{"id":964,"date":"2012-01-19T14:12:53","date_gmt":"2012-01-19T14:12:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thedrumdoctor.net\/?p=964"},"modified":"2018-07-14T16:53:08","modified_gmt":"2018-07-14T15:53:08","slug":"interview-with-jamie-little","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thedrumdoctor.net\/interview-with-jamie-little","title":{"rendered":"Interview With Jamie Little"},"content":{"rendered":"

The following interview took place during 2010 when Jamie Little was touring the UK with Texas Blues artist, Hamilton Loomis. It first appeared in digital format on the ADC Drums website<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"Picture<\/a>Mention Birmingham or the Midlands of England, and most people visualise an industrial landscape, dominated by concrete, motorways, pollution and silent factories that were once the lifeblood of the British car industry. Behind this somewhat blinkered fa\u00e7ade, it is easy to forget that the area spawned a music scene that produced some fine drummers such as Bill Ward, Bev Bevan, Jim Capaldi, Carl Palmer, Don Powell, Roger Taylor, Chris Dagley and a certain Mr Bonham from Redditch. Keeping that tradition alive in the 21st century, we have new blood emerging from the heart of England, treading the path taken by eminent predecessors. With more than enough musical prowess to inhabit the worlds of Pop, Rock, Soul and Blues, Jamie Little has been a regular first-call player to cover the groove requirements of artists as diverse as \u2018Boyzone\u2019,\u00a0 Leona Lewis and Roy Wood, right up to Soul \u2018Sista\u2019 Beverly Knight. Currently making a name for himself as a much sought-after drumming choice for American Blues artists visiting Europe, we caught up with Jamie on Texas Bluesman, Hamilton Loomis\u2019 UK tour.<\/p>\n

Which area of Birmingham are you from?<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

I was actually born in a place called Washwood Heath – which is pretty near the centre – and I now live in Hockley which is the Jewellery Quarter of Birmingham.<\/p>\n

When were you first aware you wanted to play the drums?<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

\"Jamie<\/a>Well, my Dad is a musician; his name is Curtis Little. He was a singer in a couple of very, very good Soul bands in the Midlands, so I\u2019ve been aware of bands and music since I was born.\u00a0 I\u2019m the eldest of two boys, and when I was first born my Mum went back to work so my Dad would have me all day long in a sling around his neck and take me to rehearsals and all that stuff! So since I was a baby I\u2019ve been initiated into that kind of lifestyle, which settled down after my parent\u2019s separated. I saw my first live gig when I was 10 or 11 and heard a drum kit being sound-checked through a 10k rig. I stood in front of it and still remember the feeling to this day of the kick drum hitting my stomach and the Snare drum slicing my head off! I suppose it was that and also the fact that my Dad had a drum kit in the cellar at home. So from when I was a kid there was always a kit around – although I didn\u2019t really start playing the kit properly until I was 12 or 13 and I\u2019d done a short stint in the Boy\u2019s Brigade on the side drum. I notice Pick Withers (\u2018Dire Straits\u2019) was interviewed and talked about drumming in the Boy\u2019s Brigade.\u00a0 So again, just like Pick, I soon progressed to the \u2018corner boy\u2019 where you walk in a block and on the corner is the guy who shouts the call and answers.\u00a0 I was very quickly doing that and although it wasn\u2019t really kit playing, it was certainly picking up sticks and listening to things. Then my Dad found me a kit from somewhere and that was it! I knew what I wanted; I knew I wanted to play drums.<\/p>\n

Did you learn any technique in the Boy\u2019s Brigade or have any formal lessons?<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

I haven\u2019t had any lessons from anybody; I guess the only lesson you could say I had was some old dude in the Boy\u2019s Brigade who told me how to hold the sticks – although I was taught to hold the sticks orthodox style and play the side drum, which is of course, nothing to do with playing a kit!<\/p>\n

Coming from a musical background, were your parents supportive of you?<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

\"Jamie<\/a>Yes they were. My mum and stepdad were so supportive of me and my home had a basement cellar which was right underneath the lounge. When I was 15 I was rehearsing down there every night with a 3 piece power-trio rock band and they would put ear plugs in upstairs and try to watch TV! Now that\u2019s<\/em> supportive! They used to drive me to gigs and help out with equipment – although there was nothing lavished on me. I remember saving up for cymbals – only another \u00a320 and I\u2019ll have enough for a crash cymbal etc, so it was a meagre existence as a young musician.\u00a0 But I\u2019m kind of glad it was that way because I see a lot of kids who are just bought the best of everything and I think its easy then not to appreciate what you\u2019ve got.\u00a0 So yes, I had very supportive parents in both camps; my mum and my stepdad and then my Dad who lived across town and who really taught me the ropes.<\/p>\n

