Jon Barnett is professional drummer that has played with a number of Top 20 acts over the the last 15 years. Signed to Sony in 2003 with ‘The Upper Room’, Jon has gone on to play on the critically acclaimed album ‘Confessions of a Romance Novelist’ by ‘The Anchoress‘. He followed up by playing on the debut album ‘Spooky Action’ by ex-Mansun singer / songwriter and producer, Paul Draper. In addition to touring those two albums, Jon has played at Festivals such as T in the Park, Isle of Wight, the Reading Festival and the Leeds Festival.
Peter Horgan spoke to Jon about his career so far, ‘The Tech Behind…’ his output and his plans for what will prove to be a busy and exciting 2019.
Early Days
At what age did you get interested in drumming?
I was literally about 18 months old. My Dad was a Musical Director for an Amateur Dramatic society called the “Crescent Operatic Society”. They put on two shows a year at ‘The Dome’, a 2,000 seat venue in Brighton. They did shows like ‘The King and I’, ‘South Pacific’, ’42nd Street’ and later on I actually took part as a dancer aged 6 or 7 years old.
The shows would be videoed and as a two year old I would be transfixed by the Drummer. I would use the poker next to the living room fire as a cymbal and hit it with a knife or fork. I would set up magazines as drums and use knitting needles to hit them.
My mother would then use a magazine and turn the pages so that I could emulate the drummer that I was watching on the video. Funnily enough, the drummer, Dean Morris, became a drum tutor of mine later as I got older.
So that was really how I got into music, through my Dad and doing these shows.
It wasn’t from watching ‘Top of the Pops’ or listening to music?
No, at 18 months / 2 years old when you’re watching your hero, your Dad conducting and working on these shows that take 6 months to put together, rehearsing twice a week… that is where it all sparked from.
So when did you move from improvised household instruments, such as pots and pans to your first kit?
I think my parents got it from Argos. I seem to remember Mickey Mouse being on the Bass Drum. I think it had two toms and a tiny little cymbal. I was probably about 2-3 years old at that point.
My first proper kit was a ‘Thunder’ kit. This was the kit I was using when I started having drum lessons aged 9. I have a picture of me on the kit wearing 1980’s headphones that are bigger than my head! My Dad was very much into vinyl and he had his own bands over the years and I used to listen to these old 60’s and 70’s Rock and Roll records and play along with them.
I then moved to a ‘Premier XPK’ kit when I was about 10 or 11. That was my first proper big drum kit.
When I was about 15 or 16 I got the kit that I still use today, a Yamaha Stage Custom. I’ve changed the cymbals but this is the kit that has been used on ‘The Upper Room’ album, ‘The Anchoress’ album and Paul Draper’s solo albums. The only difference over the years is the cymbals. I like using Zildjian cymbals and have a few different snares drum that I’ve picked up.
When ‘The Upper Room’ were signed to Sony in 2003 we were given an advance of £25,000 to buy new equipment. Tony, our manager at the time said ‘Jon, don’t buy anything as I will get you a deal with Pearl’ as he was already managing a band called ‘The Electric Soft Parade’ where he had arranged a similar thing but the deal never happened.
So the three guys all got 2 new guitars each and new amps and I got nothing! (laughs)
In fact, the bassist from ‘The Upper Room’, Beau, now plays with me for Paul Draper. I drafted him in!
So I’ve still to this day got my Yamaha Stage Custom.
Drums are notorious for being loud and causing issues with neighbours. How did you deal with that?
I was really lucky in that our neighbours were musical themselves. There were 3 sisters and they were in the shows with my Dad. I was very lucky in that respect. Even though we were in a semi-detached house and I think my bedroom connected to their parent’s bedroom, I wasn’t playing drums at 11pm at night. It was mostly in the afternoon and at 6pm it stopped.
What can you tell me about your drum lessons?
I started to learn to read at 9 years old. I was taught by Phil Solomon who unfortunately passed away last year. He had taught Dean Morris, the guy I watched in the videos that worked with my Dad. He also taught a guy called Sam Firsht who I also later had drum lessons with.
