The drummer that made Phil Collins play too much
Phil Collins wasn’t counting on joining a prog band to come out there and play the most laid-back music ever made.
He was there to make the song a showcase for the most complex music he could ever play, and looking at his work on records like The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway, he was clearly capable of turning every single song into an unintentional drum showcase. That’s all well and good for the right tune, but Collins learned the hard way that there was a fine line between playing the most notes and getting in the way of the song half the time.
Then again, there was always going to be that push and pull when Peter Gabriel was at the helm. Everyone should be playing the perfect part that serves the music that they’re playing, but even the band themselves had to hang back, they weren’t exactly going to be happy seeing Gabriel dress in elaborate costumes and turn every single one of their tunes into a theatre performance rather than your traditional rock and roll show.
But Genesis weren’t the typical rock and roll band, either. Collins was more than happy to take the group in a different direction when he got behind the microphone, but listening to A Trick of the Tail, not much seemed to change in the writing department. They were still making elaborate exercises masquerading as songs, and while it was technically impressive, Collins knew there was a way for him to simplify his parts a bit more.
After all, his biggest influences at the time were fusion players, and while no one could play in a group like Brand X without coming off like an absolute monster, it wasn’t the best platform for music that touched people’s hearts. But that all came from listening to people like Billy Cobham back in the day.
There has been no shortage of drum heroes in people’s minds over the years. Buddy Rich, Keith Moon, John Bonham, Animal from The Muppets. All worthy inclusions on the best drummers of all time list, and while Cobham was more than capable of playing circles around them, Collins felt that his influence managed to rub off a little bit too much when working on those early Genesis projects.
Each part was played to absolute perfection, but Collins felt that he was guilty of taking away from the song half the time, saying, “Hopefully, I’ve gotten better at leaving things out and not overplaying. In the early days of Genesis I was trying to put everything into everything. Cobham was a very early influence, and I tried to play like him on tunes that didn’t need to be played like that. Now, I’m quite happy to leave blank space where everyone thinks there is going to be a fill.”
And the mastery of the non-fill is almost a lost art. People like Ringo Starr might get criticised for not being the most technically gifted drummer in the world, but compared to everyone else on the hit parade, Starr is a much better inspiration for drummers because he always knew what to play for a moment and to play a fill only when the song demanded a little bit more punch between the dead air.
So, despite Collins having one of the most important drum fills in music history to his name with ‘In the Air Tonight’, the most important lesson that he ever learned during his time in the spotlight was the importance of simplicity. Music isn’t rocket science, and no one should treat it as such.
