Zach Hill

Re: Zach Hill!!!

I was just reading the thread and i agree that both chippendale and hill are insane drummers

zach hill is amazing, his ability to create such complex riffs is astounding. chippendale is much more simple compaired to hill, but has just so much more energy. to compare the two drummers is very difficult to do. hella is heavily influenced by frank zappa and captain beefheart... my father described them as Beefheart on speed. naturally hill is a more complex drummer when he gets his ideas from two geniuses of music. chippendale (and his bass bud Brian Gibson) sound much more influenced by punk music and ambient sound than more "classical" music such as Zappa and Beefheart. i would say that Hella should be considered Avant-Garde where-as the Bolt should be considered Noise Punk.

No matter what, both drummers are masters of the art of beating their drums to splinters. they are incredible.
 
Re: Zach Hill!!!

I'm not a moderator, but I'd like to ask that anytime you guys start a thread like this, to please give some information about the guy before you start talking about him.

Example:

Jimbob Hooberstink -- Anyone ever hear this guy? OH man he is the best.

next reply - Yeah amazing!

next reply - for sure, I really like his work on that one album.


Try -- Zak Hill, drummer for (fill in the name here) is really great. Check out his work on (fill in the blank). What do you guys think?


Sorry to be so preachy, but if you haven't noticed, I spend a lot of time on here, and this is just one of my many pet peeves.
 
Re: Zach Hill!!!

He's definitely one of my top favorites, and one whom I'm currently listening to for inspiration, via "Hold Your Horse Is" album. Very technically complex, powerful, and energetic.

I highly recommend Hella's live DVD "Concentration Face". It's got great live footage, and a lot of it. A good insight into Zach's amazing playing style and technique. And he has some tremendous endurance; the 2nd part of the DVD is a gig consisting of their fast, complex music lasting over an hour.
 
Have any of you guys picked up Zach's new record with Mick Barr called "Shred Earthsip"? Super intense record. I would describe Zach nowadays as being less a drummer and more a force of nature.
 
The guy is definitely amazing. He should be a well-known drummer by now, but Hella has such a small listening group. He's starting to get more recognition with Team Sleep though.
 
Everyone be on the look out for Zach's big spread in the August '06 issue of Modern Drummer (with Stewart Copeland on the cover)!!!
 
Hella (Zach Hill)!

Zach hill drums for Hella, Team Sleep, and other groups.

And he has been my obsession for the past month.

What do you guys think of him as a musician?

I really enjoy his playing and even if its a complete chopfest, I think thats his style of playing and it suits the bands and his playing. And the way he sets up his kit is intersting but it looks like he feels pretty comfortable behind it.

If you haven't picked up the new issue of MD you should cause his on it and they transcribe one of his songs, which am still working on.

Heres some of Hellas and Team Slepps live vids...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RdPIfMO28ck&search=hella

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jdMDcG3zAEI&search=hella

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yk08wMoVkqI&NR

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dp8DHJnjFtw&mode=related&search=
 
Yeah, I first heard Zach on the dedut Team Sleep record and was amazed by complexity of the drum grooves played over the simplistic guitar playing and was in awe of how well it fit together especially with the electronic beats played in between specific drum fills at song climaxes (ex. Princeton Review, Tomb of Liegia). I also was really into how he could take an almost normal drum beat and then place fills in the most abnormal places and make it flow and groove in an incredibly extraordinary way (ex. Blvd. Knights).

Then, I noticed 'Hella's Zach Hill' on the cover of the August issue of Modern Drummer and remembered that that was the Team Sleep drummer, and reading that clued me into a lot of his inspirations, approach, and drum style and how he works it around whatever he's playing to. I saw some of his stuff online and immediately bought 'Hold Your Horse Is'. I think what this guy is doing for drums is phenomenal and should really be heard by any drummer. He's really changed the face of modern drumming and is pushing it forward into new dimensions.

"At first listen, Zach Hill's drumming sound spastic and random. But when examined closely, the intricacies within his playing illustrate the depth, intellectualism, and eccentricity of Hella's music." -Modern Drummer
 
I went on youtube the other night, typed 'Zach Hill' in the search and spent the hour and a half flabbergasted at what I was seeing. I can't even wrap my mind around the Hella stuff, not really my bag anyway, but fun to watch if only purely for the drums. But the Team Sleep stuff, awesome grooves, phenomenal bass drum work. As a single bass pedal guy myself I read the MD issue about him hoping to get some insight on how he practices his right foot but he was kind of vague about it. I think he has the fastest right foot I've seen so far, and his playing is an inspiration to all the single pedal guys who refuse to go to two but still manage to come up with some jaw dropping bass drum licks.
 
He's an absolute monster.

I was lucky enough to see them at the Jackpot Saloon here in Lawrence. There you can stand right next to the band. He blew the doors off of anybody I've seen live.

And I mean... anybody.
 
I'm not an expert on heel-toe because I don't use it. I looked at all the the videos on youtube to try to find a good shot of his right foot in action but it was hard to see anything. I could tell that his foot definitely slides up and down the pedal though.
 
canonedrum said:
Does anyone know if he uses the heel-toe technique?

dude, he does all kind of stuff ive never seen. i saw them live......he slides his foot forward and turns the foot to the right and plants his heel further up sometimes. i couldnt really tell what that motion did because it was in the context of a blurrying amout of rudiments,polybombastic insanity.

this guy is better than all the fusion guys put together as far as im concerned, speaking from a skill point of view. well, at least i like him better and the music is actually listenable.

he's one of the few "show off" drummers i like. watching him play is like watch a natural disaster destroy civilization, you cant look away.
 
canonedrum said:
Does anyone know if he uses the heel-toe technique?

Eh... I was standing right next to him watching everything he did at the Jackpot show. He wasn't doing anything wild or innovative, technique-wise. He's just an animal and has amazing creativity.

He has good, solid technique, but I don't think he delves into super-advanced techniques.
 
After listening and watching videos of this guy play I really really wanna see him live. He plays in several groups right? I haven't been able to find any info on tours which I'm guessing means he's not touring with anyone right now. Anybody know any more information about Zach Hill touring in the future?
 
Hella is a now a five piece band and will be touring extensively in 2007 in support of their forthcoming album "There's No 666 In Outer Space" which comes out on Ipecac in January.
 
Hella's new album "There's No 666 in Outer Space" is out now. It is a huge step for the band. Go pick it up!

Bernhard... now is a great time for Zach to finally get a drummerworld page... ;-)
 
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