Postby bensdrums » Fri Jun 19, 2015 11:12 am
Congratulations Steve. What an amazing opportunity and privilege. I'm sure you'll do well and have plenty to offer... even in that kind of company, which is a testament in itself to your ability, like Lucas said, to break down concepts and make them both palatable and digestible by players at all levels.
WRT drummer interviews, I think it really depends on the skill level, personality, and/or general awareness of the subject of the interviewer. The guy on 'I'd Hit That' for example is really, really good at drawing out his guest's personalities and motivations. It's not this desperate sounding, "OMG it's SO awesome to be talking to you [insert big name drummer here], you played on [such & such] and it was AWESOME! Tell us about how AWESOME it was to do THAT!" A lot of drummer interviews seem to do this, and you can usually tell how frustrated the player is to be talking about something for the 1,000th time or to be asked something so basic or rudimentary that even the most cursory google search or research would have turned up a good - or even better - answer. IHT is just kind of these conversations that go places, and he doesn't do phoners. You're in the room with them. I really like that about it, and I really like that about the drummer interviews I read that take a similar approach. Rodge's interview with Vinnie got into some technical drum nerd stuff, but you got the sense that it was a conversation amongst friends that delved into some interesting - and intellectual - territory that had a deeper benefit, instead of a bunch of fanboy drum obsession subject matter (not that there's necessarily anything wrong with that either).
I think a drummer's personality is a huge part of what they do and how they go about it, and insights into that, even on levels and subjects peripheral to drums or even music is just kind of cool to hear, not to mention inspirational, cathartic in some cases, and for lack of a better word; human. We put these people on pedestals of greatness so much that sometimes it's good to hear they deal with human level shit, on the drums or otherwise.
So Steve, if you get the chance to do an interview, just start a conversation... I'm sure it will go to interesting places with you and Weckl just talking about whatever comes to mind.