Drummer’s Review
It’s five past ten in the evening in Finland, but it’s as bright as mid-afternoon as I sit down to chat with the amazing Vicky O’Neon, about her late start with drums, her passion for electronics, and her dream gig, for the future, maybe.
What got you into drums as a player, before you became a professional?
I started playing drums quite late compared with other musicians. I was nineteen when I started. When I finished school, I was eighteen, and I had a gap year and went backpacking to South America for six months. Something happened on that trip for me, I kept hearing all these amazing rhythms everywhere, because rhythm is so much a part of everyday life over there. And when I got home, I decided to figure out what this feeling was, that I got when I heard music. So, I applied to a local music school that is near where I live here in Finland, and I took drums as a side instrument on the course, and I just fell in love with them. I did learn classical piano when I was a child, and when I was a teenager, I played in a punk band and we all tried different instruments, so I could play basic punk drumming, but it wasn’t until that trip that I really became interested in the drums. I stayed in THAT school for two years, and I knew by then that I wanted this to be my life. I found a music school in London, it was Drumtech then, it’s BIMM now. I applied for that, and moved to London fourteen years ago.
Would you say that an obsession with drums is what has led you to your current position as a top player?
Yes. When I applied to Drumtech, I had only been playing drums for a year, I was very green! I did a diploma, and then I jumped straight into the second-year of the degree course, mainly focusing on getting my playing together. That was the best place to be, spending about four hours a day practising, to catch up with my peers who had been playing maybe ten or fifteen years. When I had lessons with my first drum teacher in Finland, he told me I had real potential, and I started to think then that I could make a career as a player, because I loved it so much. I took it very seriously, but I had so much fun at the same time. Every spare minute I had, I would have something with me, either to listen to or read, about drums, anything to help me learn more and more. It’s still the same today, I am just obsessed with drums.
I know Stewart Copeland has a major influence on your playing.
Absolutely! When you study his parts, and listen to his playing with The Police, he has a unique style. You know when you hear Stewart, that it can only be him. I loved Reggae since I was a teenager, and I always loved The Police growing up, and when I started learning the language of drumming and how Stewart Copeland plays, I was just so amazed. I dreamed of being able to create such an identifiable style like his, with my drum language, and I still feel I am nowhere near!
You do have a huge array of drumming styles and genres you can bring to your studio and live work. When you started to delve into each one, and develop the techniques, was there one particular style that proved harder than the others?
I really wanted to study at Drumtech because I knew I could learn a lot of modern styles and techniques. I did fall in love with all of them as I developed my playing, but I would say that Jazz is something that has never come easily to me. That’s one style I would like to spend more time with, and explore further. I do love to improvise, but I actually enjoy improvising more on percussion, than as a kit player, and that tends not to be in jazz context. I love the open ethos of Jazz, but I have not done many gigs in that style, I am more of a mainstream rock and pop drummer.
How did you start to break into the highly competitive market of studio sessions in London?
The majority of my career has been as a ‘live’ player, and I have only really started working as a studio musician in the last couple of years. It was always something I wanted to do, but it is a different world. You tend to get known for one particular genre, or technique, and it’s quite hard to break into other areas, because you have no material to demonstrate what you have done in the past. Interestingly, I used to get booked more as a percussionist, than as a kit player, which is odd because I don’t have anything like the background of study in percussion that I have in the drum kit. But I got percussion gigs, so I get booked for percussion, which is great, but I didn’t want people to know me only as a percussionist, I did want to be known as a kit player as well. Now, I love that I have both in my life. For me, my study as a kit player has been the springboard to my career as a percussionist, and I am delighted to provide both now. I have discovered that when I have done a lot of percussion work, and I get back behind my kit again, my kit paying has improved, there are techniques that I can bring into my kit playing, and that’s been a big bonus for me. And of course, the opposite is also true, when I go back to percussion after a time on my kit. It works both ways.
Drum Kit – Anastacia
Your gig as Anastacia’s touring drummer is a wonderful job to have, how did you get it?
