< PreviousAvailable in print and digital format at moderndrummer.com or from your favorite music retailer DIGITAL DOWNLOAD CODE INSIDE Presents: 80 pages of extensive and new in-depth interviews Exclusive Erskine Recordings Pictorials of Weather Report, Peter And Friends, The Early Years Peter’s analysis and insights on 40 + pages of drum transcriptions Digital Download Component EXCLUSIVE PHOTO SECTIONS! Legends DIGITAL DOWNLOAD CODE INSIDE DIGITAL DOWNLOAD CODE INSIDE Everything you ever wanted to know about Hi Hat Rhythms. Infinate patterns to play all styles of music. DIGITAL DOWNLOAD CODE INSIDE Brand new content and interviews Insight, analysis and drum transcriptions The Fabric of Rhythm drum solo recordings MD archive of Steve’s cover/feature interviews Photos/analysis of Smith’s drumsets through the years DIGITAL DOWNLOAD CODE INSIDE Legends Applying the Moeller Technique to the Bass Drum By Michael Packer The Bass Drum Owners ManualBASS DRUM OWNERS MANUAL LYING THE MOELLER TECHNIQUE TO THE BASS DRUM MICHAEL PACKER MODERNDRUMMER.COM DIGITAL DVD DOWNLOAD INCLUDEDJuly 2022 Modern Drummer 29 Actually, for the last six years I have been a member of Pineapple Thief, and I love being a part of that band, that’s a long-term project for me. They give me a lot of freedom to do what I do. It’s a really nice home for my drumming ideas. Some people think it sounds like Porcupine Tree. Maybe the drummer sounds like Porcupine Tree? Personally, it’s a very different thing to me. MD : How are they different in your mind? GH: The Pineapple Thief is much more song based, it’s much less heavy, it is much less “prog”. There are still lots of odd time signatures, and I still try to create unique drum parts wherever I can - but as with every band, the collective chemistry of the band members determines how it’s going to ultimately sound. MD : Logistically is it possible for you to do both bands? PT: Porcupine Tree is only planning on doing the 25 shows that have been announced, that’s it. The new album is called Closure/ Continuation so we don’t know if this will be the last album or not. MD: You have been hanging out with Robert Fripp too long. GH : Haha. It was nice to not feel any pressure. Like I said at the beginning, we didn’t tell anyone we were working on this record. It was nice because we had no deadline, and no plans to make a record. It wasn’t until 2019 that we realized that we had developed enough music to make any album. Then when everything stopped in 2020 because of COVID, we took the time to finish all of the songs. It was quite bizarre that the lockdown provided us with the opportunity to go back to all of these demos and record it properly into the album it is now. MD : How many pieces-tunes did you write for the new record? GH : Probably between 20 and 25. MD: I would remiss if I didn’t ask you about your sound. Is your recorded drum sound in your touch, or are you a great engineer? GH : Everyone has a drum sound within them. That sound is made up of the influence of drum sounds that you have heard in your life, and you try to recreate those sounds on the equipment that is front of you. Some of that sound is the drums, the drumheads, the tuning, the drum sticks, the mic’s, the mixing… But the majority of the sound is created by you. If I got Bill Bruford here to play my Sonor kit, he would make it sound like Bill Bruford playing his Tama kit because of his touch and the way he plays. It’s true I am a control freak when it comes to my sound. For about the last 12 years, I mix my own drums for recordings and just send the artist a stereo mix because I don’t want an engineer to mess up my sound. I don’t want my sound to be reassembled and remodelled in a way that I didn’t intend. When I sit in on someone else’s drums, I get my sound to come out of the drums. Obviously, I have equipment preferences, sounds and models that I prefer, and I can get closer to the sound in my head if I play those specific drums, cymbals, heads, and sticks. But that isn’t the largest part of my sound. It comes from within. I have had this same studio for the last 25 years, so I have mixed my drums a lot. I know how to bring out certain elements, I know how to make the ghost notes stand out, how to make the bass drum clicky enough, I have spent a lot of experimental time in my own studio to see what actually makes a difference. I have tested out a lot of microphones here to see if it actually makes a difference, and if I prefer that difference. Sometimes I find out that the mic that I’m already using is the sound that I prefer. Regardless of the manufacturer, or the