An Interview with Steve Wilkinson

Based in the Boston area, Steve Wilkinson makes a living through gigging with numerous bands and teaching drums. Steve currently plays in a handful of original projects, including City of Four (which recently released an EP), Strange Changes, Tom Dowd Group, and LON. He found a bit of time in his packed schedule to answer some questions about his personal and professional drumming journey. Thank you, Steve!

BDL: When did you start playing the drums?

I was banging on pots and pans so to speak since I was pretty young (single digits I would think), but didn't start playing the actual drums or taking real lessons until around 7th or 8th grade. My parents made me do piano lessons for 5 years or so before they finally caved and let me do the drums, so I was a bit of a late bloomer in that regard.

BDL: What made you want to start learning to play the drums?

I always loved rhythm, and an early viewing of Paul Simon's Concert In The Park got me super inspired as a tiny guy, seeing all the epic drumming and percussion action in that. My small, undeveloped brain exploded, and I was never the same. Also, when I was either in late elementary or early middle school, I got to see the high school jazz band in my town perform, and the two drummers in that band were absolutely killin, so that made me really want to start playing the drums for real, take lessons, get my skills on kit up enough to hopefully sit in that seat one day and do half the job they did. Jury's out on that part, but I did wind up the principal drummer in that same big band when I was finally in high school, so that was pretty cool.

BDL: Who/what were some of your early influences, musical or otherwise?

See the answer above, sort of. But I was into mostly rock/metal & rap when I was younger and just starting out. I never really listened to much jazz, neo soul, r&b, real good classic hip-hop, etc at all until I got to college. So you could say I was a real late bloomer on a lot of the stuff I like to listen to most today, the stuff I draw most of my influence from and aspire to most at this point as a player. Back in the day though, I was big on Matt McDonough & Mudvayne, Danny Carey & Tool, bands like Ill Niño, Papa Roach, Korn, Sevendust, Slipknot etc. I also really liked Incubus and Linkin Park, lots of that kind of stuff. That's where a lot of my early drumming influence came from, playing along to all those records incessantly in my parents' basement, pretending I was John Otto, all that, and then just listening to a lot of rap in my time off from drumming. My first exposure to holy-****-you-can-do-THAT-on-the-kit?!?! drumming came when my dad took me to see Michel Camilo perform at Regattabar. I was in early high school, in the jazz band, didn't know much yet, and when I sat right behind Horacio Hernandez, it was a beautiful shock to the system, and it changed my life. Pure magic. Also seeing Dave DiCenso (I studied with his father, Dick DiCenso, when I was in 8th grade and throughout high school) do a clinic early on blew my mind completely in a similar but different way. He's such a special player.

BDL: Who/what are some of your more recent influences?

I have always loved Brian Blade's playing since I learned of him back in my freshman year at McGill, in 2007. I have also definitely been inspired deeply by Eric Harland, Chris Dave, Kendrick Scott, Mark Guiliana, Nate Wood, Jeff Ballard, Jamire Williams, Nate Smith, Marcus Gilmore, Ferenc Nemeth, Dafnis Prieto, Robert "Sput" Searight, Larnell Lewis, Richard Spaven, Damion Reid, Mark Colenburg, Arthur Hnatek, and many others (I'll remember like 10+ later and regret not mentioning them, the list is just too long). Off the drums but just musically, I have also been influenced heavily by Aaron Parks, Terence Blanchard, Robert Glasper, Christian Scott, Brad Mehldau, Gretchen Parlato, Joshua Redman, Kenny Garrett, Kneebody, Lydian Collective, Snarky Puppy, Tigran Hamasyan, Vijay Iyer, and many others as well.

BDL: Aside from playing music, what are some of your other interests or hobbies?

It sounds cliché and lame as hell, and not a hobby, but I love being a husband to my wife. She's the best part of my life and I love her like I love music, so spending time with her doing whatever is always a highlight and something I constantly balance with how hard I nerd out on music. Among other things, we absolutely love going out to see stand-up comedy. That is a craft that I have so much respect and admiration for, and enjoy thoroughly. I've never done it, nor will I ever have the balls to do it, but I am a huge fan of the craft. I have also always loved film, and I dream of maybe one day being involved in that in some way, but who knows, haven't made any moves toward that yet. But acting, directing, cinematography, writing, all major aspects of film, I am completely taken by and have so much appreciation for. In other words, I watch a ton of ****. Movies, shows, I'm always watching something. I also love to exercise and be outside, I love to party, and traveling is obviously super special whenever I can make that happen, but when I'm home, inside and not working, I'm usually watching something. I'm probably the most poorly read person you'll ever meet.

