BP: Barrett, you've definitely got a dynamic sound behind your music, and you're playing really stands out from the pack. Where did you learn your style?
BM: I think my personal style is really an amalgamation of all the drum styles I have absorbed over the last thirty years. I am 42 now, so I grew up in the 70s and 80s when Jazz, Soul, Rock, Latin, Fusion, and Brazilian music were all still popular. And certainly Afro-Latin-Brazilian drumming has become a
big influence over the years. At this point, my drum set is a really hybrid consisting of a standard Jazz kit with African, Brazilian and Cuban drums added on. A couple of African iron bells too. In the studio I use everything (where appropriate) but when I play live or on tour, the kit is a bit more stripped down to create more space. My way of actually playing the drums is a physical, but relaxed approach. I use controlled power, something that I learned in Jazz drumming, where you play powerfully and with focus, but without being unnecessarily loud or out of control. This approach to drumming is almost like a martial art, which I have also studied over the years. In this approach, you play with a focused precision, but you also stay loose and flexible, like a prize fighter. When I was a kid in the 1970s, Muhammad Ali was my idol. I always loved his fast, dancing footwork,
so I try to play drums the way Muhammad Ali boxed - fast and light, but with one hell of a punch (drum fill) when necessary. Fly like a butterfly, sting like bee.
 
BP: You're constantly travelling the globe, experiencing other cultures and
immersing yourself in them. What are you currently doing, or what is your next project?
BM: For the last few years I have been in graduate school, so I was not able to travel as much as I would have liked to. My last big trip was to Jerusalem in 2005. But over the last ten years I went to five of the seven continents, to several different countries, and often for weeks or months at a time. I think I'm still processing it all, its just now starting to come out in my music. But I think my next trip will probably be to Indonesia and Bali, and maybe Japan and South East Asia as well. Gamelan music and bronze/gong/metallic percussion are my new interests and I have added some of those instruments into my collection already. I need to return to Brazil too, as I have some really good friends there, and I just absolutely love Brazilian music, the Samba Jazz stuff in particular. And I'm always thinking about Africa - she's really in my blood now. The thing I have learned, is that when you go to any country of musical origin, you get a very different realization about their whole approach to music - and life for that matter. When you live in their villages, eat the local food, hold the babies and watch over the little ones, and generally participate in their daily routines, you feel the music in a very different way. That's the only way I can describe it. You have to LIVE the music to really absorb it, and that just takes alot of time.


...read the entire interview at www.bannedpromotions.com/barrettmartininterview