Canadian Musician - January / February 2020

• • • • • • C&C Custom Drums • 24-in. Kick • 16-in. or 14-in. Floor Tom • 12-in. Tom C&C 5 x 14-in. or 6 x 14-in. Snare w/ Snareweight Damper Istanbul Agop Cymbals • 20-in. Traditional Crash/Ride • 18-in. Mel Lewis 1982 Crash/Ride • 16-in. Hi-Hats (Agop Crash Top, Alchemy Heavy Crash Bottom) Tama Hardware Los Cabos Drumsticks Protection Racket Cases Shure SE215 IEMs discoveries made collaborating with others finds its way back into the Holy Fuck fold and contributes to that band’s evolution? MS: Surely – and vice versa. I try to approach all the music I play in a punk way and just listen to and react with what my bandmates are doing. I am lucky to play so much music, be- cause all those musical relationships inform each other and evolve my drumming. I would play in 10 more bands if I had the time. • CM: Brian [Borcherdt] said in an interview a few years ago that while a lot of Holy Fuck song ideas are born as sketches, “nothing really exists until [the four of you] are in a room playing together.” On that note, how much of what we’ll hear on Deleter in terms of drums/percussion is “performed” versus in-the-box? MS: When the band started, basically every song was based on a keyboard drum preset. We started using fewer static structures a few years ago and I’m happy to say the rhythmic basis on Deleter is basically acoustic drums. We use ma- chines here and there to add dynamics and/or stiffen up the beat in parts, but it’s mostly me. I even replaced a sample of Graham’s on a song with a mallet and a cowbell… DON KERR Communism, Dan Mangan While he currently keeps time for acclaimed troubadour Dan Mangan and his own power-pop outfit, Communism, in ad- dition to operating his own studio, Don Kerr has previously collaborated with acts including Rheostatics, Ron Sexsmith, The Hidden Cameras, and many others. CM: On a related note, as you were making Deleter, how much thought was put into how the songs would translate to the live environment? • MS: Hmm. For me, I don’t worry about that stuff because usually the song isn’t 100 per cent the same live as on the record anyway. It’s usually better after being played live 10 times. In general, I think the overall goal is to make the songs interesting and fun to listen and/or dance to. We all grew up in an era of sitting down and listening to records front-to-back and seeing bands we like live. Not all people consume music this way, so why get concerned with any such parameters? You know, just be sure it rips. When we are learning a song, we start with the recorded version as a base, but our music is meant to be malleable. There’s always the danger of malfunctioning gear during a show or someone being caught up in the moment and miss- ing a change, so we just have fun with it as it changes nightly. As far as I’m concerned, you have to celebrate the “mistakes” in Holy Fuck. If James Brown was the bandleader, we’d each get fined daily. • • CM: You keep pretty busy with a myriad of projects outside of your work with Holy Fuck, including some that are radically different, sonically speaking. Whether tangibly or intangibly, do you find that work done or Gretsch Drums (Purchased in 1982) • 20 x 20-in. Kick • 14 x 14-in. Floor Tom • 12 x 12-in. Tom Ludwig Black Beauty 14 x 5.5-in. Snare “Old, Dark Cymbals” • 20-in. “Washy” Ride • 17-in. “Soft” Crash • 12-in. Hi-Hats CM: What’s the most recent piece of gear you’ve added to your set-up and how did it earn the spot? DK: A Roland SPD-SX [sampling pad] to play atmospheric samples with Dan Mangan. In my own band, we use it with a kick pedal trigger so the bass player can add an electronic kick to our heavy dance numbers. CM: You’ve performed with a very diverse array of art- ists throughout your career. Tell us about your process of preparing for a new gig, regardless of genre or style, to ensure you’re fully comfortable with the material. DK: This is my tool kit: good notes, big ears, and 30 years of experience playing with a variety of people, trying to make their songs perfect in their view, or better. CANADIAN MUSICIAN 49

Canadian Musician - January / February 2020 | Page 49