The story so far . . . . As far as my drumming goes, the story so far is like this: Paul Hester made me want to drum. When he died, the drummer in me died too. I’ve played other instruments and the only thing that comes close to the way I feel when I’m playing drums is bass. I would say the two are level. I always felt like something was missing when I lost the drummer in me. There were a few guys around that made me want to drum again. Hearing covers of Led Zep and Deep Purple helped. It looked like fun. So I bought a drum kit, but it was kind of half hearted – soon enough that changed. Two magical days in March were spent watching the man who would be my inspiration. His name is Max and he really knows what to do on the kit. Every time I feel like it’s too hard or I don’t want to try today, there is Max. Sometimes when I’ve been drumming for hours and I think it’s time to try something else (this is the down side to having so many instruments!) there is Max. Max plays in the E Street Band and if I don’t keep practicing, I’ll never be as good as Max. Ladies and gentlemen, out of all the footprints left on my musical soul, one of the biggest has to belong to Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band. I have friends who are musicians who remind me of what it’s about when I see them play, but with these guys, I only have to hear them to know I need to try harder. They are the measuring stick by which every note is compared to and yes, there’s a big space between where I am and where these guys are, but I do believe you try harder if you have something to try for. Evidence of this is when I tried playing the drums to Tenth Avenue. My drum teacher said that I was “swimming outside the flags now” which is good, because you can’t get to the other side if you stay in the shallow end. The other thing I love about Bruce and band is the emotion. There’s so much emotion – it’s in the music, in the songs, in the performance and hell, just getting tickets to the gigs made me so excited I wasn’t sure whether I was going to cry, vomit or wee my pants a little bit . It was a very exciting five minutes. I’m into anything that will make me feel something. It’s the reason I love Joy Division, it’s the reason I love punk and it’s the reason I think the Springsteen band are the best band in the world. I spent about 5 years dead on my feet – couldn’t feel a thing, so the idea of music being able to make you feel something, to be able to change that still seems miraculous to me. Was I just listening to the wrong stuff all that time? Who knows, but one thing is for sure – when I hear Dancing In The Dark I see every happy moment I’ve known for the past four years flashing before my eyes. When I hear Waiting On A Sunny Day, I have hope and when I hear Tenth Avenue Freeze Out, I have joy. That’s the power of music. The reason I love this band is simple – they’re the perfect storm. Bruce writes songs that you want to sing to, dance to and live by. Max makes me want to be a better drummer, Garry makes me want to be a better bass player, Steve, Nils and Tommy make me want to be a better guitarist and I’m a in a huge amount of trouble when I decide I want to try and be Roy. I love other bands for many reasons, but for feel, performance and talent, the E Street Band just has that little bit more.
Posted on: Fri, 23 Aug 2013 03:42:50 +0000
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