Jeremy Stacey

Interview with Jeremy Stacey

Jeremy is one of the UK’s busiest drummers and has been the touring drummer for Sheryl Crow for the last 6 years. He has played on loads of UK and USA hit singles and albums and can be found, on a night off from touring, playing at the 606 club in Chelsea or out buying old drums to add to his very impressive collection.

I met up with Jeremy at his studio.

Tell me your job description

That’s a good question.  Basically my work is 90% enjoying myself, playing music, playing the drums and the work side of it is the travel and the organisational side of working but that’s the work. Its not a job; it’s playing music which is what I love doing.  So I would say my job description is playing music and having a lot of fun.

But you do more than just play the drums

I do and I suppose that’s why I said music rather than just drums.  I do think of it as music even though obviously the drums are a very important part of my life. I also do a lot of production as well, it’s the same thing - I always feel I’m an observer at the back watching the whole thing and, in a funny sort of way, in control. Drums are a very controlling instrument - if you mess up that’s it for everyone.  I think that’s why drummers can end up becoming producers because there’s a similar mentality.

Why do you think you get booked to do so many sessions?

Well there has to be a combination of trying to understand what the people I’m working for want, and that doesn’t mean you just come in and do as you’re told, although I think being able to do that is an important part of it. I think you can bring something to the table and usually there’s a compromise somewhere.Understanding different genres is important. Obviously there are certain types of music where you can do exactly what you want, but I would say for most sessions I do, I have to have some understanding of the music, and what the artist wants.

The other side is you have to be able to get along with people.  Again, I don’t think that’s just about being nice and not saying what you really think, but you have to have some social skills to make it work.

But what’s the crossover from the drumming to being producer? With a lot of your session work over the years I would imagine you’ve come along and you’ve been asked to do something and you’ve done it, whereas with the producing you’re asking them, telling them, what you want.

You are, but it depends who you work with.  I’ve never had a great deal of success with working with artists who don’t know what they want, because a good drum track isn’t going to save anyone.  If you’ve got a great singer and they’ve got a great song then really the drumming side of it is easy, and I think it’s the same with production .  If I try and produce an artist who hasn’t got any talent, it’s going to be very difficult, although some people seem to be able to do it. Look at George Martin, to me the best stuff he ever did was ‘The Beatles’ but then they were probably the best band he ever worked with. If you’ve got great material and creative people around then that’s going to bring the best out in you.

I’ve done sessions where people say, “Play like Keith Moon?” and it’s not actually what they want, because, if you did play like Keith Moon, it’s going to be loose and its going to be very busy.  I’m a massive fan of Keith Moon but that kind of drumming suited ‘The Who’ with fills every couple of bars etc, so when people say something like they want Keith Moon, they usually just want some fire, but in perfect time.

With something like that you must have a hell of a knowledge. Where do you get your knowledge when someone says to you ‘I want you to play like Keith Moon’ or ‘I want you to do this’ or that? Do you listen to a lot of music?

I listen to lots of different styles of music but I wish I’d listened to more. I’ve said this before, I’ve listened to a lot of music but I don’t listen to the drums very much in the music, so if suddenly someone says we’re going to play let’s say,a Beatles song, I have to go and listen to it, because although I might have an idea of what the drums are doing,, I ‘m usually surprised that I don’t know the drum part at all.

With a lot of the 60s drummers there is always an element of swing because most of the sixties rock drummers, came up listening to the big band and jazz drummers. Even jazz nowadays tends to have very little to do with swing, whereas in the forties through to seventies it had everything to do with it.  I think you can hear how in the late seventies it had a certain swing, but everything was starting to tighten up , then you’ve got the eighties machines were coming in and then the eighties to nineties all the drummers were sounding more machine-like because that’s what we were all competing against them, and now its starting to loosen up again, which is great, although  I don’t think people will ever play drums the same way they did in the sixties because perfect time has become normal, it’s what’s expected, where as back then I don’t think people cared about perfect time, just great feel.

Tell us some of your favourite songs you have played on.

There’s a track on the first Charlotte Gainsborg with the French band ‘Air’ that Nigel Godrich produced about 5 years ago. I’d known Nigel from RAK Studios, I used to do a lot of sessions there. I did the Zero 7 records there, I played on the first 2 records and Nigel was around because he was sort of involved in the background, and so he got me to come out and do the Charlotte Gainsborg record. There’s a drum track I did on a track  ‘Jamais’, its very simple but I love the drum sound, it’s one of my kits that I’ve used a hell of a lot on lots of sessions which is my Ludwig 13, 16, 22 Super Classic.

I did the first Sia record, which is another record with some good stuff on it. As I say it’s difficult for me to really pinpoint stuff that I think is great.  There’s a record I did in the early 90s with a sax player called Tim Garland called ‘Enter The Fire’ which is a jazz record, which I quite like.

You’ve played on some big hits, and it’s interesting that you don’t mention those. I suppose you’re looking at the artistic ones.  With Robbie, what did you play with him?

