DRUMROLL - TOM CLOSE (Screenwives)
Suzanne Wise (Frau pouch) & Tom Close (Screenwives) - Two Drummers chat over messenger
Suzanne:What inspired you to take up playing the drums and how long have you been drumming? Tom: My sister's boyfriend let me have a go on his kit, taught me a basic beat. That was about 12 years ago. It was less inspiration and more boredom. I played my first gig about 10 years ago. S: Have you been in/are you in any other bands or doing any other projects? T: I have always tried to be in a band since playing drums. So I've been in loads. Currently I am in Screen Wives, Mister Lizard, Hatefuck, and a newer project called Human Leather as well as various 'jams' with people. It's important to play. S: What's the songwriting process in your band/s? T: Screen Wives is bit of a drawn out proccess where Mike (guitar) demos a load of acoustic/guitar-only songs then we - as a band - work on it from there. Usually he has the right idea about how songs should go. He also takes charge lyrically. Hatefuck is fairly similar one of the other members will have a riff, an idea, even a whole song. Lyrically it is all taken care of, I'm just in that band to be oppressed. The bass player in Hatefuck (Amee) is also the other member Human Leather, so far she has written all the tracks, but its gradually becoming more of a joint effort. As for Mister Lizard those songs are all pretold by accient alien scripts. We all pitch in with lyrics. When I 'write' the drums for any song I just try to keep it interesting but tasteful, push the bits that need to be.
S: Who are your drum heroes? Growing up it was Danny Carey (Tool), and Travis Barker (Blink 182). Nowadays I prefer Zach Hill (Hella, DeathGrips, Marnie Stern), Gabe Serbian (The Locust, Head Wound City). I guess they are only heroes because they're relatively world renound, There are people like Henry Grimes (shitwife, Shield Your Eyes), and Alex Polakowski (Nitkowski, Yards) who are just as spot on in their own right.
S:Are there any tracks that you particularly love the drumming on? T: Here's a top ten of my 10 favourite drum tracks: 1)Been a Long Time Cousin - Hella 2)Aotkpta - The Locust 3)Two Towers - Lightning Bolt 3)Two Towers - Lightning Bolt4)Cascades - Wet Petals 5)Crisp Clean Sheets & Bright Bright Sunshine - Nitkowski 6)Soviet Reunion - Retox 7)Book Attack - Scolastic Deth 8)Details on how to get Iceman on Your License Plate - Don Caballero 9) Wet To Dance - North of America 10)Saint Matthews Return To The Womb - Botch
S: If you could drum with any other musicians alive or dead who would be your dream line up to play with?
T: Beethoven, Suggs, Fred Durst, Beyonce, Kerry King. Can't go wrong.
S: What do you love about drumming? T: It validates a rather boring life
S:Do you know any drummer jokes?
T: How do you get a drummer off your porch? Pay him for the pizza. And the best drummer joke of all time... Lars Ulrich.
Tom’s set-up:I currently use a Pearl Elx export. The rack tom is a 14X5.5 I like there not to be too much height difference between my snare and rack hence the thin tom which used to be a snare), and 14X14 floor tom, my snare drum is a 13X6.5 Tama metalworks snare.
Check out more at www.screenwives.bandcamp.
