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Interview With Dave Mackintosh – Dragonforce
Dave Mackintosh – Dragonforce Having spent several days chatting with some of the biggest players and heaviest hitters in the business over the 2009 Download festival it was with anticipation that I met up with Dave Mackintosh of Dragonforce. His reputation as a great guy to be around and his genuine persona came across in equal quantities as this monster of the kit talked openly about every aspect of recording, touring, avoiding swine flu and his relationships with companies in the industry. Read on and get an insight into how replying to an advert in your local rehearsal room might just pay dividends as there not always wild goose chases……..they might just lead to back to back world tours and some of the most influential recordings in the metal field to date.
How did you first meet the guys and get the gig? I was signed with another band but they weren’t working as much as I liked. I could see it was not really going to be a cash-cow for me so I looked in all the normal places, even musicians union and that sort of thing, then I stumbled on this tiny little website, there was one page and it had one line saying “Drummer wanted for fast band” and I phoned up and it was Herman, and that was it. You occasionally hear of bands holding open auditions with the likes of Suede and Metallica recruiting what were effectively fans of the band but to hear that you found an open ad on a website is incredible. Bearing in mind that was probably 6 or 7 months of me looking but yeah it was just a case of right, I picked up the phone, the CD popped through the door two days later and I thought ‘Oh God what am I letting myself in for? |
When you joined they changed their genre name to ‘extreme’, so am I right in thinking you weren’t in a Poison covers band before that then? No I was in a Black Metal band at the time, the strange thing is I never really listened to that sort of thing but I just fell into it as I was growing up and I was in local bands and just ended up going in faster and faster bands and then I ended up with a signed band named Bal-Sagoth and then went from a Black Metal band to bloody Dragonforce. There are worse things you could do though. That is true. I was reading about your influences - Neil Peart, Mike Portnoy, Nicko - what was it that got you into that style of music in the first place? Natural progression really. As a kid growing up I was listening to Ozzie and Anthrax and that sort of thing, so just literally word of mouth. My pals would be into this band and they’d say listen to this and then of course as my abilities got better as a drummer, I was seeking more input. More challenge as well Precisely, and of course the Symphony X’s of the world really did it for me. |
You’ve not long finished the North American leg of the current tour but there were unforeseen problems with Latin America. What happened to stop you making it down there? It’s not that exciting, it’s not a great anecdote, but we did North America which was good, for like 6 or 7 weeks and then we were supposed to go straight into Latin America from there but the swine flu thing came in. It wasn’t a case of we were scared of catching the swine flu or anything, it was the fact they were starting to shut places down and we thought the next thing was they were going to start shutting borders and we’ve got all the summer festivals to do which are really good for us and we didn’t want to be stuck in Latin America. We’ve rescheduled it now for later this year. It’s kind of, without sounding blasé about it, it’s kind of water off a ducks back now. Don’t get me wrong, its absolutely fantastic and its been really good for us and I think with all the bands that are on Rock Band its actually bringing decent music to a wider audience who wouldn’t necessarily get to hear it, I’m talking kids who would never hear it on the radio, for instance. It’s a medium of making music accessible to everyone isn’t it? Absolutely and obviously it’s helped us and I applaud it in that sense and also just for the reason I’ve just stated it’s absolutely fantastic but I quite often walk into WH Smith to get a magazine or something and we’re on the front, and I’m like ‘Oh God’. |
That’s what I mean, its got to be a little bit surreal, no matter how much success you have, every now and then when you’re going about an everyday part of life something will just make you stop and think. The strangest one being (you might not want to print this actually), I used to take my ex- girlfriend to a garden centre because they had decent coffee in there I won’t print that. You can, its ok, it’s kind of weird, I was actually recognised in a bloody garden centre, I’m sat there with a coffee with all the plants around and this guy comes up and says ‘Are you Dave from Dragon Force?’ and I was like “What the …”, now that’s odd, that took my breath away. You expect it at gigs and festivals when you’re wandering about. That’s right, but it’s happened in gas stations, I’ll be filling up the car and someone will come up and I’ll end up putting in £60 instead of £20. |
You also single handedly by the look of it took all of the European stock of Meinl cymbals for yourself (check out Dave’s current kit set up), how did that relationship come about? I know they have a fantastic relationship with Thomas Lang and I know when Marco Minnemann was with them there was a lot of support so they seem to back the virtuoso style of players. I was introduced to Norbert from Meinl by Jason Bittner when we were on tour, I liked the cymbals and basically Norbert expressed some interest and said they were very interested in having me for Meinl and that was about a year or 18 months ago so I gave it a lot of thought, but what struck me most about Meinl apart from the fantastic sounding cymbals, is that they are extremely pro-active, not only with their cymbals and development but also their artists. If you look at any of Meinl artists they are constantly in the press and also they have their own festival and that sort of thing, they are constantly pushing forward and developing. In the past I’ve managed a couple of guys who were under Meinl and the level of communication is amazing. That’s the other thing, I can send a mail in the middle of the night and Norbert will phone me wherever I am in the world 5 minutes later. I deal with one person, that’s it. He’s a funny guy and I like him. I have to say when I did change over I put all my new Meinl cymbals on, this was half-way through the European tour, because I use in-ears it was the same mix, but the mix cleared up completely, each cymbal not only had its own place but I could tell the tone in my ears rather than just hearing a crash. So for me they’re glassy, they speak quick and then they’re done, which is perfect for the stuff we’re playing, you can’t really have something that’s going to sustain for 20 minutes, but it still has to be loud. It’s one of the best moves I’ve made in my career, for sure. Drum wise, how did the relationship come about there? With Tama it was Herman and Sam got a deal with Headstock I believe in the UK and I got to know my friend Leo at Headstock and he said “Well do you use Tama drums?” and as luck would have it I’ve been using Tama drums for 20 years and I said “Well yeah”, and he said “Do you want a deal?” and I said “Alright”. What is the recording process with this style of music? |
Horrible Is it? How live is it? I’ll tell you what, for me the recording side of it is the work side, it’s incredibly rewarding when you’ve done it but I hate recording, especially with this band. The previous album we did I tracked my drums in 13 days I believe, on Ultra Beatdown it took me nearly 6 weeks because it just had to be absolutely 150% meticulous, you couldn’t get away with anything. Basically what we did was we got the bulk of it done and then my kit stayed in their, all mic’d up for 6 months after that, just in case. If they came up with something new for a song I could go in between touring or whatever we were doing and do something else and that was the only way we could do it otherwise it would have taken I don’t know how long. But it’s hard work and its uninspiring playing to 4 walls. There’s phenomenal technique of the whole band, when you’ve got technique like that it’s suggested that people play other instruments as well, they’ve got a broader musical spectrum I think they do yeah. I play bass and guitar, I also sing. Fred plays every instrument from the guitar to the didgeridoo; I think you have to be like that, it gives you an insight into how the other instruments work with you. Improves your musicality as well Absolutely. I think it’s very important. |
I’m glad you said that because I don’t want to put words in your mouth, but I think its important to understand that being a multi-instrumentalist, apart from getting work, really helps your musicality. Absolutely and the writing and rehearsing process, if you know where the notes are on a bass or guitar it just gives you an indication of where they’re going in that part of the song or when you’re learning it you can say ‘that part when you go G blah blah blah’. I would say those words are perfect; you’re fine putting words in my mouth. What is the band currently up too? Busy but happy days Absolutely.
Drums: Tama Starclassic www.myspace.com/dragonforcedrummer Words: Ade Holbrook |
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