"argue as folk may
at such a cliché"
Led Zeppelin – Led Zeppelin IV
I mean who doesn’t love Led Zeppelin apart from those who don’t like Led Zeppelin? Ok maybe a bit of a cliché for a drummer to say “oh my favourite drummer is John Bonham”, but argue as folk may at such cliché, he is an absolute master of the kit.
I got into the whole rock n roll thing quite late on in my adulthood, probably around 2002 when I started listening to AC/DC, Boston, The Police, Cream, Deep Purple, etc. My first taste of Led Zep was 100% rock n roll as someone at Southampton University played the song ‘Rock n Roll’ to me one afternoon in the kitchen (she was a real Woodstock kinda rock n roll hippie) and that Texas style shuffle in the intro made the drummer’s rhythm in my soul start to start to move.
With Rock n Roll, being one of my favourite tracks, when you hear Jimmy Page’s 59 Gibson Les Paul Standard (bought from Joe Walsh, another favourite guitarist of mine) and Jon Paul Jones’ 62 Fender Jazz bass rip open the song prior to the first verse, it’s just a wall of groovy, crunchy rock n roll (thanks to a Marshall JMP Super Lead and an Acoustic 260 bass head). Jon’s walking bass line, paired up with Jimmy’s riffing and John’s bombastic drumming is such a perfect combination and not forgetting Ian Stewart’s (he was the co-founder of the Rolling Stones) boogie-woogie piano/keyboard, giving the song some classy textures and tone.
Another favourite song of mine is track eight on the album, ‘When the Levee Breaks’. In terms of drumming, it is a very simple song backed up with awesome harmonica playing by Robert Plant and some phenomenal slide guitar by Jimmy Page which Ry Cooder would be proud of. I remember when I recently interviewed Adam Box of multi-Grammy awarded band ‘Brothers Osborne’ for my podcast series, he talks about playing ‘in the pocket’ which basically denotes that you are playing for the song, no flashy fills or necessarily over-complex rhythms, you play the song with a steady and consistent hand. The way the song has been produced, the thickness and reverb that has been applied to the drums, the way the rhythm and lead guitars are balanced, it is like the perfect sandwich that has been put together so meticulously, no filling more than the other, each slice buttered to perfection. Like a cheese, pickle and cucumber between two thick slices of sourdough and German rye bread. Yes, that is one of my ultimate combos.
Led Zeppelin IV is such a complete and consistent album but has some surprise turns in the pure bombastic nature of ‘Misty Mountain Hop’ and, of course, the percussive masterpiece in ‘Four Sticks’ which really inspires me using rimshots a lot in our songs to give them a bluegrassy hillbilly vibe. In my opinion, IV is their best work. Solid, consistent but varied in all the right ways. Everyone on the album is on perfect form.
Howlin’ Wolf – Moanin’ in the Moonlight
Howlin’ Wolf, like many of his time - Muddy Waters, B.B King, Booker T. & The M.G.’s, Sam Cooke - the music is heavy without being heavy. It isn’t just down to the gritty and raw buzzsaw edge to the vocals, but the rhythm and timing has an almost beatdown and stoner feel to it. Add the natural sound of a resophonic guitar, a harsh cutting but melodious harmonica, a driving walking bass and the light but still somewhat heavy shuffle rhythm of the drums and you have a great electric blues album.
The opening title track, Moanin’ at the Moonlight is a great example of a song being heavy without actually being heavy. That driving rich chain-gang style timbre to the vocals and guitar with the harmonica gives the song a sense of almost heavy sensuality.
We’re treated to some lovely honky-tonk upright saloon style piano on the following track ‘How Many More Years’ and again you have that buzz-saw gritty vocal edge which makes Howlin’ Wolf one of my favourite artists. It isn’t just the tone of Howlin’ Wolf's vocals, but it is the genius of Hubert Sumlin’s slashing solos and innovative playing that really help cement the style and overall sound of this album. You just need to listen to Jimmy Page and Eric Clapton to hear how much of an influence Hubert was and is on many players.
My favourite track of the album is Smokestack Lightnin’ and, in my opinion, showcases just how great he is as a vocalist. The tone of his vocals is almost sinister with moments of almost yodelling as he wails in the pre-verses. Again, treated to some amazing walking rhythms with the honky-tonk piano, the double bass, steel guitar and the harmonica.