price, I know the sound that I can get from a drum set. I know how to mic that sound, I know how to record that sound, and I know how to mix that sound. Now that doesn’t mean that a mastering engineer couldn’t mess it up at the last minute (and yes, they have.) But you do need to become a bit of a control freak about your sound. MD : How have you worked on your touch to create your sound? GH: I think every time you play the drums you are (subconsciously) working on your touch. And if you are aware of that, you can be in control if it. I don’t think that you can work on your touch on a practice pad, because you are not making a sound. If you are lucky enough to have your drums set up at home, or you have a good rehearsal space, you are working on your sound every time you hit the drums. Your touch is very noticeable with acoustic instruments. The way that you strike the instrument affects the sound that you produce. MD: Is this the studio that you record in? GH : This is it, nothing fancy, no tricks. Just regular drums, with regular heads. I don’t have any tricks. You just have to play the drums the way you want them to sound. Although I must say, having your own recording studio and having the luxury of recording and listening back to what you played, is a wonderful learning experience. You do start to discover better ways to do things. That’s how I discovered that idea that I mentioned about playing the hi hat with the butt end of the stick. MD: I tell students that all of the time. One of the reasons someone like Gadd sounds as good as he does is because he has recorded and listened back to his playing millions of times, and the tape deck doesn’t lie. GH : When you hear some aspect of your playing (or sound) that you want to fix, and then you get to go back in for another take and make that adjustment, THAT is learning and improving. Check out Gavin's Modern Drummer profile page at moderndrummer.comModern Drummer July 2022 30 MM T he band Mammoth WVH is a musical force to be reckoned with. What else is there besides great songs being played by great musicians. But there is more to this band than meets the eye. True multi-instrumentalists are a unique breed of musician. For us mere mortal musicians they are intriguing (and possibly even a little demoralizing, how do they play everything so well?) There have been many legendary multi-instrumentalists in rock that have played every instrument (including drums) themselves on some of their recordings: Paul McCartney, Stevie Wonder, Prince, Steve Winwood, Lenny Kravitz, Dave Grohl, and many more. While that is always an amazing feat, very few of them (besides Grohl) were originally drummers. With the record Mammoth WVH, we can add Wolfgang Van Halen to that list. Wolf brings an even more unique view to his music. He is a drummer at heart, he played bass in one of the greatest rock bands ever, he is a very talented songwriter, and he plays guitar and sings in his own band. While Wolf was the bassist in Van Halen, he started working on his first record entitled Mammoth WVH by writing all of the music and playing and singing everything on the recording. Mammoth WVH is a fantastic record and band. However, (like the early days of Grohl and the Foo’s) when it was time to take the music on the road, Wolfgang needed to assemble a killer band that could play his music and take it to the next level. Wolf did exactly that! Mammoth WVH includes guitarists Frank Sidoris and Jon Jourdan, bassist Ronnie Ficarro, and drummer Garrett Whitlock. Throughout 2021 and 2022, they have been kicking ass and taking names on the Young Guns tour, opening for Guns & Roses, and on recent dates with Halestorm, Stone Temple Pilots, and Black Stone Cherry. Now, Mammoth is a well-oiled musical machine. This is a priceless opportunity for Modern Drummer to pass along the musical perspective from a great songwriter who is also a great drummer. We were joined by Mammoth WVH’s rock solid drummer Garrett Whitlock who has the daunting task of playing the drum parts that Wolfgang laid down on the record. Garrett is a young rock and roll veteran who cut his teeth with the bands Submersed and Tremonti and is now holding it all down with Mammoth WVH. This interview is a unique occasion for musicians to learn (from the inside out) about the relationship between songwriting and drumming, but there is much more than that in this interview. Wolf, Garrett, and I talk about drumming, what it was like for Garrett to join a band that already has music recorded, what it’s like for Garrett and Wolf to be in a band with another drummer, how to lead a band, Wolf’s