This whole record, for me, is about Jack White, as it usually is. It’s all about his playing. And I get such a thrill from watching him play the drums. I can listen to this record and I’ve got all the riffs down, I’ve got all the singing down, I’ve got all the melodies down but I catch myself in the background following his ride cymbal. And following his snare trips or the way he hits a bass drum.
And I love the way he has his kit laid out. Apparently, it’s based on 20s jazz drummers and they kept everything on the same level – low – so they can be seen. There’s a part of me that remembers walking around at the age of 12 with a Premier drum catalogue in my back pockets and just begging my parents and they’d be like, ‘Pfft! Beg again, mate!’
But I’ve always had a bit of drum thing going on in the background and it was a real thrill to play a bit of drums in The Bad Seeds. I’m not very good but I love the whole thing of flailing away. But to hear Jack play on something like ‘Treat Me Like Your Mother’, the groove, the swagger and the precision is just everything really.
I love Alison Mosshart’s voice and I love what she’s going on about and what she’s doing, and I love the idea of a blues-rock band in the modern day. They’ve got it all down and they know what the fuck to do with it. It’s a great but it all comes back to Jack’s drumming.
