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| Drummers at the 2016 Taunton Carnival |
The colours of a carnival. The people thronging the streets
of a usually quiet, rural-suburban town. The local community’s chance to show
off, with floats and costumes and parades, dancers and shouters, banners and
displays. And the noise – oh, the noise! The regimented, rhythmic snare and
bass drums of a marching band, the complex and intoxicating rhythms of a samba
band, clashing and overlapping, reverberating off of the tall buildings of the
high street, old buildings with new faces reflecting the pounding and beating of
old sounds played anew, adding reverb, changing their shapes, painting a whole
new picture from the colour palettes of many cultures and histories and futures.
To one young observer, the visual extravagance of the floats passed by,
uninspiring – but the sound of drums lit a spark, sent a message, galvanised a
desire: “I will make that sound.”
It’s about time we celebrated drummers in this space. As
usual, there is no lack of inspiration – from Sarah Jones (Hot Chip, Bat for
Lashes, Bloc Party), Dame Evelyn Glennie, Cindy Blackman (Lenny Kravitz, Santana) and Daisy Palmer
(Goldfrapp, Rae Morris) to the Velvet Underground’s Moe Tucker, She Drew The
Gun’s Sian Monaghan and Bobbye Hall, Jody Linscott, Terri Lyne Carrington and so
many more – forming an integral part of bands in every genre (The Carpenters, Arcade Fire, The Slits, Beastie Boys, The Who, Pink Floyd…) playing and
touring with artists of every calibre (Dolly Parton, Beyoncé, Stevie Wonder,
Stan Getz, Dizzy Gillespie, Bob Dylan…); and all this while still, still being told, even by their peers
(as a recent Radio 4 show confirmed), that this is a ‘man’s game’, that they’re
‘not strong enough’ – or, if they are, that they ‘look too masculine’ – and if
they don’t, that they look ‘too pretty’.
Despite still, still being asked,
‘Are you the drummer’s girlfriend?’, ‘Do you need a hand with that, love?’,
‘Are you any good?’, indignities that would never be directed to their male
peers, they pick up their sticks, count in the beat and get on with being
amazing. In short, they ROCK.
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| Drumming legend Cindy Blackman |
Over the years I’ve had the pleasure of being entertained by
some incredible drummers. Those that stick out the most – who most certainly
deserve to be listed with the names above – include Phildas Bhakta who I saw
drum with Genesis tribute band The Book of Genesis; an incredible jazz drummer who I
saw play in a session with the Southampton University Jazz Orchestra some years
ago and who’s name I never learnt but who’s mastery of the kit and the genre
has stuck with me ever since; and Emma Holbrook who not only rocked the socks
off the Bristol Sessions back in the summer but who I had the somewhat awkward
pleasure of meeting afterwards and (less awkwardly) since – and who was the
inspiration to finally put together this celebration of great women drumming
talent.
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| Emma Holbrook at Glastonbury Festival 2016 (Photo: Enrico Partisani) |
So, back to the carnival and where we began our story of Emma Holbrook, drummer, composer, filmmaker, photographer, teacher and
inspiration.
At 8 or 9 years old, amidst the noise and colour of the
local carnival, Holbrook knew that she would drum. After begging and pestering her
parents she managed to get her hands on a toy drum kit – there was no question
of them affording a real one or even lessons. Her first instrument some years
later was then the snare drum in a local marching band made up almost entirely
of girls – quite the inspiration! It was also a fast learning curve but one
that the 11-year-old was more than up to. At secondary school she managed to
get time on a full drum kit and figured out how it all worked. At 16 she
auditioned for and received council funding for lessons and a drum kit of her
own, and she was soon drumming for multiple bands at her college.
And now it becomes a bit more tricky – this is the age when
we are told we have to make Big Decisions about our Careers, our Vocations, our
Future. No more doing something just because we’re good at it or we enjoy it –
we’re told we now have to make a living out of our endeavours. Personally, as
someone who’s never quite managed to settle on one thing long enough to ignore
all others, I’ve always been jealous of those who’ve known all their lives what
they want to be – say, a doctor, police officer, teacher, firefighter – or even
those who’ve known what they want to do – work with animals, in sport,
marketing – or music. With enough dedication and determination the path looks
so straightforward – but of course, this is not the case. Holbrook knew deep
down that there would be for her a place, a home, in the creative world but, as
is often the case with subjects that don’t lead directly to a secure and steady
profession, encouragement was not particularly forthcoming. Many tried to lead
her towards something more stable such as teaching, and one teacher even told
her she not only couldn’t but shouldn’t pursue music. At this stage Holbrook
compromised. Still following a creative path, she studied Film & Drama at
the University of Reading – playing the odd bit of djembe for fun here and
there.
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| Emma with filmmaking colleague Susannah Mo interviewing Guardian dance journalist Judith Mackrell for 'Making The Cut' 2015 (Photo: Josh Randall) |
It wasn’t until nearly 10 years later, after a successful
but relatively short (how our culture suffers from funding cuts) stint teaching
film, arts and music tech, that Holbrook’s percussive talents were fully
unleashed again, the sound of drums called once more and that vision of her
younger self could be realised – she would make that sound – and, boy would
people listen when she did!
Watching her play, it’s no surprise that she had a
background in drama. Musicians often pull fantastic faces when they’re playing,
generally not consciously (see for e.g. two amazing music face-pullers here!), but Holbrook uses it – when she’s up on stage, she’s
performing, throwing everything she is, her personality, her hopes, her fears –
and most certainly her acting experience – into it. Holbrook feels the rush of
making great sounds live, the excitement of not knowing what’s coming next, the
joy in collectively creating something right there in the moment – in turn,
making her every stroke a joy to watch, to hear, to feel.
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| Drumming inspiration Emma Holbrook (Photo: Neville Ward) |
Currently Holbrook is composing, performing with multiple
bands in an array of genres from folk to jazz to funk and for the first time
teaching music itself. She has taught herself the piano, working with shapes to
create sounds. She’s also continuing with photography and filmmaking, proving
that you can earn a living doing what you love – and that that ‘what’ needn’t be a
single thing, a known career on a straightforward path, but a plural of
endeavours. And it may change in the future, take many twists and turns as Holbrook
herself grows. Something I wish we were all told back when we were making those
Big Decisions!
Like many people the world over trying to forge a path for
themselves in the arts, the creative and the entertainment ‘industries’, hers
has not been an easy or straight forward journey. Discouragement, dead-end
jobs, outright discrimination, deprivation and even that other D-word that,
finally, society is allowing us to openly talk about and start to work through,
depression. But also determination, desire and good dose of, ‘Dya know what?
I’m going to do it anyway.’.
“It’s hard, especially when you first start. My transition
into being a full time creative has been gradual but it had to be. There have
been all sorts of challenges up to this point both personal and professional
and there will be more in the future but my message is: keep going, keep going, keep going –
it’s worth it! Music is brilliant – being creative, meeting new people,
travelling the world, constantly learning, challenging yourself. There are many
downsides to face but in overcoming them you can find a life for yourself, make
a life for yourself - one that is completely your own.”
I want to thank Emma so much for her time and openness when
writing this article – and to say to her, I hope you get to meet your hero (the
aforementioned Dame Evelyn Glennie) soon, just like I got to meet you!