Another favourite track of mine on the album is No Place To Go (You Gonna Wreck my Life) and though historically, not direct, is an example of how the half-time stoner beatdown rhythm is quite prevalent in most of the album and in a lot of ‘old school’ Blues music, like Muddy Waters, Lightnin’ Hopkins and Elmore James.
The whole album is a work of classic blues genius from one of the ‘50s most accomplished artists.
Queens of The Stone Age - Rated R
First time I saw QOTSA was at Reading Festival in 2005. I went for the whole weekend and went due to the Pixies, Iron Maiden, Iggy and The Stooges, Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, LCD Sound System, Cooper Temple Clause, Death From Above 1979, Foo Fighters, Incubus and Marilyn Manson.
They opened up with ‘Go with The Flow’ from their 2002 album ‘Songs for The Deaf’ which is my second favourite album. They classically ended with track three of that album ‘No One Knows’ which is a popular drummer's choice to cover.
The opening track ‘Feel Good Hit of the Summer’ really sums up Rated R as a whole and with Nick Oliveri (who also plays for Mondo Generator, Kyuss, Dwarves and recent band STÖNER) on bass, yeah you really get the rebellion and the raucous, rambunctious, sweaty, drug fuelled rock n roll stoner sound of this album. The following track ‘Lost Art of Keeping a Secret’, to me proves just how good QOSTA are at producing and writing and with an album closer such as ‘I Think I Lost my Headache’ cements the album’s somewhat trippy, stoned and sweaty but glorious cacophony.
Rated R has that classic vibe of sex, drugs, rock n roll and rebellion, not too dissimilar from The Sex Pistols, who are one of Josh Homme’s major inspirations. You can hear the early influences of desert stoner rock band Kyuss, the previous band that Josh and Nick were in. The signature sound is the distorted, overdriven and fuzz effects on the guitar and bass which most notably, they can be heard using the U-1095 Super Fuzz pedal by Univox and specifically on Rated R, the Maestro MPF-1 Parametric distortion filter. These sounds though would be nothing without the plethora of guitars Josh uses, from the semi-hollowbody Maton BB1200 with the crunchy Lollar Imperial Humbuckers to the classic Rickenbackr/Danelectro shaped Motor Ave BelAire with is clear, warm balanced tone of the Dr Vintage Humbuckers.
The whole album, produced by Josh Homme and Chris Goss, gave QOTSA not only their breakthrough album, but their signature sound. Chris Goss is one of my favourite producers, not because he produced a lot of Kyuss and QOTSA records, but he’s produced stuff by some of my favourite bands/artists such as Screaming Trees, Eighties Matchbox B-Line Disaster, Mark Lanegan (who is on most of the QOSTA records and played in Screaming Trees), UNKLE and The Foo Fighters. He also produced the famous ‘Desert Session’ series of compilations.
The Cadillac Three – Tennessee Mojo
I think the Cadillac Three were one of the first bands that Dave introduced me to which got me into the whole Southern Rock/Country thing. With the covers band I was in with Dave, we covered ‘Whiskey Soaked Redemption’, ‘White Lightning’ and ‘The South’. We currently cover ‘Ship Faced’ which is off of the 2016 album ‘Bury Me In My Boots’.
I first went to see them on Tuesday February 3rd 2015 at the Concorde 2 in Brighton with Dave, our then bassist, Simon Andrews who is in an awesome covers band called Somethin’ Else and his wife Jackie.
They were touring their debut album ‘Tennessee Mojo’ (well, their first official release was ‘I’m Southern’ EP earlier in 2014) and I remember just being blown away by the power and massive sound of a three piece with no bassist. But ah, the secret is Kelby Ray Caldwell’s lap steel/bass set up. He runs his rig through a pedal that splits his signal into a bass and guitar rig but he also has some pedals like a graphic eq where he can dial up or down certain frequencies. His pedal steel has a combination of bass and guitar strings so he can be playing a guitar chord whilst keeping the bass going but then he can switch the bass off via a special input switcher pedal and go full on slide guitar. He actually is a bass player first.
The opening two songs, ‘I’m Southern’ and the title track ‘Tennessee Mojo’ are why I love TC3. Again, it is another example of a song being heavy without actually being heavy. A slow and stoner-esque sludgy half-time riff-tastic wall of sound.