The lessons were really about learning to read music as well as the technical side and rudiments of playing. As a result of lessons I did GCSE Music and got an ‘A’.
Unfortunately when I went to College I chose subjects that I knew my friends were choosing rather than what I was good at, to remain in class with them, which was ridiculous! I picked English Literature but I’d got a ‘C’ in my GCSE. I hated reading! I didn’t even read books I was supposed to have read. I can remember trying to read ‘To Kill a Mockingbird’ the night before my exam! I got an ‘A’ in English Language but I didn’t pick English Language at ‘A’ Level.
My choices for ‘A’ Levels were all wrong and for all the wrong reasons; to stay in a group of friends basically. I picked Philosophy and Photography when I should have picked Music, and English Language, which I got ‘A’s in and French. I would completely change that now.
From the professional drummers that you know, what is the ratio between self-taught and taught?
I think most have been taught. Obviously there are players like Dennis Chambers, one of the top session musicians who has played with people like Steely Dan and he can’t read music. Most drummers I know though can read.
First Gigs
You began gigging in pubs age 13 playing in cover bands. Was it usual for teenagers to be gigging in pubs at the time?
I was the youngest in the band and the others were 15-16. They knew of me from a school band called “The Millstones”. The school had a lot of musicians and drama students and was known for performing arts. I started in “The Millstones” on percussion and moved up to drums. We had played across Germany and were hired for weddings, parties and hotel gigs.
When we turned up people looked at us thinking “These are kids!” but we’d blow them away. We had great singers, a great bass player, a great guitarist… We did Beatles, Stones, Kinks, Yardbirds but also more contemporary stuff like Brand New Heavies and Jamiroquai. This was around 1994-95.
You then moved to working in a Jazz trio. Did you have more room to improvise with this style of music?
Yes, this was Tom Phelan on Keyboards and a Bass Player called Steve Edwards. It was very kind of Herbie Hancock. We classed it as ‘Acid Jazz’. It was very improvised, we would take a hook like ‘WaterMelon Man’ or ‘Chameleon’ and the song would go on for 10 minutes. You could do a set just based on 4 hooks!
It might have seemed self-indulgent but there was a niche crowd and friends from school who would come out and see it. We would play in a place called ‘The Neptune’ on the Brighton front that is still very much promoting live music and keeping music alive today.
As time went on the band could almost read each other like a book. With Tom I would know certain licks that he was going to play on the keys. We would know where someone was going, the syncopation, mimicking each other, the question and answer sort of thing just became really natural. It was like ‘You’re gonna do that and I’m gonna do that’ (laughs) and it was sort of a wink and a nod.
That’s the beauty of playing those sort of tracks. They don’t have a beginning or an end. You just take a body of the song and end up jamming for around for 15 minutes.
Getting Signed
In 2003 as a member of ‘The Upper Room’ you were signed to Sony. How did that come about? Did you have to go down to London and play for A&R execs?
So as well as working in the Trio I was also involved in the Indie scene in Brighton. I was in a band called ‘Ice 9’. I was also playing for ‘The Electric Soft Parade’ for a bit and I got a phone call from a guy called Alex Miller who had got my number from Alex White from ‘The Electric Soft Parade’ and he said “Look, I’ve gone through 20 drummers. I need a drummer. I want to get a record deal”. I went to the audition and the four of us became ‘The Upper Room’.
Tony, the manager of ‘The Electric Soft Parade’ decided he wanted to manage ‘The Upper Room’ too. He already had contacts; ‘The Electric Soft Parade’ were signed to BMG
So we went in a practice room in a studio and we spent a year practicing all of Alex’s songs. He was a bedroom singer/songwriter. He’d never done a gig when I met him at the age of 22. That was odd for me as I had done gigs since 13 but he was this fantastic singer / songwriter with a great voice.
Tony started managing us and we had reps from Island and Sony come down to see us in the same week in this rehearsal room in Brighton. Sony pretty much offered us the deal there and then and that’s how it happened.
We hadn’t even played a gig when we got signed!
