Chris Hayden - Mapex Hardware

48 | January 2013 www.rhythmmagazine.co.uk

interviewChris hayden

Chris had one day to learn the song. The next daythe threesome recorded ‘Kiss With a Fist’, the songthat would become the first single on Florence AndTheMachine’s debut album, Lungs. “That was thefirst thing that I ever did with them and it wound upgetting on the album. I wasn’t expecting it this way,”smiles Chris, commenting on his good fortune.Prior to joining Florence And TheMachine and a

brief stint touring with Razorlight, Chris was in twobands, eachmeeting with amodicum of success.When only 16 years old, he was in a heavymetalband called Kilkus. Within two years of forming,Kilkus was signed to the label Visible Noise.Subsequently, Chris joined Gourami, a three-piecerock’n’roll band. “We did some recordings, had asingle released but nothing ever really developed.That was a lot of fun though. Also a lot of drinking!”Chris first became interested inmusic when

he was about nine or 10 years old. “I watched a

bout five years ago Chris Hayden wasasked by his friend Rob Ackroyd to comeinto the studio to record a song withFlorenceWelch. At that time, AckroydandWelch, relative unknowns in theworld of popularmusic, were a duo –Florence handled the vocals, Rob playedguitar. “Before I met Rob I was workingas a drum tech for Razorlight and I wasalso playing a bit of percussion for themon the side of the stage,” explains Chris.

“Razorlight’s drummer Andy Burrows was bestfriends with Rob.” Before too long, Chris and Robformed their own strong friendship. “I would alwayssay to Rob, ‘Call me if you need a drummer,’ or, ‘Callmewhen you need a drummer.’” Persistence paidoff – one day Chris did get the call. Florence andRobwere going into the studio the following dayand they wanted Chris to record a song with them.

“Louder than sirens, louder than bells, sweeter than heaven and hotter than hell.”Florence And The Machine’s ‘Drumming Song’ lyric

describes Chris Hayden to the proverbial ‘T’…words &photos: Sayre joanBerman

RHY211.int_hayden.indd 48 11/27/12 11:18 AM

49www.rhythmmagazine.co.uk January 2013 |




main organ sound. rather than use a church organlive, i had tomake sure that we found somethingthat we can use to recreate this very particular pumporgan sound. i try to get it as close as possible.”chris’ responsibilities aren’t limited to what

happens on stage, he alsomust ensure that theinteraction between the crew and the band isfunctioning well and that the equipment is beinglooked after. chris is also responsible for preparingsong edits for their live television performances.Fatm have been in demand on the early morningand late night television show circuit. “tV stationsmight ask for a three-minute version of a song so i’llmake the edit. once Flo approves what i’ve done, i’llmake the band aware of the edit.” the band’ssuccess hasmade chris a very busyman. “i havemore responsibilities now than i did five years agowhen i was running around festival fields with noclothes on… but that’s another story,” he laughs.after recording ‘kiss with a Fist’ and becoming

part of the newly-formed band, chris was in for a bitof a surprise. Florence had very definite ideas about

film called crossroads – steve Vai was in it. idecided i wanted to be a guitarist,” says chris. his

dad bought him a guitar but after two or three yearsof struggling to learn the instrument, he admitted tohimself that the guitar wasn’t his future. BarryJohnson, chris’ uncle and the drummer with the ’60sband the rapiers, introduced chris to the drums.“my uncle had a couple of kits locked away so hegaveme one. sitting behind the kit immediately felt athousand timesmore natural to me than holding aguitar. i was 13 at the time.” he’s never looked back.chris was heavily influenced by an eclectic group

of bands – everything frommetal to grunge tohip-hop. “when i was first learning to play i startedoff with nirvana and Beastie Boys. rage against themachine’s first albumwas a big hit with me too. theni got massively into korn. i was always trying to playalong with david silveria. he had a very differentsound for the time. i found that to be quiteinspirational. i was about 14 years old when i firstheard korn so i spent the next several years trying toemulate those sounds. groove-wise though,” chrisadmits, “it was dave grohl and Bradwilk.”

chris never had formal drum lessons. he did go toamusic college, but due to the number of drummersalready in his class, he devotedmore time todeveloping his vocal abilities and learning how toreadmusic. this served himwell, given themultipleroles that he has in Florence and themachine. chrisis not only the band’s drummer he is also Florence’sback up vocalist and the band’s md.

