Interview с Mike Terrana : DARKSIDE.ru

Your yesterday’s show was quite different from the one you played in Moscow in 2003. We would say your drumming has become more aggressive since then. Would you agree with that, and if yes, what is the reason?

I think last night was one of the best drums solos I’ve done in a long time, maybe one of the best drum solos in my life. I felt really comfortable, and I thought, “I can play as long as I want, I can say whatever I want, and I’m gonna play a lot of things I’ve never played before.” A lot of stuff I played last night was like an experiment for me. There were some quiet moments, and what I think it was not as much aggressive, but rather expressive. Sometimes I go aggressive (imitates a mix of a roaring animal and a maniac banging the hell out of the drums), but if I did that for 20 minutes, it would be like if I’m keep talking to you in the same tone of voice. After five minutes you’d think, “This guy is fucking boring.” When I talk I use my voice, it goes up and it goes down, and that’s the same with the solo.

Your drumkit for this show was also different. Why did you only use one bass drum, when you usually have two?

It’s because I played the double pedal, and it feels the same. When I’m doing a clinic and I don’t have time, it’s very difficult to get all the drums in the right position. So I just put the hi-hat there and a double pedal. Even though I have the other bass drum there, I’m still using one bass drum, it’s just for looks. It looks cool, but I don’t like the way it sounds, because you can’t really make them sound the same. No matter how you try to tune them, they always sound a bit different. I’m tired of that, so we have the technology today, where I can get the identical sound. And I practice a lot with a double pedal. I started practicing with it once and I thought, “Oh, I kind of like this!” I never liked the double pedal before, I always played two bass drums, but I guess I’m just evolving… as I get older.

At the concert, you mentioned your upcoming DVD “Reality Check”. How will it be different from the previous one?

It’s gonna be a lot different from the one I did before. The other one was filled with exercises, and you know what? Drumming is not about exercises. You can do all the exercises you want before you go out the door and participate in the game of life (laughs), but when you get out there, something happens, and then you’re like, “Oh, I have to do this, that exercise is not working!” It’s kind of improvisation. What’s going on right now – we’re improvising, aren’t we? You have the questions, but still the things are moving. I think that’s the same with making music – you can do a lot of drumming exercises, but these exercises don’t apply, when it comes to interpreting a piece of music. You have to play from here (points at his heart), you have to be thinking in real time and feeling the music, and that is the art of being a musician, whether you are a drummer or whatever. And I just wanna show that to kids. The other video, “Double Bass Mechanics”, is full of exercises, and if you wanna do exercises, it’s no problem, there they are. But this one is more about how I create the drum fills, how you can make a living from playing drums, and what you really need to know to be a good drummer, not what people say you should know. I wanna tell people the truth. For instance, a kid last night asked me, “Is double bass necessary?” No, most of pop songs don’t have this (imitates the sound of high-speed double-bass drumming). You’re not hearing this, because if you hear this, most people can’t move. But last night when I started to play like this (imitates a mid-tempo drum pattern), everyone was moving. That’s why rap music has this groove. Double bass is misused a lot of times, I play a lot of double bass, but sometimes I get tired of that beat, you need to move that around. I wanna talk about that, and I wanna talk about my life story, how I started a band, what I did when I came to Europe, what I’m doing now. There will also be some stuff about the drums and the gear, some special stuff. I think it will be nice for kids and older people too, whether you wanna be a professional drummer or you’re a fan of drumming. I wanna do something for young people – some people see me play like t

his (imitates his hands and feet flying all over the drumkit), and they think, “Oh my God, I will never be able to do that! I should just stop!” But you don’t go to a drum clinic to feel bad, you go to a drum clinic to be inspired. This is what I’m doing, but it doesn’t mean you have to do it, and you can have success without all this stuff.

You said yesterday that when you were young, you often went to see other drummers play and learned from that. By the way, what drummers were those? Who were the drummers that made the biggest impact on you?

