Artist Feature: Renowned Studio Musician Matt Chamberlain
I have a few drummers that I often look to for inspiration, and one of those guys is Matt Chamberlain. He is one of a few guys that do obscene amounts of session/studio work, and get called for major artist recordings on a regular basis. Some of the other notable drummers in this fairly small group are of course Josh Freese, Abe laboriel Jr., Kenny Aronoff, and Joey Waronker. Matt Chamberlain was one of my biggest inspirations in terms of using more dark, complex cymbal and snare tones. His sound is typically very earthy, and I believe that he pioneered some of the greatest drum sounds and ideas in modern, mainstream music. His resume is huge and you can learn more about him at www.mattchamberlain.com. He endorses Craviotto drums, and Istanbul Agop cymbals, both of which are typically associated with dry, earthy tones. As I have said before, I love finding videos of my favorite session drummers in the studio. The video below is of Matt Chamberlain laying down the drum tracks for an artist named George Stanford in the song “Big Drop.”
Matt Chamberlain Laying Down Drum Tracks
The following listening example is from The Wallflowers’ 1996 record “Bringing Down the Horse” for which Matt won a grammy for his work. Notice in this song entitled “One Headlight,” Matt never plays a traditional fill or even one crash cymbal.
Matt Chamberlain is arguably one of the greatest, and most musical drummers of our time. If you want to know more about him, go ahead and visit his website (linked above.) I’m sure I will be posting more of his videos in the future so check back for more!
