Sick Drummer Magazine

Keep up with Elliot here:

myspace.com/reth

myspace.com/kastrated





I originally started playing drums because of the shortage of drummers in my home town. My friends and I were putting together our first metal band Reth, and no-one we knew could play the drums, so I decided to ditch playing guitar, and asked for a drum-kit for my 16th birthday. My first kit was a second-hand Century Percussion that cost £100. Immediately I set it up together with a friends kit so I could combine the two and use two bass drums. I then began to copy and learn the drum parts from my favourite bands of the time, stuff like Pantera, Sepultura, Vader and others. From the start I was attracted to playing the drums because of the heavy bass-drum driven parts in metal. I remember hearing 'Officer Down' by Stampin' Ground for the first time and loving the fast, intense kick-drum patterns, and straight away I started to try and learn it.

Over the years my musical tastes have grown wider and inevitably more extreme, and my drumming has followed suit. My first band Reth rapidly grew out of playing metalcore/thrash style stuff, and as I started listening to more and more death metal around the age of 17, I became obsessed with speed after Morbid Angel and Carcass introduced me to blast-beats. From this point on my drumming became entirely focussed on playing faster, more technical songs, to fit the evolution of Reth and the band's demands for ever-increasing speed and complexity. Nowadays I'm not as concerned with straight-up speed, though I'm still not really happy with blasting technique. Instead, I now concentrate on improving my overall technique and trying to develop my creativity so I can bring a more unique, personal style to the songs I play. I'm currently playing in 4 bands:  Reth, Kastrated, Executive Distractions Tasks + The Afternoon Gentlemen. After 7+ years of playing I'm finally starting to feel fairly happy and confident about my drumming, but I've still got a long way to go and a hell of a lot of room for improvement!

Elliot Smith Interview:

SD.com: How old were you when you started playing?

Elliot: 16

SD.com: Did you play in a school band or any drum corps?

Elliot: No. I started off playing around on the kit in my school's music room, then decided I wanted to get my own.

SD.com: Who are your top 5 influences?

Elliot: Flo Mournier (Cryptopsy), John (Cephalic Carnage), Lille Gruber (Defeated Sanity), Dave Witte (Discordance Axis etc.), Max Ward (Plutocracy/Spazz).

SD.com: Assuming that influences doesn't mean favorites, who are your favorites?

Elliot: Other than the above, my favourite drummers to watch play are Kristian C. (Introrectalgestation), Kai S. (Warboys), Lynn Jeffs (Ingested), Rushy (Infected Disarray/Detrimentum), Warren L. (Revokation), Allan McDibet (Cerebral Bore), probably a few more I can't think of just now....

SD.com: Let us know 5 CD's that are in your current rotation

Elliot: Loads of stuff at the moment, but if I have to pick five i'd say: Despise You - West Side Horizons (discography), Floor - both albums + all their splits, Goatsblood - Drull, Agents of Abhorrence - Earth.Water.Sun, My Bloody Valentine - Loveless.

SD.com: What do you do to warm up before a show?

Elliot: Not a lot often! Usually just 5 minutes of single/double stroke rolls on a practice pad, or more often a table top/chair/my knees.

SD.com: Can you remember a night you think was your best playing ever? If yes, when and where?

Elliot: Few and far between I'm afraid! I remember Executive Distraction Tasks doing a set at Edinburgh Credible Noise Fest in 2005 which was probably the closest to a perfect set we've ever been as a band..

SD.com: Do you have a favorite brand of drums or cymbals?

Elliot: I'm not too picky about drums, but cymbal-wise I prefer Sabian AAX's and Zildjan/K customs.

SD.com: If you could give one piece of advice to young drummers, it would be...

Elliot: Keep practicing, but also keep talking to other drummers and watch them play very carefully. I think one of the best ways to improve is to pick up tips and new techniques from other people.

SD.com: Who gave the best live performance you've ever seen?

Elliot: Probably the best overall live perfomance would be Mike Hamilton (Deeds of Flesh), at Manchester Music Box, 28/0306 on the Gutting Europe tour. Me and Rushy just stood side-stage with our mouths open.

SD.com: If you had to stop drumming, what would you want to do with your life?

Elliot: Well, I still play guitar and enjoy writing different types of music, so I'd certainly concentrate more on that if I couldn't play drums. I'd like to try to write a book at some point too.