Getting to Know... Drummer

Drummer is a logical band. First, its formation: Patrick Carney, drummer of blues blasters The Black Keys, had some time off from his band in early 2009 and wanted to try something new. So who did he call? His best friends, of course. The resulting band—made up completely of Ohio musicians—includes Jamie Stillman of Teeth of the Hydra, Steve Clements of Houseguest, John Finley of Beaten Awake and Greg Boyd of Ghostman &Sandman. Turns out, all of Carney’s best friends aren’t only musicians, but drummers, too. So, as reason would have it, they decided to call their new act Drummer.

The sound of Drummer's debut, Feel Good Together, makes sense, too—with a collection of drummers moving to other instruments, the album’s take on danceable rock ’n’ roll has a distinctly percussive momentum, with Stillman’s jagged, punchy guitars, Finley’s sky-high melodies and Carney’s chunky bass lines. Paste caught up with a road-weary Carney to talk about making music in Ohio, the trouble with Bob Rock and the formation of his new quintet.

Paste: How are you today?
Carney: I was in Akron last night for my dad’s 60th birthday, and I drove all night to New York. Now my eyes are completely bloodshot—I’m sitting in my hotel room looking outside, wondering when I’ll have to go out there. I’m used to it, though. I spent about five years driving all night on tour.

Paste: So what was the impetus for starting the new band?
Carney: Well, Dan’s [Auerbach, The Black Keys’ guitarist] solo record came out in February. And around then I realized I had nothing to do for a while, with the exception of a couple shows. So I got kind of freaked out and just started a band with my best friends in Akron. From day one we decided we wanted to do a couple-week tour and put a record out in the fall. That was the only thing that’d work into my schedule—I knew Dan and I would be working on a new record this summer and touring a lot next year. I also had some personal shit going on where I just needed to get out of my house a bit more.

Paste: How’d it all actually come together? And how did you decide who would play what?
Carney: Steve is a good friend of mine and Jamie is the Black Keys’ tour manager. I’ve known John for 12 years. Greg, the drummer, just moved to Akron a few years ago, but we’d become good friends. Steve and I were making weird songs in my studio last fall. We talked about making a 7” or something, then around late January I said “Fuck it. Let’s start a band.” He agreed. But I didn’t want to play drums—and he didn’t want to play drums either. So we called our friend Greg to play drums. Then I said, “We should get somebody who can really, really sing.” So we called John from Beaten Awake. We did three or four practices as a four-piece before adding Jamie. To me, the idea of playing in a band with five people is really scary. Steve, who was already in a band with five people, reassured me that it’d be fine. I mean, everyone wanted Jamie in the band. Once I was convinced, we asked him to join.

Paste: Drummer is made up of all people from different bands—are you comfortable calling it a supergroup?
Carney: Well, I mean, it’s a supergroup in the sense that we’re all from Ohio. Steve, Jamie and John, though, are three of the best drummers I’ve ever seen on the planet. They’re insane. Watching them play drums makes me feel bad about myself, basically.

Paste: People don’t often think about Ohio as having a huge scene, but the members of Drummer seem to prove that wrong. Do you think Ohio is underrated?
Carney: Ohio’s got a pretty awesome music scene, considering. There are maybe three indie labels in Ohio. In a way, I call it the Benelux of America. You can play five cities all 300 miles from each other, and you’ll get good turnouts at every city. But for some reason, bands feel like they need to move. It is hard to get discovered—if you’re a band from Cincinnati versus being a band from Brooklyn. You can walk down the street in Brooklyn and who knows who you’ll see, but not in Ohio. I mean, you know. You’re in Decatur, right?

Paste: Yeah, Paste is just outside of Atlanta.
Carney: Well, sure. If you’re doing hip-hop in Atlanta it’s one thing. If you’re doing hip-hop in Mobile, Ala., it’s another thing. So basically every city in Ohio is Mobile, Ala. There used to be some amazing regional record labels, but that all dried up. But the same talent pool is there—just no one is there to discover it. It’s the same thing with Muscle Shoals—there are talented people everywhere. I do believe that music is genetic—it’s a family thing. Whatever was magical about Muscle Shoals is still there, it’s just no one fucking cares anymore. Music now is just pop music, made by motherfuckers like Bob Rock. Motherfuckers that have wrap-around Sub Zeros and dreadlocks and a crazy ass Kurzweil keyboard. People just don’t get it.