songwriting and recording, how Garrett interpreted Wolf’s drum parts, Van Halen, and of course what Wolfgang learned about music from his legendary father and uncle. MAM MOTH WVH With drummers Wolfgang Van Halen and Garrett Whitlock By Mark GriffithHModern Drummer July 2022 32 MM MD : Garrett, how did you and Wolfgang hook up, what were you doing before Mammoth WVH? Garrett Whitlock : Wolf and I met in Mark Tremonti’s band, Mark is the guitarist for Creed and Alter Bridge. I did four of Mark’s solo records and before that I was in a band called Submersed, who did two records. Submersed was how I met Mark, I met Wolf when he subbed in Mark’s band playing bass. We got along great from the first time we met and have been buds ever since. When Wolf was done with the record and he had the idea of taking Mammoth WVH on the road, he asked me if I wanted to audition. It’s great to be in a band where everyone gets along, and every day is just like paradise. Like you said, great tunes, great musicians, and I’ll add great guys to that statement! What more could I ask for? MD: How did you learn the Mammoth tunes? GW: Wolf sent me the material and I took a lot of time to digest it before learning it. I listened to the music constantly, I was wearing my air pods 24 hours a day listening to the record. Because I took that much time to digest and learn the music; when I finally sat down to start to learn the drum parts, it felt pretty natural. Thankfully, I had a lot of time to learn it. MD: How much time did you have to learn the material? GW: I literally had years to learn the music. We first got together in 2018 and jammed, and then I had a few years to learn his music, so when we finally got back together a few years later, I had learned it all. Wolfgang Van Halen : In 2018, we rehearsed for about two weeks, but it wasn’t until we were preparing for the Guns & Roses tour that we got together again to find out who we really “were” as a band. Before that tour, we rehearsed every day for a month. That’s what I did with dad and Alex to prepare for a tour, so that’s what we did in Mammoth. We played this music until we were bored. When you do that, the music gets into your muscles, and you don’t even have to think about it. By the time we had added Jon (second guitarist), the rest of the band had already been playing together for a long time. MD : Garrett what was the audition like? You were auditioning for a fellow drummer, that must have added some pressure? GW : Everyone puts pressure on themselves as to what we expect from ourselves as players, in your mind you always build things up to be this “big thing.” I definitely did that. But when we all got together to play for the first time, it sounded really good. Frank, Ronnie and I “auditioned” together. We were given some of the tunes to learn and we all played together with Wolf. We were all trying to replicate everything that Wolf had played on the record, and I mean everything! It was a fun challenge to try to play everything like the record. MD: Now let me ask Wolf. You recorded an amazing record and were putting together a great band. How did you assemble the band? What did you hear when Garrett auditioned for the band? WVH: I had heard Garrett play on the first Tremonti record, and he was incredible. I was already writing the music for Mammoth, so when I met this guy who is a great dude, that played his ass off, and is a guy that I felt like I could live with on the road… Garrett was the first person I thought of when I was putting the band together. I knew it was going to be him, but I still went through the “formalities” of auditioning him and the rest of the guys. MD : When you were auditioning the guys for the band, what were you looking for? WVH : Let’s clarify this. I really didn’t audition anyone who didn’t wind up being in the band. Back in 2018, I had these guys in mind all along. I knew who I wanted in the band; the only question was if it would work? And it did. These guys couldn’t be better, we are having so much fun. There has only been one change in the band. As we played more, it became obvious that we would need another guitarist. There was just so many layered guitar parts and vocal parts to cover. We needed another bandmember. I didn’t want to use any tracks live, so that’s when July 2022 Modern Drummer 33 we got Jon. MD: How did you find him? WVH : I played drums on Clint Lowery’s record God Bless the Renegades, and when he played live, he had a guitarist named Jon Jourdan, he was really good. I checked out his band, and saw that he was a great singer and a great guitarist. I said to my