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Did you realize how unique it was at the time?
No, I probably realized that for the first time ten, fifteen years ago. When I started playing again with my own band, I guess I started listening to music again more, and I noticed it. Imagine "Venus In Furs," for instance, with Ginger Baker. wouldn't work!
Tell us about your sticking technique.
Well, I used to use a mallet in my right hand and a stick in my left. Obviously the mallet sounded better on the bass drum. On some songs like "Heroin" I used two mallets.
In a way, playing standing up seems like a more natural way to play.
I don't know who invented the foot pedal. I guess it allows you to play a crash at every moment; I don't know who started that either. I guess a cymbal company!
If you listen to old music, the kind I like, you don't hear a cymbal from one end of the day to the next. My son plays in a band, and I advised him to take all the cymbals away from his drummer.
You know, I never thought about it before, but maybe things got out of hand when it became about groups as opposed to studio musicians. Bandmembers started thinking, We're stars - look at all these chicks! You know, trying to draw attention to themselves. Hey, I like this theory. [laughs] But seriously, it became all about seven drums and all these cymbals, and two bass drums, which in my opinion is not only unnecessary, but horrifying.
What's your setup like now?
I haven't played that much drums lately. In the '90s I did play with a band called Magnet, and then on the Velvets' reunion tour in '93. With The Velvets, I thought, I can have two toms with two different lower tones. But trying to get them to hang where I could reach them was a problem. My arms are kind of short. So it was quite a pain in the neck.
Tell us more about that reunion tour.
It was great that we went to Europe, because we had never played there, and they're the ones who make our royalty checks. It was really nice to play for them. And it was great to get together with the guys, which I hadn't done in twenty-five years.
But we played some shows with U2 in stadiums, and it didn't take me long to realize that I would never want to reach that level of popularity. Because once you're that big, you can't go back. And stadiums suck to play in. Really, it wasn't fun at all. No connection with the audience, and you know everybody is looking at the TV screens. And the incredible amounts of money involved; it's so business-y.
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