BDL: How would you describe your drumming style?

Expressive/emotive, improvisatory, groove-based, and I guess somewhat progressive. And busy, definitely busy. Usually a fair amount of notes going on, for better or worse. Constantly striving to make it more for better than for worse. That's an ongoing work in progress.

BDL: Do you have a specific process or approach you use to compose drum parts?

No. I rarely compose drum parts. I usually just play until it feels right, and then I keep it, or depending on the song/genre it might change a little bit every time. If the composer has already written a part and the part is awesome as is and written with intention/not just a placeholder, I'll actually learn the part precisely so I can play exactly what they wrote, or alter or embellish it as much or little as they ask for. I always listen to and work with input from the composer in terms of what they're hearing and what they prefer if a part has not yet been written, but I've been very fortunate to find myself in a collection of projects that trust my instincts, ask for my sound and give me a fair amount of interpretive freedom in that regard. When I compose myself, the drums are the last thing I think of. I try to play to the song, and the song comes first. The music needs to be in my head, and then the rest comes pretty naturally and instinctively.

BDL: What are your favorite types of music to play?

Definitely modern jazz, fusion, progressive rock, hip-hop, and anything that grooves hard with lots of room for improvisation and expressive freedom in the moment.

BDL: When playing with a band, how do you know what to play without stepping on anyone else's parts?

It really depends on the band, and the music. Some music is more part-driven, and that's a lot easier to negotiate in terms of who does what, how it all blends, and how to stay in your lane. When it's a lot more open and interpretive, then it's all about rapport, and that usually takes time to build. Putting in a lot of reps over time with certain musicians, you learn how they hear, how they think, how they react, where their pocket is and what their tendencies are, and they learn all that about you. Then it almost becomes second nature playing together and knowing how and when to fill space as well as how and when to leave it. When it's with someone new, it's really mostly about listening intently and presently and staying in the moment. I mean, it's actually all about listening at the end of the day, in any and every case.

BDL: Are there any concepts or styles you feel are a weak point in your drumming?

Oh yea. I'm awful at trad (traditional) jazz, really swinging hard, by my standards and certainly by the standards of anyone who's really deep in that bag. I've just never fallen in love enough with the trad stuff to listen to it hard enough for long enough to really internalize that language and feel enough to externalize it convincingly and authentically. So those aren't the gigs I take, because I know it's just not my bag, and so many other cats do love it the way you need to in order to play it right, and they're the ones for those gigs. I'm also still kind of a novice in the world of super-independence and coordination, like the far reaches of progressive drumming where each limb is playing in a different big odd meter for instance, like 11+5+13+7. Yea, I can't do that ****. I'm also not a speed demon on the feet, haven't put a ton of reps in on the double kick in a while, so I'm not about to take any dope metal drummer's gigs. Really at the end of the day, anything you don't prioritize in your approach, in your practice, and perhaps most importantly, in what you listen to, you're not going to be as strong at as the things you do prioritize. I used to want to do everything until I realized that that is not a very practical approach to developing your own sound and style. If I shed something hard for a while, I can get good at it, no matter what that is, but I have to want to (or need to, depending on the jobs I've taken on) in order to go and do that work. Inevitably, something will always be left at the wayside, and I've become much more comfortable with that in recent years. I have prioritized working on the things that allow me to be as free as I can be playing the way that I want to in the environments that I have put myself in, and as that overall definition shifts, so do my work habits and practice routines. But yea, right now, I can't swing for ****.

BDL: Rumor has it that you live in Mike Mangini's former home. Is the house built on top of an ancient drummer burial ground that requires a phenomenal drummer to keep guard at all times?