What drummers influenced you when you were growing up?<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

I\u2019m not really into lots of other drummers. I don\u2019t want that to sound arrogant, but I don\u2019t necessarily listen to drummers, so there\u2019s a lot of tunes I grew up listening to that I couldn\u2019t tell you who played on them.\u00a0 One of the biggest impacts was \u2018Pick up The Pieces\u2019 by Average White Band and of course, I did some research and found out that Steve Ferrone was their drummer and then years later, I found out that it wasn\u2019t actually him on that single, it was a guy called Robbie McIntosh! That brilliant fill in the middle of the song, my Dad always used to say was like someone pouring a glass of melted chocolate.\u00a0 I guess a lot of the music I listened to at the time came from my Dad, a lot of Rhythm and Blues, a lot of Soul. In fact, I\u2019d say that 90% of what I was listening to was 60\u2019s Southern Soul like Otis Reading, James Brown, Aretha Franklin, Sam and Dave, Arthur Conley, Percy Sledge; then as I got older I started listening to Stevie Ray Vaughan\u2019s Fabulous Thunderbirds along with the Blues and Soul based music my Dad was playing in his bands.<\/p>\n

Were you gigging in bands from an early age?<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

I was a big lad for 14 or 15 so I could get into clubs. Hanging around my Dad\u2019s gigs I knew quite a few muso\u2019s, although I remember thinking at that point that I wanted to go my own way.\u00a0 I didn\u2019t really want to get involved with his scene; I wanted to get something of my own going.\u00a0 I just did what I presume kids do these days which was go to the rehearsal studios and check out the little signs on the boards and ring people up.\u00a0 My first formative band was a band called \u2018Summerland\u2019 which was a 3 piece rock trio. Just me, guitar and bass and we all sang. We were playing gigs at night and I\u2019d be falling asleep during the science lesson in school the next day!<\/p>\n

You were in the David Bowie Tribute Band \u2018Jean Genie\u2019, was that your introduction into the world of professional work?<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Not really.\u00a0 My progression into professional work was with a Blues band called the \u2018Mighty House Rockers\u2019 who are still working.\u00a0 It\u2019s fronted by a guy called Les Wilson who is a great front-man, great guitar player, real Hendrix kind of influence and when I was about 17, we were going out to Europe and I realised quickly that I could actually earn enough money just by playing.\u00a0 It didn\u2019t just stay that way though. I went back to college and did some other jobs, but that was the first taste I had of being pro. After that, my first big break was playing for \u2018Boyzone\u2019.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s a pretty big break!<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Yeah it was pretty cool and again, it was through a contact of my Dad\u2019s. His guitar player Keith Randle was in a studio in Birmingham and wanted me to come down and put some drums on something. The young sound engineer had a gig passed to him of the little known boy-band \u2018Boyzone\u2019, which he had to put a small band together for.\u00a0 At the time, it was just drums and keyboards they needed, everything else was on tape, so he asked me and I\u2019ve never looked back since then really.<\/p>\n

If that was your introduction to the world of pop sessions, did that get you the connection to do the X-Factor stuff?<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Similar connections; it wasn\u2019t like one gig lead to another. There were lots of ups and downs in the meantime; in fact, I came out of the \u2018Boyzone\u2019 gig thinking \u201cI\u2019m sure there\u2019s another gig around the corner\u201d<\/em> but I was out of work for nearly a year. I actually trained as a carpenter when I left school so at this point my Mum was saying, \u201cCome on Jamie, it\u2019s about time you got a real job now!\u201d<\/em> On the other side, my Dad was saying, \u201cI agree with you, but at the same time, someone has to be the drummer in a band, someone\u2019s got to have a go at it or there\u2019ll be no drummers in the world!\u201d<\/em> So although they were both supportive, I was always good with my hands and had something to fall back on in those early years.\u00a0 After the \u2018Boyzone\u2019 gig I literally had no work, because you go out on the road for two years and when you get back to town, all the little gigs you were doing have been given to someone else!<\/p>\n

Charlie Morgan, Elton John\u2019s old drummer used to say the same thing. He\u2019d go away for two years with Elton, come back to London and the phone would be dead because everyone thought he was still out with Elton or too expensive!<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Exactly, that\u2019s what it\u2019s like!<\/p>\n

