Drummer’s Review

Legendary drummer Carl Palmer has released a deluxe career-spanning box set – Fanfare For The Common Man including a three-CD set, a Blue Ray DVD and a biography, including all aspects of Carl’s wonderful career, from The Crazy World Of Arthur Brown, his time with the legendary Emmerson Lake and Palmer, and on with his ELP Legacy shows. DR’s Andy Hughes enjoyed a lengthy chat with Carl about correct posture, good diet and exercise, and continuing the wonderful legacy of Emmerson Lake And Palmer.

The release of your Fanfare For The Common Man compendium underlines just how long your career has been, and how much material you have released. Does it make you take stock and think about how much you have done?

Oh no, I don’t really think about that. My mind is always focused on the next tour, and what I’m doing for my next project. I didn’t have a lot to do with the collating of the tracks, the music was all recorded. It was down to BMG to sort out the running order and then send it to me to see if I liked it, Then, we discussed a DVD, and the biography that goes with the set, so I was involved with that side of everything, but less so the production of the compilation. I concentrated on finishing the book and getting clearance for images and so on. Once I knew it was released, my mind is on to the next thing.

You have your ‘live’ performances in America featuring Keith (Emmerson) and Greg (Lake), which is going down very well indeed.

It is, I have them on film on either side of me as I am on stage, and we all play together ‘virtually’. The film was taken from a show at the Albert Hall in London, it was a five-camera shoot, and then the sound was recorded separately so we could correct any errors afterwards, which we didn’t actually need to do. So, because everything was recorded and mixed individually, I was able to play their parts and take my drums off the sound, and play live with their output, as a concert. I did consider the hologram route, with actors learning Keith and Greg’s actions and mannerisms, but it was a bit spooky for me to be honest, so I am much happier with the real people on film, and that works wonderfully well. If you come and see the show, you will see the three of us playing, and the sound being mixed individually, for that venue on that night. It’s far more real and genuine for the fans, and I think Keith and Greg would have wanted it to be done that way as well, rather than people pretending to be them. It was a little emotional doing the editing for the first couple of weeks, and after that it was about getting the project finished, and taking it out for the fans to enjoy it. I have my band on stage with me as well, and after the six or seven pieces I play with the film, we do live arrangements of pieces like Tarkus, with keyboard samples from the guitar to make it sound a little like the original, but not entirely because I like to move things forward and find new ways to present them. Just exciting in a different way. For me the hour and fifty minutes show is well balanced. I want to bring it to the UK, but the offers are just not right to make it viable. The Americans love it, and they will pay the money, but UK promotors are reluctant to put the show on, but I really do hope we can make something work eventually. I think this may be the future for live music, if music is properly recorded separately, this can be done with any band or collection or musicians.

When I first heard the first ELP album, when it was released, I thought I was hearing a drummer at the peak of his technical abilities, I’m thinking of those rapid kick drum patterns on The Barbarian for example. But do you feel that you have always continued to evolve as a musician throughout your career?

I think so, yes. I still practise a good five days a week, I always have done. This is all I have ever known, I left school at fifteen and was off to Europe on a tour bus, so playing and practising is absolutely what I do, and always have done. I am getting older, but I don’t need to slow down as long as I can keep my health intact, which I am able to do. My feet are getting better, my hands improve, how much longer I can improve, I don’t know. My philosophy is, as long as I can improve my playing, I will do, and when I can’t improve any more, I’ll stop improving, and I’ll know that, and I’ll live with it. When I can’t maintain the standard of my playing to a level that feels right for me, then I will disappear, and you won’t hear from me any more as a player. I’m not planning on retiring, but I wouldn’t just go out there to grab the money, I have to be playing to my best, or not at all. I am very happy now Andy, that is for sure.

When you consider your career, which piece of music do you remember stretched you technically to the biggest extent?

I think it was Alberto Ginastera’s Toccata from the Brain Salad Surgery album. The arrangement was really hard to remember, even though I had written charts out for it. It was the first electronic drum solo, I had these electronic drums made specifically for me for this track. They were synths which were triggered inside the drums when they were struck, with effects pedals to shift the tone up or down an octave. To this day a lot of people don’t realise that this was the first electronic drum solo ever recorded, and a lot of people think it came from Keith’s keyboards, but it was all triggered by my drum patterns. Robert Moog had designed a synth drum, but you needed to stop and adjust the sound if you wanted something different so it was pretty basic. The set I had gave me eight individual sound patterns, and the option to shift octaves with a pedal, so that gave me a lot more potential. There wasn’t a lot of money spent or invested in electronic drums back then, and I don’t think even today, in comparison, there is the market for them that there is for acoustic drum kits. We maybe should have gone into marketing the electronic kit, but we were just too busy, too much going on.

Out of your current live sets, which do you enjoy playing the most?

I still enjoy playing Tarkus, a good fifteen-minute workout on the kit, which I play with my band, not with Keith and Greg in the show. I also enjoy playing Welcome Back as well. We never played the complete piece at the Albert Hall, so now we play the first section with me playing along with Keith and Greg, and then my band come in and we finish it together, so I do enjoy playing that as well.

You are a traditional grip player, always have been whenever I’ve seen you, does that come from your jazz influences?

No, it just comes from the original teacher I had when I first started learning, it was the style I was shown, so I’ve carried out with it ever since. I think if I was to start from scratch again, I would learn to play match grip, and that is the style I would always recommend to drummers who are learning, because it has more adaptability in the wider world of percussion playing, and it does adapt more easily to a variety of playing styles. If I had a son, and was showing him, I would teach him match grip first I think, as it is, I have a daughter who is a wonderful solicitor and not a drummer! As you probably know, the traditional grip evolved from the marching bands when the drummers had a snare fastened over their shoulder, and it was played at an angle, so the traditional grip worked better. It does have some advantages. You can use finger manipulation more easily with the traditional grip, it does lend itself to interaction with the fingers hands and wrists, but overall, I do think that the match grip is the better technique to learn these days.

