Darren King

Darren King is a STUD. I just saw him live at the Loveland in Portland on Thursday. He opened for MAE (who also happens to have an amazing drummer in Jacob Marshall). MuteMath stole the show.
Take him away from the kit and King is one of the kindest, most sincere, humble guys in the world. He always has a huge smile on his face and was appreciative of everyone there. Put him behind the kit and he is an animal! Literally insane. I mean, he uses headphones instead of in-ear monitors and he DUCT-TAPED them to his head all the while having this crazy serial killer look on his face. He then proceeded to groove his butt off. I think the walls were sweating because there was too much groove in the place. To top it off, he played a vintage Rogers kit with a kick, snare and floor tom, a hihat and one cymbal. Let's see Joey Jordison or Mike Portnoy get repeated calls for drum solos and general yelling by playing that setup! (Yeah, I said it.)
The point is that Darren King is amazing. Go to mutemath.com and check out their live instrumental that is played exactly the same as the recording. It should be illegal to be that good.
cheers.
 
Ahh yes. took me a while to find this one. I didnt want to start a new thread.

Yeah totally digging mr king. check out "chaos" off there CD. Theres a wicked bit at the end that alot of drummers wouldnt even consider to end a song on.. after being introduced to this forum, i've found some of his stuff is very steve gadd-ish. whom i love alot.

check it out.
 
Man, I have been thinking about starting a thread about him ever since i joined. Darren King is absolutely amazing. There is no other drummer like him. He is so ridiculously solid, and great for that sampled/electronic drum sound they're going for. I've seen them twice and he is almost always the center of the show. Seriously one of the best drummers i've ever seen. I hope he gets mainstream recognition as a drummer and musician, he deserves it.
 
Incredibly tight and in the pocket. Not to mention creative. He basically makes MuteMath sing. The songs change when he changes. He is in total control which is an amazing thing to see live.

In closing, in total agreement with everyone in the thread.

B
 
I finally got to see mutemath in concert last night in charlottesville, va and i can't put it into words.

we got there over 2 hours early and got front row and i was arms length from darren and his drums. needless to say, i watched him the whole time and he is insane. best live drumming i've ever seen.

i ended up catching a stick and getting a setlist after the show.

after, i headed around back and ended up meeting darren and i asked if i could talk to him about his drums and he said ok and to follow him inside! so we walked back in and he told me what brand all their vintage drums are and hopped on stage and i got to play his snare which sounded like a marching snare drum.

i then asked when he was going to get a ride cymbal since the one he was using had 4 huge cracks. he told me he was going to sell it and get a new one. "i'll buy it" i said. so he told me a price and i talked him down a bit and ended up getting it. so we then went back outside to screaming fans and he talked to them more and then he said come on. and we walked to their bus and walked on and i met all of them and sat down and talked about all kinds of stuff, mainly about coming to richmond and they asked about my bands and i gave them our demo. they then signed the cymbal and a girl i met took a picture (which she will send me soon) and then i was off.

best concert experience ever.
the end
 
this cat knocks me the f--k out. I really dig his kick pattern in the cut 'Plan B'. He is very punky in his aggressiveness, yet fits really well into their whole retro sound. F--in A I love this cat.

'Plan B' reminds me of a Police B-side, 'Bombs Away'. ... call and response in the kick pattern.

I'm busting my ass to incorporate his stylings into my playing for sure.
 
Whoops, definitely did a double post of this thread. My bad!

But my favorite thing about him is how he can take such a complex beat, but make it work to be the backbone of all of MuteMath's songs.

Plus he's an animal.

PS- Does anyone know specs/info on his kit?
 
Bringing this thread back from the dead, but I've been hearing their new single "Blood Pressure" on the radio, and I was immediately impressed with the drums. King's rolls are great and very fitting for the song, but it's the way he goes about laying down his beats that really intrigues me. There's hardly a moment in the song where he's not hitting doubles with one hand or the other.
 
Yeah their new album is really cool.

Only been listening to them for 3 weeks, already in love, his drumming is astonshing. Check out the live performance of reset from the Fun and Bones DVD (it's on Vimeo), its absolutely flawless.

I also love the fact that although he can play the most complex incredible beats but often holds back and just plays to the song. Really simple tasteful fills.
 
Editing this again because I got some specs wrong last time. He plays a 68 Rogers kit. There's bits and pieces tossed around there too, but that's the main piece of his setup there. Anybody wondering what he plays when they see his kit is probably wondering about that blue onyx Rogers. He prefers Zildjian, but he plays other stuff too.

I'm a big fan, I bought a 68 Blue Onyx Rogers of my own. http://i.imgur.com/gONvuxY.jpg


Whoops, definitely did a double post of this thread. My bad!

But my favorite thing about him is how he can take such a complex beat, but make it work to be the backbone of all of MuteMath's songs.

Plus he's an animal.

PS- Does anyone know specs/info on his kit?
 
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