Danny Carey

Last updated

Danny Carey
Danny Carey and his drum-kit.jpg
Danny Carey and his drums.
Background information
Birth nameDaniel Edwin Carey
Born (1961-05-10) May 10, 1961 (age 57)
Lawrence, Kansas
Genres
Occupation(s)
  • Musician
  • songwriter
Instruments
  • Drums
  • percussion
  • tabla
  • guitar
  • bass
  • synthesizer
Labels
Associated acts
Website dannycarey.org

Daniel Edwin Carey (born May 10, 1961) is an American drummer and instrumentalist best known for his work in American Grammy Award-winning progressive metal band Tool. He has also contributed to albums by artists such as Zaum, Green Jellö, Pigface, Skinny Puppy, Adrian Belew of King Crimson, Carole King, Collide, Lusk, and the Melvins.

Progressive metal is a fusion genre melding heavy metal and progressive rock that combines the loud "aggression" and amplified guitar-driven sound of the former with the more experimental, cerebral or "pseudo-classical" compositions of the latter.

Tool (band) American alternative metal band

Tool is an American rock band from Los Angeles, California. Formed in 1990, the group's line-up includes drummer Danny Carey, guitarist Adam Jones, and vocalist Maynard James Keenan. Justin Chancellor has been the band's bassist since 1995, replacing their original bassist Paul D'Amour. Tool has won three Grammy Awards, performed worldwide tours, and produced albums topping the charts in several countries.

Zaum was a music project band that includes Tool drummer Danny Carey, along with Tool associates Chris Pitman, Vince DeFranco, and Marko Fox.

Contents

Biography

Born in Lawrence, Kansas, Carey's first encounter with the drums began at the age of ten by joining the school band and taking private lessons on the snare drum. [1] Two years later, Carey began to practice on a drum set. In his senior year of high school in Paola, Kansas, Carey joined the high school jazz band. Jazz would later play a huge role in his signature approach to the drum set in a rock setting. As Carey progressed through high school and later college at the University of Missouri–Kansas City, he began expanding his studies in percussion with theory into the principles of geometry, science, and metaphysics as well as delving into Sacred Geometry and certain hidden aspects of life and the occult. Carey also played jazz while attending college and got to experience the jazz scene in Kansas City.

Lawrence, Kansas City and County seat in Kansas, United States

Lawrence is the county seat of Douglas County and sixth-largest city in Kansas. It is located in the northeastern sector of the state, astride Interstate 70, between the Kansas and Wakarusa Rivers. As of the 2010 census, the city's population was 87,643. Lawrence is a college town and the home to both the University of Kansas and Haskell Indian Nations University.

Snare drum type of drum

A snare drum or side drum is a percussion instrument that produces a sharp staccato sound when the head is struck with a drum stick, due to the use of a series of stiff wires held under tension against the lower skin. Snare drums are often used in orchestras, concert bands, marching bands, parades, drumlines, drum corps, and more. It is one of the central pieces in a drum set, a collection of percussion instruments designed to be played by a seated drummer and used in many genres of music.

Paola, Kansas City and County seat in Kansas, United States

Paola is a city in and the county seat of Miami County, Kansas, United States. As of the 2010 census, the city population was 5,602.

After college, a friend and bandmate convinced Carey to leave Kansas for Portland, Oregon, where he played briefly in various bands before moving to Los Angeles, where he was able to perform as a studio drummer with Carole King and perform live sets with Pigmy Love Circus. He also played in Green Jellö as Danny Longlegs and recorded the album Cereal Killer. He would later find his way to Tool after coming to know singer Maynard James Keenan and guitarist Adam Jones and practicing with them in place of drummers the two had requested but had never shown up. Besides Tool, Carey also finds time for other projects new and old such as Legend of the Seagullmen, Pigmy Love Circus, Volto!, and Zaum.

