interview
Modern Drummer is the world’s most widely read drum magazine, is dedicated entirely to the art of drumming and caters to the needs of amateur, semi-pro, and professional drummers.
Eric Harland
When twenty-five-year-old Eric Harland was a teenager, he weighed an astonishing 380 pounds, making him a target of cruel children, mean-spirited teachers, and sometimes, his own family. "I would walk into a clothing store and the employees would just laugh,"…
Roy Haynes
To help celebrate this milestone, we thought this a perfect opportunity to revisit Mr. Haynes with a cover story. And we asked veteran jazz writer (and longtime friend) Ira Gitler to interview Roy. The following story reveals a lot about…
Jeremy Hummel of Breaking Benjamin
Jeremy Hummel is equal parts bombast and finesse. He's just as likely to ride hard on his China as he is to tap out an intricate riff on a 6" effects cymbal. He's as interested in "bringing back the gong"…
Mercedes Lander of Kittie
Listening to Kittie's new disc, Until The End, you might wonder how much of it is ProTooled. Lately it seems everyone is pasting together parts, and, of course, the end result is always perfect. On a closer listen of the…
Thomas Lang
Thomas Lang was standing at the door of his dressing room, waiting to take his spot at the last Modern Drummer Festival Weekend. The thirty-four-year-old, Austrian-born drummer, now a resident of England, was an unknown quantity to this discriminating crowd.…
Lil' John Roberts
Lil' John Roberts's name has been popping up more and more here at MD - in interviews with other artists, in conversations with people in the drum industry - and, most importantly, in mail from fans. It seems everyone is…
Zach Lind of Jimmy Eat World
It's ironic that Jimmy Eat World, one of indie rock's front-runners (alongside peers like The Promise Ring and The Get Up Kids), a band that's seen their fan base swell in exponential proportions in the past year, have never released…
John Otto
"Developing things like soloing and independence is an ongoing battle. Working on that stuff will never stop until you leave this Earth." Four years ago, when John Otto was first featured in Modern Drummer, the then twenty-three-year-old spoke with a…
Prince: School Of Funk
Twenty thousand people are on their feet, cheering and singing along as Prince and his band rip through hit after hit at New York City's Madison Square Garden for one of the purple one's many sold-out Musicology tour dates. "No…
System Of A Down Drummer John Dolmayan
'Ever since I was a kid, I knew I was destined for this,' says System Of A Down drummer John Dolmayan. 'I used to go to shows and think, 'I'm going to be on that stage one day.' It's really…
Billy Hart
Billy Hart is one of the unsung giants of jazz. He's recorded over six hundred albums, including seminal dates with Miles Davis, Herbie Hancock, Stan Getz, Joe Zawinul, Sam Rivers, Pharoah Sanders, John Scofield, Lee Konitz, Hank Jones, Pat Martino,…
Brann Dailor of Mastodon
For Mastodon drummer Brann Dailor, playing in a band named after a huge prehistoric beast makes perfect sense. "When I'm performing or writing," Dailor says, "I sometimes think, That definitely sounds like a Mastodon part." Well, how about a "Sea…
Tim Alexander
When Tim Alexander left Primus in 1996, he was ready to move from the wacky, experimental frenzy of rhythms that had made the band a household name to a more structured rock format. He started his band Laundry to be…
Adam Deitch with John Scofield
"He's a bad boy, that's for sure," says guitar star John Scofield of his talented young sideman Adam Deitch. On the Sco gig, Deitch comes across like a composite of two great drummers that the guitarist has worked with before'the…
