Joe Caswell
see also: Community

With the development of new technology, the role of the drummer / percussionist has been greatly reduced, most of all in the studio, where drum kits are now easily reproduced. Even 'bad' samples, percussive sounds that are clearly manufactured, are now accepted and seen as the norm in many professional recordings.

As a rule, and up until recording at the very latter end of 2007, I have stayed well away from manufactured drums. It was therefore prior to the recording of the Brilliant Words album, when looking around for someone with imagination for percussion, something more than your standard drum kit, I saw a band called Pie. They were outstanding, different, original ... and at the heart of this trio from deepest Lancashire was a vibrant percussionist.

Joe Caswell accepted immediatley my invitation to guest on some recordings, and I'll never forget going to collect him from his workshop, a unit in an old historic mill filled to the brim with a variety of weird and wonderful objects, each with it's own unique sound, each with a place in some percussive set-up or other in Joe's varied musical career.

We cobbled a 'kit' and set off to the studio. Joe played a blinder, and I was truly thankful that we had avoided the poor synthetic drums disease that has gripped and destroyed so many music recordings.

See www.myspace.com/josephcaswellpercussionist