Danny Carey
Daniel "Danny" Edwin Carey (born May 10, 1961 in Lawrence, Kansas, USA) is the drummer for the band Tool.
Biography
Danny's first encounter with the drums began at the age of ten by joining the school band and taking private lessons on the snare drum. Two years later, Danny began to practice on a drum set and began working with a private teacher. His private teacher had a specialty in bongos, henceforth bequeathing bongo skills that Carey uses frequently, as well as skillfully. In his senior year of high school, Danny joined the high school jazz band and began to study under a new teacher specifically for jazz drumming training. As Danny progressed through high school and later college at the University of Missouri - Kansas City, he began expanding his studies in percussion with theory into the principles of geometry, science, and metaphysics as well as delving into Sacred Geometry and certain hidden aspects of life and the occult (hidden). Danny also played jazz while attending college and got to experience the jazz scene in Kansas City.
A major commitment to life as an artist convinced Danny to leave Kansas and travel to Los Angeles, California where he was able to perform as a studio drummer with bands like Carole King and perform live sets with Pigmy Love Circus. He would later find his way to Tool after coming to know singer Maynard James Keenan and guitarist Adam Jones and practicing with them in place of drummers the two had requested but had never shown up. Besides Tool, Danny also finds time for other projects new and old such as Pigmy Love Circus, Volto, and ZAUM. Danny Carey has been widely perceived as one of the most talented and focused percussionists of this generation and beyond.
Rumor has it that Danny Carey and Tool/A Perfect Circle Singer Keenan were next-door neighbors for years before Tool even began[citation needed]. One afternoon, while practicing with his band, Carey heard Keenan yelling at another neighbor and took particular liking to his voice and thought he would be a good singer.
Religion and the occult
Although Danny has not officially aligned himself with any particular school of philosophy or religion, he has projected a deep interest in and understanding for the magical arts and sciences, among them various occult teachings. Enochian symbols, geometric designs, and special symbolic percussive devices are featured on and in his drum kit.
Geometrical Designs
Danny has laid claim to various drumming techniques that use sacred geometrical figures such as the unicursal hexagram. The final product is very recognizable, fluent drumming, although to him it is much more: the official Tool website claims that Danny uses drumming as a ritual similar to occult rituals, with purposes varying from spiritual exploration to "a gateway [which] summoned a daemon he has contained...that has been delivering short parables similar to passages within The Book of Lies."[1] Another geometrical reference from the website was the inclusion of Nothing in This Book is True... by Bob Frissell on the band's recommended reading list, a book that deals with sacred geometry and the evolution of human consciousness.
Side projects and other musical endeavours
Due to Carey's work as a session drummer, and his reputation as being one of the world's best, he has contributed to a number of projects:
Drums on the Carole King album Colour of Your Dreams with Guns and Roses guitarist Slash playing on select tracks.
Green Jell˙
Pigface
The electronica-oriented project ZAUM.
Pigmy Love Circus who have recorded several albums, and opened for A Perfect Circle for their 2003 club tour.
In 2003 performed as a guest musician on Skinny Puppy's album The Greater Wrong of the Right.
Contributed to Adrian Belew's Side One and Side Three projects with bassist Les Claypool.
Made an appearance on the 1997 album Free Mars by former Tool bassist Paul D'Amour's band Lusk.
Plays in the largely improvisational fusion band VOLTO!, who are planning to record an album late this year if it does not clash with Tool's touring plans.
Technical Reputation
Danny Carey has amongst the greatest technical repututation of any drummer. DigitalDreamDoor credited him as being the 8th Greatest Rock drummer of all time, and has also credited "Lateralus" as possessing the greatest drumming performances of any album[3], with "Ticks and Leeches", "Reflection", "The Grudge", "Lateralus", "Parabola", "The Patient", "Schism" ranked as the 3rd, 28th, 46th, 72nd, 152nd, 155th, 160th greatest drumming performance ever. Other Danny Carey performance's noted by DigitalDreamDoor as amongst the greatest ever were Aenema (35), 46 and 2 (66), Opiate (179)[4]. Amongst live performances, his renditions of "Third Eye" and "Merkaba" on Salival were adjuged the 8th and 19th greatest live performances, respectively [5]. Critics have noted his mastery of complex time signatures, and polyrhythms.
Equipment
For just over a few years now Danny has continued to switch between two drum kits. One being his Sonor (Signature and/or Designer series), and the other being his Paiste drums. The latter are Custom Cast bronze drums made from recycled Paiste cymbals. These drums are manufactured by master drum tech and drum maker Jeff Ocheltree, and the drums he produces are also known as 'Drumtree' drums.
Danny has been a Paiste cymbal endorser since 1992. Most of his cymbals are from the Signature series, but he also has 2oo2 and NoiseWorks series cymbals on his kit.
Danny uses Evans drum heads, with the following combinations:
Toms: EC2 clear on batter side, G1 clear on resonant side.
Snare: Genera HD Dry or Power Center Reverse Dot on batter side, Evans Hazy 300 on snare side.
Bass: EQ3 clear on batter side, Retro Screen Mesh on resonant side.
Danny uses his own signature model of drumstick made by Vic Firth. He previously had endorsed a signature model with Trueline Drumsticks. (Now Trueline's Tribal Assault model)
Recently Danny began using an electronic drum pad previously designed exclusively for him by Vince De Franco. This pad is called the Mandala Drum, and has apparently replaced the numerous Simmons electronic drum pads he used to have in his setup. He also uses a Korg Wave Drum.
Drumming Techniques
In search of new techniques, Carey has studied tabla with Aloke Dutta. Carey's popularity among drummers and non-drummers stems from the diversity of his sound, his supreme technical ability, and his frequent uses of odd time signatures.
Source Name: Danny Carey Entry on Wikipedia.org
Source Link: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Danny_Carey
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