Drummer Ricky Lawson

Interview Excerpt

It just might be easier to say who Ricky Lawson hasn’t played with rather than list all of credits.  Having performed with the likes of Quincy Jones, the Brothers Johnson, Phil Collins, Steely Dan, Eric Clapton, Babyface, Lionel Ritchie, Anita Baker (The Rapture), Whitney Houston (I Will Always Love You), not to mention as musical director for Michael Jackson, Ricky was also the original drummer for The Yellowjackets, where he won best R&B Instrumental Grammy in 1986 (And You Know That).  There’s obviously a reason why these musical superstars have Ricky on a first-call basis, and that’s not only because he is so massively talented and guaranteed to give a record a giant grove, but he’s so exceedingly humble and helpful to others as well.  More about Ricky, as well as his enormous credit list, can be found on either rickylawson.com or myspace.com/rickylawson/

Can you describe your kit?  Do you take a different kit on the road than you use in the studio?

I’ve been with the Pearl company for about 3 ½ years now and use a Pearl Studio Master kit with maple shells.  I use a different kit on the road from the studio because the studio is such a detailed environment and everything has to be precise since it’s always under a microscope.  On the road things don’t need to be so precise so I do take a different kit.  With the economy being what it is these days, we can’t always afford to take equipment with us on the road so we get backline companies to supply us with equipment.  I just order what I have at home and they supply it for me.

What size are your drums?

I generally use five toms in the studio - 8x8”, 10x10”, 12x12”, 14x 14”, and a 16” over on my high-hat side.  The bass drum is usually 22x16”.  I’ll use a host of different snare drums depending upon what you’re going for.  For a Hip-Hop or R&B kind of vibe I’ll use a snare that’s 14x6” or 6 ½”.  Something that’s reasonably deep.

Sometimes for something that’s a little on the Pop side, I may use a 14x4 ½” piccolo snare or maybe even a 13” snare which has become very popular because it has the weight to it but it still has the snap because of the smaller diameter.  I’ve used snare drums as small as 10” in diameter and maybe 5 ½” deep for Jazz projects and Hip Hop projects.  Usually I enjoy the wood snares better because they have a tendency to sound a little warmer than the metal snare drums but it’s all a combination of drum heads and microphones and processing and the engineer to make things sound good.  You can have a $10,000 drum kit and he can make things sound like cracker boxes, and you can have cracker boxes and he can make it sound like a $10,000 kit.  There are a lot of little factors that make a difference and what we try to do is cut down as many as possible or turn them to our advantage.

So I have my own kit tuned the way I like it, with the heads that I like and with the kind of microphones and the kind of engineer that I know can capture it, because a lot of engineers cannot capture what a real acoustic drum set sounds like. 

What do you like to use for mics on your kit?

I always use Shure mics because they’re consistent and always work.  When I toured with Steely Dan those were the mics that we used. We used the KSM’s, the VP-88, and the Beta 52. If a guy pulls these mics out I know it’s usually going to be great.  95% of the time they use an SM-57 on the snare drum.  I’ve seen some teeny, tiny mics where the guy got a killer sound and I’ve had a session where the guy used $30,000 worth of mics on the drums and it sounded like $500 worth.  I’m telling you that the sound is in the engineering and the studio environment. It’s not really what I like to see on the drums, it’s who I see engineering because you can get a cat that doesn’t know what he’s doing and it can be a nightmare.  Back in the day, they might have only used three or four mics tops, but if a guy knew what he was doing, he got a killer drum sound.  It’s the engineering factor that plays such a big part in the situation.

Do you tailor the kit that you bring to the session to the type of music?

Yes, sir.  If we’re doing Pop stuff I’ll make sure that I have some big toms and if we’re doing Jazz stuff the toms will be a little bit smaller so the sound isn’t as bombastic.  A lot of times I choose a kit that’s pretty general that I can use it on just about anything.  With the 8”, 10”, and 12” with 14” and 16” floor toms, I can do pretty much anything that’s going down.  I can play Jazz, I can play funk, I can play Pop, I can play Gospel with that kit. Whatever is necessary.

At my studio I use four toms but I have the ability to add two more to that configuration, but I bring five toms to an outside session.

Do you tune your toms to intervals?

No, what I do is find the range of the drum and get the drum sounding good.  If you get the drum sounding like what it’s supposed to sound like, then I’m done.  Maybe a little duct tape to take out some of the overtones, but other than that, I’m through.

Do you have a hole in you kick drum or do you take the front head off?

Sometimes I have to take the front head off, but generally I have a hole in it.  That hole is usually anywhere from eight inches to maybe twelve inches.

What kind of cymbals do you use?

Right now I use the Paiste Signature line.  I used it on the Steely Dan tour, the Phil Collins tour, all over the place.  The hats are 13” heavies.  You can play pretty much any style of music with those.  I use a 17” crash, 16” crash, 20” dry ride, and a 20” China that I can use on straight ahead, Latin, Jazz, or Funk.  The nice thing is that they stay brighter and clearer longer.  I use a wood tipped stick so they sound cleaner and make it easy for me to do what I do.

Do you like a musical click or something mechanical?

Preferably a musical one but I’m one of those kind of cats that can work with whatever.  Give it to me more on the musical side, but if not, I’ll use whatever you got.  It can be an old lady clapping her hands, I’ll take that and work with it.  I’ll get used to anything.  I’ve done sessions where the guys have had it together, which is great, and I’ve done sessions where the guys didn’t have it together.   The key is to get in and make it happen in the least amount of time. 

I actually prefer to work at my place because it’s already set up, it sounds really good, and we can work a lot more efficiently in that we can do more tracks in not a lot of time.  On one session recently we cut nine tracks in seven hours because of the efficiency of the studio.  The artist was loosing his mind because he was used to getting maybe two tracks on a good day.

Any advice for someone just starting to record?

Yeah, come over to the Ricky Lawson studio and take a quick lesson (laughs).  I enjoy teaching and I wish I had someone do this with me when I was a young kid, so if someone wants to come over to my place to watch a session, great.  Come on over, because a lot of it is not only the playing but the fellowship and how you talk to people and get along with people and comprehend what someone is saying.

As far as advice, the first thing is to play good time.  Secondly, you have to make it feel good.  If you don’t, you’re going to get beat up from having to play it over and over again.  I usually try to get stuff done in one or two takes.  Hopefully I can get it done in one (laughs), but if not, two or three is not bad.  But job one is to play good time.