It is a wonderful job, and I feel very lucky to have it. That came from her Production Manager who put my name forward, I had worked with HER on a couple of TV shows prior to that. The first time was the homecoming of Team GB from the Olympics in Japan, there was a televised event with a load of different artists performing, and I was playing percussion and e-drums in the house band. I often use electronics on my kit and percussion gigs, specialising in the digital audio workstation Ableton live. The gig came about at short notice, just before a three-month tour started. So, Steve Barney who was Anastacia’s drummer, and is a wonderful player, was unable to do the tour because of Brexit rules, he had completed his allowed ninety days to travel in Europe, so he couldn’t go with the band, so I stepped in. That’s how it works in our world, it can be brutal. I have had gigs I played, and then another of those gigs would crop up when I was already away on tour, and someone else would step in and continue with the band or artist afterwards. It was my slot, it’s not anymore, that’s just how it works.
Eurovison Set-up
You do seem to specialise in multi-musician media shows, Eurovision, the Team GB homecoming, and the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee. How hard is it to switch from one artist and song to another?
For those shows, it tends to be one song per artist, maybe fifteen different artists and songs. The discipline is to be able to produce the sound of their song as closely to the released version as possible. It’s something I really love doing. That’s where my passion for Ableton comes in really handy, and that’s now a little niche that I have. It’s an aspect of playing that a lot of drummers are not that keen to learn about. The essential aspect of a lot of modern pop song production is rooted in the drum loops, little essential bits of sound that make up the DNA of the song. I absolutely love delving into that sound and working out how I can reproduce that specific drum sound and vibe LIVE.
In terms of the electronics and the computer programme aspect of your work, have you learned this specifically as in being trained, or have you picked it up yourself?
I’m pretty much self-taught really, I did a little bit of very basic programming in university, but it was very basic. Ableton which is the platform that I use, I have taught myself how to work out what I need to do, it’s almost my third instrument I would say, after my kit and my percussion.
You also work as a percussionist for a number of DJ’s as well, do you think that is an underdeveloped work area for drummers?
I wouldn’t say it is underdeveloped as such. It is an area that not a lot of drummers consider, (but they should CAN REMOVE), because there is a lot of work in that area, so if you’re a drummer looking for work, then you should consider honing your percussion skills and start looking at working with DJs on their live sets. It’s a sound that lot of people are looking for, a lot of corporate events around the world are interested in a DJ and a percussionist. They don’t want a complete band, but a percussionist, maybe a sax player, sometimes a violinist, that is what the demand is now. When I first started working in this area of performance, I was curious why the hosts didn’t want a full band, because full band playing is something I am really passionate about. But it is a good area to work in, it’s really free in musical terms. I (never know) OFTEN DON’T KNOW who I will be on stage with, or what I am going play. I love the improvisation; it is a lot of fun. It’s the opposite of working with a band or a solo artist where I have to spend time in advance with charts, working out what the material is. With the corporate gigs, it’s just really free. In many ways, it’s so far removed from Jazz, but the improvisation aspect of it has that element of Jazz to it. If you work with a great DJ who is used to working with live musicians, they will pick mixes that offer a lot of space for me to work in. If you have other good live musicians, like sax players, it’s really magical what you can all create together.
What was your first professional kit?
My first UK kit was a Sonor, and I had a PDP kit, made by DW, here in Finland. They were second-hand kits that I could afford at the time, so I would have something to play on. The first real new kit I had, and I still have it now and I love it so much, is a Premier kit, a Custom kit from their Modern Classic Series, which was a series that they released with drums all manufactured in the UK. I met George Frederick the A & R for Premier at the time, at the London Drum Show. I was not well-known at all, I wasn’t hooked up with a major artistic name, I was fresh out of university, but we talked and he told me about the new Series, and they were sure it would do very well, which it did, it won loads of awards. And he invited me to be a part of this rollout and told me they would build me a custom kit. I wasn’t sure if he was confusing me with someone else! The campaign was going to involve myself, and Steve White. Because the series was called Modern Classic, the idea was a two-page magazine ad would have me on one side as the ‘Modern’, and Steve on the other side as the ‘Classic’, and we would both have custom versions of this new kit.I did get to have a wonderful custom kit. My kit was built by Keith Keogh, and he’s now CEO at the British Drum Company, and I am endorsed by them TODAY.
When you have a custom-built kit, how easy is it to describe what you want?
