Part 2

What is the relationship between harmony, rhythm and melody? How do non-percussion instruments contribute to the overall rhythmic texture of a piece?

For me, I would liken harmony to a mother, rhythm to a father, and melody to a child. They are completely interconnected, and each one depends on the others to create a whole musical experience.

As a drummer, I think that if you focus your studies not only on what you are playing, but also on how to respond to what you hear, you can express those relationships and emotions through the drums. Listening is just as important as playing.

When you are really grooving with a rhythm section, you can hear the roles of the different instruments coming together in a balanced way. I think of it almost like playing in an all-percussion group: each person has their own line and their own responsibility, but everyone is contributing to the same musical idea. It needs to feel almost like a mantra, where the individual parts become secondary to the music as a whole.

For me, playing with a rhythm section works in much the same way. The instruments need to be deeply connected, sharing the same underlying pulse or clave, while each musician maintains a specific role within it. The beauty comes from how those individual roles interact and support one another.

That is where rhythm, melody, and harmony really meet for me—not as separate elements, but as different voices having a conversation.

Do you feel that honing your compositional / songwriting skills has an effect on your drumming skills?  

For me, absolutely. I came to understand much more about my personality as a drummer after I started composing and learning to play the piano and guitar. Those instruments completely changed the way I listen to music and, consequently, the way I play the drums.

When you play a harmonic instrument, you begin to understand the relationship between harmony, melody, and rhythm from a different perspective. You are no longer only thinking about where the rhythm sits—you start to hear how it supports a chord, a melody, or a musical phrase.

Composing also made me more aware of my own musical voice. It helped me understand what I naturally tend to play, what I want to say, and how I want the drums to serve the music rather than simply fill space.

That is why I always encourage my students to learn a harmonic instrument. You don't need to become a pianist or guitarist, but understanding harmony and melody from the perspective of another instrument can completely transform the way you approach the drums.

I've long been intrigued by bands or ensembles where the drummer is the leader and/or main composer. In as far as it is possible to generalise, what do you think changes in terms of the music or performance in these situations?

I feel that a drummer often composes differently because of the way they naturally experience music through rhythm and physical movement. When a drummer writes their own music and leads the group, I often feel that the rhythmic foundation becomes particularly stable. The music tends to have a very strong internal pulse, even when the other elements are moving freely around it.

But I also think there are very different ways of approaching that role. Paul Motian is a great example for me. He played in a completely different and much more melodic way. He seemed to interpret the tempo through melody rather than simply marking it, and yet the music still feels incredibly stable and flows beautifully.

That is what I find fascinating about drummer-composers: the drums don't necessarily have to make the music more rhythmically obvious. Sometimes the opposite happens. A drummer's understanding of time can become so deep that they are free to treat rhythm almost like melody, while still maintaining a strong sense of movement and direction.

For me, when a drummer is also the composer and leader, you can sometimes hear that relationship with time more clearly. The drummer is not only supporting the composition—they are shaping its entire sense of movement.

How are you making use of the timbral and textural potentials/possibilities of your drums and percussion instruments when making music?

For me, timbre and texture are just as important as rhythm. I don’t think of the drums and percussion instruments only as a way of marking time; I think of them as a palette of sounds and colors.

I’m always listening to the different possibilities within an instrument—how the sound changes depending on where I strike it, how much force I use, the angle of the stick, the combination of drums and cymbals, and even how my body moves while playing. A small change in touch can completely change the character of a sound.

I also like to think about the instruments in relation to the other sounds in the music. Sometimes I want the drums to blend into the texture, almost becoming part of the harmony, and other times I want a particular drum or cymbal to stand out and create a very specific color or contrast.

Because of my background in Brazilian and Afro-Brazilian percussion, I’m also very interested in layering different timbres and creating textures through the interaction of multiple rhythmic voices. I think of it almost like painting: each instrument has its own color, and the way you combine those colors creates the atmosphere of the music.

Ultimately, I’m interested in making the drums sound musical beyond their traditional rhythmic function. The timbre, resonance, texture, and vibration are all part of how I tell the story.

How has technology, such as drum machines and sequencers, impacted the way rhythm is created and perceived? Has it been a concrete influence on your own approach?

I believe technology came later. For me, the roots of rhythm are much deeper than drum machines, sequencers, or any technological development. Rhythm exists in percussion, but it also exists in everyday life—in the way we walk, breathe, work, and move.

In many African musical traditions, rhythm is deeply connected to daily life and to the routines of work and community. There is a sense that everything has a rhythm. You have a rhythm, your heart beats in a rhythm, you breathe in a rhythm, and even your footsteps create a pulse.

So, when I think about technology and rhythm, I see technology as a way of organizing, manipulating, and exploring something that already exists within us. Drum machines and sequencers have certainly expanded the possibilities of how we create and perceive rhythm, but they didn't create the fundamental idea of rhythm.

For me, the human body is still the first sequencer. Before we had machines capable of generating a pulse, we already had our heartbeat, our breath, our footsteps, and our hands. That is where my relationship with rhythm begins.

Technology has influenced my approach, of course, especially in understanding repetition, precision, layering, and new textures. But I always come back to the same idea: the technology is a tool, while the impulse to create rhythm is something much more fundamental and human.

Physical strain is a particularly serious issue for many drummers. How does it manifest itself, how do you deal with it and in how far does it affect your creativity?

I believe physical strain starts with awareness. If you’re not aware of the tensions in your body while playing, you’re probably not aware of them when you’re sitting, walking, or doing other everyday activities either. I see all of these things as connected.

For me, becoming aware of these tensions has also increased my awareness of sound—of the room’s acoustics, the instrument, and the physical responses I create while playing.

I’m not sure I would say that physical strain directly affects my creativity, but it certainly affects my ability to play freely. When you are in pain, it becomes much harder to fully express yourself.

Many recording engineers have remarked that the drums can be particularly hard to capture. What makes drums sound great on record and in a live setting?

In my opinion, it starts with the sound engineer understanding the drummer and the style of the band. Every drummer has a different way of playing, and that should influence how the drums are recorded or amplified.

If the engineer takes the time to understand the music first, they’ll know how to approach the drums—whether to use more or fewer microphones, where to place them, and how much of the natural sound to preserve.

So, before thinking only from a technical perspective, I think it’s important for the engineer to listen to the band and understand what they are trying to express. The recording should serve the music and the drummer’s style, rather than the other way around.

Drums and percussion are remarkably often used for physical therapy / healing. What, from your point of view, makes them particularly suitable tools for this?

I think vibration is one of the main reasons. When you play a drum, you don’t only hear the sound—you physically feel it in your body. That vibration can create a very direct connection between sound, movement, and the body.

There is also something very ancestral about percussion. Drums are among the oldest musical instruments, and rhythm has been part of human communities for thousands of years. Before music became something we listened to, rhythm was something we experienced collectively through the body.

I think that is what makes percussion particularly powerful for healing. It connects us to something very basic and human: movement, vibration, breathing, and pulse. In a way, rhythm reminds the body of something it already knows.