Issue 10 - Sarah Thawer - October 2019

on the SPD 30. I still remember some of
those grooves.
Growing up I never played drum kit
in a conventional way - I never thought
of coordination, independence, rudiments
or any of that stuff. That came
later on. I just tried playing the grooves,
beats and tried to emulate the sounds
from those records, as mentioned earlier.
Then, I would start to improvise. I
would sit for hours and just play with
the floor tom. Looking back now, I did
develop some independence as many
of the grooves had a theme and then
one limb would do different variations,
but I never thought of it like that. My
drumming journey never started with
a drum book, a rudiment or a drum
teacher. It started with my ears, listening
to the music, on stage and diving
into creativity of how I could achieve
the sounds and have a creative approach
without even knowing how to hold a
stick correctly and understanding various
grips. That mindset of listening
to percussion and playing grooves that
stem from percussion on a drum kit has
moulded me into the drummer I am
today. It’s like seeing the kit in a whole
new way.
#VF Jams LIVE! What a performance! Tell
us about that feeling and how exactly #VF
Jams work?
Thank you! :-) Being a part of VFJams
Live was truly an honour. Joe Testa (Vice
President of Artist Relations at Zildjian
and Vic Firth) reached out in November
2017, about two months before and
asked me if I wanted to be a part of the
lineup. I couldn’t believe it and was beyond
excited. Robert Sput Searight was
the musical director for the session and
he rearranged and added so much to my
song for the session. It was THE experience
of a lifetime; to perform at East
West Studios in Hollywood, to have all
of your idols watch you play and to play
with an all-star band that I’ve actually
never played with before at that time
but have been a fan of for years. We ran
through our song twice the day before,
and the day of the session it was 3-2-1
GO. The take that was chosen and released
was my first take. I was nervous
because everywhere I turned was a musician
or drummer I loved and every
instrument I heard in my headphones
was being played by some of my favourite
musicians.
Anyone who watched that performance
would be hard-pressed to put you in a
specific stylistic box. It was such a beautiful
blend of everything from rock to Indian
rhythms. How do you find yourself
being so diverse when it comes to playing
music in all these styles?
I grew up listening and playing mainly
Bollywood music (music from Indi-
cussion instrument rather than it being
in the forefront such as in western
music. I would line up all my percussion
instruments and drum kit in the
basement and would use my elbows,
fingers, hands, hold the stick in funny
ways, hit cookie jars, hair straighteners
and the locks on doors to try and achieve
and copy the sounds and grooves that I
heard on those records. I even remember
hiding in the corner during family
gatherings to make drum and percussion
grooves on my dad’s drum machine:
BOSS Dr. Rhythm DR-660 and
September 2019 | SA DRUMMER | 31