» I think it's strange that probably the three of my biggest influences on drums are not drummers at all, but I consider them to be like the greatest drummers. Stevie Wonder is not by any stretch of the imagination a drummer first. He is a songwriter, piano player, but there is such an intensity and such a passion in his work between the Where I'm Coming From LP of '71 all the way up until I’d say Hotter Than July, before he totally went drum-machine crazy. Eddie Kramer told me this, Eddie Kramer was part of the Talking Book record and the Music Of My Mind album, both were recorded at Electric Lady Studios in New York. And Stevie would sometimes do the tracks individually. He would do the kick and the snare alone, and then he would add the hi-hat later, and then he would add the tom-toms, and the fills, and all that individually by the time. But there is something about his hi-hat work on Music Of My Mind. Back when Tony Williams was a drummer for the Miles Davis Quintett, he was very visual with his cymbal work. Most drummers pick the actual drums to make their mark. But Tony Wiliiams was a cymbal guy, he was very violent, very colorful, and Stevie Wonder took that same approach with his cymbal work. If you listen to the first song of Music Of My Mind, Love Having You Around that's one of the most horrendous, horrible, sloppy hi-hat playing ever. But that should speak to me as a four-year old, (plays air cymbals) 'tch, tch tch', very violent sounding. I became very obsessed with that sound, that violent hi-hat sound. There is only one song in hip hop that is just as violent with hi-hats. If you listen to how the Bomb Squad chopped up Kool & The Gang's Let The Music Take Your Mind, the drum solo for Ice Cube's Amerikkkas Most Wanted. And the way they compress that hi-hat sound, I have been trying to recreate that sound, it is the most stupendous, like crazy sound. But as a hi-hat player Stevie Wonder has definitely influenced what I do on the hi-hat. I don't know why, but I just found myself thinking of him when I'm drumming in the studio. «
» Prince is another non-drummer that was very influential on me. Again, he was very sloppy. His work on the Dirty Mind record, he always pushed the rhythm. Whereas an average drummer would just play a traditional [beatboxes a straight rhythm], he would always push [beatboxes off beat rhythm], it was always off beat. But I was obsessed with being off beat, off rhythm. I don't know why because of the human touch or whatever. Not to mention he is definitely one of the pioneers of really good drum programming. Even though Herbie Hancock had one of the first Linn Drums for his work, and of course, the Talking Heads, David Byrne did a lot of work with computerized drums, but I definitely know that Prince had one of the first models, he still has it in the studio. When we did the Electric Circus record Prince graciously let us use Paisley Park for a few sessions. I went in the basement and sure enough all this stuff is still intact, and we used some of the stuff. But I didn't know that that was a drum-machine because his programming was so syncopated, I was thinking that just one drummer played all his stuff. So for two years straight I would think if he took 777-9311, a song that has a very complex, near Weather Report-ish hi-hat pattern, that no human being can really do. «