asmusical director, chris oversees everything fromthemusic itself to interpersonal relationshipsbetween bandmembers and crew. the job’scomplexities have grown exponentially along withthe growth of the band itself and their soaringworldwide popularity. “if you’re a bandmember youjust concentrate on your own parts. as themusicaldirector i need tomake sure that everyone iscomfortable with what’s going on, if anyone needs torun through songs. often, when we tour in the uk,we’ll use strings and a local choir, so i will look afterthose arrangements andmake sure that everyonehas their cues. Finding sounds is an importantresponsibility as well, making sure that the band isfinding the right sounds to use to replicate the albumduring live events. For example, on ‘shake it out’ weused a pump organ that was in the studio for the

hris didn’t learn of Florence’s aversion tothe snare drumand cymbals until afterworkwas completed on ‘KissWith A Fist’.“Wewere rehearsing and arranging songs,that’s when Flomade it clear that she didn’tlike blinking every time I hit the snaredrum,” Chris explains, referring to

Florence’s tendency towince every time heattacked the snare. She didn’t care for cymbalseither. Howdid he handle the challenge ofdevising drumpartswithout using the traditionalkey kit components?

“At first I’d just ignore the snare and cymbals.Then I started experimentingwith beaters on the

snare and playing the snarewithout the snarewires. I just openedmymind and did the oppositeof what I’d been doing for the last 15 years.WhenI first started playing professionally I would try toput asmuch into a song as possible. It took sometime to realise thatwhat you don’t play is asimportant aswhat you do play.With thismusic,the patterns are quite basic, not too busy, buteach pattern is different and that’s whatmakes itall so interesting. For example, ‘DogDays AreOver’ has the simplest of patterns but listen forthe placement of the kick drum. I put the kickdrumon the downbeat to drive the song along tothe end and to give it a bitmore urgency.”

drum sounds. “one of the first things that Flo said tome,” recalls chris “is that she doesn’t like cymbalsand doesn’t like the snare drum. ‘i don’t like that onein themiddle,’ she told me. ‘what, the snare drum?’ iasked. ‘i don’t like the cymbal sounds, get rid ofthem. i do like the toms and i like the kick.’”

so what does a rock drummer, brought up on thestylings of david silveria, dave grohl and Bradwilk,do without a snare drum and cymbals? he createssome of themost imaginative andmusicallymemorable drum parts. “the heavy reliance on tomsand the bass drum gives themusic a dark, richquality. the harp gives it that classical element,Florence’s vocals are almost operatic but the overallsound is what i’d call epic pop-rock,” he explains.Lungs, a very drum-heavy album, was largely a

collaboration between Florence and severalproducers including James Ford, paul epworth, stevemackey and charlie hugall. unlike some negativeexperiences that other drummers have had whileworking with producers in the studio, chris had noissues. “it was an easy thing to do because they knewhow to talk to me as a drummer – in some cases,drummer to drummer: James Ford and paul epworthare both drummers.” the other producers, stevemackey and charlie hugall, played themusical partson the songs that they worked on. producer/drummer paul epworth broke his ankle just as workstarted on Lungs, so chris played the drum parts.“paul enjoyed experimenting with different soundsand different beat placements. when we worked on‘hurricane drunk’ and ‘rabbit heart’ we triedmovingthe kick drum beat around and developing eithermore, or less, of a groove. steve mackey was quitepleased with the beats that i put together on thesongs that we worked on: ‘kiss with a Fist’ and‘swimming’. Likewise, charlie hugall wasimmediately happy with what i did on ‘you’ve got theLove’ and ‘my Boy Builds coffins’. sometimes when

Chris Hayden in action forFlorence and Themachine


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the producers play every instrument, things can falla bit flat.” another problem that can arise is theinherent difficulty in playing an overly complexrecorded song live. “on the first album there are acouple of songs where i had long conversations withproducers while we were trying to work out thedrum patterns for the songs. they had a drum beathere doing one thing, a percussion part playingsomething else, and then another drum beat playingsomething entirely different. ‘i can’t play three drumbeats at once,’ i’d tell the producers,” chris laughs.“But once we started touring, we as a band decidedhow these songs should sound. after two and a halfyears of performing the songs live, we listened back

to the album and we realised howmuch we hadchanged the songs. the vocals were the same, thelyrics were the same, but the arrangements hadbecome quite different.”

