janesaddiction.org

“ART OF DRUMS” COLLECTIONS USE TECHNOLOGY TO ‘CAPTURE SOUND ON
CANVAS’
Guns ‘N Roses, Def Leppard, Parliament/Funkadelic and Jane’s
Addiction drummers featured


WHAT WOULD A PICTURE OF YOUR FAVORITE SONG LOOK LIKE? The Art Of
Drums, a historic collection of fine art spearheaded by Los Angeles
creativity house SceneFour in collaboration with ten of the world’s
greatest drummers, can finally answer that question. On July 22, the
flagship “Art Of Drums” collection featuring former Guns ‘N
Roses/Velvet Revolver drummer Matt Sorum (to be revealed exclusively
at mattsorumart.com) will premiere a groundbreaking method of
capturing music on canvas. Hundreds of drum bursts are recorded,
reduced to light impulses, digitized, evaluated by several
photographers, graphic artists and all under the direction of the
music artist. This experienced team of creative professionals spends
over 100 hours creating a unique product mammoth in size, stunning in
composition. “This is something different than what people are used
to seeing,” SceneFour Creative Director Cory Danziger states.
“It’s a new medium. It’s not acrylic or oil, it’s light and
color and sound captured. The rhythm is on display for you to see.“


Following Sorum’s release will be drum art collections releases by a
who’s-who of the world’s ten best drummers, whittled down from a
dream list put together by SceneFour specially for this project. Rick
Allen of Def Leppard, Stephen Perkins of Jane’s Addiction, Frankie
“Kash” Waddy of Parliament/Funkadelic and six other mystery
drummers are each creating individual collections of 100 epic-sized
canvases to be released every other month for 20 months. Each drummer
will release ten different pieces, each of which will be presented in
ten one-of-a-kind drafts, all numbered and signed.

The Art of Drums is the brainchild of famed art house SceneFour, the
team behind collaborative artwork with The RZA of Wu-Tang Clan, Chuck
D of Public Enemy, Bootsy Collins, TLC, Hieroglyphics, Fishbone,
Helmet and George Lynch. With the sole focus of pushing what it calls
‘extractionist’ artwork, SceneFour works in collaboration with
non-visual art visionaries to create collaborative fine art
collections. The Art Of Drums is the company’s most extensive
release to date, taking more than a year in development. The
collection will debut in Beverly Hills before going to galleries
worldwide. For inquiries about the collection, visit
http://www.theartofdrumsproject.com and http://www.mattsorumart.com.

Jane's Addiction Drummer (Firestarter) Stephen Perkins on Art of Drums
Posted by Trent Moorman on Fri, Aug 12, 2011


Stephen Perkins/Art of Drums

For the third installment of the Art of Drums series, Jane’s Addiction’s Stephen Perkins spoke. Perkins’ drumming spreads a spectrum with senses. His beats are a choreographed, primal torrent, running poised Arabian cycles of mortar that dive down to the cosmic pelvis of urges. For Jane’s Addiction, he perfectly drives the cadence of their erogeny. Very LA, very frenetic, very ravenous, but always holding it down. Perkins hoists the canopy well behind the erotic, psychedelic hyena brain of Perry Farrell.

What makes a great drummer?

Perkins: When great drummers play, they’re doing yoga, and killing a lion at the same time. You gotta have a quick Sugar Ray Leonard jab. But at the same time you gotta be a ballerina up there.

Looking at these Art of Drum images, it’s like a Rorschach test. Frankie “Kash” Waddy sees a man walking through a door, Matt Sorum sees Jesus in a sailboat. What do you see?

I see jellyfish rising. A face laughing. If I look deeper, I see goblins, and angels. Wings. You’re right, it’s interpretive. Some people might see a missile coming from China. I don’t see that, but someone might. In the images as a whole, I see my personality – hyper, bubbly, bubbly in a good way, like a champagne. I see me being alive. I like to travel around the drum kit. Just because kick, snare, and hi hat sound good on one verse, doesn’t mean I have to play them on the second verse. You can see that in this art, someone who likes to move around, someone who is mobile. And what is mobile in this world, is the ruin of the world, and that’s the fossil fuels, traveling by plane, trains, and automobiles.

What do you think about when you drum?

I think about what happens from below the waist. How do I make people move? I don’t think about mathematical drum parts that make people think, or about extremely fast drum fills that make people go, “Wow.” I’m trying to make people’s asses move. Especially women. If I get guys to move, great. But if I can get girls to feel that beat, that’s what I want. That’s my objective in life, to make people move. Most of those people in my mind should be women. When women dance, their hips move, and their hips are what make babies. As a drummer, that’s what I’m after.


Stephen Perkins/Art of Drums

How did your drumming translate to canvas? How does the sound of a beat modulate to something visually tangible?

It’s like a Rembrandt, like looking at an exact moment in time. Looking at the movement of light in space. It’s like rhythm to me, it’s not where you play the note, it’s where you don’t play the note. I want my drums to sound like an egg rolling down a hill, not a ball. They both get to the bottom, but the egg rolls in different directions and bounces up and down, uniquely. With these images, the story comes from what’s happening, but also from what’s not happening. Like seeing things in clouds. The color and the movement draws you in at first, but then where do you go? It’s the dark spaces where things might be happening. Or look at the image, focus on it, then close your eyes and tell me what you see.

Jane’s Addiction was instrumental in my upbringing as a musical youth.

Thank you. I appreciate you saying that. When we began, we were just expressing our environment, what was around us in 1986, and putting it into music. For us it was an artistic venture, not just a musical venture.

I think Jane’s songs have held up over time.

I think it’s timeless music. It could have come from 1886, 1986, or 2086. If it touches an emotional part in people, and sparks an emotion, those feelings are timeless. To me, it’s important to make music that doesn’t feel dated. Our sound is a combination of four people that were into different types of music, different types of art, we had different friends. We were into different things.

In LA there was the Sunset strip going on parallel to what we were doing. That was Poison, Ratt, Motley Crue, and G ‘N R. Our scene was downtown LA, and it didn’t start until 1 AM, with the Chili Peppers, Fishbone, X, the Dream Syndicate, and Firehose. It was a completely separate type of scene that started later, in a different part of Los Angeles. The stuff on the strip was feeling a little dated even then. But what was going on downtown, with bands like the Chili Peppers and Fishbone, they were pulling from timeless funk, and metal, and ska even.

What is technology doing to music?

It’s an interesting time. You can get an app that throws you slides of Picasso all day, and that can be incredibly stimulating to someone who’s into imagery. Technology can get in the way of creativity, but it's also such a great fucking way to share it. It makes it impossible for musicians to sell records, but it makes it possible to get it out to people so fast. If I finish a song, I can get it out to people immediately, for free, and let them hear it, and that’s what matters.

When is the new Jane’s Addiction album coming out? Whose playing bass?

We just finished recording this week. It’ll probably come out the first week of October. It’s called The Great Escape Artist. Dave Sitek from TV on the Radio helped us write the music. Chris Chaney plays bass for most of it. The first song is up on our SoundCloud. It’s called “Irresistible Force.” I’m excited to put it out and play it.

Mike wrote:http://www.theartofstephenperkins.com/

tvrec wrote:I just want to know how much...