Oh, a lot of guys. Neal Peart (Rush) was one of the drummers. I used to see Joey Kramer of Aerosmith, John Bonham of Led Zeppelin, Keith Moon of The Who, a lot drummers of underground metal bands. I also saw bands like Cheap Trick, Pat Travers with Tommy Aldridge, Rainbow with Cozy Powell. These are my gods. When I was a kid, I had my black concert T-shirt on, my long hair, and I was there with my friends at the shows. And my friends were like, “OK, in between bands we’re gonna go to the bar, we’re gonna get a drink and look for some girls.” I was like, “Go!”, and they always made fun of me. They would go away, talk with girls and everything, and I would just sit there and watch the next band build the drums. And I’m glad I did that, I’m glad I didn’t go chase girls, because I was learning by watching these guys. For me it was always fascinating – I had the album, I was listening to the music, and I thought, “Tomorrow I’m going to SEE these guys!” We didn’t have MTV those days. Then I’d be there, and there would be the equipment on stage, and I’d be like, “Wow, they’re here! They’re back there right now!” And I was watching how they put the drums together and going, “Oh wow, he’s got a splash cymbal there, and he’s got different drums!” I was very interested in that, I’m still very interested in designing the drums, and that’s how I learned. I remember when I saw Van Halen – I saw Van Halen’s first tour – and I saw Alex Van Halen do a drum solo. (imitates a pattern typical of Alex) I didn’t know how to do that, I just heard it coming through the PA, and I was like, “Oh man, this is fucking cool! This is awesome! I wanna do that! How does he do that?” I went home, and I had two bass drums, and I knew how to do this (imitates a slow double-bass pattern with a fork on the table). I thought, “How would that be? Like that maybe?” I practiced for about a week, and then it started to happen. I was young, I was 16, I didn’t know what was going on. Now you have DVDs with a camera here and a camera there, and a guy saying, “I do it like this and blah blah blah, it’s so easy.” Now you have MTV where you can see a band live before they come, you can download music. But I like it better when it’s more of a mystery. That’s basically how I learned to play drums – I’m self-taught, I didn’t go to college, I didn’t go to school, I just went to a lot of concerts and I was really a big fan of all kinds of music. One night I’d go to see Weather Report, a fusion jazz band, and the next night I’d go to see Judas Priest.

By the way, do you have any students right now? Have you had a lot of experience in teaching?

Yeah, I do teach. I like teaching actually, it’s a lot of fun. And the kids that come to me enjoy it because I tell them a lot of stories and I’m joking around. I don’t have a lot of students, but the students I do have are like my friends. We’re going out eating afterwards, we’re having a beer, and so on. I don’t like to be “the teacher”. Some guys are like, “I am a drum teacher,” and they make a business out of it, but I think this sucks. It’s not for me, I don’t like it.

Have you noticed any young drummers lately that have really impressed or inspired you?

Oh yeah! I’ve got a lot of friends of mine living in Los Angeles, some are younger than me, some are older than me, they’re all amazing! But for some reason people don’t know them. You have to be lucky in life, in whatever you do. I have to say I’m a very lucky guy, because I know how many good drummers are out there, I’m a fan of drumming. I just did a drum show in France, I don’t know this kid’s name – a young boy, he was 17 years old. He played before me, and he played his ass off, he scared me! (cracks) But befo

re the show he comes up and goes (imitates the voice of a very shy person), “Mike, I have all your CDs, I have Artension and stuff…” I said, “OK, cool.” And then this guy went out and played, and I was like, “Holy shit!” He was much better than me and much younger than me, and I think this guy’s gonna go on to have a great drumming career. And he was a very nice kid, his parents were very cool. I like these drummer things, I like to hang out with drummers, and I like to watch drummers. I’m never intimidated if someone is a lot better than me, I think it’s cool, I like to watch it.

You told us last time that you have been learning to play the piano for the past couple of years. How did you get interested in this instrument?

You know what? I always liked to listen to the piano. I grew up in a Polish neighborhood, even though I’m Italian, and a lot of kids used to play accordion. Their parents would tell them, “Play accordion!” And I always used to watch my friends play and I would go, “That’s fucking cool! How do you do it?” They would reply, “I don’t like it, I have to practice, and all these things.” Yeah, but it sounds good, I like it. I did go to a music college for one semester, I studied some drumming, and I had to take piano lessons. As soon as I hit the piano, I thought, “Wow, this is beautiful!” Drumming is very noisy, it’s rhythm, but the piano is kind of like drumming, it’s rhythmic as well, but it has a beautiful sound. And all the notes are there, you can see them, and that’s what I like about it. However I have to say that it’s a very complicated, demanding and deep instrument, and I’m not a good piano player. (laughs) It’s kind of my hobby. I played a classical piece on my solo CD (“Man Of The World”, 2005), and there’s a lot of children that can play this piece better, but I played it just because I wanted to show people that I could play a little bit. And I think it’s good for musicians to play another instrument. I notice that when I play a lot of piano, I play better drums. I don’t know why, they’re mixed together somehow. I love piano, and it’s great for composing.

Speaking about classical music - one of the tunes that you played yesterday was taken from Victor Smolski’s album “Majesty And Passion” (2005). Can you tell us a bit about the studio work on this album? Who came up with drum arrangements for those songs? And did you record the drums before or after the orchestra and all other instruments?