In 2003 that was unheard of! It was bands that got a buzz and built themselves up that got a record deal. We got a record deal off the back of a bedroom demo that Alex had recorded and guys coming to see us in a rehearsal room in Brighton!
It must have been a good demo!
It was a bedroom demo recorded by Alex on a 4-track. I wasn’t on it, the guitarist wasn’t on it… He had an A&R guy called Louie Bloom that had been interested in him since he was 15. Louie signed the likes of Busted, McFly, The Feeling, Lily Allen and always said to Alex ‘Get a band together!’ and when he was 21-22, he followed Louie’s advice.
What happened once you were signed?
So we recorded our album between 2003 and 2004. A lot of companies were merging at the time and Sony merged with BMG, which effectively became Columbia.
Our first single ”All over this town’ came out in 2004 but we had signed to Sony Records under the influence of Muff Winwood and Nigel Coxon but because of the merger, the heads of the company all came from BMG. So they had a band that they hadn’t signed and effectively didn’t want.
The relationship between BMG and our manager, who was also managing ‘The Electric Soft Parade’, was a bit strained.
Once the second single ‘Black and White’ came out we knew that they didn’t want anything to do with us. The album came out but they said they didn’t expect a lot from it. They then told us to go back in the studio and said they’d re-release the album with a new single. So we went into ‘The Levellers’ studio in Brighton and recorded 3 new songs.
And in all fairness to our manager Tony, he said “You’re going to record these three songs, they’re going to listen to them and then they are going to drop you. Because they don’t want you.”
He was right. It was in the contract that if they didn’t like your new material they could drop you.
And they did.
So when the band split up it took me along time for me to get over.
So what happened next?
So before this, in around 1998-99, there was a girl called Suzi that ran the Mansun fansite called mansunite.com. I was a massive fan of Mansun and of their Singer / Songwriter / Producer, Paul Draper. I’d emailed her saying “I want to meet Paul”. So after ‘The Upper Room’ finished she gave my details to Paul and he emailed me and I think from about 2006-2007 we emailed each other until we met in 2009. He had a production room in Stanley House up in Acton, West London and I went up and met him there.
And I turned up shaking! (laughs)
This was my musical hero, I loved him to bits. I didn’t know him but I knew I was going to love him… Do you know what? They say you shouldn’t meet your heroes but I’m glad I have!
We work really well together and that’s the greatest thing! I can go into a studio with him and we can just wink, nod at each other and we know exactly what we’re doing.
Did being a big fan make playing the back catalogue easy?
The only trouble I had was, I knew it in my head as I had been listening to the records for many years, but I’d never physically played them using all 4 limbs. So that became the challenge. I was like “Oh, it’s not as easy as you think!”
On the last tour we played the whole of the ‘Attack of the Grey Lantern’ album and it was tough but Paul and I have worked together a long time now so we just get on with it. We’ve also got Beau Barnard from the ‘The Upper Room’ playing bass on this adventure with Paul and Ben Sink on Guitar and he has grown massively over the last 18 months.
How did you synchronise with all of the strings and backing vocals and the segues between each of the songs?
So for tracks like ‘Taxloss’ that is all played to a click track. The tracks are setup individually on a laptop and operated by the Keyboardist. So on the first tour Catherine operated it and on the second tour it was Christina. Our last two gigs at Hebden Bridge and at the No 6 Festival were operated by Gam, the Keyboardist for those gigs.
‘Wide Open Space’ isn’t played with a backing track. It is completely live. The reason that we did that is because the album version is so slow. So I had to come up with a tempo that worked for the follow up track ‘Stripper Vicar’. The tempo had to accommodate us coming out of one track and straight into the other.
What did you record first with Paul?
We started recording with Richard Ayre who had the same management as The Stereophonics. So we started recording a few tunes and interestingly enough, one of the tunes on ‘Spooky Action’ (Paul Draper’s debut album) called ‘Things people want’ is one of the tunes we were demoing with Richard. Dub (producer and long time collaborator) had asked Paul to play some tunes and Paul got out his laptop. This was a demo I’d played on. It was originally called ‘Tell you it’s over’.
