The Neanderthal as Musician

I had an interesting conversation on Saturday with my friend/fellow drummer John "Good Time" Smith.  He was pointing out the finer points of drumming in the case of yours truly and discussing "playing musically" versus the "neanderthal" type of drumming.  His point was that he considered himself a pounder and that I brought a very musical element to the music.  I said that all drumming has that neanderthal component in it - it boils down to our basic need to pound the crap out of something.  However our goal should be to make a sound that is pleasing to our ears, correct for the style of music we are playing and above all - sound musical.
  
The idea of playing loud elicits a primal feeling in our souls.  I remember setting up for a gig at the St. Arnold's Brewery in Houston, TX.  We were playing in a very large second story room.  I say "room" but it was a very large beer hall with concrete floors, walls, and huge glass windows.  The ceiling was probably 15-18 feet high and you can just imagine the acoustics in that space.  After barely tapping the drums I had to cut loose.  I have borrowed a drum lick from the Black Sabbath album "Live Evil" (Vinny Appice on drums) as a warm up around the kit and I decided to whip out that particular fill to test the volume of the drums versus the room.  It was so loud I think that the overtones from the toms are STILL floating around through the brewery to this day.  


What's the point?  The point is that it felt GOOD to play that loud and hear the drums resonate so prominently.  Did I play that way for the gig?  Of course not.  It was so live in the room I eventually whittled my playing to brushes and Blasticks because that's what the room dictated.


Playing loud is just one facet of music.  Even metal bands have songs that require a certain touch, dynamics, and musicality.  I have been making it a point to be more conscious of my playing on the verses of songs (mid-volume), the choruses (maybe a little louder) and solos (louder, but still musical).  We are humans and we will get emotional when we play; keeping that emotion in check is important so we will not over play and cover up an important lyric or solo lick being played by the guitar, keyboard, sax, etc...


Music has a natural ebb and flow and being conscious of the movement of the song is so important.  Drummers need to listen with what I call "elephant ears" - always listening to everything around them and reacting accordingly to what the music dictates.  To sum up John's point - yes we are pounders at our basic instinct but developing "that touch" will separate us from the neanderthals.  The music lies in not how fast or how loud you can play but in how you interpret the music and how you react.