My first teacher Steve introduced me to Paul Dickinson at UDrum back in high school, and since then he's taken fantastic care of me. In addition to building my drum kit, he's seen to it that whenever I needed anything I got it immediately.
I can remember one time when I realized the day before going out on tour for about a month that I was on my last two pairs of sticks. I called Paul hoping to order another box, but he was out of stock at the time. This was a disaster as I couldn't be assured of finding the sticks I like on the road just anywhere, and I didn't know in any case how much time we'd have to be stopping in every music store on the way. Paul asked me where our first stop was. When I told him Thunder Bay, Ontario he asked for the hotel address, and when I got to the hotel, the sticks were waiting for me. He had managed to order them for me and rush them up there to be ready for me only 48 hours after I called him.
That's just one example, but in short, I've never had better or more personal service from any business in my life. Paul's has belived in me and helped me out every step of the way since I started my career. On the rare occasion that I've had some problem with my gear due to wear and tear, Paul has dropped whatever he was doing to fix it for me right away at no charge. He stands behind his work, and I couldn't be happier with his drums.
Since I often have people asking me what gear I use, I figured I might as well post the full details here.
The drum kit Paul built for me (and helped me to design) generally appears on stage with us in two different configurations. The most common one these days is the five-piece setup, consisting of a 22" bass drum, 10", 12", and 14" toms (all 6-ply maple with 4-ply re-enforcement rings) and a 14" x 7" brass snare drum with zinc die-cast hoops and nickel alloy finish. I sometimes swap out this snare for my 14" x 5.5" maple snare (6-ply with 6-ply re-enforcement rings) with maple hoops. The larger configuration includes an additional 13" and 16" tom (shell composition as above), and is a rack-mounted setup. The following is a list of the cymbals I use (* Denotes a cymbal that I use in my five-piece configuration as well as my larger setup): 20" Zildjian K Jazz Ride*, 20" Sabian HHX Evolution China, 18" Zildjian A Custom Crash*, 16" Sabian AAX Stage Crash, 16" Sabian HHX Evolution O-Zone Crash*, 14" Zildjian A Custom Crash*, 14" Sabian HH EQ Hats*, 12" Zildjian Avedis Splash, 10" Zildjian A Splash/10" Sabian HHX China Kang (Stacked), 10" ZilBel, 8" Zildjian K Splash.
I hope that answers some questions!
About Me
- James
- My parents introduced me to piano at a fairly young age, and while I enjoyed it, my interest in playing music didn't really take off until I started playing drums in grade 6. I studied with my music teacher's husband, Steve Wilson, until I was ready to go off to Humber College in Toronto to study jazz. From grade 8 to early grade 10, I played in a cover band with Trevor called "Black Ice". We rehearsed often, and performed once. Throughout high school, I played in an original band called "Drowning June", led by singer and guitarist Skott Garland. I had always planned to go into physics for my career, but nearing the end of high school, I decided that music might be more fun. At Humber, I studied jazz and commercial music with Don Vickery, Roger Flock, and finally Paul DeLong. It was midway through my first year at Humber that I started performing with Enter The Haggis, and it was also at Humber that I met Mark. You probably know most of the rest of the story.
2 comments:
Good to know, thanks for that! Do you have any say in what sort of amplification you use? I'm curious to know what your setup is like.
haha you rock james!! =]
You guys were WONDERFUL at Celtic this year, thanks for a great show! Hope to see you guys in Bethlehem PA again soon.
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