A bite-size insight from our interview with Mel Gaynor, the Simple Minds drummer. This is one moment from a longer conversation, and you can watch the full interview on the Drum Dog YouTube channel.

Mel explains how he approaches John Bonham’s drum parts, and the difference between drummers who sit on the beat and drummers who sit behind it. He covers Bonham’s lazy feel, Jeff Porcaro, Buddy Rich holding back, and Phil Rudd’s groove. His closing point is that feel counts for more than technique.

You can find our interview with Mel on our profile or on YouTube,

🥁 Less scrolling. More playing.

The full Drum Dog lesson library gives you somewhere useful to go when you have ten minutes, half an hour or a proper session behind the kit. No grades and nothing to prove, just good ideas from drummers who have lived them.

Take a look inside. Membership comes with a 30-day money-back guarantee:

👉 https://link.drum.dog/join

🎧 Listen to the Drum Dog Podcast wherever you get your podcasts:

Spotify → https://open.spotify.com/show/2s8IAlRWNnu3SGOZo0BxTW
Apple → https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/drum-dog-podcast/id1806605706
Amazon → https://music.amazon.co.uk/podcasts/b859c830-c051-46c6-a094-cc9b92973e4a/drum-dog-podcast

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Video essay: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WDp_tV8MhOc&t

Omar Hakim is the drummer you've heard on more classic records than you probably realise: David Bowie's Let's Dance, Sting's The Dream of the Blue Turtles, Miles Davis's Tutu and Daft Punk's Get Lucky, plus years behind Madonna and a spell in Weather Report.

Drawing on his own interviews, this video follows his path from the jazz clubs of Jamaica, Queens to the biggest stages in the world. It covers the Weather Report call he took without an audition, the Let's Dance session, how he made Money for Nothing by almost playing nothing, and why he believes a room full of humans still matters.

00:00 intro
01:34 Growing Up in Queens
03:31 The Weather Report Call
05:02 Bowie, Dire Straits and Sting
07:41 The Frame Around the Picture
11:11 Daft Punk
12:22 Freedom, Soul and Legacy

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🥁 You can learn plenty from what a drummer played. Sometimes you learn even more from why they played it.

Drum Dog membership brings together artist stories, interviews, performances and practical lessons, helping you stay close to the music and players that made you want to drum in the first place.

Take a look inside:

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Studio tips for drummers from Rob Brian, who’s been making records for 35 to 40 years and says he’s still picking up new tricks.

Rob has recently worked at Abbey Road and Real World Studios. Here he shares what he’s learnt about walking into a session ready to play.

We cover what gear to bring (and why a few spares in the car always pay off), how to choose kit, heads and cymbals for the style of music, and why you should carry plenty of drum keys, including a slotted one for house kits.

We also get into working with engineers, producers and everyone else in the room, and why being easy to work with keeps the calls coming. Then Rob talks through preparing for a session with your own charts and questions for the artist, and what to do when you’re handed nothing.

Plus staying consistent between takes, keeping your head in the game, and whether the room changes how you play.

00:00 Intro: studio wisdom with Rob Brian
01:19 What gear to bring to a session
03:11 Choices: sticks, heads and tuning tricks
04:34 Why you need a pile of drum keys
05:28 Getting on with everyone in the room
07:23 Why being easy to work with gets you rehired
08:59 Preparing the material
10:48 Walking in cold: counting bars and tape pressure
13:04 When the producer changes the plan
14:04 Consistency between takes
15:04 Staying in the zone (no phones)
16:51 Give them more takes to choose from
17:37 Does the room change how you play?
18:44 Match grip requests and the “naive” sound
19:50 Outro

👉 Check out Drum Dog for more lessons from world-class drummers: https://drum.dog

#RobBrian #StudioDrumming #DrumDog

🥁 Less scrolling. More playing.

The full Drum Dog lesson library gives you somewhere useful to go when you have ten minutes, half an hour or a proper session behind the kit. No grades and nothing to prove, just good ideas from drummers who have lived them.

Take a look inside. Membership comes with a 30-day money-back guarantee:

👉 https://link.drum.dog/join

🎧 Listen to the Drum Dog Podcast wherever you get your podcasts:

Spotify → https://open.spotify.com/show/2s8IAlRWNnu3SGOZo0BxTW
Apple → https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/drum-dog-podcast/id1806605706
Amazon → https://music.amazon.co.uk/podcasts/b859c830-c051-46c6-a094-cc9b92973e4a/drum-dog-podcast

🔔 Subscribe for interviews, lessons, gear and performances from world-class drummers.

Follow us:
Instagram → https://www.instagram.com/drumdoguk/
Facebook → https://www.facebook.com/drumdoguk
TikTok → https://www.tiktok.com/@drumdoguk

Support the show