Portland, Oregon City in Oregon, United States

Portland is the largest and most populous city in the U.S. state of Oregon and the seat of Multnomah County. It is a major port in the Willamette Valley region of the Pacific Northwest, at the confluence of the Willamette and Columbia rivers. As of 2017, Portland had an estimated population of 647,805, making it the 26th-largest city in the United States, and the second-most populous in the Pacific Northwest. Approximately 2.4 million people live in the Portland metropolitan statistical area (MSA), making it the 25th most populous MSA in the United States. Its Combined Statistical Area (CSA) ranks 18th-largest with a population of around 3.2 million. Approximately 60% of Oregon's population resides within the Portland metropolitan area.

Los Angeles City in California

Los Angeles, officially the City of Los Angeles and often known by its initials L.A., is the most populous city in California, the second most populous city in the United States, after New York City, and the third most populous city in North America. With an estimated population of four million, Los Angeles is the cultural, financial, and commercial center of Southern California. The city is known for its Mediterranean climate, ethnic diversity, Hollywood and the entertainment industry, and its sprawling metropolis. Los Angeles is the largest city on the West Coast of North America.

Carole King American singer and songwriter

Carole King is an American singer-songwriter who has been active since 1958, initially as one of the staff songwriters at the Brill Building and later as a solo artist. She is the most successful female songwriter of the latter half of the 20th century in the US, having written or co-written 118 pop hits on the Billboard Hot 100 between 1955 and 1999. King also wrote 61 hits that charted in the UK, making her the most successful female songwriter on the UK singles charts between 1952 and 2005.

Religion and the occult

Although Carey has not officially aligned himself with any particular school of philosophy or religion, he has projected a deep interest in and understanding for the magickal arts – among them various occult teachings. Spiritual symbols, geometric designs, and special symbolic percussive devices are featured on and in his drum kit. He is also a collector of Aleister Crowley's first edition books, as well as books by one of thelema's more innovative students, Kenneth Grant.

Magick, in the context of Aleister Crowley's Thelema, is a term used to show and differentiate the occult from performance magic and is defined as "the Science and Art of causing Change to occur in conformity with Will", including both "mundane" acts of will as well as ritual magic. Crowley wrote that "it is theoretically possible to cause in any object any change of which that object is capable by nature". John Symonds and Kenneth Grant attach a deeper occult significance to this preference.

Spirituality philosophical / theological term

The meaning of spirituality has developed and expanded over time, and various connotations can be found alongside each other.

Aleister Crowley English poet, mountaineer, and occultist

Aleister Crowley was an English occultist, ceremonial magician, poet, painter, novelist, and mountaineer. He founded the religion of Thelema, identifying himself as the prophet entrusted with guiding humanity into the Æon of Horus in the early 20th century. A prolific writer, he published widely over the course of his life.

Geometric designs

Carey has laid claim to various drumming techniques that use sacred geometric figures such as the unicursal hexagram. The final product is very recognizable, fluent drumming, although to him it is much more: the official Tool website claims that Danny uses drumming as a ritual similar to occult rituals, [2] with purposes varying from spiritual exploration to "a gateway [which] summoned a daemon he has contained...that has been delivering short parables similar to passages within The Book of Lies ". Another geometric reference from the website was the inclusion of Nothing in This Book Is True... by Bob Frissell [3] on the band's recommended reading list, a book that deals with sacred geometry and the evolution of human consciousness. [4]

Unicursal hexagram

The unicursal hexagram is a hexagram or six-pointed star that can be traced or drawn unicursally, in one continuous line rather than by two overlaid triangles. The hexagram can also be depicted inside a circle with the points touching it. It is often depicted in an interlaced form with the lines of the hexagram passing over and under one another to form a knot. It is a specific instance of the far more general shape discussed in Blaise Pascal's 1639 Hexagrammum Mysticum Theorem.

