Growing up when I thought about playing/making music I always wanted to be a drummer. In school band tryouts in the fifth grade I tried out to be a drummer. My "audition" was copying some hand taps the instructor slapped out on a table. I wasn't expecting that to be the audition and was intimidated because he went so damn fast and I was too scared to ask him to repeat it. So I meekly tried to imitate what I thought he slapped out. He said "nope, no rhythm, try something else. I tried something else and quit within a month. I refused to give up in my pursuit of being a drummer.
So I would just play along in my head, sometimes I would play air drums. I knew where the drums were positioned so I would just play my invisible kit. And as silly as it sounds, and unlike the air guitar you can actually learn how to play drums if you know how to keep rhythm and a beat, move your foot with the bass drum hits, and move your hands like you would on a normal kit. hitting the cymbals at the right time, and the rack toms, etc. By the time Eric Klingensmith let me borrow his drum kit in high school I knew how to play the drums basically and keep the beat. Not bad for someone who never had a lesson and taught himself.
My influences growing up before I had a kit were mainly from classic rock. I would play along with all the KGGO standbys, Kansas', Carry On Wayward Son, Blue Oyster Cult, Boston, Led Zeppelin. Now, obviously I'm nowhere near as good as Bonham, but I know parts of my drumming came from listening to Bonham. Part of my style even came from Alex Van Halen. Mainly the partially open Hihat sound, that I'm sure Dan, Chuck dislike and I KNOW for a fact, William Tarbox HATES.
Growing older after I had my kit, Dan, Eric Kennedy, John Lingle and I started our first band. My influences had changed to more Punk/alternative music by that time and those are the influences I hear still today.
Richard English(the original Flaming Lips drummer), I kind of took his crazy chaotic sounding drum fills and incorporated them into my style. More so in Fetal Pig probably than the other bands I've been in, although I distinctly remember Eric telling me to do some "Flaming Lips fills" on some old Delirious Conniptions song.
Some other influences from that era to me were George Hurley from Minutemen, Steve Shelley from Sonic Youth, Murph from Dinosaur Jr and lastly Grant Hart from Husker Du. I didn't follow Grant's (or even much of Bob's career) post-Husker, much at all. I'm not really sure why not and hopefully, I will in the future. I always loved his voice and his playing. I never got to see them live which was disappointing to me. About the time Dan and I got into them, they were nearing the end of their Husker career. I will say as much as I love a lot of the Husker Du catalog, I am in NO way an expert on their material like my brother is. But I DO know Grant did leave his mark on me and my meager musical career. I just wanted to put it out there and make it known. Show him respect and say, "Thank you for shaping me into who I became as a musician."
One last random thought, I had always secretly wanted to perform and sing, "Don't Want to Know If You Are Lonely." with Fetal Pig, but I'm pretty sure that will never happen. We don't really do covers.
jeff 9/14/2017
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