Red Hot Chili Peppers’ Chad Smith makes art works with drums
SAN DIEGO: Drumming, at its best, can be an art form. Even so, Chad Smith still needed some persuasion before agreeing to create framed, gallery-ready “rhythm on canvas” art works with his drums and sticks, rather than with paint and brushes.
“I did have to be convinced,” acknowledged Smith, who has been the drummer in Red Hot Chili Peppers since 1988 and counts Ozzy Osbourne, Brandi Carlile and Wu-tang Clan among his many other musical collaborators.
To be convinced, Smith reached out in 2015 to several other drummers, specifically, Black Sabbath’s Bill Ward, Journey’s Steve Smith and the Grateful Dead’s Mickey Hart. All three were already creating “rhythm on canvas” art works for the Los Angeles-based company Scenefour, whose roster also includes such notable drummers as Cindy Blackman Santana, Terry Bozzio and Billy Cobham, along with vibraphonist Roy Ayers and guitar star Joe Satriani.
“At first, I was like: ‘ How was your experience?’ when I talked to the other drummers,” said Smith, 58, whose drumming-fuelled art works were on display at Solana Beach’s 3,500-square-foot Exclusive Collections Gallery.
“Then, I met with these people from Scene-four and it seemed cool,” he continued. “For me, as an artist and musician, it’s another avenue, another way to have a creative outlet.”
The process to create these works begins when Smith drums using special pairs of illuminated sticks in a largely darkened studio. As he plays various rhythms, tempos, accents and fills, his drumming is captured with open-shutter photography. The images are then fed into a computer programme that enables the colours and textures in each motion-driven image to be isolated and manipulated.
These are then printed onto canvas, acrylic or metal and then framed, but not before Smith can embellish the images in various ways, including adding dabs of paint, if he is so inclined.
“The shutter speed of the cameras lends itself to the fluidity you see in the strokes of the rhythms,” he said. “It’s a really rhythm-based medium, so I thought it was really cool to combine what I love —drumming and music — with making art on a canvas. In this collection, I really wanted the power of how I play the drums to be communicated, so there’s a lot of the bright lights and colours that I see when I’m playing the drums with the florescent sticks.”
Smith discussed his drum-fuelled art work, music and more in a recent phone interview from Los Angeles. Here are excerpts.
Are the images improved if you drum at a faster or slower speed, or if you play using matched grip or traditional grip, or with greater velocity?
Smith: I do know how certain things look when they are captured from whatever angle, so I will exaggerate sometimes what I’m trying to achieve and the look of it. But, yeah, anything and all things would change how it looks — matched grip, intensity or the speed; all that contributes to how it looks. In some pieces, you see me behind the (drum) kit, silhouetted, and in some you’d never know it was me.
Do you change your drumming for visual effect when being photographed for these pieces?
Sometimes I’m just playing how I would normally play. Other times, I’m purposely thinking of how it would translate to canvas.
Can you give an example?
(laughs) Like, really exaggerated! I mean, sometimes when I perform, there’s an element of: ‘I’m an entertainer!’ And there’s a twirl (of the sticks) or the movement of your body.
Years ago, I played on a kit that had a light inside each drum. The lights would illuminate each time you struck one of the drums.
I had a kit like that in 2006, where there were sensors on the drums and striking the outside the drums illuminated them. So, every time I hit bass drum or tom-tom, they would light up. That technology has been around and it’s OK when it’s dark. But, when you’re on stage and there are lots of lights, it wasn’t that efficient. I don’t know if I’d incorporate (illuminated drums) into what I’m doing with Scenefour. Because it’s not about the equipment, but the fluidity and power of the stick movement. It’s in the eye of the beholder. When you look at a (finished) piece, it’s not: ‘Oh, that’s a guy playing the drums.’ It’s about how it makes you feel. I’m just trying to get the energy, power, fluidity and motion of the drumming to transfer to canvas.
Can you use mallets or brushes, rather than illuminated sticks?
You can use anything, whatever is your tool. Why not? No rules. Sticks are what most drummers use and what I use 90 per cent of the time. But, yeah, that would be cool to use illuminated sticks or mallets.
Young drummers often tend to show off and overplay. As they get older, they learn to support the music and play what’s best for the song at hand. What has remained constant in your drumming over the years, and what has changed?
All the things you just said are true. When you’re young, you want to be flashy and impress the girls. I had my Neil Peart (of Rush) phase in high school when I wanted to play all those fast rolls and stuff. You just learn (through) life experiences. Nothing can replicate that, other than growing and changing. (laughs) There’s no denying that, when I was 17, drugs, rock ‘n’ roll — I wanted that! That looked good to me.
You turned pro early on.
After high school, I started playing professionally and thought it was amazing. I was so happy playing six nights a week, three sets a night, in clubs around Detroit. I did that for eight years. It was important to put in that time, the 10,000 hours. When I exhausted the musical possibilities in Detroit and moved to California (in 1988), I was ready when opportunity came knocking.
Are you recording now with the Peppers?
We’re not recording; we’re just in a writing mode. We’ve got some concerts coming up in May and June, here and abroad. (Guitarist) John (Frusciante) rejoined our band about a month ago, so we’re just jamming and coming up with ideas.
What was your first drum set you had as a kid?
My first real drum set was a used, gold sparkle Slingerland set. It cost me $160. My parents said: ‘If you get $80, we’ll put up the other half.’ So I shoveled snow in Detroit, for $5 per driveway — if I was lucky.