Their genius is not just how they’re able to achieve such an expansive sound in the studio and live, but they have a fairly diverse collection of songs on the album, all the way from the hillbilly vibe of ‘Days of Gold’, the anthemic ‘The South’ to the love ballads of ‘Life’ and ‘Whiskey Soaked Redemption’ and ‘White Lightning’.
Their sound is a fair old far cry from when they were a four piece called American Bang who formed back in 2005, whose sound was a lot more clean and pop-country and you can tell Jarren’s vocals have less of a deep and gritty Nashville twang to that of the sound with The Cadillac Three. They then became Bang Bang Bang in 2006 and in 2007 became American Bang but when their guitarist buddy Ben Brown left, they continued as a trio under the then name The Cadillac Black before using the name The Cadillac Three.
They’ve released five albums since their debut EP in early 2014 and apart from ‘Tabasco and Sweet Tea’ where the music take a funk turn, all their other three albums ‘Bury Me In My Boots’, Country Fuzz, and even ‘Legacy’, their songwriting is very consistent and catchy and this is why they are one of my favourite bands in the Southern Country Rock scene.
"being blown away by
the massive sound"
Rival Sons – Great Western Valkyrie
I think again I discovered Rival Sons through Dave as one of his guitar buddies out in Long Beach, CA knows Scott Holiday (guitarist of Rival Sons) and I think the first song I heard was Burn Down Los Angeles which is off of their 2011 album ‘Pressure and Time’. I went out and bought Great Western Valkyrie and only found out a few months later, this album featured a new guy on the bass called Dave Beste who replaced their founding member Robin Everhart who I happened to think had a better bass set up and some cool flat caps and occasionally wore a bandana. They also played a Fender American Deluxe P Bass though personally I prefer the sound of a Fender Jazz Bass.
The first song I heard off of that album was ‘Secret’ which is what made me instantly pay attention to drummer Michael Miley. The genius of his style, in my opinion, was the swung feel of his playing which was soon to be one of my modern-day drumspirations. Duke Ellington's composition ‘It Don’t Mean a Thing (If It Ain’t Got That Swing) is how I describe Michael’s playing and that especially comes out in the song ‘Secret’.
It is not just the drums that I love about the whole sound of Rival Sons - Jay Buchanan has one of the most powerful and sultry voices I’ve ever heard with such stamina and an almost unending raw gritty power. Also Scott Holiday’s overdriven fuzz sound, most notably from his custom built Gibson Firebird style Kauer Banshee guitars, his Orange Amp Thunderverbs and most commonly, his custom Zap pedal which he uses on every live show along with a host of other fuzz and overdrive pedals.
There are so many musical inspirations Rival Sons draw from which can be heard in the Led Zeppelinesque ‘Belle Starr’ and ‘Open My Eyes’ and the crying Jeff Buckley guitar style of ‘Where I’ve Been’ which also has a kind of early ‘60s Motown vibe.
I feel that Great Western Valkyrie is a timeless album that in years to come will be considered a classic. The album is so well produced, mixed and balanced and in my opinion, every song is all killer and no filler.
"a joy to listen to and
a wonder to watch"
Periphery – Periphery II
I was introduced to the prog/tech metal/’Djent’ band Periphery I think around 2010 by my friend Phil Crawley. We were in an instrumental/afrobeat/post-rock/post-punk heavy math rock band called El Colosso at the time and we had a dual drum set up, which was a lot of fun.
We had gone to see them at the o2 Academy in Islington, where beforehand their drummer Matt Halpern was hosting a drum clinic. The very interesting thing for me about Periphery, is that their then bassist Adam Nolly Getgood along with guitarist Misha Mansoor, produced a lot of their previous albums and wrote a portion of the drum parts alongside Matt and it is this that got me into the production side of things. I studied Popular Music Studies & Record Production at Southampton Solent University in 2005 and there were quite a lot of interesting recording techniques that Matt discussed at the clinic.
As a drummer, Matt Halpern is a joy to listen to and a wonder to watch. Ragnarok is an example of not only why Periphery are so good, but why the drums are so brutal and remarkable. When I listen to the drumming, I often think that he is playing a complicated time signature but really, how he explained things at the clinic, the core time signature/beat is actually very simple. How he makes it sound so complex, in my opinion, is that he puts cymbal fills and snare hits in between really tight spacings, this combined and percussively locked in with the ear melting bass and the heavy distorted and overdriven guitars and the guttural screaming of Spencer Sotelo make them a tour-de-force in this genre.