I played on the second album “I’ve been expecting you”. My good friend and a great drummer Chris Sharrock played on most of it and the producers were Guy (who I was obviously in The Lemon Trees with) and Steve Power.  I think they wanted someone who would have a bit more of an American sound and I don’t know if I have an American sound but obviously I’ve listened to a lot of American drummers, so I ended up playing on ‘Strong’ which is infact a very British sounding track.  They just wanted to try something else and I think I ended up on 2 or 3 tracks on that album.  I then played on a couple of tracks on his third record “Sing when your winning”, and then the fourth “Escapology”, I did practically the whole record.

There’s a very small core of UK working session drummers like yourself, Geoff Dugmore, Ralph Salmins and Ian Thomas who all keep a low profile - you’re not interested in shouting your mouth off, but you do a lot of gigs and a lot of sessions.

I actually spoke to a producer recently who said ‘We need to make me a show reel of all the stuff we’ve done together'', because we’d both forgotten.  I’m on one track of the first James Morrisson record and I didn’t even realise, I only found out a couple of months ago. I went to a writing session and they used my drum track on it.  But that’s what I’m saying, I do a lot of sessions, and sometimes, I don’t even know who the artist is.To be honest I didn’t play drums to be famous. When I do my own gigs I’ve started to realise there are some younger musicians who seem to know about me which is really nice but generally I’m not pushy in that way, probably because, I’ve always got too much to do, although I’m always surprised when people call me, I think how did that happen? Where did that come from? 

Sometimes just knowing people is what does it. Being in ‘The Lemon Trees’ with Guy Chambers definitely opened doors... We went on tour and we opened for a band called Jellyfish, Tim Smith was the bass player in that band, and later he recommended me to Sheryl Crow who I have now been working and touring with for the past 6 years, and with Sheryl I''ve met so many people, and that’s been my life, that''s how things have worked out.

Five years ago you took over Snake Ranch studio. How did that come about?

My obsession with recording and recording equipment was always there, but again, when I was in “The Lemon Trees” we worked with the “Jellyfish” producer engineer Jack Joseph Puig. He came to London and we went to RAK Studios and that was the turning point for me. I’d worked at RAK Studios many times, with all sorts of engineers, producers who would get  a good drum sound sometimes, sometimes not.  I remember walking into the control room after Jack got my drum sound which had taken a fair old time and my jaw dropped, I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. 

We also went to France, and the same thing.  He had all these great old mics, compressors,and some weird things, he had a pig trough with a mic in it, I didn’t understand any of it, all I knew was what I was hearing I’d never heard before. I thought, I want to understand this.  That’s what got me started

So my interest just went through the roof and I started buying gear.  I bought myself a DA88, 8 track digital thing, I already had an Akai MPC and sampler and I just started buying microphones, compressors, mic pre-amps, slowly, over a period of time, building up a studio in my bed sit which I lived in for years because I didn’t have any money, because any money I did have I’d buy records, drums, keyboards,mics and compressors etc.Eventually I had too much equipment for my bedsit and moved all the recording gear to a small rehearsal room for a couple of years, and then onto a proper studio for another 5 years, and then I moved into Snake Ranch.The thing  I’d say to anybody, if you want to really do something, just start.

What have you been up to recently?

I’ve ended up playing quite a lot of varied things.  I did a Chris Squire/Steve Hackett session which they’ve done together which was a real honour for me because in my early years I was  a Yes and Genesis fan. I’ve known Chris for a while,and we’ve done a few projects together,  he’s great, and Steve Hackett was a joy to work with. There’s a ‘Prog’ element to it and I used some different drums, power toms which I don’t think I’ve ever recorded in my life, but it just seemed the right sound for this particular thing.  I ended up playing on a couple of tracks on Eric Clapton’s new record. I say that, I hope I’m still on it. Doyle Bramhall who’s a good friend of mine produced with Justin Stanley.

Did you do the Clapton thing live?

No, it was originally recorded in L.A. with a great studio band, and then I think what happened is, they decided they needed something a bit more energy in a couple of places, so I over-dubbed, and  there was one track where there were no drums on it at all, and I played on that. It was recorded at Justin’s studio, very late at night. 

I just did the new Tom Jones record with Ethan Jones producing, which was great experience. It was recorded live all of us in one room, infact Tom was actually standing right next to the drum kit, singing live, which meant I had to play pretty quietly, and there were no click tracks.It was like the old days. I also did Noel Gallagher’s new solo record which was great fun too .  I did a little bit of recording with Kurt Rosenwinkle, the jazz guitarist.  I don’t know what’s going to happen with it, whether it’s an album or not. He’s an incredible musician and I would love to do more work with him.I’m also producing an artist called Rob Bravery who is a great singer song writer.I’m also doing a band with my brother Paul, Jason Rebello and Pino Palladino, which is like a 70’s funk jazz fusion band.We are going to try to do some  writing and recording for that very soon.

You’re very busy, what do you do to relax and chill out?

(Laughs) Go on eBay and buy drums.

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