Hello Gavin!
Was very surprised to see you here!
Firstly, I'd like to thank you for such a wonderful show in Moscow a couple of weeks ago!! I was standing right in front of you and your playing was astonishing!! You're such an inspiration for a young drummer like myself!! Stylish, precise, powerful, amazing double-bass work!!! It was out of this world! I also screamed "Gavin, you're the best!" and gave you a thumbs-up after the show when you were right in front of me, but I guess you must have been too exhausted to notice! Nevermind, the whole show was absolutely amazing! Best live gig of my live, hands down!
Wanted to ask you two questions, if I may.
1) How do you play the very first thing in "Way Out Of Here", the little ghost note before the main beat starts? Is it just a one-handed roll or is it something different? And during the beat itself, I think I can hear you playing these little ghost-note-rolls, how does one play them?
2) My band has a song, and when I enter, before the main part starts, I play a pattern on the ride cymbal, and so I have this dilemma: should I sort of improvise and mix it up for these 4 bars, or is it better for the consistency and the band to have a particular pattern and not vary it all the time? I just don't want it to sound boring... The pattern goes something like this: (E = 8 note, S = 16, T = 32)
ESS ESS ESS TSE etc. but I always seem to vary it, so it's always different, and I don't know if it's a good thing. The drum break before the main part also starts on a off-beat (on the "and" of 2, as far as I remember), so I guess without a pre-defined pattern I won't know where to start... It's just that I have so many ideas and can't seem to decide... Maybe "less-is-more" is the right approach, what do you think?
Thank you again for being such an inspiration and such a great drummer, and, well, playing music in such an awesome band!!