Mike Joyce discusses his favourite song by The Smiths to perform
In an age dominated by synthesisers and shaded by the monstrous haircuts of A Flock of Seagulls, The Smiths stripped things back to the basics. Of course, there was nothing basic about Johnny Marr’s innovative guitar style or Morrissey’s introspective poetry. Still, this Manchester four-piece dealt in a distinctive brand of guitar-led rock eventually coined as jangle pop.
With much said of the groundbreaking songwriting partnership between Marr and Morrissey, The Smiths’ sturdy rhythm section is often left in the shade. Following the death of bassist Andy Rourke in May 2023, the musician’s three bandmates concurred in memorial praise.
“I don’t think Andy realised just how good a bass player he was,” drummer Mike Joyce said in an interview with BBC Breakfast at the time. “I don’t think Andy ever really embraced just how momentous his contribution towards music is. I don’t think he ever grasped that and realised that.”
The same could be said of Joyce, whose drumming was rarely at the forefront throughout the Smiths’ expansive catalogue, yet his eye for giving each song no more and no less than required was second to none. In a 2022 interview with Far Out, Joyce also proved himself to be a humble and endlessly decent bloke.
During the conversation, the drummer remembered his somewhat unconventional first drum kit. “I remember playing with two files in a metal work room when I was about 13-14 in school,” Joyce recalled. “I remember really enjoying it. And getting told off, obviously – ‘Put those files down!’”
In his late teens, Joyce became increasingly enamoured with percussion after attending a Buzzcocks gig and seeing John Maher in action. “I was transfixed by everything actually: the fact that he had a red kit, the fact that the toms were in a certain position, and his cymbals were all flat playing cymbals, and it just looked like a fantastic… visual,” Joyce said. “I also obviously fell in love with the music that they were producing. That was a catalyst for me to go and hound my mother for a little Beverly drumkit.”
In 1982, following formative stints playing for The Hoax and the Northern Irish punk rock group Victim, Joyce joined The Smiths at age 19. Over just five years of activity, the Smiths changed the musical landscape forever across four immaculate studio albums.
Naturally, Joyce has several favourite songs from the Smiths catalogue, each for a different reason. When it comes to drumming, however, one stands salient. “I don’t actually play a lot of Smiths tracks [these days],” Joyce admitted when asked to name his favourite song to drum. “But I suppose I did some work with Craig Gannon, the ex-Smith, for a short while, and we did play a couple of Smiths tunes. I think it would have to be [the 1984 single] ‘How Soon Is Now?’, just for the groove.”
“For a lot of The Smiths tunes, I wouldn’t say they’re very complex, but I don’t really sit on a groove with a lot of them because there’re a lot of guitar changes,” Joyce pursued. “So, in terms of sitting on the groove, ‘How Soon Is Now?’ In fact, Donald Johnson – one of Manchester’s finest drummers, from A Certain Ratio – said to me about that drumbeat, ‘Mike, I don’t think you realise just how cool that drumbeat is.’ I said, ‘Well, you know, I just played drums for what I thought worked for the track, and that’s all I can do.”
Listen to The Smiths’ ‘How Soon Is Now?’ below.