I’ve seen Periphery a few times live since discovering them and they never disappoint. In fact, they play a lot of this album in their sets despite having released several albums since Periphery II.
The album ends on probably one of my favourite songs, and that’s Masamune. You’re lulled into a false sense of assumption, if you don’t know Periphery that much, that it is going to be a nicely sung ballad type song, but then at 3:34 the band unleash hell and all distorted overdriven guitars, bass and drums blazing your ears are filled with a glorious and positively sinister wall of sound.
Some may say Periphery are a one trick pony in regards to either being heavy or not heavy -I think they are quite diverse but when do heavy, they are bloody good at it!
Every Time I Die – The Big Dirty
Every Time I Die are definitely one of my favourite bands of all time. They, to me, are a bit like Stevie Wonder - ok genre wise they are miles apart, but the similarity for me is, when I listen to them both, I get sucked in and can’t help but be enveloped in the sound, the music is infectious, it makes you want to groove and headbang all at the same time.
I used to be a massive ‘Emo’ when I started university in 2004 and I remember hearing a song called ‘Ebolarama’ and ‘Romeoagogo’ from their 2003 album ‘Hot Damn’, which was, in its genre, a classic ‘Screamo’ album. But with 2007’s ‘The Big Dirty’ then subsequently after, in 2009 with ‘New Junk Aesthetic’, this saw the band and the production, refine their sound, almost to a level of cacophonous maturity.
Now unlike Periphery, although E.T.I.D are heavy in a different way, maybe a more traditional type of heavy compared to Periphery, you know what you’re getting with them. There are very few songs that start off with a cinematic Hans Zimmer type soundscape, instead you are treated to an uppercut of an onslaught of sound. The guitars comparatively to Periphery are produced and mixed more evenly but also there are less mid-range frequencies and they are less ‘muddy’ and a bit cleaner. I guess what I’m saying is with Every Time I Die, there is a lot less processing and sampling compared to the somewhat electronica side of Periphery.
Every album they have released has been as heavy is as heavy does but the band are definitely not a one truck pony. Keith Buckley, the lead vocalist has a great vocal range - everything from being harmonious, all the way to full on Shouty Shouty McShouty. Of course, I need to mention the drummer who played on this album, Ryan Leger (2009-2015), who is blisteringly fast and very dynamic with a classic Punk style.
From the early days of Screamo to the more mature and refined sound, ‘The Big Dirty’ is a Southern style alt-metal/hard-rock album and however you want to genre-define them, every song is a hit.
Brothers Osborne – Skeletons
2018’s ‘Port Saint Joe’ was the first album that got me into Brothers Osborne, and, most notably, the song ‘It Ain’t My Fault’ as I had heard it on a film. I instantly looked them up and this album was technically the first album I bought, followed by ‘Skeletons’ and then lastly their first album from 2016, ‘Pawn Shop’. ‘Pawn Shop’ was the last album I bought because initially, I thought it was way too Pop Country but actually, the more I listened to it, the more I realised just how great the song writing actually was.
For me, the album ‘Skeletons’ played to my penchant for heavy music, and this album really satisfied that. Track 6 ‘Back On The Bottle’ opens up with a fantastic ‘noodley’ riff from John Osborne and then, drumwise, we are treated to a heavy 4/4 beat with a hard-hit trashy cymbal with the hi-hat on the off-beat. I have actually interviewed Adam Box for this video series I run called ‘Thundersmiths Drumspiration’ and he spoke at length at how in the early days of drumming, back in his hometown of Mississippi, he listened to a lot of hard and heavy music and, I think in this song and on other records, you can hear that influence.
The first song I actually heard from the album was ‘All Night’, which again is somewhat heavy with the off-beat drums and the slightly overdriven twang of the guitar and is one of the catchiest songs on the record with a great hooky chorus.
Later in the album, on track 5, is the title track ‘Skeletons’, which I think has to be my favourite track with a sort of atmospheric moody aboriginal opening before the whole band come in full throttle and some gorgeous country riffage. The line “You’ve got skeletons in your closet, and I got bones to pick with them” is such a genius and apt line for the song.
I love the middle eight where drummer Adam Box gets to unleash on the drums, backed up by what sounds like a Hammond organ before we ride out the last section of the song.