The orchestra parts were done, and it was weird, because the orchestra was moving. There’s a click-track, but the orchestra is not on, so when I’m playing I’m hearing this (imitates a metronome), and then the orchestra is speeding up, so you have to go between. It was difficult. They gave me the music in advance and said, “Learn it!”, and I had to write it all out. I taught myself to read music, so I made the charts, and some of the charts were about four pages long. Bach is a genius, and for a self-taught drummer this was a very challenging project. Victor studied classical music in college, he went to school for it, so it’s normal for him. And for me this was a challenge. I learned 10 songs, we actually played some of these songs live with Rage at a Bach festival, which was really cool. Then I came in the studio with my charts, and we started to record, so I eventually recorded five songs. I knew the songs before I went in, but everything basically changed. Victor was producing the record, and he was like, “You know, that’s a cool rhythm, but play the other rhythm - the violins are going ta-dam, ta-da-da-dam, ta-dam – play that rhythm.” Classical music is polyrhythmic, there are lots of layers, and for me as a drummer it’s instinctive to listen to the bass. I constructed a lot of my drum parts along the lower rhythm, so some things had to be changed. But I have to say that I really like that record, and I’m really proud of what I played on the record. It’s one of the nicest projects I’ve done in a long time, I think the music is beautiful. And it was an interesting idea, an interesting combination.

You mentioned Artension in the beginning of this interview. What is the current situation in the band? The latest album “Future World” came out a year ago, and nothing has been heard about this band ever since…

I don’t know what’s going on, I don’t talk to anybody there. They live in America, and I’ve been so busy. The last record we made I didn’t like. I didn’t think it was a good record, I was a little disappointed. Maybe they’ll do it with another drummer, but I don’t even know if they’re continuing on. I like the guys, Vitaly (Kuprij, keyboardist) is a great guy and a great musician, but there’s no support for this band. The band was supposed to play a long time ago, we actually flew to Japan, everybody was there except for Vitaly, who didn’t have a work visa for some reason. He’s Ukrainian, and that was a problem. I think the first couple of records are really good.

You are going to record a new album with Axel Rudi Pell in February. We’ve heard that when Axel’s band is in the studio, the musicians are not really allowed to improvise that much, that Axel basically tells everybody what to play...

Yeah, he likes to keep it real simple. When I play with Axel, I’m a studio musician. So I say, “OK, if you want this…” (imitates a very simple rhythm) Sometimes he’d say, “Make up a fill here!”, and I’d think, “OK, he wants something complicated,” but when I play it, he’d go, “No no no, play something else!” I don’t care, for me it’s his project, it’s his right. He pays me, so I’m not there doing it for free like a slave. And he is a very nice guy, he’s very easy to work with, so I really enjoy playing with Axel. The music is simple, it’s kind of Deep Purple-like, older style rock, it’s not my favorite stuff to listen to. But the people are cool, Johnny Gioeli is a great singer, and there’s a great atmosphere. It’s a very relaxed situation. But he does have his ideas – “Play this beat!”, and as Axel is not a drummer, sometimes it’s hard to understand what exactly does he want. He tries to show me, and I’m actually listening.

As far as we know, back in the early 1980s you played in a band called Zillion. And now you again play in a band called Zillion with bassist Jens Becker (Grave Digger, ex-Running Wild). Is it a coincidence or was it your idea to use the old name for a new band?

When the guys said, “How do we want to call the band?”, I said, “Let’s call it Zillion!” I like the name, and it was my band back then. I think the record (“Zillion”, 2004) came out OK, unfortunately I’m unhappy with the way the things went, because…

Frontiers Records? (laughs)

I told them, “Don’t sign!” But they were like, “Oh no, we wanna sign!” And I said OK. At that point the guitar player (Sandro Giampietro, ex-Supared) kind of took over, and I said, “Go ahead!” And he banged right on the ground, it was over. (pause) As I get older, I realize that when I talk to someone, and if I have to repeat myself more than two times to make my point, this person either is not capable of understanding or does not want to understand. Then I save my energy and say, “OK, go!” It’s a shame, because “Zillion” is a good record, but I let it go. It was my idea, and then it became someone else’s idea. (laughs) But as soon as I went, “OK, go ahead!”, it just stopped. I have to say it was kind of a wasted effort. Sometimes I have ideas to do something, then other people come, and my idea turns into something very watery, a very blurry version of what I had originally.

The same was with Metalium, right?