Tell us about your appearance on \u2018Top Of The Pops\u2019 with Beverley Knight <\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

The Bev Knight thing was a lot of fun. It was actually just a mime and it came about because I\u2019ve got a band in Birmingham called \u2018The Downstroke\u2019 which is sort of an R&B pop covers band. I put that together really just to shake the tree in Birmingham as there were a lot of bands doing function type Soul. I wanted to do the kind of Soul no one could ever play, which was R&B Soul, so I put a band together with some of the gospel guys in Birmingham. The guitar player – who happened to be Beverley Knight\u2019s MD – called me one day and said \u201ccan you come down and do these songs?\u201d<\/em> so I said \u201cyeah I\u2019d love to!\u201d<\/em> She was gorgeous, great to work for.\u00a0 It was just a mime – nothing more to it than that. I hear there\u2019s lots of men in line for that gig whenever it comes around so I was honoured to be asked to do anything at all!\u00a0 Yeah she\u2019s great, she\u2019s great.\u00a0 I just think that you never really know what\u2019s around the corner; you never really know what\u2019s going to happen, so you just take whatever comes your way.<\/p>\n

Did you have to audition for the X-Factor gig?<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

No. An MD friend of mine called me.\u00a0 That\u2019s the way it works.\u00a0 A production company is hired to put the show on and the production company hires an MD and the MD hires the band and that\u2019s it.<\/p>\n

You\u2019re also becoming well known in the Blues circuit, so you\u2019ve had your feet in a few camps really.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

The Blues is a funny thing.\u00a0 Someone once said \u201cBlues isn\u2019t dead; it just smells bad!\u201d<\/em> It doesn\u2019t matter where you go in Birmingham, there\u2019s always a Blues club somewhere and it\u2019s been a Blues town for years and years.\u00a0 One of the places I would drink was a place called \u2018The Adam and Eve\u2019 which still does great business; but as a live venue 17 years ago they would have a band on every night. By the time I was 16 or 17 I was working with every band playing there.\u00a0 I could literally leave my kit set up every night of the week working with a different band!<\/p>\n

Now you play with American artists visiting Europe such as Sherman Robertson and Hamilton Loomis, so you\u2019ve managed to break into that level of the circuit.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

\"Jamie<\/a>Yes, Hamilton happened first for me. Ham had already been over once and he\u2019d brought his rhythm section with him. While it was great to bring the whole band over, because he was just starting out here, I don\u2019t think he went home with a lot of money.\u00a0 So, fiscally it was more advantageous for him to find a rhythm section in this country and fly over with his sax\/keyboard player. While they were here, they bumped into (guitarist) Matt Schofield and kept in touch.\u00a0 Hamilton called Matt and said, \u201cI\u2019m going to come back to England next year but I need a drummer and\/or a bass player; can you recommend anyone?\u201d<\/em> Anyway, Matt recommended me and I got an email.\u00a0 In fact, I was sitting in X-Factor rehearsals in 2006 at the Ritz in London, and this email pinged up \u201cgig with US artist\u201d so I read it and I listened to the material. As soon as I heard it I thought, \u201cThis is great, this has got to be done!\u201d<\/em>\u00a0 So I said \u201cyes\u201d<\/em>, and I haven\u2019t really looked back.\u00a0 Then a couple of years later the gig with Sherman Robertson became available. A guy who also used to play in \u2018Gene Jeanie\u2019 was already doing the gig and asked me if I wanted to do it, so I said \u201cI\u2019d love to do it!\u201d<\/em>\u00a0 Within a couple of years I\u2019d gone from not playing any Blues, to playing with everyone out there!\u00a0 It was a little bit crazy!<\/p>\n

When you first started working in the UK with Hamilton, it was assumed that he was carrying a US rhythm section. People weren\u2019t aware he was using British players. This can sometimes comes as a bit of a disappointment to some audiences, as it\u2019s well known that there are very few British rhythm sections who can nail an authentic American Blues feel, especially shuffles.\u00a0 But as you have proven, it is obvious that you have an understanding of the music which perhaps goes back to your musical upbringing?<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Yes and No.\u00a0 \u2018The Mighty House Rockers\u2019 (the band I first got steady work with), I was replacing a guy called Tom Farnell who to this day, is one of the best double-shuffle players I\u2019ve ever heard and I had to cut my teeth on his legacy!\u00a0 I had to try and get that double-shuffle right and I don\u2019t really feel that I really was happy with that double-shuffle feel until just a few years ago. So that\u2019s like 17 years it\u2019s taken me to do that!\u00a0 I\u2019ve seen some American guys first hand who are brilliant straight players – but can\u2019t shuffle to save their lives.\u00a0 I don\u2019t think nationality even comes into it.\u00a0 I think it\u2019s whether you understand what a guitar player needs from you when they play a shuffle.<\/p>\n

