Gavin Harrison here!

Gavin Harrison said:
No his hair is too funny to be a permanent member!!!!
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Hey, no hair related discriminations while I'm around.



Still, a great band and great playing you got there. A German drum magazine had a noted out version of "Sound of Muzak" and I'm still trying to figure it out. I should practise more, but hey, I can finally play the first bar correctly!
 
Gavin Harrison said:
I've never thought of myself as someone who can play double bass. I just mess around with it.
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I enjoy listening to your use of doublebass rather than the way you play it, if that makes any sense. I'm not a huge DB fan but I think it has its place and, like all of your playing, you always seem to find the right time (and amount) to use it.

I recently saw Marco Minemann and Billy Cobham, and from seeing your videos all you pros make it look so easy. How much time do you spend practicing now, and how much did you spend during your most intense period as I'm sure you had more time then than now?
 
!!!!!

Dany carey, Thomas Haake, carter Beauford and YOU, are my best influence when I play drums...

amazing groove, amazing kit ( enjoy sonor !!! ), will you make another dums DVD ?

Colin and you are one of the best "bass-drums" duet ;-) ( sorry for my writting, I'm french )
 
Hi Gavin,

I had the good fortune to see Porcupine Tree live twice last year. I love your playing, technical, but with feel and groove, you walk a fine line and make it look easy! As a former jazz drummer, I enjoy your solo album 'Sanity and Gravity' immensely (pick it up if you can, everyone), do you think you will ever do another solo record? I'd love to hear it. Thanks and keep up the inspiring work!

Derek
 
Just had a quick listen to 'Witness' on your Myspace. Have you been listening to Jean Michel Jarre recently? Sounded very influenced by him. Great stuff of course. Would like to see more like this definately!
 
Hi Mediocrefunkybeat,

Can't say I have ever listened to Jean Michel Jarre. That (Witness) track kind of came out of the "Dizrhythmia" style. Dizrhythmia was a band I had in the late 80's along with Jakko Jakszyk (Guitar) Danny Thompson (Double Bass) and Pandit Dinesh (Tabla).
It was a mixture of Indian and jazz music - and we had quite a few Indian performers appearing on it.

Cheers
Gavin
 
That's interesting. Very interesting indeed, I'm definately going to go and have a look over at the Indian-Jazz fusion scene and see what's what. You have some really great ideas on those songs and they sound great.
 
Hi Gavin
I've got another question for you about beat displacement....

I'm messing around a little with very simplistic beats and no matter which way I shift it -
ultimately my ears want to process it in its natural form and it just sounds like someone skipped the click pulse on me....

So my question is do you hear the same beat as it shifts and play some kind of mathimatical game with the space between shifts or do you hear the new displaced beat in its true form against the click....

Hope I explained that right....
 
Hi LinearDrummer,
It makes me laugh when I start to hear the displacement 'in it's natural form' (which I refer to as the B STATUS in my Rhythmic Illusions book). That shows that A. the illusion is going to work - and B. how strong that rhythm is, that it would pull me into hearing it as an illusion.

It's a very interesting mind game. If you play the displacement REALLY slow against a click I'm sure you can hear it as intended - as a new rhythm - that's just all off the beat. You have to remember the rhythm like that. DON'T get fooled and start hearing it the other way round.
You should always keep your mind in the 'A STATUS'....otherwise you'll end up with some strange (depending how far out you've displaced something) mathematical calculation to make at the end of it to bring yourself back round onto the beat again.

I found it very helpful to see the displaced beat written out - and to see where all the beats really sit with each other. If you've only seen the DVD - you should maybe get a peek at the book.

Cheers
Gavin
 
Hi Gav!

I think, that the most important that brains could be switched with A STATUS on B STATUS. Is easy enough to learn exercises, and correctly to play them. And here to switch brains, to feel a straight line beat and displasement beat simultaneously, it much difficult. Isn't it?
 
Hi Gavin,

I've been following your work for almost 2 years now and find it absoultely amazing. And your DVD/books/music are def. A class.

I was just wondering what your thoughts are on Chris Pennie from The Dillinger Escape Plan? I hear his a big fan of yours and has been working on your books lately.

And what are your Top 5 favorite drumming books of all time that you've worked through?

I hope am not throwing alot at you hahaha... Just answer when you can

Stay Fresh,

Chris
 
Hi Chris,
thanks for the message and the kind words.
I must confess that I don't have any "Dillinger Escape Plan" records - although a friend of mine played me some and I thought Chris Pennie sounded great. It seemed quite complex stuff and I'd probably need a long time to listen to it carefully and study it.

Top 5 drum books?

In no particular order
Ted Reed's Syncopation (and the systems that you can apply to it).
Gary Chester's New Breed (similar idea about applying systems over ostinatos)
Gary Chaffee's Patterns Books
Fred Albright's Contemporary Studies for Snare Drum
Future Sounds - David Garibaldi

Cheers
Gavin
 
Mr. Harrison,


I've been listening to your drumming for some time now (Porcupine Tree) and I must say really love your style and the way you play for the music - always tastefull. I just can't get enough of the verse groove on Sound of Muzak!!

I'm having a hard time trying to find some other material of yours to get a little "collection" of your playing, also to maybe play along to your grooves and hopefully grasp some things... With a bit of luck I'll manage to take care of that issue.

All that just to thank you for spending some of your time with us and sharing your knowlegde on this forum. Thanks a lot!


All the best,
Christopher J. Adams.

P.S. Can't wait for that PT live Dvd!!
 
Gavin Harrison said:
Hi Chris,
thanks for the message and the kind words.
I must confess that I don't have any "Dillinger Escape Plan" records - although a friend of mine played me some and I thought Chris Pennie sounded great. It seemed quite complex stuff and I'd probably need a long time to listen to it carefully and study it.
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Hey Gavin,

If you want a relatively listenable intro to DEP then I can only recommend the "Irony is a Dead Scene" EP with Mike Patton on vocals. It's a bit more melodic and accessible than the bulk of the rest of their stuff, and I think it's downright hilarious and musically brilliant.

After that I'd recommend Calculating Infinity, which is very cool if you can get into the vibe of it all. I'm not sure I'd recommend anything else unless that one absolutely blows your mind, though...
 
Hi Drum-Head,
thanks for the message. Glad you like the Sound Of Muzak groove. It's great fun to play. I break it down and demonstrate it on my new DVD.

PT live DVD should be coming out August/September time.

Hi Finnhiggins,
thanks for the advise about DEP - I'll try to track some down next time I'm out in a record store.

Hi e7z,
Guitar players that I like would include - Pat Metheny - Allan Holdsworth - Eric Gale - Johnny Guitar Watson and many more. As far as singers are concerned I really like a lot of people including - Stevie Wonder - Peter Gabriel - Paul Carrack - Gary Clark

cheers
Gavin
 
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