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PART I DANIEL GLASS: THE ARTIST AND THE INDIVIDUAL Daniel Glass is a world renown drummer, author, clinician, record producer, and recording artist. Best known for his role behind the drum kit of the pioneering neo-swing group, Royal Crown Revue, Glass also has lent his talents as a player to countless artists including Mike Ness of Social Distortion, Bette Midler, Unknown Hinson, and Frank Sinatra’s guitarist, Al Viola, among others. As a veteran of the road with Royal Crown Revue, Daniel Glass has toured alongside The B-52s, The Pretenders, and KISS. His backbeat has projected to audiences in every conceivably sized venue, from small clubs to the Hollywood Bowl to countless outdoor stadium festivals. Producing the most recent disc of Royal Crown Revue, Glass has been at the helm for critically acclaimed records by numerous artists. The steady succession of production duties includes his own disc, entitled Something Colorful, as leader of The Daniel Glass Trio. Vibraphonist Eldad Tarmu’s Exotic Tales disc also features Glass as producer and drummer. Both discs are available on Glass’ own VeryTall Music label. An author and premiere authority on drumming and rhythm as an overall, major cultural force, Glass has two books and one DVD out now in stores and online retailers everywhere. The Ultimate History Of Rock ‘n’ Roll Drumming is the latest offering. Also available is The Royal Crown Revue Drum Transcription Book as well as a DVD entitled The Principles of Swingtime. A third book chronicling the history of Rhythm & Blues drumming is on the way. Daniel has also had several articles of his own featured in such magazine publications as Modern Drummer, DRUM, Stick It, and esteemed music reference guides including The Encyclopedia of Percussion (2nd edition) and the MusicHound Swing Essential Album Guide. Running parallel with his active role as an author, Glass is also known as a clinician/educator of considerable note. Glass’ clinics are presented across the country at regular intervals. Daniel Glass is first and foremost a dedicated, highly ambitious individual with music as an aggregate being at the apex of his considerations. He epitomizes and represents a concept of what one might term as the all encompassing artist. Not quite having figured out the balance between music and living the life that inspires it, Glass isn’t one to equivocate his intentions, either. If he is cognizant of the need for that balance in order that the music can thrive with genuine soul, energy, and color, whether unconsciously or not, perhaps Glass has created a customized scale that is tipped slightly top-heavy in favor of the music; a rarified endeavor of rhythm as life itself; the force that fuels and strengthens all else. Click the above graphic link to visit www.danielglass.com --------------------------------- September 2006 --------------------------------- Q: Who is Daniel Glass? DG: (laughs) If I had the answer to that question, I would probably be living in a house on top of the Malibu Canyon or something like that. I don’t know; I have no idea. I think, honestly, that’s what artists spend the majority of their lives trying to figure out. That’s what most people spend the majority of their lives trying to figure out; but artists say to themselves, “I’m going to do this officially; and I’m going to try to make my living discovering who I am and what the ‘me-ness’ is in what I do. That’s a more abstract way of describing it. Who I literally am, I suppose, is a musician. I’m a writer, an educator, an author. I’m something of a historian; someone who’s interested in music. Everything that I do relates to music. Q: You wear a lot of hats. You’re a drummer, clinician, author, record producer, recording artist, and composer.  What hat do you like to wear the most and why? DG: I like to wear many hats the most. One of the reasons that I wear many hats is because I have many interests; and one of the things that I gain great pleasure from in living my life this way is that I get to do many different things and exercise many different aspects of myself as an artist. They all serve different functions. Writing is a very cerebral thing; a very solitary thing. It involves organization, research, taking a lot of time to choose very specific kinds of things. So, that’s that type of activity. It can be very frustrating, but it also gives a great deal of satisfaction. Playing Jazz music or music based on improvisation is exactly the opposite. You don’t have any time to make decisions. You’re cooperating in a conversation with a group of other people; and you’re listening, improvising, creating on the spot. So, it satisfies a very different kind of artistry. It fulfills me in a different way. Producing allows me to see an artistic project from the macro, to look at something from a larger perspective, to see the vision, and then be able to bring that vision to life. It’s yet again a different type of activity. Some of these things that I spend a lot of time doing, you know, which is hacking away and trying to promote various projects including my books, that’s something else altogether. It’s running a business. I wouldn’t say it’s my favorite, but it definitely takes up a lot of time. Q: In all of these creative facets of what you do, if you like them equally well, but in a different way, why do you think that is? Does it have to do with who you are insofar that you become bored with one facet if you spend too much time on it? DG: I don’t know if bored is exactly the right word. I’ve been fortunate enough to grow up being exposed to a lot of different things as well as a lot of different ways of existing in the world. I didn’t grow up in a musical family. I wasn’t a musician at an early age. I mean, I was a musician for fun, but I did a lot of things in life before I decided that music was the direction in which I wanted to go. I lived in a lot of places in the world before moving to Los Angeles. I grew up in Hawaii, which in itself is a cultural and social existence that is so radically different from the type of life that most people