Mark Schulman - photo Sam Gracey

Mark Schulman – Dream your life and live your dreams

Mark Schulman commands a respected position as a working drummer in the studio and live performer.

He delivers a personal work ethic that commands the greatest respect amongst some of the world’s greatest bands and artists. From Simple Minds, Billy Idol, Foreigner, Stevie Nicks, Destiny’s Child, Sheryl Crow, Cher and currently on the P!NK tour his work schedule is relentless – a position that could be the envy of many drummers. He has an infectious positive energy that coupled with humbling personality that supports his love and passion for playing drums. His drum seminars are highly charged with a motivation to awake your own inspiration.

Now ever wondered how to deal with long tours and time away from home?
I caught up with him on the current leg of the P!NK tour to find out more about the man behind the drummer and to talk about his upcoming new DVD ‘A Day In The Recording Studio’

Photo Amy Frazier

Mark give me an update since the last time you hit the U.K. with P!NK earlier this year?

Since the last time we hit the U.K. we went to Australia for three and a half months, played 58 sold-out arena shows, broke every sales and attendance record in Australia. We played for so many people that it would have been the equivalent of playing for 4% of the Australian population – that was unprecedented. The have named bathrooms after her, they have named dressing rooms after her. In Melbourne we played 17 shows and they painted all the pillars pink, the previous record was 12 shows from the biggest Australian artist John Farnham so she took everybody by storm, it was incredible. Then we went to America and played 12 shows and got rave reviews and that may be the only American tour we’re gonna end up doing. We’re coming back to Europe in May, June & July 2010 to do the P!NK Festival Tour; it’s like things are going so well that they can’t get enough. Like we we’re in Manchester and we’re playing 3 shows for 16,000 people a night and this is the 3 rd time we played Manchester this year and we’re going to play again next year – there’s a lot of P!NK mania going on.

The road itself brings many challenges and with this level of touring, how do you keep fresh, organise yourself and still make it fun with the relationships you have with the production team, your drum tech, etc?

It’s an interesting dynamic, I love my drum tech Mark Bennett and he is one of me dearest friends and we just get on fabulously and one of my highlighted relationships is with him. When we get to sound check we’re always playing around and he’s amazing. He worked with the Vanguard drum corp in America and just great with his hands and all that drum corp stuff so he end up showing me stuff. He’s the one that got me into doing the stick spinning a lot more in 2006, so he actually inspires me and hopefully I give him some inspiration as well. I give him free reign to design the entire drum set and the rack so he has the freedom to do what he wants to do – we just have a ball!!!

Photo Amy Frazier

Generally speaking, the most important thing is to nurture your relationships. On this tour people get along just incredibly well, it’s like a...I call a big love fest. You’re with a considerate group of people and everyone just get on with each other and that’s super, super important. The most important thing you can do is to pay attention to other people’s needs particularly in a small space like a tour bus. I’ve been on other tours where people will try to compromise other people for their weaknesses. They try to find a weakness and they push at it and try to get to them and that’s abusive and it’s mean and it just doesn’t work. This tour is just the opposite.  People are just very respectful of people’s soft spots and sensitivities and those things really need to work. The bands that particularly get along over time are the bands that pay attention to that and the bands that don’t get along are the ones with individual tour buses per member and they don’t really talk.  They just go on stage and do it for the money. Don’t get me wrong, I love making money and of course, that’s an important aspect in what I do, but to have the joy and keep it fresh is really important.

If I ever get too caught up in my own feelings, my concerns and my own problems, I just look in the eyes at some of the people in the audience and realise I’m here for them – it’s not about me, it’s about them. And it’s not about me, it’s about P!NK and also about the other tour members.  I just try and give as much as I can possibly give to make it more fun that way anyway.

I was talking with one of my mates on the tour about their experience with another female artist that seems to take her fame, fortune, power and position very seriously and she’s very abusive, playing mind games with people. If some one is in a position of power and they are abusive, they’re not fulfilling an ethical prophecy on this planet. They prefer to be a schmuck because they can and it’s like a kid who is a bully because they can be a bully. You’ve got a lot more responsibility as an adult. People who take their ego with them, it’s like...what the hell are you doin’?!

What I love so much about P!NK is that she never takes it that seriously. She’s just a great gal and she knows that that’s just part of her; it doesn’t define her. What defines her is the quality of who she is and how she treats other people.

Photo Amy Frazier

What are the key points and habits that bring sustenance on the road for you?

In addition to what I’ve talked about, you’ve got to keep a sense of self and a sense of balance. You’ve got make sure that you pay attention to your family, your finances, your body; keep fit, keep physical. It’s just super, super ease for people to just party and then sleep all day and again believe that this lifestyle is something that really matters. It’s more important to pay attention to your health, pay attention to other people and pay attention to balance. Balance is key on the road. Make sure you get enough sleep and make sure you get enough ‘alone’ time, too.

As a sideman, we’re spending a lot of time with people. I enjoy my ‘alone’ time. I love being with everybody but I make sure I have the time to take walks, workout, meditate and reflect.

It’s exciting for me now because I’m starting a new family, my wife Lisa is pregnant with our daughter.  I have learned the value of really paying attention to personal relationships. Many relationships fail on the road and they fail because many people cease to respect the fact that they’re leaving their mate. If you’re the one that’s being left, it’s harder on you than the one that does the leaving. So if you’re on the road, it’ll be easier for you to leave but your mate is gonna have a harder time with you being on the road than you may think. So I suggest that you really pay attention or don’t be in a relationship.

As far as a practice schedule, it’s hard for me to get on a drum set because everybody is always around. When I was younger I use to tour with a practice pad kit but now I’m not as concerned about practicing.  I’ll work out on the pad at sound check.   If I’m going to be doing a seminar, I’ll actually find a rehearsal space on the road and go and practice there.

