JOEY JORDISON

Slipknot’s Sic Sound

Before gracing the stage at Soundwave on Monday, March 5, drummer Joey Jordison takes they time to talk about his progression as a percussionist with TRAVIS JOHNSON.

Growing up in Waukee, Iowa,  Joey Jordison’s passion for drumming manifested at a very early age.
“I was seven or eight, yeah.” he recalls. “It was a while ago. I started on a department store drum kit - basically, you might as well say a toy kit. I was super young, you know? So I started on that, and I beat it to death so bad. I got my chops up on this little kit that I had to keep duct-taping the heads together on, because I kept smacking holes in them. Basically it sounded like I was hitting cardboard boxes, but it didn’t matter, because I was getting my chops up. I had my kit in front of my parents’ stereo and I was playing everything from Black Sabbath to The Rolling stones to Led Zeppelin to The Beatles, all the way up until I started getting into KISS and Judas Priest and Iron Maiden. That’s how I really started to get into the technical stuff. John Bonham and Keith Moon were  probably the start of me getting into the technical elements of drumming before I started getting into metal metal. The Who and Bonham are the ones that blew my mind as a kid. I tried to emulate them. But once I started to get into metal, and the thrash movement came along with Metallica and Slayer and even Anthrax, and the double bass came in.”
And though his early explorations into the realms of metal drew on fairly obvious influences, these days Jordison likes to cast a wider net when it comes to refining his sound.
“It’s basically an evolution,” he explains. “Now I listen to a lot of avant garde stuff. A lot of jazz and fusion and stuff, to try and develop my style a little... quirkier, I might say? And then, once I started getting into black metal, that’s when my style got up to about where it is right now. But I’m always learning; I don’t just play one style. I don’t play in one particular genre of drumming; I try to mix in as much as possible, and I think that’s what’s really enhanced my style.”
The other key contributing factor is, as any muso will tell you, simply putting in the hours. “Well, practice is everything. You can make a shitty Gemco drum set sound good if you know your way around tuning or muffling certain drums, the right heads, but the main thing is the drummer. It’s basically how you hit the drums, the action of your wrist, where to hit the drum pad - of course, if you’re going for a rim shot, that’s different. You’ve got to make sure you’re right in the middle. If you’re going for a rim shot, you’ve got to be on the outside. It’s pretty much like  getting enough depth out of the drum, but being quick to pull back right after you hit it. It’s kind of like  a release: getting out fast after you hit as hard as you can, and that gives you the best attack. Drums always sound better when they’re hit harder.
“But also,” Jordison continues. “You can’t just hit it with your arm. It’s all in the wrist, and it’s all in the ankle. I play heel up. If I’m in a slow groove, sometimes just to get a heavier sound I’ll play foot down, or sometimes even in a heavier groove, like straight 4/4, say like Psychosocial, just on the main riff, it’s pretty four-on-the-floor, so I’ll play more with my arm instead of just my wrists, because it’s a heavier groove. The faster stuff is definitely heel up and a lot in the wrist. I’m developing the technique based on what the song calls for, and a bunch of different exercises. Don’t just stick to one thing; try to explore different avenues. Listening to different types of music is what helped me. Where I get a lot of style from, weirdly enough, is not just metal but jazz. That’s where I get a lot of my complex stuff, and  a lot of the way that I hit the drums. Jazz is a whole different world, but mixed with extreme metal drumming, it becomes a whole new beast.”
Drawing on such diverse influences means Jordison requires a fairly versatile kit, in his case a custom job by Pearl. “Right now it’s the same kit I used on the All Hope Is Gone tour, which is the Reference Series kit, with the whole rack system and everything. All the hardware on the kit that I’ll have in Australia is actually gold plated - actual gold. It’s not spray painted or a flake finish or anything like that. It really sticks out live, with all the lights and everything. I use Alesis electronic triggers, so I mix half trigger and half acoustic. The kit that I’m using is the same drum set that I use in the studio. Sometimes I’ll use coded heads if the track’s a little heavier and needs a deeper tom sound, and the snare’s always coded, and I use Emperors across the board for my toms. I have to have it all, and if I don’t have it all, I’m not giving it all. I haven’t got anything just for show - I use everything that I have. Everything starts with the meat and potatoes of the beat of the song, which is kick, snare, and hat. If I stick with just that, I think I can get by.”