crowd up and grooving, and all of a sudden you just start going nuts on the drums, it doesn’t work.
DC: As far as my drum solos are concerned, the thing that’s really effective in any setting is when I do these 3-beat triplets. You know, two on the right foot, one on the left. It’s the same thing I do in clinics: playing a dotted 8th note on the ride cymbal while I’ve got the 3-beat triplet going on with the bass drums; playing 16th or 32nd notes on the snare drum with the left hand, and then slowing it down and speeding them up. The audience really gets off on that. I put the sticks down while I’m just playing 3-beat triplets and looking at the camera, smiling, waving, you know, drinking a Coke. It’s showmanship.
Another thing that’s effective is at the tail end of the drum solo when I do this long roll around the drum kit, and as I get to the last floor tom I’m walking off the drum riser. That’s something I got from Lenny White.
DH: When I saw you do that with John Scofield, when you got to the last floor tom you actually jumped off your throne and off the riser, with your momentum carrying you completely off stage. DC: Yeah. That’s because I didn’t have a staircase. [laughs]
DH: How do you approach Niacin? Is that just a full-blown, all-stops-out kind of thing? DC: The new record, Organik, is a lot of energy, a lot of notes, a lot of balls-to-the-walls playing. I’m also trying to groove that too, trying to put some nails in the coffin with it as far as trying to groove the thing. And it seems to be working.
DH: Do you change your perspective or do you change anything physically when you’re playing in these different bands? DC: No, I don’t change anything physically, I just change my mindset. For instance, with Santana I have to play really way back. I don’t mean way back on the beat itself, but where my part fits into the band’s total sound – it’s
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