I love to keep busy and I love to have projects on the road. I love working on music, working on a book or on my DVD or booking seminars. I like to have projects; it keeps my brain active and keeps me oriented with other things. The most important thing is what I do on stage but when I’m not on stage and I’m not rehearsing, I like to focus on other things.

Photo Amy Frazier

You touched on the subject on your new DVD, give me a little insight. I gather it’s a little different to the norm, tell me more?

I planned the whole DVD when I was out on the road.  When I was home for six days , I flew in Sam Gracey the director from the U.K. and we shot it all in two days, but it took a lot of planning to make sure that we ready for it.  Sam still wishes he had four days to shoot it but I think it turned out really well (laughs!).It’s very different to a lot of DVD’s. There’s a good amount playing but it’s not a ‘chops fest’.

The industry has changed and the days of big rehearsal studios, big recording studios, expensive recording sessions and big budgets have fallen by the wayside. People are trying to do things inexpensively yet as high quality as possible. Most every studio drummer I know in Los Angeles has his/her own studio. The studio just might be a drum set up in their bedroom or a garage or a full blown studio. I actually have a studio space in Venice California called West Triad. What I realised is that no one is teaching people that you can record your own drums.  The more you’re able to record your own tracks the more you’re gonna be doing session work, not just for drummers but for your own band. I decided to fill a niche that I feel is needed relative to educating people all about recording drums in a recording studio; from tuning to miking, I talk about electronics, the signal chain, what goes on in the computer.

Then I get into the other aspect of how I chart out songs when somebody sends me tracks, because the majority of what I do is based on people MP3ing me songs.  I cut drum tracks for them and then I upload my completed drum tracks on to an FTP site.  When I saw Dave Weckl at the NAMM show said he that he hasn’t left his own studio for three years.

Photo Amy Frazier

People are recoding drums in so many environments!   I’m giving people a basic understanding of how I do that, how I can chart songs and how I can record 12 songs that I have not previously heard in a day. It’s all a quick and easy system of charting, I talk about my approach to playing the songs and the other benefit is that this is the same process of what I do to prepare for an audition or world tour.

Hudson is going to distribute the DVD which makes me very happy.  When I talked to Rob from Hudson, he said that what he loves about this DVD is that it has so much usable content; people need education and information.  There’s a 36 booklet that goes along with it and it’s like a crash course in 2 hours!

Being a drummer today would it be necessary for a drummer to have an insight to technology?

I believe so that’s the whole point of my DVD. It gives you an easy and understandable introduction in how you can do this yourself.  Of course you need to concentrate on the craft of drumming first and foremost.  You need to decide how far you want to go with your drumming, how much you want to learn and how much you want to be an asset for others.  If you want to take it to another level then create the freedom to be able to do things yourself; he more you know and the more education you have, the more valuable you’re going be.

Photo Amy Frazier

How has the development of your drumming changed over the years and how are you expanding?

I still put a lot of emphasis on the simplicity of playing.  What I’ve expanded into is some more open handed playing and the subtle difference between playing right hand lead and left hand lead. I’ve expanded into more progressive music in my seminars, more East Indian based music. I created a piece with Pete Lockett that is featured on the DVD.   Andy Edwards arranged a drum part for a piece from a Bollywood movie.  It is like a heavy metal drum track played over a totally unique musical background.  I took it and put some video to it for my clinic performance.

My main gig is educating and motivating people while combining some interesting drumming.  I love when people walk away from my seminars feeling great about themselves and their potential rather than intimidated and disillusioned.  I just started working on some drum corp stuff with my tech Mark to create another unique piece. We’re taking this wild drum corp exercise of displaced quintuplets written by Murray Gusseck and writing a piece of music around that.  I’ve been doing drumming recording seminars now for a few years and expanding on that. I’m doing more producing and I in fact taking one of P!NK’s songs and arranging it as a Latin song for one of our dancers, Leo!   I’m also playing cello on the P!NK tour which was my childhood instrument!  This also pushes my musicality.

Finally, how would you advise someone who may be going to their audition, studio recording session or a live gig for the first time?

First of all attitude is everything. My DVD gives a perfect complete excerpt on how to prepare musically for either an audition, live gig or a recording session.
But the main thing I would tell everybody is that it’s not about you, it’s about everybody else. The people that get hired are the people that bring joy to the music; the ones that called back are the ones that bring a good time to others.  Let your ego go for starters and think about what you can do to make everybody’s life easier around you.  Walk in; crack jokes; make the situation light. I remember asking Keith Forsey, producer to give an assessment of my playing when we worked with Simple Minds, Billy Idol and  a few other artists.  He said, “Mark’s a good drummer but he makes a great capucinno!”  When anyone walked into the Simple Minds sessions, I always asked, “How you doin’?  Do you want a cappucinno?”

I say create as much added value for yourself!  Drummers like Kenny Aronoff, Abe Laboriel, Gregg Bissonette- people want to be around them; they’re funny, they’re likeable and they make everyone feel good.  They keep on getting work because of how cool they are. So make it about how cool you can be and not about me, me, me, me, me. It ain’t about you, it’s about everyone around you.

I would also like to pass this on: ‘Dream your life and live your dreams’. If you have a clear vision of what you want, you have a better chance of achieving it. Focus really matters but do it with a light heart. Do it all with a lot of fun, joy and laughter; that’s it dude!

Equipment:

Drums: Gretsch
Hardware: Gibraltar
Cymbals: Sabian
Sticks: Vic Firth
Heads: Remo
Mics: Shure
Electronics: Steinberg, Native Instruments

For more information: www.markschulman.net