Man, what a crazy coincidence that was when I found out the place we were going to buy was in fact Mike's place. I had never met Mike before, but he was super cool during the process. I would absolutely regard him as a phenomenal player. Myself, not so much! But there's definitely some wild drummer juju in this place, I think probably entirely from his presence in here for 14 years prior to our moving in, and I try to soak up whatever little bit I can on the daily. But yea, that dude is a legend, and that's a career I can't ever imagine coming anywhere close to. That 11+5+13+7 stuff I was talking about earlier, he was casually doing that in what's now my office, only it was probably more like 5+19+17+21 or something, you can find the vid on YouTube. His massive home studio kit was set up where our master bedroom is now. Scary, scary stuff. Nothing but respect and admiration for that guy, man.

BDL: What do you feel are some commonly overlooked elements or aspects of playing the drums?

Maybe color, nuance, texture, dynamics, phrasing, orchestration, that kind of stuff? Obviously, plenty of drummers know all about these aspects of making music on the instrument (as do plenty of other musicians who play with them, and passionate/dedicated listeners of music), but I feel like maybe a good portion of the world either regards drummers as mostly just keepers of time, or dumb dudes and dudettes in the back that go SMASH! I don't know though, maybe we don't get quite that bad or reductive a rep universally, but I feel like there's more commonly an emphasis on just playing the beat, playing it steadily and consistently, and often playing it loudly, in terms of the broader perception of what we do (or what we are solely supposed to do), and that's some bull if so. If that wasn't what the question was getting at, my bad. Still probably worth putting that out there though.

BDL: I remember you mentioning that you suffered from pretty severe tendonitis (or carpal tunnel syndrome? Or both?) quite a few years back. How did you overcome, mentally and physically, such an obstacle?

Man, I sure did. Not carpel tunnel, but 3 out of my 4 years at McGill I suffered from brutal tendonitis (both wrists up to both elbows, top and bottom of each arm), and it wasn't even from playing, although it absolutely did affect my playing once I had it. I got injured at a summer job doing landscaping. The really depressing thing is that if I hadn't been so young and dumb and just done the responsible thing and rested and healed for the next week or two, I probably would have avoided the entire ordeal altogether. But I was an idiot and just ignored it, didn't take it seriously, and continued to shed and lift weights as if I hadn't just tweaked the **** out of my wrists on the job. And that's what really ****ed me up. So now I'm at McGill trying to stay in the jazz program and get this fairly rigorous performance degree, despite barely being able to hold the sticks half the time. It got bad enough that I would wake up in the morning and literally pry my fingers apart, couldn't hold a cup of water without dagger shooting pains up and down my arm, either arm, it didn't matter. It was a nightmare. Several doctors asked me what my plan B in life was, because I'd likely never play the drums again. I finally found a doctor who was confident that he could work with me and get me back through various intense regiments of physiotherapy treatment over an extended period of time, and that's what I committed to at all costs. That **** works man, but it takes time, and patience. I wish I had just broken both arms and lived in casts unable to do **** for 6-8 weeks then been back to good. But with soft tissue injuries, it's such a delicate and temperamental thing. 1 step forward, 2 steps back, 2 steps forward, 1 step back, and so on and so forth. I would make a couple weeks of noticeable progress and then sleep on it wrong and set myself back 3 weeks. It took 3 years to get fully past it, and I still need to make certain smart decisions to this day (ice down &/or take a couple ibuprofen after a long workout or an intense 6-hour shed session, just preventative care type stuff, or surfing and wakeboarding are cool-low impact to the wrists if you fall-but snowboarding not so much, that kind of thing). But all the physiotherapy treatment, tons and tons of ice, tons of ibuprofen, regiments of stretching and then eventually high rep/low weight wrist exercises, varying amounts of faith and patience/persistence, and being super conscious the whole time of proper technique and mechanics to stay as relaxed and move as naturally when drumming as possible (something my drumming mentor and guru up at McGill, Chris McCann, helped me immensely with, something for which I'll always owe my life to him) all helped me get through it, and keep it from ever coming back again. Also, pro tip, pineapple has a lot of Bromelain in it, which is a great natural anti-inflammatory, so if you don't already love pineapple, learn to love it.

Photo by Alexandria Pierre-Etienne

BDL: Covid has essentially decimated the live music industry this past year. How have you kept your mind and body in good drumming condition over the course of the pandemic?