So obviously you passed the test with the American artists?<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Yeah I\u2019d like to think so; I did a great trip at the start of this year to the Caribbean at the Mustique Blues Festival and it\u2019s the first time I\u2019ve been asked to do it and it\u2019s a great honour to be asked to do it because a lot of guys would kill to get that gig! You\u2019re basically on a Caribbean island for three weeks and I got to play with all the artists that were there. I was actually sharing it with another drummer called Mick Morena. We played with Joe Louis Walker who\u2019s a Grammy award winning Blues player from New York and Harp player Billy Branch from Chicago. By the end of it, I was playing with both of them on each night; in the end Donald Fagen turned up and aksed to jam! That was really great! I guess I do sort of pat myself on the shoulder when I get off stage with people like Joe Louis Walker, Billy Branch, Sherman Robertson and those guys say, \u201cYeah man, you can really shuffle!\u201d<\/em> When those guys say \u201cyou can shuffle\u201d<\/em>, you can shuffle!<\/p>\n

So obviously, Hamilton\u2019s not going to bother bringing an American drummer over in the future, you seem to be a permanent fixture.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Well, this is the way it works; Ham\u2019s on the road all year round, and just as it\u2019s difficult to keep a band on the road in this country, it\u2019s a full time job for him for him in the States as well. Depending on where he\u2019s touring, sometimes he\u2019ll pick up a drummer in the places he\u2019s going. Of course, he does have permanent members there, but when the drummer left him who\u2019d came over here with him the first time, the position started floating around. Other people would pick up the gig over in the States, but two years ago when a drummer let him down over a North American tour, he flew me out, which was great! I did all the southern states \u2013 Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi \u2013 which was an absolutely fabulous experience. I don\u2019t know why I thought it\u2019d be so different from here; in fact, it was the same \u2013 vans and load-ins and stages and monitor-men who couldn\u2019t pull their finger out of their asses and all the rest of it! But it was great to have that experience on the road with him in hi<\/em>scountry because here, I think a lot of people don\u2019t know what to make of it, they\u2019ve never seen anything like it before! In the States they kind of get it a bit more.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s probably because Blues music is part of their history, whereas, over here, we experimented with the genre in the 60\u2019s and 70\u2019s\u00a0 and exported our version back over to America and then lost it during the 80\u2019s, allowing it to metamorphosis into something closer to Rock than Blues.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Yes, I think there are certain artists who took the Blues and put a white mans vibe to it \u2013 which I applaud in some ways \u2013 but it changed the way Blues is thought about by an English audience. But at the same token, music\u2019s ephemeral, it\u2019s constantly changing and I do get a little bit annoyed by purists who say, \u201cthat\u2019s not how Muddy Waters would do it!\u201d<\/em> but that\u2019s because Muddy Waters<\/em> was doing it! Unless you\u2019re Muddy Waters you aren\u2019t going to do it like that and if you do<\/em> do it like that, you\u2019re copying. I don\u2019t get too hung up about purist people because Hamilton is a living example of how you take Blues as a structure, and then add little bits of influences from every musical genre going.<\/p>\n

Exactly! Blues is a big church and sometimes it\u2019s hard for British audiences to take every influence on board.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

There will be a lot of guys in this audience tonight who will be able to tell you exactly<\/em> where Howling Wolf was when he cut his record or exactly where Etta James was when she did so-and-so, and that\u2019s all well and good, but getting back to the likes of Hamilton, it\u2019s about bringing the Blues into a new domain. I think for English audiences, I don\u2019t think they have to know where the origins of things come from. I think when something entertains them, it\u2019s good enough. Certainly with Hamilton you can ask, \u201cis it Blues, is it funk?\u201d<\/em> but you can\u2019t pigeon-hole it because it\u2019s a melting pot of so many different things. But it\u2019s definitely entertainment.<\/p>\n

Yes, he definitely makes a connection with an audience; he\u2019s the A-star front-man you want, he can sell anything!<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

He kind of wrote the modern book on it really, even though he doesn\u2019t know it, he really did!<\/p>\n

