David at drums by Marian Bencat

David with his Verox by Adam Patterson

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Mervyn Craig - Musician / Designer / Drummer for The Redneck Manifesto

What or who inspired you to take up drums?

I was a complete music fanatic throughout my school years and was pencil drumming on everything for as long as I can remember so I suppose I was always drawn to it from a very young age. I was already playing guitar but what possibly sealed the deal for me taking up drums was my first live gig going to see Therapy? in Dundalk in my late teens. Their drummer Fyfe Ewing totally blew me away and it was shortly after that that I bought my first kit.

Who are your favourite players?

Drummers I was listening to during the early days of playing with the Rednecks probably had the biggest impact on my style and remain firm favourites. Brendan Canty (Fugazi), John McEntire (Gastr Del Sol/Tortoise), Doug Scharin (Codeine/June of 44) and Britt Walford (Slint) were all big influences. Some current favourites are Mark Giuliani, Nate Wood, Alexander Sowinski (BadBadNotGood) and Greg Fox.

What drum gear do you use?

Strangely enough for most of my drumming life I was never particularly into drum gear at all. I originally started out playing guitar so I always thought of myself more of a guitarist who also happened to play drums and only bought guitar equipment/studio gear while just having the core drum stuff needed. In the last few years, I’ve started to get more passionate about drumming and have gone down a rabbit hole of buying vintage drum gear. I’ve always been a big fan of old Premier drums and I’m currently playing a beautiful early 70's Premier mahogany kit in 12”,14", 20" sizes. Premier kits age so well, this one's nearly 50 years old and looks like new! It always amazes me how Premier kits are so overlooked in the vintage market. They’re seriously some of the best made and beautiful sounding drums out there but are always overlooked for the big US brands. I’m currently playing all Zildjian K / Dark K cymbals, I’m probably amassing way too many snares for the amount of time I actually get to play them. Some favourites include a 6.5” 20-ply Pearl Reference,which was my main snare for quite a few years, 5” brass and 6.5” aluminium Pearl Free-Floating snares. I also recently bought and restored two vintage COB snares - a 60’s Premier Hi-Fi and a 70's Pearl Jupiter which both sound incredible. I use mostly DW flat base stands and hardware along with some vintage stands.

Your favourite songs or albums?

That’s a tough one, I have such a wide ranging taste in music that seems to be constantly evolving. Not necessarily all of drumming interest but a few records that’s have stood the test of time for me are Fugazi - In on the Killtaker, John Fahey - Blind Joe Death, The Beatles - Abbey Road, Polvo - Celebrate the New Dark Age and Jim O’Rourke - Insignificance. Some more recent albums I really love are Christian Scott - Yesterday You Said Tomorrow, Szun Waves - New Hymn to Freedom, Skeletons - People and Mark Pritchard - Under the Sun.

What upcoming projects are in the pipeline?

This year (unbelievably) marks the 20th anniversary of The Rednecks forming! We’re doing a show in Vicar St on the 30th November to celebrate and and also launch our new album ‘The How’. It’s our first album in 8 years so really looking forward to getting it out there finally. We also have a second tour of Japan in the works and will be doing some dates around Ireland next year to support the new album too.

What advice would you give someone wanting to take up drumming?

Learn to play rudiments and how to apply them to the kit. I taught myself to play so skipped that enormously important step and struggled with a much weaker left hand for years because of it. Thankfully, with all the amazing video content online these days it has given me a renewed love of drumming so I’ve been actively righting all those wrongs over the last few years. Also, get some decent ear plugs and always wear them when playing. Tinnitus is no fun and your ears will thank you for it, 20 years down the line!

Photo Credit;  Afghaniscan

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Kevin Holmes - Drummer with The Kerbs

How did you become a drummer?

It’s crazy! I always found myself tapping to songs as a child! I never knew the lyrics but I knew the drum beat kinda thing! My friend Mark (singer for the Kerbs) had a drum kit when we were young and he was asked to play drums in a band a few of the lads were setting up. Anyways, over night Mark had a change of heart and decided to be a singer instead. When they asked him “who’s playing drums so?” Mark said “Kevin will”. So I went home and learned "Nothing Else Matters" by Metallica, "Hate To Say I Told You So" by The Hives and "Seven Nation Army" by The White Stripes. I had no kit so I used to tap out songs on my legs and that's how I became a drummer.  