My wife and I were fortunate enough to be able to finish half of our basement into a home gym during the early stages of the pandemic, so keeping in shape physically was luckily not hard to do. My mind, however was a different story. I live to perform live and am not particularly wired to drum exclusively for the internet, or generally be one of these DIY internet entrepreneurs with all these different social media platforms popping and all these passive streams of income set up for doing the grind online. It's just not at all my jam. I like to perform, teach, and record, all in-person, all with others. So being reduced to teaching exclusively remotely (which for drum lessons is especially awful), not performing or even playing with anyone in-person for anyone in-person (never got into the livestream thing either), and just recording by myself and only having the internet as an outlet to share music (the way I'm least equipped or inspired to do it), was terrible for me. I suffered from real, crippling depression for the first time in my whole life for large chunks of time during different stretches of the pandemic. There were several long stretches where I didn't even touch my drums, just couldn't bring myself to do it. I did the collab thing and the Instagram thing for a while until I got completely burned out and felt a deep lack of self-worth and had to take a bunch of time away from it all just to stay sane. I did a decent job of usually making sure I at least had a pad (or multiple pads) out while watching stuff (I watched SO MUCH STUFF) to keep pushing the chops and at least stay in the drumming mindset as best I could for as much as I could. I also found some solace, a sense of community, and plenty of inspiration to keep shedding and keep pushing in this great Facebook group called Murderhands Online, created and hosted by monster drummers Alex Cohen, Tobias Ralph, and John Longstreth from The Collective School of Music in New York (there may have been a few others too, but those guys were definitely central in it, especially Alex, who would do live shed sessions daily for members who wanted tune in to try and keep up). That definitely got me through some tough times during the thick of it, when I was actually in a good enough space mentally to get off my ass and work. Overall, I did become a much better drummer over the course of the pandemic, because I did continue to shed and work on my craft a lot, but I honestly could have worked a lot harder and more than I did throughout that time. Depression got in the way, plain and simple. For a while I felt pretty useless. I didn't feel like a professional drummer anymore, because I basically wasn't drumming professionally, at least in the performance sense. It didn't matter that I was playing at a professional level, or even at the highest level I had ever played at to that point, because I wasn't actually working, outside of teaching. So the motivation to shed came and went in conjunction with the feelings of uselessness. When one of the bands I'm in, City of Four, finally decided to get together to record an EP at my home studio, I felt useful again, and it all came rushing back. That was an amazing outlet to be back on the grind and feeling like I once again had a purpose, and that EP wound up getting the attention of the label that we're now signed to and through whom we'll be releasing the full-length record that we just recently recorded and are now working on production for, so that wound up being a very fortuitous undertaking. But for large chunks of time the only true purpose I felt in life was just being the best and most present and supportive husband I could be to my wife. That, and she, got me through most of the pandemic more than anything related to music, quite honestly.

BDL: Describe the weirdest experience you've had on a gig.

Years ago, I was on a gig with this singer who made it to the final round of The Voice, and we were at a fairly large venue and the band was hanging out in the green room after the show. One of the fans who bought a VIP pass, who just so happened to be an adorable little old lady (had to have been in her eighties or nineties if I had to guess) came back to green room to meet the band while the singer was out making her rounds, signing things, all that. Well, we all had beards of varying length, and this little old lady goes right up to our bass player and compliments him on his beard and then just reaches out and gives it a good stroke. Then she goes around to each of us and just strokes our beards and kind of fondles our faces, and then she walks over to the door, turns around, and says "gotta touch em all!" And then she just disappeared from our lives forever.

BDL: You must sacrifice one piece of your drum set to appease the Drum Gods. What do you part with and why?

Rack tom. I already only play one up/one down, and the floor tom to me feels much more necessary than the rack tom. Kick/snare/hats, can't get rid of any of those, and I love my cymbals too much to part with any of them over the rack tom.

BDL: What do you think is the most challenging part of being a drummer?

Carrying all that ****. The setup, the takedown, the haul. Ugh. Should've gone with the flute.

BDL: What are some of your personal and/or professional goals over the next few years?