Getting back to the British Blues scene, does it worry you that audiences don\u2019t seem to be getting younger even though the genre is producing new young guns like Oli Brown for example?<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Yes, I totally understand what you\u2019re saying and I think I can speak with some authority on this because I worked with Joanne Shaw Taylor for a long time and I\u2019ve just done Oli Brown\u2019s latest album (\u2018Heads I win, tails you lose\u2019) and Dani Wilde\u2019s album. They\u2019re signed to RUF Records and if you want to look at the young Blues players, RUF\u2019s got them all. Certainly in Oli\u2019s case, he\u2019s come from a Blues background but just like John Mayer did, he\u2019s taken the Blues, added a few more chords, written some interesting songs and melodies around it and all of a sudden you\u2019ve got something that\u2019s bordering on a pop album which is what Oli\u2019s album is. It is<\/em> Blues based, just like Hamilton\u2019s stuff, but it\u2019s not \u2018The Blues\u2019. It\u2019s based on it, but the songs are accounts of his life so far and that\u2019s what sets this new album apart from his last one. With British Blues though, I think it\u2019s a bit too early to tell which way it\u2019s going to go; we\u2019ve already seen the reversion from the Electronica of the 80\u2019s and 90\u2019s reverting back to guitar bands like \u2018White Stripes\u2019, \u2018Franz Ferdinand\u2019 and all that. In America, we always seem to follow them; we\u2019re always a few steps behind. Certainly with John Mayer \u2013 and I hope he\u2019s not the only phenomenon \u2013 he\u2019s gone from being a Blues artist to being a household pop name. Again, it\u2019s still based on Blues, but it\u2019s not Blues anymore; it\u2019s Soul, it\u2019s popular songs, and if that makes \u2018The Blues\u2019 more popular then I say good on him! I kind of see Oli in the same vein \u2013 I\u2019m not making a comparison to Mayer as I think they\u2019ve both got different things to offer \u2013 but I do see that Oli\u2019s progressing from beyond just being a \u2018guitar slinger\u2019. Nowadays, thanks to the Internet, the world\u2019s a smaller place and you can go on YouTube and look up some really good guitar slingers from Mississippi who can\u2019t be beaten. So why would you want to try? Why not write an album that sets you apart from the rest of those people?<\/p>\n

Even so, you must have noticed that the UK Blues scene is predominantly followed by an older audience and unless there is some new blood coming into audiences, it could find itself on the endangered list.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

But traditionally \u2018The Blues\u2019 has always been a fifty-something-mild-drinking-will-you-sign-my-T-Bone-Walker-album kind of scene! It still very much has that tag today. When I toured the States the audiences were a lot younger and you would find a Blues band like Hamilton\u2019s playing in any<\/em> nightclub in America. They don\u2019t put Blues clubs on in working men\u2019s clubs like they do here. They\u2019ll put on a Blues band on any stage anywhere. Music is less pigeon-holed in America so you never know, it might follow on here.<\/p>\n

We\u2019ll keep our fingers crossed on that on…As someone making a living as a professional musician within an industry that has changed massively over the last decade, how do you see the future for someone wanting to play drums professionally?<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Well…I don\u2019t really know about that one. I don\u2019t think it\u2019s got any easier or any tougher. Certainly in the 60\u2019s and the 70\u2019s you had more chance of getting a gig as the whole thing was newer. In the 80\u2019s and the 90\u2019s if you were already established you had more chance of making a big buck because record companies had big budgets, record producers had big pockets, you could go and cut an album and if you played it right you could retire! That\u2019s what session musicians did back in the 80\u2019s. Since the coming of Logic, drum programming and all the rest of it, of course<\/em> that\u2019s had an effect. With the digital download scene, I think that as music becomes more freely available through the internet there\u2019s less value in what you record, but there\u2019s more value in what you perform live. For me, I think there\u2019s still a healthy gigging scene all over the world and though people might change the way they listen to a product, they\u2019ll never change the way they listen on stage to human beings performing it. It\u2019s always going to be \u2018us and them\u2019; it\u2019s always going to be the band and the audience. How else are you going to do it? A little live remote video link that\u2019s like a DVD?\u00a0 You need to be in the room. You can\u2019t package it another way, you\u2019ve got<\/em> to be in the room and that will always be there. So as far as live gigging goes I don\u2019t think that\u2019s going to change and if anything, the live show is going to get more of the focus for the artist because it\u2019s the place where they can physically<\/em> sell product. I certainly feel that in the Blues world, I would tell smart people that if they want to make an album, don\u2019t actually put it on their website to download; make people actually come to the gig and buy it. Like I said, the live gig is more of a focus for the musicians business these days than it ever was, simply because of the ephemeral nature of music as a downloadable product.<\/p>\n