experience anyway. There were a lot of cultures around me, a lot of musical linguistics and languages; a huge variety of stimuli already thrown into my brain at a very young age. At 18, I moved to Boston and went to college at Brandeis University which, coming from Hawaii, was about as huge a culture shock as you can imagine. It was there during my last few years that, although I played music all the way through college in Rock bands for fun, I started to become really interested in Jazz and the idea that I might actually try to make a living doing music. I had received my bachelor’s degree in Psychology; and the end of my college years was a big turning point for me. I had spent 22 years in academic settings. I went to a very good university. I also went to a very good high school. That’s where I learned to write, do history, research, and all those kinds of skills; but I sort of felt like it wasn’t nurturing a whole other side of myself. It’s as though I was playing a game. It’s, like, “O.K. Here’s another semester of school. Find out what the professor is looking for and give it to him.” Whether I was operating that way consciously or subconsciously, I felt inauthentic about it. I was good at that sort of thing, but there wasn’t anything that grabbed me and stoked a sense of passion. I felt like I was on a treadmill. After college, I started studying drums much more seriously in Boston with a guy named Bob Gullotti. Not only was Bob a tremendous drummer and teacher, but he was into the far side of improvisation. He was more into free Jazz, avant-garde Jazz. Just in the brief period that I studied with him, five months, I became so passionate about Jazz and music in a way that I had never felt passionate about anything before; essentially, the infinite possibilities behind what it had to offer. In other words, I wasn’t ever going to figure it all out. It was the beginning of a journey that was going to last me for the rest of my life. Playing Rock music was, like, “O.K. You learn these parts and play them the same way over and over again every time you do the song.” That didn’t feel very authentic to me, either; but nowadays I realize it’s about how you throw yourself into it. Even if you’re playing the world’s simplest beat and it’s very repetitive, there are so many levels with which you can dig into it and increase your ability and understanding. There are so many benefits that it can have for you. It can be like a mantra or doing a yoga practice, a meditation practice. That’s the way I’ve come to look at all drumming now after 18 years since I graduated from college. At any rate, in the fall of 1988, I decided to take a year off and travel to Israel. I said to myself, “If I am this passionate about music when I get back, I’m going to go forward with it.” I was obsessed with the idea throughout my year in Israel. Even though I didn’t get a chance to play, I dragged a practice pad drum set halfway across the world. Every opportunity I got, I ended up teaching music, studying music, or learning about music. I even picked up Blues guitar while I was there because I didn’t have much opportunity to play the drums. After that year of traveling, I decided to go to a music school. I worked as a waiter for a year at a TGI Friday’s back in Hawaii, earning the dough to move out to L.A. I moved out here to pursue my dreams, if you want to call them dreams. Sometimes they’re nightmares; but I’ve been pursuing them ever since. Again, and in answer to your question, I’ve been exposed to many different places, people, cultures, situations, and strata of society in the time that I’ve been here. I have a lot of interests; and I don’t feel I should have to squelch any one of them in favor of another. I’ve been trying to figure out for the past six or seven years what the best way is to put all these things together in order to create an overarching umbrella that also serves as what I like to call Daniel Glass, Inc., which allows me to make a living being myself. Q: And where, creatively, they all interrelate to one another? DG: Yes. In other words, I create books, cds, and various other creative mechanisms via my web site with the ability to market and sell those products as well. Under that umbrella, I have the full range to do an eclectic assortment of stuff. I can make a Royal Crown Revue record. I can write a book about drum history. I can do a Jazz trio that’s very modern and contemporary music. I can do all of those things, market them, and sell enough of them to make it worth my while – all under the same umbrella. That’s my goal. Q: You’re driven, ambitious, an artist to the core, and at the same time, a business person. When you have a passion for something as strong as music and you’re absorbed by it, I would imagine you have to create a balance between that absorption and having a life in order to be a good artist with emotional value. How does the all-encompassing endeavor of music affect your personal relationships? DG: It means that you need to have some non-conventional relationships and be o.k. with it, I suppose, and non-conventional ways of having relationships. Without a doubt, it’s very difficult. Many of the musicians I know have had unsuccessful marriages. I was married once. It’s very difficult because you spend your entire time obsessing on yourself. You have to do that in order to make a living. It’s not so much what you do for a living; it’s who you are as a person. It’s not a job description. If you’re really serious about figuring out who you are and allowing it to come out as your art, then other things are going to get less time and attention because you don’t just leave work at five, go home and have family time. For musicians, you work at night, you work on weekends, you work on holidays, and you’re away from home on tour for long periods of time. All of these things put a strain on relationships. By the same token, I just went to the beach all day on Monday with my girlfriend. Actually, it was her encouragement to say, “Hey, it’s Monday. You don’t have a lot going on. You worked all weekend. Come out and come play with me.” So, we went out to the beach on a Monday, which most people would never consider doing. There are tradeoffs. It’s about being honest with yourself about what it is that you’re doing and saying to the people with whom you surround yourself, “This is who I am. Love me as I am or it may not work out.” Unfortunately, a lot of musicians along the way get sidetracked or put their own musical/artistic aspirations aside in the name of a relationship, security, or making enough money. They choose the more conventional path over the unconventional, artistic path. That’s fine. Some people are o.k. with it; some people aren’t. But that’s life. Q: So, would Duke Ellington’s quote, the one that says “Music is my mistress and she plays second fiddle to no one,” apply to you? DG: Well…..