What is your drum set up and equipment?

My preferred set up is one mounted tom, two floor toms, two crash cymbals, one ride and hi-hats.

Because I play primarily in clubs and pubs I decided to go for a full birch Pearl Vision kit I purchased 7 years ago. I use all Zildjian A custom cymbals. My kick pedals are Pearl Demon drive. I use Vic Firth 5a sticks, Aquarian performance 2 drum heads, Audix FP7 drum mics and a Shure SE315 in-ear monitor.

Who are your drumming influences?

If I was to put my drumming influences in the shape of a house I’d have to say Chad Smith (Red Hot Chili Peppers) as the foundation John Bonham (Led Zeppelin) as the walls and Matt Cameron (Soundgarden/Pearl Jam) as the roof!

Who would you love to jam with?

To jam with Rage Against The Machine would be awesome! But for sheer craic I'd have to say Chic and Nile Rodgers and I also love jamming with the Kerbs...I suppose have to get that in there!!

What up and coming projects are in the pipeline for the Kerbs?

We are heading back to Attica Audio in Donegal to record two more tracks for our upcoming debut EP which is being released at the end of October. Along with that we have some exciting gigs coming up:

A promo unplugged session in Ballina, Co. Mayo for Other Voices Sep 8th

Whelan’s supporting Deep Sky Objects Sep 13th

EP tour:

Roisin dubh - Oct 12th

Cruisers Foxford - Oct 28th

The Workman’s Club - Nov 5th

JJ Harlow’s - Nov 24th

What advice would you give someone thinking of starting a career in music?

Take your preferred instrument, find some people who like music, learn a few songs, then book a gig! The added pressure of knowing a gig is coming up makes everyone kick into crazy-learning-songs mode, trying to get the 2 hours down! Next thing your gigging! It always worked for me.

Can you tell us your favourite songs or albums?

Albums: Nearly all of the Red Hot Chili Peppers' albums

Ten - Pearl Jam

Superunknown - Soundgarden

Sublime Gold - Sublime

Dave Matthews - Crash

Rage  Against the Machine - Rage Against The Machine

That's about that!

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Jason Feenan - Drummer with TOUTS

Jason Feenan is the drummer with Derry based punk band TOUTS. The band has completed tours and shows with Paul Weller, Liam Gallagher and Blossoms. They are currently doing a load of festivals, SXSW, Reading, Leeds and Electric Picnic. TOUTS signed to Domino Publishing earlier this summer and have released two EPs and a number of singles.

  

Jason, when did you start playing drums?

I started playing when I was 14, I didn't have many friends at that age, so I had plenty of time to pretend to be John Bonham, in the shed. I took lessons with Mickey the Hat, and managed to catch a bit of his, "practice every moment of the day" attitude and that stuck with me. 

What made you want to be a drummer?

Hearing John Bonham made me want to be a drummer and after that I started enjoying the way Stewart Copeland, Stanton Moore, Ian Paice and even my teacher Mickey the Hat played. I love Vinnie Colaiuta, but I haven't a hope of sounding like him.

What are your favourite albums?

Led Zeppelin II, Outlandos d'Amour by The Police, The Undertones first record are all firm favourites. In terms of drumming, Apostrophe and Joe's Garage by Zappa are masterclasses of playing.

What has been your best gig or drum moment?

The best moment I've had so far was either managing to get a drum solo televised on Other Voices last year, or doing a cover of the Auld Triangle supporting Liam Gallagher in an airport hangar in Dublin, the whole crowd singing back the tunes was class, probably was one of the best things I've been a part of.

What drum gear do you use?

At the minute I'm rocking a Premier Elite kit from the 80's, 12" 16" 22"

13" Ufip Custom Class hats;

14" 16" Paiste Twenty crashes;

20" 5 Star Zyn crash ride, it may be cheap but it fills a big hole in the sound of the band.

Photo Credits; Meg Paine & eurockenness festival

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