One of the stand-out tracks for me, which is an instrumental which then segues into track 9 ‘Dead Man's Curve’, is the song Muskrat Greene, of which John Osborne's riffing is very reminiscent of Keith Urban’s song ‘Rollercoaster’ and John Fives virtuoso instrumental ‘Sugar Foot Rag. Listening to the song and then going into ‘Dead Man’s Curve’, you can hear moments of Chet Atkins and Merle Travis which shows the influences of the album. Again, the drumming is stylistically erratic to lock in with the guitar riff, and this really showcases Adam’s playing and how much of an amazing drummer he is.
The album closes with the sentimental song about TJ’s dad called ‘Old Man’s Boots’ which is a real emotive song and shows that they can write ballads as well as Pop Country bangers and Southern Rock gems.
Bio
I was born in 1984, born in Wimbledon and grew up in Hyde Park in my early years then moved to East Acton from about the age of 2-3. My family were not musicians but I was brought up on some pretty awesome music. My dad brought me up on The Who, Abba, Johnny Mathis, Boney M, The Move and Eric Clapton. Being half Egyptian, and no I don’t walk like one, my Egyptian mum introduced me to a lot of native traditional desert folk music.
I have been drumming for about 28 years and, across that time, have drummed in varying musical scenarios. I’ve played in an Electro Rock band using click/backing tracks with a midi trigger, an instrumental trio playing prog rock/afrobeat/post-rock/post-punk/hard rock/metal/jazz, played in a Jazz and Blues covers band an now in an Southern Country Bluegrass Rock n Roll band with one of the most talented musicians ever…myself. No seriously, I’ll tell you a story about how The Outlaw Orchestra began.
When Dave and I were in a southern Rock/Country covers band called Hazzard County back in what, 2013/2014 playing everything from Joe Walsh, ZZ Top, The Rolling Stones, The Cadillac Three, Johnny Cash, the band eventually split and so Dave and I followed into a band, and at the time were called Dirty Diesel Outlaw Orchestra. It was me on drums, Dave on vocals and rhythm/lead guitar, a young 18 year old lad called Stephen on Banjo (imagine someone who has been rugby tossed through J.D sports and had his hair slicked down by Harry Ramsden himself whilst listening to drum n bass) who was absolutely incredible (he could have 10 pints of Stella and still play standing up), a harmonica plyer/singer and Alex on the double bass.
Eventually we parted ways with the harp player/singer, rebranded as ‘The Outlaw Orchestra’ and then parted ways with double bass player Alex and the rest is history. Well, the moment history happened and the band changed for the better, I feel for me and Dave, is when Banjo Pete joined. He is one of the most accomplished talented musicians you’ll ever meet, he can play the Banjo with his nose and his feet, no really, he can play any instrument you can think of. When Pete joined, Dave and I had to re-evaluate and up our game, which I feel we have, and we became a group of musicians and not just a selection of individuals who can play ones instrument proficiently. As well as musically, vocally, Pete is very intuitive and intellectual however, eyes off of my drum stool Pete…drums are full 😉 To be honest he’s pretty good on the skins!
I’ve gotten to play some amazing stages, hung out with some famous musicians and have had beers with a lot of awesome who are now friends.
I’ve played in front of over 2,000 people at Planet Roc Winters End where I got to hang out with Spike from The Quireboys, had some beers and told some jokes with the guys from The Temperance Movement in their tourbus, I’ve toured the UK with Phil Campbell and The Bastard Sons and got to meet Phil himself, shared the lineup with Brothers Osborne, met Pete Way at a hotel in Scotland when we played on the same stage as Skid Row and played to the biggest crowd The Rising Stage at Ramblin Man’ had ever had.
So music, now I’m not one of these folk who claims to ‘listen to everything’, I guess I am selective but I know what I like but can equally appreciate stuff that I don’t or can’t connect with. In other words, I am a bit of a music snob. I love everything from Travis to Testament, Stevie Wonder to Slater, BB King to Biffy Clyro, At The Drive in to Aretha Franklin, Diana Ross to The Dandy Warhols, Led Zeppelin to Lamb of God, Frank Sinatra to Foo Fighters, My Bloody Valentine to Mudhoney, The Rolling Stones to Rammstein, Queens of the Stone Age to Queen, Howlin’ Wolf to Hell is for Heroes.
First single: Wannabe by The Spice Girls on cassette tape.
First album: Houdini by The Melvins
First concert: Michael Jackson Dangerous World Tour 1992 at Wembley Stadium