uncle Pat (who was with me at the Alter Bridge show where I saw Jon for the first time), there’s our fifth member! About two years later Jon was on that same stage playing in Mammoth WVH. MD: That Clint Lowery (of Sevendust) record is slammin’ you are playing incredibly and grooving hard on that record. WVH: Thanks! MD : Putting a band together (and keeping a band together) can be really hard to do, and you have obviously done it right, do you have any advice there? WVH : As you said, I played all the music on the record, and the guys wanted to hold to that and play it like the record, but I really want them to feel free to express themselves. I don’t want to be super rigid and tell them, “You play it this way or you’re out!” That’s nuts. I’m super easy-going, I want everyone to have fun. The music needs to be different live. When we play the tunes live, they have to flow and breathe differently. I think we have achieved that, and I think we have even elevated the music when we play live. MD : When you were all first playing together as a band, how much did you want them to stick to what was on the record? WVH: As long as people could tell that we were playing the same song as the record, I am fine with playing the songs differently. Garrett does some stuff on certain songs that I think, “Shit, I wish I had played that on the record!” When we play the songs “Mammoth” and “Don’t Back Down” and “The Big Picture” we play parts that aren’t even on the record, but that’s what makes it fun. I remember seeing Tool live, they did this cool interlude-breakdown-thing in the middle of “Stinkfist,” and no one expected it. I loved that. MD : Garrett, many of us don’t have the opportunity to play in a band with another drummer in the band, what is that like? GW: It’s great, I always have someone to bounce ideas off, and Wolf always knows exactly what I am talking about drumwise. Even when we played together with Tremonti, whenever I was a little unsure about a part, I could ask him what he thought, and he would always help me figure out and create my parts. Drummers always get along, so what could be better than to be in a band with another drummer? MD : The wonderful thing about bands is that we can always Modern Drummer July 2022 34 learn from each other. Have you learned anything (drumwise) from playing with Wolf? GW : I have always appreciated the fact that we think differently at the drums. He approaches fills differently than me. It’s always refreshing to see how another drummer would approach something. When I see him working out a beat or a fill, I often sit there and think, “I would have never thought to play it like that in a million years.” For example, the beat to the verse in “Epiphany” is really Danny Carey-ish. He keeps the hi hat going, and the bass drum pattern plays against it. Then in the bridge it’s this linear syncopated type of groove. Sometimes he’ll play me a song, and the drums will be completely different from what I would have played. That is when you really learn. MD : Wolf how do you think that you two are different as drummers? WVH: I think he has the mind of a drummer, because that is what he does all of the time. He is also more skilled than I am because of the same reason, he does it more. When I play drums, I rely on muscle memory most of the time, I am not really thinking when I play drums. MD : We always play better when we aren’t thinking! GW: If we played and thought exactly the same it would be sort of boring for us. WVH : What makes the live stuff fun, is that Garrett takes the parts that I recorded, and he plays them his way. MD : Wolf, because you play everything (!!!) And your dad was the legendary guitarist Edward Van Halen, and your uncle is the legendary drummer Alex Van Halen, I gotta ask, what was your first instrument? WVH : Drums!!! I started playing drums when I was 9ish, and I got my first kit on my 10th birthday. My dad sat me down at a table and he had me play this (eighth notes) with one hand, and then this (two and four) with my other hand, then he had me play my foot in the space between my left hand. I did it, and dad pumped his fist in the air and screamed “YES!” Then he said, “Congratulations you’re playing AC/DC “Highway to Hell,” and he went out and got me a V Drum kit. I started playing along to The Best of Van Halen Volume 1 and Blink 182’s Enema of the State records. They were the first two albums that I learned and practiced with. The first fill from “All The Small Things” was the first fill that I ever learned. For my next birthday my dad got me a burgundy Everplay kit, and I still have it. MD : When