On the personal end, I want to travel as much as I can with my wife and with my friends, have as much fun as we can have with our growing success and financial stability since we don't have kids, maybe get another dog (Wheezy's getting into that upper middle age), and generally just keep becoming a more content, more relaxed person. On the professional end, I want to keep getting better and better at my craft. Just push it as far as I can. Get closer and closer to true freedom on the instrument. That's the main focus for me, more than the business side of things right now. I've found that when I put the craft first, the rest of the stuff lines up naturally as it should (apart from the whole pandemic thing) and I go where I'm meant to. I definitely want to get back to as busy a performing schedule as I can handle, with the bands I am invested in creatively, more so than just random gigs and GB work, and I would love to get the opportunity to travel and play some bigger stages with those bands, but all in due time. It's all about the ride. The best **** that's ever happened to me in my career has always just kind of happened, unplanned, and as a result of just doing what I love with passion, commitment, and gratitude, meeting the moment with readiness and excitement when it comes, and never as a result of having a goal and then executing a carefully concocted plan to attain that goal. I don't work well that way, unless it's with a team. If a band I'm in has a goal, like putting out the best record we possibly can, releasing it in time for the best opportunities possible, and then seizing those opportunities with vigor, I'm all in for something like that, and I'm down for all the detailed planning involved in that. But I don't do personal professional goals that way. Things happen when it's time for them to happen. I try not to fixate on being too in control in that regard. I enjoy the ride, and not knowing what's coming next.

BDL: What's a project you've been involved with that you're particularly proud of?

I'm proud of all the projects I'm involved in currently. The ones that are working the hardest right now are certainly City of Four and LON (formerly Pangea), but I have been in Strange Changes (and by extension, the Tom Dowd Group) for longer than any other band I've been in to date, and even though we were far busier before the pandemic (and before Tom just recently became a father), we just played a show the other night that reminded me just how much I love that band, how fortunate I am to get to play with those guys, how insane it is, what we do, and how little effort it takes at this point. I have also been doing fully-improvised sessions with a new trio in my home studio and putting out vids from those sessions on Instagram just for fun as we ramp up to eventually booking shows with that group as more opportunities become available, and I couldn't be more excited for the potential of that group as well. I feel blessed to have so much fun to look forward to with such a wide variety of projects, made up of so many musicians that inspire the hell out of me. As the covid situation gets better and better and more of the scene keeps coming back to life, there is a lot of great music that will be waiting to be unleashed.

BDL: Is there anything you'd like to see more of in the drumming community?

Nothing comes to mind. In my experience the drumming community has been very supportive, very encouraging, very cool, very generous with their knowledge, very good about spreading work around and sharing opportunities. I might be missing something, but I've been very happy with the drumming community on the whole. You know, other than the ones who are racist and/or other forms of ****ty (a few have definitely outed themselves during this ridiculous year and a half of internet chaos and social upheaval), but there are ****ty people everywhere, it's certainly not a drummer-specific thing.

BDL: All of your drums turned into spiders. What do you do?

Nope. Run fast and hard. I'm terrified of spiders. You probably knew that though huh? Some of these questions sound tailor-made haha.

BDL: Did you ever have a typical "day job?" What was it?

Yup. I was file clerk at an internal medicine practice. That sucked. Also was a camp counselor at an outdoor nature camp, working exclusively with 4-to-6-year-olds. That sucked too, but less.

BDL: Any general advice you'd like to give to beginner drummers or someone looking to get started?

Have fun. Get your technique up and fundamentals down early, it makes everything easier later. And listen to a lot of music. That's the most important one. If you want to do music, you gotta listen to it. Immerse yourself in it. Get it into your soul. Get inspired and stay inspired. And have fun.

BDL: Any general advice you'd like to give to someone looking to pursue a career in music?

Don't expect anything or feel like you're owed anything. It's more often about who you know than what you can do or how well you can do it. Not that those don't matter, because they do. But at the end of the day, without connections or the ability to make them, it doesn't matter how good you are. The art and the business are different beasts. Learn where your own personal thresholds are with both, and tailor your approach accordingly. If you are wired and well-equipped to do the entire process on your own, do it, but make sure you don't burn yourself out. If you are bringing certain skills to the table but lacking other ones, that's also okay. That actually puts you on par with most of the rest of the world. Team up with people who excel at those missing pieces. There is nothing wrong with getting help with things you need help with to make the whole of it come together and work. Chances are, they might need your help with some of the things they lack too. Collaboration is the name of the game. A high tide raises all boats.

BDL: Where can people connect with you and find your music?

The best place to connect with me these days is definitely Instagram. If you're not a bot, I'll respond to your DM's and will be happy to send you to any of the music I have out with various groups, past and present. @stevewilkinsondrums