For ceremonials, Fatm’s second album, theapproach to songwriting and recording wasmodified. Florence had been working on new songsand preparing demos for about a year but when itcame down to it, she chose to have her band aroundher in the studio for amore collaborative creativeprocess. “once the songs were written the wholeband spent about amonth in the rehearsal studio




CHRIS’ GEARDRUMSLudwig Legacy Gold Sparkle withclassic lugs, keystone badge andkeystone leg brackets: 24"x20"bass drum, 13"x10" tom, 16"x16"& 18"x16" floor toms, 14"x6½"BlackMagic snare

CYMBALSZildjian 14" K CustomDarkhi-hats; 19" K Dark Thin crash;

20" Oriental Crash of Doom;21" K CustomHybrid ride

ELECTRONICSRoland PD8 pads; Roland R-10K(kick); Roland RT-10S (snare);Roland TMC6 trigger tomidiconverter; Ableton Launch Pad(which fires off Ableton Livesoftware on aMac)

PLUSVic Firth American Classic 5awood tip sticks (custom Chris

Hayden signature); Vic FirthAmerican Classic T1 generalmallets; Mapex hardware; TamaIron Cobra hi-hat stand and bassdrumpedal; Roc’n’Soc drumthrone; Remo& Ludwig heads(with customdesigned frontprinted onto bass drumhead bycustom skins); Rhythm Tech DSTbrass jingled tambourines(mountable); Meinl hand chimes;Nino Percussion Energy chime;Meinl Clam shaker; StageworksRimma stick holder

recording we did about a song every couple of days.all told, we took threemonths to record the secondalbum. it was definitely a good process, albeit anunusual one. By the end of it we all knewwhat wewere doing. we’re just about a year into it now andwe’re sounding pretty similar to howwe started,”says chris, referring to their current tour in supportof ceremonials. “it’s good to know that we haven’tdiverted from ourmission,” says chris with a biggrin. “the sets never feel boring because each songhas a different beat, different tempo, differentrhythms with different patterns. that keeps theinterest alive and i think it also makes the set moreexciting for people to watch.”after this current tour is over, Florence, chris and

the rest of the band will have a year off. there is nopressure to rush to get a third album done. “i’ve justbought a house in London withmy girlfriend. i’d liketo enjoy the house while i can before i go out onanother tour. i’m already excited for the next album,but i’m also very excited for this next year off.”chris won’t be just sitting idle in his new home

though. when he isn’t working with Fatm he isproducing for other artists.“earlier this year i did a few bits and pieces for

rueben Bullock and his band rueben and the dark.i’ve also produced a single for Violet, pixie geldof’sband. during the year off, i’ll still be playing but i’ll bekeeping it local. we’ve been out for five years, now isthe time to reap the benefits of it all and enjoy a bitof me time.”

components of the drum kit.” also, mark saunders,percussionist and bass player had come on board,adding yet another level of sonic texture to theband’s arrangements. not only was the band fullyinvolved with writing the second album, but they alsohad the luxury of time. “we would write the songsand thenmould them into the way we thought wewould be playing them in two and a half years’ time.”it was amuchmore organic process, the songsremained in production until each bandmember wasconfident that the song was as it should be and,more importantly, as it would be in the future afterbeing played hundreds of times over the course ofan extensive tour. “when we were ready to start

Chris and his drum techMark ‘Wiff’ Smith arediligent in their search forthe bestway to bring thesounds heard on thealbums to the live stage.Attention to detail is of

paramount importance. Chris explains thechallenges he hadwhen trying to replicate thesounds heard on ‘What TheWater GaveMe’ onCeremonials. “We spent awhile trying to find theright sound for that one. I tried putting coins in abag, that didn’t work; I tried putting spoon headsin a bag, that didn’t work either. I tried them

together, no success.We spent hourswith thecoins and the spoons but it sounded awful,nothing likewhat I thought it would sound like.ThenWiff found something forme, a percussivedisk called a Spark Shaker fromMeinl. You canhold it oneway for a very loud, chime-type soundbut if you hold itmore in the palmof your hand ithas a completely different sound, a quieterchick-chick sound rather than a clang-clangsound. If you hold it with just twofingers you geta verymetallic sound, if you hold it with fourfingers it becomesmore of a shaker sound.Holding it lightly produces the perfect janglingsound that I use on the snare beat.”

working with paul epworth to break down thedemo songs, try a variety of things, and then

build the songs back up again. we had time torehearse the demos for a while, play around withbeats and write our own individual parts. i was ableto learn somuch working directly with paul. i wasgoing from the rock’n’roll style of drumming to whatFlo wanted, which was amore toneful andmusicalsound. that was one of themain things that Flowanted to experiment with so for me that was a bitof a dream come true… saying that you want to domainly vocals and drums for the second album. mostof the first albumwas pretty much all tomwork. onceremonials i’ve introducedmore of the other


Chris Hayden - Mapex Hardware

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