did you start playing all of the other instruments? WVH : Two years later I started to play guitar, because I wanted to play the Van Halen song “3:16” that my dad wrote for me to play at a talent show. Then I learned power chords and I stared playing “Chop Suey” from System of a Down. Two years later (when I was 14) I started playing bass and I started jamming with dad and Al. MD : When did you start writing music? WVH: That wasn’t even on my mind for the first five years that I was playing drums, guitar, and bass. But after I joined Van July 2022 Modern Drummer 35 MM Halen, and we were doing the A Different Kind of Truth record, I was inside that “songwriting vibe” with the band and it started to rub off on me. After I got off of the Van Halen tour in 2013, I wrote the riff for “Mammoth” and that helped me gain the confidence to write more, and I did. MD: Were you a part of the songwriting on A Different Kind of Truth? WVH : Yeah, whether it was rearranging or restructuring I was a part of it. When Dave brought in the song “Stay Frosty” he brought in this idea. We said, “Cool, what do we do with it? So I restructured what he brought in, and made it a song. I helped compose the bridge and the intro for “Beats Working.” People thought that record was just a lot of old stuff, but there was a good deal of new and fresh stuff on that record. MD: That’s a really good record, I love it. WVH : I’m really proud of that record. MD: When you look in the mirror, how do you see yourself, as a bassist or a drummer? WVH : Overall, I’m a songwriter. I think I’m “alright” on all of the instruments, but I am a songwriter. But if I had to pick an instrument to identify with, I’m definitely a drummer! MD : What songwriters have you been influenced by (besides the obvious?) WVH : I love the band Jimmy Eat World for their overall songwriting approach. Today I really like Animals as Leaders and the band Intervals. The rhythm sections in those bands are just off the charts. WVH : Even today I get jealous of Garrett because all he has to do is play drums, I gotta do all this the other stuff, and all I want to do is play drums. MD : Wolf what do you look for, and like to hear from a drummer? WVH : Consistency. The most important thing is for the bass and drums to lock together, that’s the foundation of music. What I love about the drums is that before you sit at a kit, you can sort of “pre-game” a drum part by playing it on your legs, and that really helps to create the motor function or muscle memory of playing a specific part. Then by the time you sit at a kit, you have warmed up to the part. MD : To further complicate things, when Mammoth WVH plays live, Wolf, you are playing guitar. Your dad was such a great rhythm player, and he was so funky. When I was a kid, everyone was paying attention to his solo’s, but I was just enthralled by his rhythm playing. Can you talk about the relationship between the rhythm guitar and the drums? What did you learn from your dad about rhythm and playing rhythm guitar? WVH: We both have a mutual love and appreciation for Malcolm Young (from AC/DC.) He is the greatest rhythm guitarist to ever live. When the rhythm guitar locks in with the drums and bass in the engine room (as Garrett and Ronnie put it) there is nothing like it. My dad and I loved AC/DC. MD: People overlook the fact that AC/DC was a funky band, as was Van Halen! WVH : Listen to the hookup between dad and Al on “Light Up the Sky,” I love that shit. MD: Garrett what do you look for in a bassist? GW : Pocket. The way our stage is set up, Ronnie (the bassist) and I are off to the side, like Wolf said, we jokingly call it the Modern Drummer July 2022 36 engine room. When it’s really right a bassist and a drummer sound like one unit, like an engine. MD : Garrett, what is your background, how did you start playing drums? GW: I was a late bloomer, I was 15, and my school had a drumset in the auditorium. One day, I felt the urge to sit down at the drums. I asked the music teacher Mr. Ronin if I could go and play the set after school. He was really positive and said, “Sure, go for it.” Every day after school, I would spend a couple of hours at the drums just sort of finding my way around the set and figuring it out. I started to listen to records and started figuring out what the drummer’s on those records were doing. MD : What records were you listening to? GW: My dad gave me an early ZZ Top record. There is a lot of swing on those records, and those shuffles are killer. I really tried to replicate the drum parts on that record. I grew up in Orlando, and we had the House of Blues and