Dub turned around to Paul and said ‘This needs to be on your album. It is going to be a single’. And it was.
The Anchoress
After about 6-8 months working with Richard we began working with Catherine Anne Davies on ‘The Anchoress‘ project. This began around 2010 and finished around 2014-15 and came out in January 2016. We recorded it all at Sofa Sound which was in Stanley House, where Paul also had his production room.
I think we recorded 18-19 songs in total. There was one song that I loved to bits and I was really upset that it wasn’t on the album but we’ve re-recorded it and it is going to be on the second album.
For this project we did a demo, a blueprint from every track before we recorded the final version.
‘Confessions’ is a great album and I loved playing on it and it is really through doing that project that got Paul back into doing his solo album. I think that album created the buzz for people wanting to hear his stuff because he was co-writing and producing that album with Catherine. As a result there was a fan petition on Facebook. We were sat in a pub in Primrose Hill and he said “I’m thinking of demoing some stuff. Are you up for it?” and I was like “Oh, let me check my diary… OF COURSE I fucking am!” (laughs)
And that has mushroomed into us doing 2 tours and the No 6 Festival and there’s going to be more dates coming up in the year.
Paul Draper – ‘Spooky Action’
Was the recording process different for Paul’s album?
We began recording this in November 2013 and demoed ‘Don’t you wait’ and ‘Feeling my heart run slow’.
Paul literally put his headphones on, secluded himself, and then would come back and say ‘Right. I want you to try and do this.’
It wasn’t that ‘you can’t be creative’ it was more of ‘this is the kind of route, I want you guys to follow this’ and we just did it.
So with the Anchoress you’d work more as a band… what would you be presented with as a drummer for Paul’s Album? Was it a click track, a programmed loop…?
Nothing! (laughs)
So he’d just say “I want something like ‘du du duh, du du duh'”?
Yeah. And it worked!
If you get the 3CD version of ‘Spooky Action’ you’ll get us in the studio and see how it worked. A lot of the outakes are embarrassing for me… they are me and Paul working together and that is how it works.
You recently uploaded a clip on Twitter of you and Paul as you record some hi-hats. What is that for?
Yeah, so that’s something for the new album but I’ve no idea or what it’s called and I don’t think he does either! (laughs)
So is there a pattern in the recording of each track? For example, do drums always get recorded first?
It depended on each track. So for ‘Feeling my heart run slow’ it was me and him in a studio. So it was Paul on an electric and me on the drums and he chose my drums from that session to use on the track.
Kit
I’ve had my main kit since I was 15-16, my ‘Yamaha Stage Custom’, which I love. I have three snares but I’m now mostly using a Ludwig 420.
In the studio we use a variety of mics. For the Kick drum I use a D12. It is an industry standard with a great low end and I also use a Yamaha subkick as an extra low end option. On the snare we use a SM58 top and bottom. They are indestructible and can take a lot of volume. The Sennheiser 421 is a standard dynamic mic for rack toms and the AKG414 is used on the floor tom.
For overheads I use a Coles 4038 old school sounding (ribbon) top end and a AKG D19C as The Beatles used with Ringo, mainly for snare sound. For room mics I use Chandler Redd47 / Aston Spirit, the old school versus new school.
Touring
What are your essential must have items?
I always have got about 12 pairs of ‘Pro Mark’ sticks on me. I also have two spares of every drum skin as well. I normally have a spare snare on stage too and a spare kick drum pedal. One time with ‘The Upper Room’ I had a snare fail, the skin went through. You have to keep on going so I used the toms instead.
Normally our rider includes two boxes of Pickled Onion Space Raiders too!
What’s a typical day like on tour?
Normally we arrive at a venue at about 1pm-2pm. We will setup around 3pm-4pm. We will do a soundcheck up until about 6pm and then usually go for something to eat. If the venue does food we will eat there or go for a curry. After a gig I will normally go home. Some of the younger guys might go out but I’m nearly 37 now! (laughs)
Playing in the venues to 2,000 people is fun but I love playing massive shows. It is all I want to do. Drumming to me is life. I just love being on stage.