It is an interesting project to be involved with. I was so pleased to have everything I wanted for my first Custom kit! I went all out; I had three snare drums and four toms. I had one tom coming up from the middle of the bass drum, and two smaller ones on each side, and a floor tom. It had orange hardware, and the logo I was using at the time carved into the wood, and black and white checks carved into the wood, and whatever I wanted, they would do for me, it was fantastic! I visited the factory to discuss what I wanted, and I had recently seen Chris ‘Daddy’ Dave at Ronnie Scott’s, and he was playing with three snares, so that was where that idea came from. He would occasionally use the snares as toms, that way he made so much more than snares out of them. I was so inspired by that. I fancied some Octobans, because Stewart Copeland uses them, and he’s had such a major influence on me, but they didn’t make them, so I have 6” and 8” floor toms to use as ‘effects’ toms.
Tell me about your current custom kit.
The custom kit I use today however is far more suitable for a session player as most artists don’t want a drum kit on stage that stands out with crazy colours and patterns. So, when I got the opportunity to design a custom kit with the British Drum Company I had a slightly different approach and I couldn’t be happier with the result. It’s versatile, easy to tune, looks astonishing especially under stage lights and simply sounds so freaking good. I still get goosebumps when I haven’t played it for a while and get back on it. People constantly ask me what drums I play after a live show because they loved the sound. It’s a British Drum Company’s Legend series with a Whitehaven Finish and Bluebird Snare Drum.
Do you still use the three-snare set-up?
It’s not my standard set-up for most gigs, although I do use the three snares in the Anastacia sets on tour. For her show, I have two snares, the main snare, and a side one which I tune really low. The third snare, I tune really tight, I really crank it up, and use it like a timbale. I use a cowbell, and some chimes, and shaker, I like to add some percussion in, as an extra ‘flavour’ to my sound.
You are very much in demand; how do you choose projects to take up? Do you get a feel for what is right for you, a session or a tour you are going to enjoy?
Work comes and goes. There are times when it’s quiet, when you wonder why nothing is coming in, and panic a bit, and then a load of things come in all at once. I think you get a feel for what suits you, and you know the gigs you really want to do, and pick those first. Sometimes great offers clash, and that is very difficult! I am out with Anastacia at the end of this month, and the Team GB gig came up again, which of course I can’t do because it clashes. But the MD is also doing a Paralympics show in September, and he has asked me to play as kit drummer on that, so I don’t actually lose out in the end, which is great. With time, you build relationships and trust with the people you work with. I am so grateful that people place trust in me and what I do, and the Team GB MD is a case in point, he wanted to work with me again, which is wonderful. Sometimes you pick a gig because it is really well paid, so that has to be a consideration, but then something may come in with almost no money, but I take it if it is something I really do want to do. If it is a chance to grow as a musician, or a good contact for the future, those are factors to consider as well.
What was your last project?
I have just finished another season of Name That Tune for television in America. It’s such a great gig. We have to learn the parts for around eight hundred songs from every single genre and style of music for the show, so the development aspect for me as a musician is amazing. I am so blessed to work with fantastic musician who are so committed to making al these songs sound almost identical to the originals.
Do you have an ultimate dream gig that would be the highlight of your career?
I do have a dream, and it may never happen but you have to dream right! My dream is to play drums with Pink. I am going to see her live show this summer, because a friend of mine is doing playback for the support band on her tour, so he has managed to get us guest tickets, which I am very excited about, so that is one step closer!
What are your future plans?
Well, I have the Anastacia tour for a few weeks, then the Olympics with Channel 4 in September, and then I’ll be at the UK Drum Show, doing a drum clinic in Ableton and live looping. It’s something new for me. It’s a bit scary because usually I am with other people on stage, and they do all the chatting, and I play, and that’s fine. But when you are the only person, doing the chat, it is a bit scary! But I am an educator; I have been since I started playing drums and I’ve always loved going to master classes and clinics. With Ableton live looping, I can combine my kit playing, percussion, electronics, and some song writing, and in that way, create a performance of my own. You get an audience who maybe works in one area that I talk about, and will be interested in learning about the other parts. That’s how my drum clinics work. So, I am looking forward to The UK Drum Show very much.
ANDY HUGHES.
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