Hard Rock Live clubs in town. I would just go and sit and listen to every band that played there. I watched every drummer that played there. I watched how he set up his drums, how he hit his drums, everything! I’m a very visual learner, for me it was always about replicating what I see or hear. I started playing in local bands and started taking the steps from there. I met the Submersed guys, which led me to Mark Tremonti, and that led to Wolf. It’s been a fun journey. One of my favorite drummers is Vinnie Paul, I love Danny Carey, and of course all of the greats like Bonham and Mitch Mitchell. But I remember when that first Slipknot record came out, it had this song called “Sic.” The intro to that song had some kick drum stuff that I had never heard before. It was insane. That lit the fuse for me. I got a metronome and started practicing my double kick drum stuff with that. I love heavy metal drumming, I love industrial music, I love blues music. I’m just a fan of music, I love it all. MD : Wolf, what kind of drums were you playing on the Mammoth record. The drum sound is perfect. WVH : The reason the drums sound so killer is because we tracked July 2022 Modern Drummer 37 MMthe drums to tape. I was playing a great sounding Gretsch kit that actually belongs to Mike Fasano from Tiger Army, and they are great sounding drums. We tracked to tape and then we dumped the drum tracks into ProTools. The producer Elvis Baskette just really knows how to record drums. The combination of Elvis and tracking them to tape just put the drum sound over the top. MD : How long did recording take? WVH: I wrote the first riff to the song “Mammoth” in 2013. In 2015 we started recording, and I tracked seven songs. Then over the course of the next three years, Elvis and I met seven or eight times, and that’s how we got the record done. Now nine years later we are playing this music live and taking it on tour. However, while I was writing and working on the record I did a couple of Tremonti tours, and we did the Van Halen tour in 2015, then Elvis had to deal with Hurricane Irma which was awful. So, there were some detours along the way. It took some time to actually figure out what the project “was,” but now we know what Mammoth WVH is, so that will help going forward. I’m sure the next one won’t take nearly as long. MD: Let’s talk about the tunes. There are some tunes that have perfect drum parts and great grooves. The drum part and the bass parts lock perfectly with the tune. Not to mention that the arrangements are very cool as well. I’m sure it helps that the same musician (you) wrote the tunes, and played all of the instruments on the tracks, but can we talk about creating arrangements, and complimentary drum and bass parts? WVH : I do Logic demos, then we dump them to ProTools, then I start removing parts one by one, and replacing them with the final parts. But for this record, more often than not, I was still creating the final drum parts as we were tracking the final parts in the studio. As a songwriter and a drummer, I am always conscious of what flows better and what feels better. Certain songs like “Resolve” and “Distance” just sort of happened. But then there were tunes like “Mammoth” where we had to create a different bass drum pattern to set the verse and the chorus apart. MD : There are a few instances where there are these very brief “Van Halen-ish” points in tunes where the time turns around, and you play backwards for a bar, and then everything resolves, and you are back to “normal.” Every drummer that has ever listened to Van Halen has been driven (a little) nuts by those parts of Van Halen in tunes like “Jump.” You don’t really hear those tricky parts until you try and play them, and then you start pulling your hair out. But there are some points in Mammoth tunes that this happens as well, is that a conscious influence of playing with your dad and Al? WVH: As weird as this might sound, we never really even spoke about that. But yes, I am aware of the tunes that you are talking about. When I was in Van Halen, I never really felt out of my depth, and they definitely didn’t “baby” me with the music. I really think that the blood relationship that we all had made it possible for me to feel those points of those tunes. So (I guess) when I write, I do include some of that stuff subconsciously, because it’s just there, and it’s a part of me. So yeah, I know what you are talking about, but it’s never my intention to replicate any Van Halen stuff! However, I’m sure some stuff has seeped into my subconscious just through hearing and playing that music so much.Next >