SDM: According to your band's myspace page, Daughters of Mara has started Dave Elitchwriting a new record. What do you want it to sound like compared to your last album? How can you contribute more to the songwriting process and really shine on this record?
Dave: Daughters is actually on a bit of a hiatus right now. We did the record with GGGarth Richardson in Vacouver and as soon as it was finished, EMI ( parent company of (Virgin/Capitol) was bought out and the label froze. We've been in some pretty intense legals battle since then, so we'll see what happens…Until that's worked out, you can pick up the record on the MySpace page. www.myspace/com/daughtersofmara
SDM: What metal drummers have influenced you the most over the years?
Dave: As far as metal drumming goes I'd have to say Thomas Haake and Abe Cunningham are two of my favorites. Thomas is probably one of the only people out there that can play such complicated music but make it FEEL GOOD. It has a groove and a certain swagger to it, even though Meshuggah is so heavy. I've alwaysDave Elitch viewed Abe as more of a funk drummer in a heavier band (Deftones). The thing that kills me with him is his use of space in his grooves and fills. "Digital Bath" is one of the most amazing grooves on the planet! I'm also incredable influenced by their drum tones. Their snare drum tones – those heavy Bell Brass/Bronze drums will rip your face off! In terms of metal drummers, I'm also really into Vinnie Paul, Morgan Agren, Dirk Verburen, Dan Foord, Henry Ranta etc…
SDM: How would you describe your playing style?
Dave: That's a tough one. I grew up listening to mostly jazz and big band – A LOT of Buddy Rich, Duke Ellington, Sinatra, Max Roach, Art Blakey, etc… I started playing drums on my 10th birthday and that's when I started getting into more mainstream stuff like Nirvana, Metallica, Foo Fighters, Green Day. All the usual things that you start out playing along to. I've always been really open to many different genre's of music and I'd like to think that it makes my playing a little different. I'll have my ipod on shuffle and it will go from Meshuggah to Frank Zappa to Tori Amos to Wu Tang Clan to Squarepusher. It's all over the place!
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SDM: We are a magazine that covers Extreme Metal Drumming, what do you think about extreme metal music? How has it influenced you?
Dave: It's a really interesting time for metal drumming right now. You have these guys like George Kollias and Tim Yueng you are just BLAZING with their speed and precision on double bass, just ripping down barriers that no one thought was possible and on the other hand there's guys like Dan Foord from Sikth and Chris Pennie/Gil Sharone from Dillinger Escape Plan where they are doing some technically amazing stuff. I actually got together with the Dillinger guys and jammed a few months ago while I was on the East Coast doing a clinic at The Collective in NY. It was some of the most difficult stuff I've ever had to play in my life. With that said, who's knows what Metal is gonna sound like in 5 years?! It's a really exciting time right now for heavier music.
SDM: How did you get involved in the shed sessionz DVD project?
Dave: All of my best friends hang out in that crowd of musicians. I ended up Dave Elitchbecoming friends with Gerald Forrest who runs the whole Shed Sessionz company. I put up a few videos of me playing on YouTube and a few days later I got a phone call from Gerald asking if I wanted to be on the DVD. It was a lot of fun filming that – we went to Allaire Studios in upstate NY. I was the only white/Jewish dude on that DVD, so it was interesting to see how my playing meshed with all these cats that grew up in the church. I want to make it really clear that I'm NOT a church drummer and don't pretend to be.
SDM: Tell us how you got involved in gospel drumming and how it has developed your playing.
Dave: It all started when I met Ron Bruner Jr. at The Baked Potato seeing Gary Novak shortly after I moved down to LA from the Bay Area around 04'. We started hanging out and I was totally blown away by his playing. He introduced me to a lot of new drummers and music that really opened me up. I started studying a lot of Tony Williams and Vinnie Colaiuta. Through Ron I became good friends with a lot of amazing drummers like Chris Coleman, Tony Royster and a bunch of other people. We all get together and have sheds at my place and just beat the crap out of each other for hours! Sometimes we'll be in there trading 4's til 5am! Since then I've been trying to blend a vocabulary of "gospel" playing and metal drumming, mostly with Daughters of Mara.
SDM: Has learning gospel drumming helped you in your metal/rock drumming?
Dave: Gospel drumming has given me a lot of ideas that I might not of had otherwise. I play as hard as I can when I'm playing metal and I use big sticks (Vic Firth Rocks) so there really isn't much in common when I'm doing any other style of music. When I'm playing heavy music I'm trying to break the drums in half – coming out of my seat and throwing all my weight into the drums and that doesnt really work in all situations, so it's kind of it's own thing I guess.
SDM: What things did you learn about in Gospel drumming that translated well into your metal playing?
Dave: The biggest way that the gospel style has seeped into my metal drumming is probably in the fills. I made a conscious effort with Daughters not to do any typical double bass quad-type fills. I just got really tired of hearing the same type of fills for so many years, so I really tried to do something new and interesting. I noticed a few years ago that if you just have a bunch of "go to" double bass fills, your brain Dave Elitchshuts off and you're no longer in the moment or interacting – you just go into auto-pilot. I also stopped playing double bass for a while, so when I started getting back into it again, I wasn't so reliant upon it when it cam to fill ideas.
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SDM: Do you have a different drum set up for the different styles that you play, or do you keep the same drum set up regardless of what type of music you are playing?
Dave: That's a great question. I change my set up all the time. I tend to keep it two rack toms and two floor toms, but I change the sizes depending on the gig. Most of the time I'll do 10, 12, 15, 16, 22. If I'm playing a heavier gig, I might change it up and go with 12, 13, 16, 18, 24. Snares are a whole other story. I think I'm up to 23 snares now, so I swap those out all the time. I've also been experimenting a lot with really dry and dark cymbal sounds. I'm play Sabian and I'm really diggin the Bozzio Radia line and the Jack DeJohnette cymbals right now. They have a really earthy and organic quality to them that I like. Most rock drummers like to use brilliant cymbals, but go out and try some darker ones – you might be surprised! I actually saw Sean Reinhart with Cynic a few weeks ago and he was using the same Jack DeJohnette ride I have….
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