There is nothing better to me than being on stage behind a drum kit.
The Mansun album ‘Six’ is partly inspired by ‘The Prisoner’. Paul has written before about the TV series and how it inspired the album. You got to play ‘Six’ at the No 6 Festival in Portmeirion, where the show was filmed. How was that?
Yes, Paul is a massive ‘The Prisoner’ fan. The No 6 Festival was really special and it was really special to Paul. We did this absolutely glorious warm up show in Hebden Bridge performing tracks from ‘Six’ in preparation for the No 6 Festival. It was at the Social Club the night before and it was an amazing gig. We stayed in Manchester and travelled down the next day to Portmeirion.
It was really a nice feeling. ‘The Prisoner’ was broadcast in 1968 and the album ‘Six’ was released 30 years later in 1998. We are then playing tracks from the album 20 years later in the location where it was shot 50 years earlier. It was a nice circle.
On the day itself we were really tight and really together. We felt we owed it to Paul to play well because it meant so much to him.
What a great festival to do!
On the next tour later this year we will be playing the ‘Six’ album in full for the first time ever. And yes, it will include ‘Witness to a Murder (part 2)’ with the monologue from Dr Who actor Tom Baker! That bit actually gives me a chance to sit back and chill out for about 90 seconds and for Paul to rest his voice! (laughs).
The ‘Six’ album must be a challenge to play…
Oh it’s massive! I think it is more challenging than ‘The Attack of the Grey Lantern’. It goes all over the place… time signatures, tempos… it is so up and down… I’m glad that we did the Festival No 6 because it means that we’ve already got the tracks ‘Six’, ‘Negative’, ‘Legacy’ and ‘Being a Girl’ under our belts. It is a much longer album and very proggy so it is going to be tougher than ‘Attack of the Grey Lantern’ but we’ve got great musicians and I think it is going to be awesome!
It has never been performed in its entirety before so this is going to be a great treat for the fans.
Are there any plans to record it live like you did with the last two tours?
Well before ‘Live at The Ritz’ we did ‘Live at Scala’ so I’d be surprised if we don’t this time. What venue that would be at though, I have no idea. There is actually a recording of Paul’s solo set that we did as a band as part of the ‘Live at The Ritz’ album but no-one has heard it – I’ve not heard it!
Did you record every gig and pick the best one?
No, we only did it at the Ritz. Paul said “We’ve already done London with ‘Live at the Scala'” so he wanted a different location. So Manchester was the only place where we recorded it.
Did that add extra pressure knowing that this was going to be the only recording?
I think so but by Manchester we were all completely in it. We were by then a few gigs in. I think that is the same for most bands. It takes a few to get really into it. Once we had done 14-15 UK gigs you feel like ‘Now we want to take it around Europe’ because now you are totally in it and it is ingrained in your head.
How often do you get to practice these days?
I practice about three times a week now which I didn’t use to do before. But because I have a studio I can get to do it now. During my practice time I also prep for lessons for my drum students as I’ve now started to teach.
Next Projects
“What have you got lined up for 2019?”
I’ve got Paul Draper’s second album coming out later this year. All I can tell you about the album is that the letters ‘C.L.T’ are quite prominent at the moment. That’s all Paul has put out there for now so I can’t say any more!
Paul is releasing a remastered version of Mansun’s album ‘Six’ this year in various formats including rare tracks and we plan to tour performing his new material and the ‘Six’ album later this year.
I’ve also played on the second album for ‘The Anchoress’ which is also coming out this year.
And I’ve just launched my website which I’m really happy with.
Advice
I would honestly say push yourself to the max. Play every gig. Any opportunity to get to play in something, just go and do it!
If I had to go back I’d do it all the same again. I can’t look back.
Links
Here is Jon’s Website: http://www.jonbarnettdrums.com/
You can follow Jon on Twitter here: https://twitter.com/jonnyb114
Jon’s Instagram page is here: https://www.instagram.com/jonnyb1141/
Jon’s Facebook page is here: https://www.facebook.com/JonBarnettDrums/