Despite the shrinking nature of CD sales, there\u2019s still a healthy interest in big pop shows with the likes of Lady GaGa and a recent report by PRS suggests that there are cores of dedicated music consumers who still want to buy the actual artist CD along with getting their hands on the \u2018must have\u2019 tickets for the shows. Perhaps there is a future for musicians in the industry?<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

It\u2019s interesting that you\u2019re talking about the pop thing; I was talking to my mate who still does \u2018Boyzone\u2019, their recent album didn\u2019t do quite as well as they wanted, probably because a lot of \u2018Boyzone\u2019 fans (and it\u2019s probably the same with Lady GaGa fans) care more about the visual side. They\u2019re not really \u2018listeners\u2019, they want to be involved with the artist as \u2018a product\u2019, they don\u2019t really care about the artists product, they view The Artist as<\/em> \u2018the product\u2019 really. Why would they go and spend 79p on a download of a tune when they can watch them free on YouTube and actually see them singing it? I guess that attitude has always been there, but again with YouTube, that\u2019s just reinforced it. The whole digital age is reinforcing what we already knew about they way people consume music.<\/p>\n

Your observations on this part of the music business are certainly refreshing to hear. It\u2019s certainly more important for drummers to keep a watchful eye on the industry rather than getting sucked into a lot of nerdy gear-talk!<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Which is great, because I\u2019m not really a nerdy drummer! I hate talking about gear and I hate talking about chops and rudiments! I don\u2019t have any chops and rudiments! If you asked me how to do a 5-stroke roll now, I\u2019d be here \u2018til Christmas because I\u2019m a groove player! I play songs; if you read my website (www.jamielittle.co.uk<\/a>) it says I play the song like I feel it in my heart. I\u2019ve got some chops but I\u2019m not a flash showman, I hate drum solos and he (Hamilton) makes me do two!<\/p>\n

Again, this is where we see so many players get side-tracked into stick-twirling, Olympian drum-slinging, the pursuit of unfeasibly fast double-bass drum licks etc, whilst forgetting that their role is completely irrelevant without a song.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Absolutely. Speaking as a band member, I see a lot of drummers out there, great clinicians that I see bits of here and there, who can play all day long without the song, but that isn\u2019t necessarily music, it\u2019s rhythm. Being part of the band or part of the musical set-up where you\u2019re adding your bit I think is far more rewarding.<\/p>\n

It is easy for drummers \u2013 or any musician for that matter – to get their heads turned by another musician with outstanding technical skills and follow that path, but you seem to embody what a musician should be, i.e., you play for the song rather than to massage an attention-hungry ego.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

It\u2019s great to hear other people recognise that. Both of the albums I did recently for Mike Vernon (legendary English record producer), I felt a tendency to play less than I\u2019ve ever played on anything, just to keep out of the way of everything else that was going on. I think that\u2019s very important, especially<\/em> when you\u2019re recording. Playing live, there\u2019s always a little bit of extra adrenalin and you may throw in something a little bit pushy, a little bit flash, it\u2019s gone in a second and you can move on. You do that on a record and you live with it for the rest of your life! I really took on board something a bass playing friend of mine said to me years ago; he said when you go into a studio just play slightly underneath your means, just get it done and make it classic. My worst nightmare is to record something that I then listen to twenty years afterwards and get to a part where I know I messed up! So I just play it straight and it works.<\/p>\n

For the benefits of the gear-heads out there, let\u2019s talk a bit about the equipment you use! You\u2019re playing a DW kit at the moment?<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

\"Jamie<\/a>Yeah, it\u2019s power-sizes so it\u2019s a 22\u201d x 18\u201d Bass drum, 10\u201d x 9\u201d and I\u2019ve got a 12\u201d x 10\u201d and a 16\u201d Floor tom. Today you\u2019ll see the 10\u201d and the 16\u201d but I find it works well in a number of different combinations. I really like the DW sound I must say, though it\u2019s probably no better or worse than the Premier kits I was playing five years ago, or the Pearl kits I was playing five years before that. They\u2019re just one of many you can choose from and they all do the job and I\u2019ve kind of settled on that DW now. But who knows what it might be next year?\u00a0 I\u2019m also endorsed by Zildjian Cymbals, Protection Racket cases and Vic Firth sticks.<\/p>\n

Do you ever use any vintage gear?<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

I do use some vintage gear; I\u2019ve got a great Ludwig 400 which I actually rediscovered.<\/p>\n