<i>The Book of Lies</i> (Crowley) book by Aleister Crowley

The Book of Lies was written by English occultist and teacher Aleister Crowley and first published in 1912 or 1913. As Crowley describes it: "This book deals with many matters on all planes of the very highest importance. It is an official publication for Babes of the Abyss, but is recommended even to beginners as highly suggestive."

Side projects and other musical endeavors

In his time away from Tool, Carey has contributed (and still regularly does) to a vast number of projects:

Volto! is an American rock jam band, based in Los Angeles, California, United States. First formed in the early 2000s, the current band roster consists of Lance Morrison on bass, Danny Carey on drums, and John Ziegler on guitars. Carey and Ziegler played together in Pigmy Love Circus and in jam sessions at a jazz club in Southern California's San Fernando Valley with Morrison. Though the three musicians often played jazz fusion during the sessions, their music evolved to a sound more like progressive rock, as evidenced on their debut release Incitare.

Pigmy Love Circus is a Los Angeles rock band that has existed since the mid 1980s era of the Hollywood underground rock scene.

Equipment

Carey uses the wood tip version of his own signature model of drumstick made by Vic Firth. [7] He previously had endorsed a signature model with Trueline Drumsticks (now Trueline's Tribal Assault model. [8] )

At Winter NAMM 2009 Sonor released a Danny Carey signature snare drum, which is a 1 mm thick bronze 14x8" snare with laser etched talisman symbols and his signature engraved around the vent hole.

Carey also uses Paiste cymbals, Evans Drumheads, Hammerax Percussion, and Korg and Roland electronics.

Drumming techniques

Carey's popularity among drummers and non-drummers alike stems from the diversity of his sound and dynamics through his years of learning jazz music, his technical ability, frequent use of odd time signatures, polyrhythms and polymeters. He has stated in interviews that he effectively treats his feet as he does his hands: he practices rudiments (used for sticking techniques) and even snare drum solos with his feet to improve his double bass drumming, hi-hat control and foot independence.

In search of new techniques, Carey has studied tabla with Aloke Dutta, who can be heard playing on the live version of the song "Pushit" (from Salival ). This is especially apparent on tracks such as "Disposition" ( Lateralus ) or "Right in Two" (10,000 Days), for which Carey has recorded the tabla parts himself in the studio. The tabla (and other percussive instruments) used in Tool's music are replicated live using the Mandala pads (in fact the pads are also used when recording in the studio, a notable example being the tabla solo of "Right in Two" from 10,000 Days).

He has also stated that when he is playing to an odd time signature, he tries to drum to the "feel" of the song and establish general "inner pulse" for the given time signature instead of fully counting it out.

Carey has been featured in many drum and music magazines. [9]

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References

  1. ↑ Mahaffey, Joel (August 6, 2001). "The Tool Page: Danny Carey Biography". The Tool Page (t.d.n).
  2. ↑ "Official Tool website – Danny Carey's personal profile". Toolband.com. Archived from the original on October 3, 2011. Retrieved October 9, 2011.
  3. ↑ "Bob Frissell's home page". Bobfrissell.com. October 1, 2011. Retrieved 2011-10-09.
  4. ↑ "Fall 1994 newsletter". Toolshed.down.net. Retrieved 2011-10-09.
  5. ↑ Geist, Brandon (November 17, 2011). "Exclusive: Feersum Ennjin Premiere "The Fourth," Featuring Tool's Danny Carey". Revolver Magazine. Archived from the original on March 3, 2016. Retrieved October 9, 2012.
  6. ↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UuQtN3vk-q8
  7. ↑ "vicfirth.com". vicfirth.com. Retrieved November 10, 2014.
  8. ↑ "truelinedrumsticks.com". truelinedrumsticks.com. Retrieved October 9, 2012.
  9. ↑ "Danny Carey: Artists: Modern Drummer Magazine". Moderndrummer.com. Archived from the original on September 13, 2009. Retrieved October 9, 2011.
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