(pause)….I don’t know if it’s as black and white as that, but yes. I would say that music plays an enormous role in my life. My life is pretty much dedicated to what I do in my career. Whoever is going to be with me has to be very understanding. My current girlfriend is wonderful in that regard; very understanding. It’s nice. She can participate in that part of my life with me and be excited in that it’s not the kind of thing where she stays at home. She loves to come with me and participate because she loves music, even though she doesn’t play music. By the same token, she doesn’t feel that she needs to do music, herself, or that she’s left out of the process. In that sense, the balance works well in our relationship. Q: Is it really about being absorbed with yourself or is it more to do with being absorbed by music? The two are not necessarily the same thing. DG: On a practical level, it is being absorbed with yourself because I’m constantly having to promote myself, promote my books, promote my music, promote my band. That’s what I spend a lot of my time doing; knocking on doors and saying, “Hi there. Here’s who I am. Here’s me. Here’s what I can do.” If you’re trying to complete a project, being absorbed by music is fine; but then completing the project involves a lot of work on it. You’re always battling what my girlfriend likes to call the demons: Self-doubt. Anxiety. Rejection. It’s where people basically say, “Yes, here’s you. I’m not interested in you.” It’s not an easy thing to hear. Most people don’t go to work and are told, “I’m not interested in you.” Q: I think people are told such things all the time. DG: Perhaps that is the case. Maybe I’m jumping to conclusions; but it’s pretty upfront. Say I’m trying to get someone to review my book or do an interview and they don’t call me back. I have to have a thick skin because it’s my own personal expression. For every one success you have, there are probably five hundred that didn’t work out. Your personal sense of self-worth and your ego have to be pretty strong. It can take a beating. I’ve been through periods where I feel low and crappy about myself when no one’s interested. Q: Even now, as accomplished as you are with the books, the nearly 15-year history with Royal Crown Revue, the VeryTall record label, the clinician gigs, the producing of other artists, etc., you still have anxiety about interest? DG: It isn’t as though in today’s market, people are banging down my phone line 24-7. I’m out there hustling to get these things going. Certainly, there’s a great amount of positive response on many different levels. I should be able to sit back, rest on my laurels, and feel good about what I’ve accomplished. By the same token, I have to pay the mortgage; I have to eat. I’m always pushing some new project because I’m always dreaming about the next thing. It’s a combination of me being very hard on myself which I definitely tend to be. I don’t necessarily spend much time looking back and saying, “Wow, that was really great.” Rather, “Shit, this is what I’m working on now; and I really want to make this happen.” Q: You make no distinction between what you do and who you are? DG: No. Not at all. I am in the business of being who I am for a living. As egotistical as that sounds, the ultimate goal in any business is to create a brand. Whether it’s the Rolling Stones or Donald Trump, these people have created a brand. It’s like Crest toothpaste. People see or hear that brand, and they know what they’re going to get. The idea is to keep people coming back to that brand over and over again to consume whatever that brand is. In the world of art or music, people are branding themselves. That’s what they’re trying to do whether they realize it or not. If you could say that what I do is who I am, those things are essentially one in the same. I’m in the business of branding myself, not only as a creative force but as a viable business. Q: How do you merge capitalism, that sense of enterprise, without compromising the art of what you do? DG: The selling of it is secondary to the creating of it. I’m still trying to learn how to sell it. I know that it’s good. I know that there’s commercial value to it. Whether it’s the music that I make, or Royal Crown Revue as an entity, or where I’m teaching people about drum history, after 15 years of doing it, I know that what I have to offer is valid. It’s a matter of how to convince other people of its validity. I never worry that I’m going to sell out in order to sell something because I simply cannot allow that to happen. I’m worried first and foremost when I create something that I am happy with it. Then it comes time to sell it. If other people are happy about it or not, that’s their business. I’m trying to get out there and figure out how to find the people who are going to like it. It never occurs to me to sell out because I have a high standard of what I choose to represent to myself and as myself to the world. -- Greg Debonnehttp://www.danielglass.comhttp://www.danielglass.comhttp://www.rcr.com/http://www.danielglass.comhttp://www.danielglass.comshapeimage_3_link_0
Back to home copyright 2006 - THEMUSICMANOR.COM - All Rights Reserved. GO TO PART II: RHYTHM AND WRITING IN THE WORLD OF DANIEL GLASS GO TO PART III: THE DRUMMER GO TO PART IV: RECORDING ARTIST AND RECORD PRODUCER GO TO PART V: JAZZ AND THE FUTURE