You are an incredibly powerful player, you do get so much force into your strokes, is that a matter of physical strength, because you have always kept yourself very fit?

It’s less about strength and more about ergonomics, which is one of the first things I learned when I started travelling to London from Birmingham where I lived, for drum lessons. I went to a guy called Bruce Gaylor, an American, who worked at Boosey and Hawkes in Denmark Street in Soho. When I first went to him, he told me to set up the kit, ignoring the cymbals, how I had it at home, so I did that. Then the made the adjustments to the heights and distances of the drums and my stool, and told me that would improve my technique and the strength of my drum strokes. He adjusted the angles of the drums, and asked me to tell him how I got on at home when I set up the same way there. A lot of good playing is all about the correct heights and angles for your drums, and the height and position of your stool, being over the drums, rather than under them, playing on top of the drums, rather than into them, it’s all to do with that. Some players have done a lot of damage through incorrect posture. Phil Collins who is a good friend of mine, is a case in point. Phil has done so much damage to the base of his spine over the years, because he sat too low, and his knees were out of the correct alignment with his hips. It’s amazing the amount of damage that can be done to the skeleton and muscle structure in a very very short space of time. Some people have got away with it, Tommy Aldrige always sat very low, but the majority get damage over time, Nicko McBrain sits really low, and he is getting really bad tendonitis in both elbows. The damage you can do without realising it is a terrible thing, you must make sure you are set up correctly and getting your posture right from the start, if you want a life as a drummer.

What are your practise routines?

I always do forty-five minutes, and then have a break, and do another forty-five minutes, I rarely do an hour or an hour-and-a-half straight through. I look at YouTube and TikTok and see what players put out there and I build up a collage of ideas that I like, and find interesting, and then I try them out and see if the work for me, and if I can incorporate them into what I am doing. I don’t bother too much with reading exercises any more because my reading is fine. I can transcribe quite quickly, so these days, I am on the lookout from ideas. I have a routine to keep my flexibility and strength up, playing singles and doubles with each hand alternately. It depends how I feel on the day. A lot of my time is now spent looking for different players and getting ideas, which is what I have always done, now I can do it on the Internet at home. I am paying attention to a guy called Eloy Casagrande who has just joined Slipknot, he’s a great player, doing some wonderful work.

There have been a lot of technical advances in drums since you started your career Carl, what have been the most interesting and helpful for you personally?

I have been a Ludwig player almost all of my life and I still play them, and enjoy the new kits they design and develop as they come out. As far as technical development is concerned, I think the new electronic acoustic-sounding drums with an inside trigger that DW are doing, are a fabulous innovation. You have an amazing sounding acoustic drum set up and with the flick of a switch, you have access to electronic sounds. They have the best of the technology coming forward now. So, in terms of a wonderful visual appeal, the aesthetic angle, coupled with the electronic aspect and the overall acoustic sound quality, the DWe drums are superb.

As the pioneer of electronic drums in a band setting, do you think that the innate suspicion held by many acoustic kit players has gradually worn away over time?

I think it has, yes. These days there are so many add-on affects you can bring in either from the sound desk, or add-ons to the kit itself, that you can have the fundamentals of an electronic kit with your acoustic kit now. Mic’ing for drums has improved so much over the years compared to how it used to be. So, if you have the right add-ins and so on, you can get everything you need to sound how you want, the echoing and phasing, everything is there. If you have a good P.A. system, and a good set of microphones, and an engineer who can mix good sound, you can get the great big drum sound that is basically what all drummers want when they are on stage, or in the studio.

When you watch drummers sitting down ready to play, they often tweak something, or adjust something, do you do the same?

I would say I check things rather than change things. My drum tech Andy is wonderful, and my kit is marked and labelled so the set-up is really easy to do and get right. My kit is not especially large, and I do have everything the same way every night, and Andy is aware of that. The only things people tend to tweak is cymbals, which sometimes lean one way or another when you put them on the stand, and a player may like a particular angle for a cymbal, and may adjust that before he or she starts to play. But personally, I don’t really do much of that, it’s all ready for me to go. The playing position is important, and you have to get it right before you start to play, it’s too late once the gig is under way. Good drumming is all about muscle memory, and changing the angles and distances throws that off. If you get those right, the muscle memory will form the basis of your playing, and then you can improve your style and technique as you play.

What’s the best piece of advice you have received n your career?

Stay enthusiastic. If you are enthusiastic as a drummer, you are curious as a drummer and you will always develop as a musician. I think you need to be enthusiastic about life in general, but it’s an excellent way to grow and develop your skills as a player. Keep interested, and look around and listen and learn something as often as you can.

You are a picture of health; do you have a particular health regime?

I was a vegan for about thirteen years, and watched it become really trendy and popular about five years ago. I eat a largely plant-based diet, but I do eat some fish for the Omega 3. I have had some health checks to keep my muscles in good condition, I don’t drink excessively, I don’t drink spirits, just a little wine. In the days when I did do drugs, I could hardly do any at all, I would get too high too quickly, and fall over. I have really low tolerance to any stimulants, so not too much of anything. I drink maybe once every three weeks. I use yoga stretch bands morning and evening, and I go skiing when I can. I maintain a really good diet, and an exercise regime morning and evening. I run a little but not much, and I enjoy skiing if I can, and do it every day for ten says when I am on holiday, no lying on the beach for me!

ANDY HUGHES

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