\"Jamie<\/a>I\u2019ve had it in my basement for years and I did a couple of albums with it many years ago, took it on the road and for some reason, I don\u2019t know – another Snare drum came along – I shelved it for a little while. Then I got it out for a session with a guy who specifically wanted a metal shelled Snare drum and I\u2019ve just used it ever since! I\u2019ve literally used it on everything; I even took it to the Caribbean with me! It\u2019s great for live rooms because it\u2019s really heavily dampened, so you get this \u201cTHUCK!\u201d<\/em> out of it; I really love that sound! I\u2019ve recorded with it very dampened, very detuned and there\u2019s a great vibe happening with it. I bought a kit off eBay a couple of years ago, purely because I liked the look of it and it would look great on TV etc, and it was an old 70\u2019s Pearl wood and fibreglass kit which is obviously quite a thick shell. I had it shipped from America and restored it myself as best I could. I cut the 13\u201d tom down and made it into a Snare drum! Funnily enough, I thought it looked great but wouldn\u2019t be good on recordings; but one time I got stuck when my DW was on a truck on another tour and Sherman (Robertson) asked me to go and do a BBC recording at Maida Vale studios. So I said \u201cyeah, I can do it but I\u2019ll have to take my \u2018Junker\u2019!\u201d<\/em> –\u00a0 I call it \u2018The Junker\u2019 \u2013 so I took it to Maida Vale along with some cracked cymbals as it was all I could lay my hands on at the time, and that recording\u2019s one of the best I\u2019ve ever done! I mean the sound of that kit was just fabulous, really very, very good. So I do use little bits of vintage gear. I get a little bit frustrated with people who only<\/em> use vintage gear because I don\u2019t think it quite stands up to the rigours of the road like modern stuff and I find that unless it\u2019s miked, vintage gear can be a little bit too quiet by today\u2019s standards.<\/p>\n

Especially with the old 3-ply mahogany\/maple glue ring combination you find on old Ludwig kits. It\u2019s very boomy, but as soon as you step away from the kit, it doesn\u2019t project as well as modern kits do and you need to employ some decent overheads to compete with a band using modern backline.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

\"Jamie<\/a>What I liked about the vintage Pearl kit, not only did it look great, it was really<\/em> loud! It\u2019s the loudest thing I\u2019ve got that kit, just because it\u2019s got all this fibreglass coating on the inside. The Bass drum\u2019s like a cannon, I\u2019m really, really pleased with it.<\/p>\n

All though you say you don\u2019t have many chops, you\u2019ve got some pretty fast Bass drum work that you throw in now and then, which would fool drummers into thinking that you\u2019re actually using a double-pedal! Where did you get you\u2019re inspiration from to get that facility in Bass drum technique.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

I\u2019ll tell you where it came from; it\u2019s based on the double-pedal lick that everyone gets down – you know, the fast thing. I actually got it from a drummer called Jerry Gaskill who\u2019s the drummer for \u2018Kings X\u2019, who are an amazing band. Unlike all the Rock drummers of the time, he had a Yamaha 4-piece kit \u2013 in fact, he might have had two Floor toms – and he used a single Ludwig Speedking pedal with a nylon belt and I tell you, he sounded like a Tommy gun, absolutely amazing! It was in one of their videos that they zoomed the camera into his pedal when he played this hand-foot triplet fill and I saw the way his foot moved and realised it was the heel-toe technique. So I kind of got it from that really.<\/p>\n

No doubt he\u2019d been studying the Bonham stuff then! Going back to what you were saying earlier about not really being into drummers for the sake of drumming, are there any particular drummers who stand out to you today for their contribution to drumming a musical approach rather than a \u2018drummer\u2019s drummer\u2019 approach?<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Well, Steve Jordan\u2019s very trendy at the moment and I have to say, I\u2019ve only ever bought one drum tuition DVD and it was his, because I\u2019d heard the John Mayer Trio \u2018Try\u2019 album and the John Schofield Ray Charles tribute album that he played on. So I bought the tuition DVD, but although what he played was very good, I was more knocked out by the amount of times he changed his clothes – I just love him for that! But seriously, I love Steve Jordan, I love Steve Ferrone, Steve Gadd \u2013 there\u2019s three Steve\u2019s there! Billy Cobham I grew up with, Michael Narada Walden doing all that weird jazz stuff, David Garibaldi, Bernard Purdie, Chad Smith \u2013 wicked, fabulous player. One of my really formative albums was \u2018Head Hunters\u2019 by Herbie Hancock with Harvey Mason; that was an amazing thing for me.<\/p>\n

