Drummers on Drumming Big Fat Five: Jojo Mayer: Clarity > Perfection
This week’s guest is Jojo Mayer. I am in the midst of a project that has me going through a bunch of our past episodes (I will be announcing this project shortly and I’m super excited about it), but when I went back through the Jojo’s episode, I was reminded of its importance. Jojo is mind-blowing player who helped pioneer the drum n bass movement in New York City by “reverse engineering” programmed drum loops and applying them to the drum set. He is also revered for his exceptional technique, which he dissects in the wildly-popular instructional series titled “Secret Weapons For The Modern Drummer Parts 1 & 2”. He is the leader of his own band, Nerve, which he founded back in 1997. We don’t necessarily stick to the normal format in this one; Jojo is a great storyteller. We start off with a few anecdotes about a cymbal once-owned by Billy Higgins that Jojo picked up by happenstance and Jojo’s time spent “studying” with Freddy Gruber, but we certainly touch on a lot of Jojo’s opinions / perspectives regarding accepting influences, but knowing when they’re actually a detriment to your personal growth on the instrument. He’s a very philosophical man and shares quite a few nuggets of slap-you-in-the-face style wisdom. Even though this is probably one of our most-downloaded episodes over the life of the show, we’ve been getting a lot of new listeners and I wanted to push this towards the top because, well…it’s important. I’ve cleaned it up a bit and put a cute lil bow in it. Stay tuned for my fun little project announcement, but in the meantime…please enjoy my chat with my esteemed guest, Jojo Mayer. Cheers!
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Drummers on Drumming (the book) takes you inside the stories, records, and moments that shaped some of the world’s greatest drummers. Built on the Big Fat Five format of digging into top influences, it’s packed with candid interviews and personal insights. Whether you’re just starting out or have been playing for years, this book is here to inspire you to sharpen your skills and find your own voice behind the kit.
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