Paste: What was the importance of having band members that were all originally drummers?
Carney: It was circumstance pretty much. We realized it after the fact. But when you play drums… well, guitar is a percussive instrument, so is keyboards. Everyone in the band who plays noted instruments started on noted instruments then moved to the drums and now came back. There’s such a thing as playing drums like playing the guitar. We all play our instruments that way. When you learn how to play drums then go back and play guitar, you have a better grasp on dynamics.

Paste: The album’s got some great catchy melodies as well as cool percussion. In a way, do you think this project proves that drummers can be songwriters too?
Carney: I don’t know anybody who starts out saying, “I wanna play the drums.” It costs like 1,000 bucks to get a drum set; it cost 100 bucks to get a guitar. I was one of those kids who said, “I’m going to play guitar, fuck it.” But after I got a chance to play a friend’s drum set, well, I got a job washing dishes and I bought one. You can do a lot of cool dynamics in a song with drums. You control the tension. Most good hip-hop—say, the Wu-Tang Clan—samples live drum hits, the swing of a song. They’re sampling someone’s tempo, someone’s nuance. And only drummers pay attention to that.

Paste: So who is the best drummer in the band?
Carney: Jamie and John, those are the types of guys that decide one day they’re going to skateboard and a week later they’re the best skateboarder in the neighborhood. I’ve known them since I was 17, and that’s who they are. I used to idolize those dudes—they were so fucking good at everything. I learned a lot about music from them.

Paste: Playing bass, you’re not out front, but every story on the band mentions you as a focus. Is it weird getting so much attention for a project with so many other guys?
Carney: I anticipated it, but I figured that it’d go one of two ways—either I do all these interviews and no one likes the record and it’s done, or I do all these interviews and people like the record and realize there are four other equally-as-talented—or most likely more talented—members of the band that deserve attention. Would anyone pay attention to Drummer if it weren’t attached to something else? I don’t know. I think the record is really good, I think we’re really good, but it’s the fucked up thing about the music industry. Who knows? I do know a couple things about myself, though. I do like attention. But I don't like attention when it’s depriving other people who deserve it.

Paste: But with your schedule, can there be a true future for Drummer?
Carney: I definitely have scheduling conflictions. Black Keys will have a really busy year next year. The plan is to tour behind the [Drummer] record. If things go really well and the guys want to tour further, even if I can’t do it, I wouldn’t want to hold them back. If other friends wanted to step in to help, that’d be fine. I don’t want to be the dude holding back four of his best friends from good opportunities.

Paste: If they did end up touring without you, that could be the ultimate test.
Carney: For sure. The ultimate goal of the band is for everyone to have fun. Most of the dudes in the band haven’t reached that high a level of success in the classic sense. But our gauge of success is to tour and have fun. If we can play and 100 people come, that’ll blow our minds. We’re all pretty fucking modest dudes.

Paste: Drummer sounds miles apart from the Black Keys. Is it nice to be playing a much different style?
Carney: Yeah, I like tons of different types of music. There’s continuity to all of it, but I’m still trying to figure out what it is. When I was in high school, I wanted to be in Captain Beefheart or Pavement. I can’t do Captain Beefheart on guitar, but I can try to do it on drums. But with Drummer, it’s great to branch out on a different instrument in a different style than the blues scales I’m used to. And that’s what I love the most; it’s great to get a better knowledge of what else is out there.

Paste: And I’ve got to ask— what’s next in The Black Keys’ future?
Carney: We have a shitload of plans, honestly. This summer we recorded two records. Our publicist said I can’t really talk about it, but everything’s fine. Dan and I have been basically living together for half the year for seven years. We both wanted to go out and do our own thing—to get some perspective. And we’re both getting it. I think Dan and I are closer then we have been ever. We grew up right around the corner from each other—he knows every little bit of bullshit about me and I know the same thing about him. And a new album? It’s going to be next spring.