Thomas Pridgen - Creativity Is a Choice

Thomas Pridgen is a firebrand, and a controversial figure. He speaks his mind, and doesn’t sugarcoat or apologize for his opinions. He speaks like he plays, and it’s no mystery why he’s cut a path that’s hewed closely to those of his peers, but which is distinct and individual. If it takes gumption to walk at 90 degrees to the road everybody else takes, it takes real gumption to walk the road at 15 degrees.

Throughout my conversation with Thomas, you’ll hear me digging for that motivation - how important is it to differentiate yourself, how do you chart a creative path and take influence from others without “copying them”. How do you manifest the discipline necessary to become world-class on this instrument, and still have a rebellious, whimsical personality. (Answer, as nearly as I can calculate - be fueled by something.)

Thomas is also not shy in his opinions about today’s “online” culture of drums. It’s sometimes difficult to figure out where people draw the line: is it ok to have an instagram if you also play gigs in real life? What if you mostly make videos but your heart is only 15% “clout-chasey”, and 85% pure? Our mutual lack of fear at digging in our heels about our roles fueled maybe the most interesting exchange I’ve ever had with a guest - one in which I tee up the opportunity to take me down as an avatar for that “online drumming”, and Thomas declines acerbically, saying “I wouldn’t tell you anything.”

But what’s impressive about Thomas is his lack of desire to impress. In any situation, social or musical, you’re going to get the same Thomas - one who doesn’t pull punches, isn’t afraid to push his technically impressive playing to the breaking point for a musical goal, and relishes being in “deep water”, as he was in the Zildjian Live, in which he was learning the music on-the-fly.

Bottom line - Thomas is maybe the best muse I’ve yet encountered. Most useful person to picture if I’m feeling “meh” about practicing. When he looks you dead in the eye and says “I always needed to make sure noone could f@#$ with me on these drums”, you start thinking “am I really giving this my all?”

I wager you’ll feel the same way after listening to this interview.

Simply a Drum Solo

I do have an ulterior motive. I was very fired up from having spoken to Thomas Pridgen yesterday.

I hope to share that with you soon, though I’ll have to edit it myself in order to release it in September.

In any case, Thomas is a man of many opinions, and he gives no quarter to inauthenticity, or basically anything less than expressing yourself completely on the drums. What’s more, when I asked him if he’s ever had “stage fright”, or been nervous performing in public, it’s literally never entered his mind.

Thomas is a combination of zero desire to impress anyone external to himself and (possibly projection, but he basically said as much) a rage-fueled desire to be great at drums. I’ve made videos on this paradox before. The latter fuels his superhuman practice regimen; the former his total absence of self-consciousness behind the kit.

All of this culminated yesterday afternoon when, with a video void to fill since my editor is on a well-deserved vacation (8020 is just his side gig; he has a full time job for a TV station), I decided to sit down and shoot two videos of drum improvisation.

Both are one-take, first-take, and uncut. Luckily for the performances, some of the Thomas Pridgen “devil-may-care” ethos had rubbed off, because, good-or-bad, I was able to reach that equivocal state. And lucky for my calendar and rusty editing chops, where wasn’t much to edit.

Hope you enjoy!

I Can't Get This Justin Brown Groove Out of My Head

First things first - grab your free transcription here.

I don’t want to say Justin Brown is “underrated”, exactly. There are New York Times articles about him, and he plays with Thundercat.

Still, his influence probably outpaces the number of times he’s on people’s lips when they say stuff like “great modern drummers like Larnell, Thomas P, Marcus Gilmore, etc”. Justin should warrant frequent mention in this pantheon. His playing with Gerald Clayton, for instance, is an encyclopedia in how to make every moment of a song feel good.

I’m not exactly sure why I had Justin on the brain this past month, but something reminded me of the first time I heard him, in the 2000-oughts, and my subsequent search for any recordings or gig videos. It was at the end of such a search that I unearthed the song Subversive, by jazz saxophonist Yosvany Terry, and a live performance from LA, with Justin Brown on drums.

I found the groove fascinating and hypnotic at the time, and listened to it on repeat. (The drum solo at the end of the song is a lot of fun.)

At any rate, after around a 10 year break from the song, I revisited Subversive, and Justin’s drum groove, this past month. And decided it might make a cool video. So here you have it.

I’ll break down my process for understanding what’s going on, then we’ll talk about some key aspects of the groove. Then I’ll show you some of my favorite “JB” embellishments. And if you dig this one, maybe I’ll do a Gerald Clayton or Ambrose song at some point.

Hope you enjoy!

Anika Nilles - "I Was A Late-Bloomer"

How is Anika Nilles so good? What’s her secret? What can we learn from her “success” that can help us in our drumming.

It turns out: quite a bit.

By her own description, Anika differs from many other guests of the podcast in that she wasn’t “a prodigy” Sure - when she was young, she found drums fun and easy. But it wasn’t until college, in her mid-20s, that Anika feels she really “put it together”. (I have a sneaking suspicion that if I “crossed checked” this claim with some archival video she’d have sounded better than the lets on.)

Making jumps as a young adult has many advantages, among them that you can remember what you did, because your brain was already mostly-fully-developed. As such I was fascinated for Anika to expand on her college years.

Was there something that “clicked”?

What and how was she practicing before she “saw the path laid out before her”? How did her practice change afterward?

What followed was a decently-deep dig into psychology, motivation, practice methods, improvisation, and even stage-fright that I hope you’ll find as fascinating as I did.

Finally, Anika dishes about bandleading, and what she’s learned from Jeff Beck’s drum chair.

I believe you’ll enjoy this one.