Yes. A lot of things I put into it got taken over. There are a lot of people in this business that have some kind of ego problem – “Step aside! I’m the mastermind!” There’s always some guy that wants to be the mastermind. For me, I prefer to be in a more friendly band situation where people can give and take. But I’m really disillusion by some of these people. When it gets to the point where it’s not fun, I just stop. It’s a shame, but that’s life. I guess that happens to everybody in all kinds of business.

Do you remember your very first recording in a professional studio?

Yes, I do, and it was very hard. I had never played to a click-track before, and in practice my timing was moving, so the producer said, “In the studio you’re gonna play to a click-track, and if you don’t do it, I will get someone else.” I was living in Los Angeles,

and I was afraid that I might get fired. I bought this thing, even though I didn’t have any money, and I was practicing hard. But eventually I did it. And I think that’s important, that’s what I tell kids now – play with a click-track, start when you’re young, get used to it, because it’s gonna come, and when that day comes, and you’re not ready, it’s not fun. (laughs) You must be ready for battle!

We saw you struggle with your laptop yesterday. And what do you think about the technical things that some drummers use in the studio – triggers, samples and stuff like this?

I hate it. I think it’s cold, it’s boring, it’s fake. The music made with this kind of technology will not stand the test of time. Many people will argue with me, but I don’t care, that’s my opinion. (laughs) The new Rage record (“Speak Of The Dead”, 2006) is full of this, there’s too much computer…

You will be back in Moscow pretty soon, as Rage are expected to play a concert here in May. But we’ve heard that Rage won’t be playing as headliners, instead they will play with Russian band Kipelov, and Kipelov will be the last band to play. Does it matter for you personally and for Peavy and Victor with whom you are on tour, who is the last band to play and other things like this?

It doesn’t matter to me. I guess Kipelov is very famous over here, we know him from the tour with Aria, and they are good guys. I think it’s gonna be fun, so it’s nice to be their guests. I’m speaking for myself, I can’t speak for the other guys, but I can play late or early, it’s not a problem. (laughs) I think it’s good for Rage, because if we play big venues, more people are gonna see the band.

Are the fans different in different countries? For instance, how does the Russian audience differ from the one in Germany or Japan?

The Japanese audience is a good audience, but they are very polite and very quiet. A venue could be full, but if there is a curtain, it sounds like empty. When I first played in Japan, the venue we played in held 5,000 people, but when I came out on the stage, the curtain was closed, and I didn’t hear anything. I thought, “Oh God, maybe there’s nobody out there!” (everybody laughs) I opened the curtain, and they were sitting like this (imitates a person sitting straight on a chair), waiting, quiet, like in a movie theater, maybe talking a little bit. Then the curtain opens, and there’s still silence even when the show starts. Now when I go back they’re a little louder, but they’re still a very quiet polite audience. The Russian audience is similar to Brazilian, Spanish or Italian audiences – a lot of fire. This is not a warm climate here, but I think the Russian people have a warm heart. They’re emotional, they go like, “Woooww!”, and if they like you, they really show it. I like that, because I’m Italian. The German audience is a very good audience, it’s somewhere in between. But the Russian audience is cool, I was very impressed the first time I came here. The people were really enjoying the music, and perhaps the audience is not so jaded. When I lived in Los Angeles, there’s 90 bands a day, and everyone in the audience only claps a couple of times, and that’s it. They’re not excited, because they see so much music. But the Russian audience is different, especially in towns like Pyatigorsk, the people were like, “Wow, some metal bands are coming through here, let’s check it out!” They were really let loose. And that’s great, because rock’n’roll to me is an energy release – when you’re a young kid, you wanna rock’n’roll.

After visiting Star City in Russia you said that you are hoping to become the first drummer in space one day. What song would you play in space first of all when you fly there?

(meditates a second) You know what? It would be corny to say “Fly Me To The Moon”. (everybody laughs) I don’t know what song I would play in space, I have a feeling that I would be very sick up there. I joke about that, but I think to go up in space you really have to have some guts. And it’s very expensive, something like $20 million. When some guy flew with the Russians, he paid $20 million. So I have to do some more drum clinics before I can go up in space. Let me think what song I would play in space… I’d like to do a drum solo weightless, in zero gravity! Think about that! I would like to be spinning around in the space capsule naked doing a drum solo! Can you imagine that? (everybody laughs)

Special thanks to Alexei Kholoptsev and Konstantin Mironov (TMC Agency) for arranging this interview

Interview by Roman “Maniac” Patrashov, Ksenia “Wolfin” Khorina
Photos by Ksenia "Wolfin" Khorina
January 20, 2006
11 апр 2006 the End

Mike Terrana

Art Of Being A Musician