#Modern drummer digital archive skin

The name of the 70s cult band Captain Beyond was stamped on one of your old bass drum heads.

MD: There's a marked 70s influence in your playing.

Hawkins, though, is not (as some claim) 'the second-best drummer in the Foo Fighters,' he's simply the only drummer for the job. Best friends enamored of each other's skills, Grohl and Hawkins lay the foundation for every Foo Fighters song. Some listeners may not be able to tell the difference between Grohl's elephantine pummel and Hawkins' lithely propulsive groove and speed-demon fills, but much of the Foos' magic lies in the duo's twin yet separate identities. Long-limbed and rangy, like a rubber-band man with a blond mane, Hawkins attacks the kit with speed and power, but also with grace and textural nuance. He's a visual beast of a showman, as any Foo Fighters video attests. Taylor Hawkins is nothing if not physical. His drumming on such fantastic Foo flamers as 'Rope,' 'Dear Rosemary,' and 'A Matter of Time' reveals his tight working relationship with Grohl, as well as his own remarkable consistency, signature time feel, and searing hand and foot patterns. Grohl and producer Butch Vig didn't let the band within fifty miles of a computer, so Taylor had to bring his 'A' game. Wasting Light, which also includes Pat Smear and Chris Shiflett on guitar and Nate Mendel on bass, blasts a return to the past even more emphatically, taking shape in an all-analog process that required Hawkins to perform nearly perfect drum tracks live to tape. Quintessential Californian singing, writing, and playing guitar, bass, and drums on diverse material that recalls everything from Queen and the Eagles to Mahavishnu Orchestra and Rush. Taylor Hawkins & the Coattail Riders, finds the and One by One, Hawkins plays burly rhythms in step with Grohl's guitar.

#Modern drummer digital archive skin

On such Foo Fighters albums as There Is Nothing Left to Lose, Skin and Bones. His optimism, talent, and self-awareness make him not only an essential ingredient to the Foo Fighters' success but also a great role model for any drummer intent on understanding the meaning of the term team player. But as a sincere and hardworking player and all around good guy, Hawkins sees opportunity where some might see trouble. Later, when he got his first turntable, he wore out the grooves of Captain Beyond's Down Explosion.ДЇast-forward some thirty years, and Taylor Hawkins plays drums for one of the biggest rock bands in the world, enjoys a freewheeling side project that enables his love of all things 1970s, and, by his own account, is getting paid more than adequately for his efforts.ДЄ consistently humble and self-effacing musician, Hawkins also has the unusual honor of playing drums behind Dave Grohl, one of the greatest rock drummers of his generation. Soon the Eagles' 'Hotel California,' Queen's 'Fat Bottomed Girls,' and Kansas's 'Carry On Wayward Son' awakened his nascent rhythmic sensibilities. When not surfing at Laguna Beach or riding his banana bike, young Taylor was fascinated by the AM-dial fare he'd hear on his mom's car radio. In 1979, when Taylor Hawkins was eight years old, two of the biggest albums on the charts were the Police's Reggatta de Blanc and Pink Floyd's The Wall. And there's no better proof of his aesthetic than the Foos latest and greatest blockbuster of an album Wasting Light. But the Foo Fighters drummer says his real allegiance is to rocking honestly and with style. Sure, he's got a famous boss - and one who's a terror on the drumkit himself.