Are there any new artists that musically influence you right now?<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

One of my favourite artists at the moment is a guy called Marc Broussard from Louisiana, and a friend of mine brought his album back over and it went around Birmingham like wildfire. I don\u2019t think he\u2019s been over to England yet, but a lot of the Birmingham Blues scene people love him because it\u2019s just this amazing new music that\u2019s again, mainly Blues based, but more with a country tip to it because his Dad was a Nashville guitar player I believe. His drummer \u2013 and just the whole production of it, they\u2019re doing old music with new gear and new techniques and it just sounds absolutely fabulous. There\u2019s another guy called Eli \u2018Paperboy\u2019 Reed who, if you put his stuff on now, everybody would think it\u2019s a 60\u2019s track, but he\u2019s 22 and from Boston! It sounds like Otis Reading and Otis Reading\u2019s band and it\u2019s great! I\u2019m really behind all this \u2018new-old Soul\u2019 I guess you\u2019d have to call it, because it\u2019s really digging back to Muscle Shoals, Stax and those sort of studio sounds.<\/p>\n

So are there any artists or songwriters you\u2019d particularly like to play with?<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Marc Broussard. He\u2019s pretty amazing. I\u2019d love to have a knock with John Mayer, I\u2019d love to have a knock with Prince and I\u2019d love to have a knock with a guy called Lewis Taylor who did the rounds a few years ago. Bonnie Raitt; one of my favourite albums of hers is \u2018Home Plate\u2019 and the drums, again, very simple. There\u2019s one tune that\u2019s got no Snare drum in it at all, it\u2019s a full-on tune, and it\u2019s like everywhere there should be a Snare drum there\u2019s a pair of Hi-Hats that go \u201cTshhhh!\u201d I love that kind of thing, very simple, very soulful.<\/p>\n

Do you see yourself staying in England or do you think you\u2019ll ever make the move over to the States?<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

I don\u2019t know really; I\u2019ve been over to the States on a few occasions, I went over with \u2018B*witched\u2019 (Irish girl band) and \u2018A1\u2019 and played Greenwich Village in New York; I\u2019ve done the \u2018Tonight\u2019 show in L.A. as well as Rosie O\u2019Donnell and that\u2019s all very well, but I\u2019ve also been there doing Blues gigs out of the back of a van and it\u2019s all much of a much-ness really. Things are certainly more focused in England, they\u2019re more condensed down into a smaller patch, it\u2019s easier to get about and I think it\u2019s easier to work in England than it is in the States. It\u2019s a very big place and unless you want to be driving around for the rest of your life…But then again, I might get over there again and they go, \u201chey man, we love your British accent, we want to hire you for the rest of your life!\u201d<\/em> I don\u2019t know, I\u2019m quite happy in Birmingham in England. I really respect Steve Barney for the fact that he\u2019s from Norwich, he refused to move to London and still did ok. I had the opportunity to move to London a few times but I\u2019ve seen a lot of my counterparts in London struggling with the high rent, the high standard of living and the great thing about being in Birmingham is that I\u2019m so well placed to work all over the country! On this tour for example, we\u2019re all around the south and all around the north and I can get to either place equidistantly. You call a guy up in London to do a show in Manchester and he\u2019d probably turn his nose up at it! I can go to London or Manchester as easily because I\u2019m in the middle of the country. So certainly as far as England\u2019s concerned, I wouldn\u2019t want to move anywhere else. As far as the rest of the world\u2019s concerned I don\u2019t know, I really don\u2019t know \u2013 make me an offer!<\/p>\n

For more information about Jamie please visit his website<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u00a9 Nick Lauro, 2012. Unless explicitly stated otherwise, all rights including those in copyright in the content of this website are owned by or controlled by Nick Lauro. The content of this site may not be copied, reproduced, republished, downloaded, posted, broadcast or transmitted in any way without first obtaining written permission from the owner.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\"\"<\/a>

The following interview took place during 2010 when Jamie Little was touring the UK with Texas Blues artist, Hamilton Loomis. It first appeared in digital format on the ADC Drums website. Mention Birmingham or the Midlands of England, and most people visualise an industrial landscape, dominated by concrete, motorways, pollution and silent factories that were […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[4,32,10,11],"tags":[38,39,35,36,37,34,33],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thedrumdoctor.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/964"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thedrumdoctor.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thedrumdoctor.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedrumdoctor.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedrumdoctor.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=964"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thedrumdoctor.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/964\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thedrumdoctor.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=964"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedrumdoctor.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=964"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedrumdoctor.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=964"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}