#skysaw

Groovebug presents the latest in our Artist Feature Video Series. Check out our interview with Jimmy Chamberlin.

Jimmy Chamberlin rose to fame in the early 1990s as the hard-hitting and versatile drummer for alternative rock band The Smashing Pumpkins. He is often held as one of the best drummers to come out of this era of music, and has gone on to produce, create new bands, and teahc drum clinics around the world. Groovebug caught up with him last year to ask a few quick questions about his career.

On His Early Career: "My interpretation of harmony and rhythm is much more sophisticated than it was in 1988 or even before that. Really, when I joined the Pumpkins I thought anything that didnt have Tony Williams on it wasn't worth listening to [...] I really was that single minded about that kind of drumming. Luckily I was able to find a vehicle in which I could assert my own version of that drumming and kinda get away with it and people really responded to it."

On Skysaw: "Skysaw was really more of an attempt at a philosphy as opposed to like 'I wanna be a drummer in another band'. It was more like 'can I find people to write with who can write things that are sophisticated that don't need to be bombastic but still have a beauty about them. For me, to be able to write in a band like Skysaw is fantastic."

On Other Projects: "I've just recently been commisioned by Hubbard Street Dance to do a program. The dancers are so good; what they do is so improvisational that I think I'm going to try to make a band out of maybe four of five dancers and an ensemble - maybe a trio or quartet - [and] at any given time it'll be like this three way interpretation going on where the dance will be reacting from the music and the music will be informing the painting and at some point the music might stop and the dancers react to the paint or vice versa."

On Groovebug: "One of the things that attracts me to technology is that it seems to be one fo the cultural movements right now that is fearless. [...] I think the great thing about Groovebug is that there's a capability there to really go down the rabbit hole if you're into an artist. Why not, in an ideal world, have an artist talking about each record? Why not have a three minute video clip of Neil Young talking about Harvest? [...] Now that we have the opportunity for people to just push a button and see your face talking about a moment in time, why not use it and exploit it? I think that's what I'd like to see happen with Groovebug."

On Development of Skill: "One of the things I always try to tell people is that it's not really about technique and 5/4 - it's about developing what's in here [gestures to heart] and developing your facility to the point where you can bring it out on the drumset. For some guys it's very simplistic, for Charlie Watts... what's inside is a very simple he does a great job of brunging it out. It doesn't mean that what he's saying isnt important."