Tom Coster interview (2013)

(...)TC: Yup. “Uh-oh, where am I?” Guys like Steve and Cobham as so amazing with this stuff, so you have to pay very close attention to what you’re doing so when that stuff comes around you know what’s going on. Steve to me, probably more than any other drummer I’ve worked with, he does it more within a tune because it’s his band. He doesn’t do that when he’s a sideman because he’s being asked to play a particular role. But in Vital, that’s one of the things that makes up what our band is, it’s Steve Smith and Vital Information. If he wants to do that stuff anywhere he wants, it just happens. It’s certainly not rehearsed or quite often premeditated.

JK; How would you describe, not really the differences, but your reaction to playing with Billy versus playing with Steve? Everybody you play with has a personality and a vocabulary. Do you find you adapt differently, are there certain things you need to do?

TC: This is also a very important subject to relate to young musicians. Every time I play with a different rhythm section, this is not just drummers; it’s drummer and bass player combinations. The last couple of tours I did with Billy Cobham it was Victor Bailey on bass. So right away I knew the feeling of the time was going to be different than playing with Steve and Baron. What you have to do as a musician is you literally have to split your brain in half. Everything you’re hearing that goes along with performing has to be split in two. And the reason for that, at least the way that I look at it, is you’re listening to the music and what you’re playing, because when I get offered a tour with these people we don’t have much time to rehearse. We basically are given the mp3’s and the music via email and then we have to do our homework. Once the plane lands and everybody goes to the hall to rehearse, we usually have only one 4-5 hour rehearsal and then we start touring. So while you’re playing this music you’re listening to how your parts are fitting in with them, but the other part of my brain is listening to where the groove is. Because a Victor Bailey and a Billy Cobham are going to put the groove in a different place then a Baron Brown and a Steve Smith. And everybody is going to change a little bit when Steve plays with a different bass player, when Baron plays with a different drummer. So as musicians we have to not just do our things, but we have to be conscious of what’s going on around us and fit into that. With some rhythm sections you may have to lay back a little bit, cause that’s where they’re feeling the time. Especially in my case, because I do a lot of rhythm playing with the organ stuff. So I definitely want to hook up with them, and I pay really close attention to where they’re feeling the time.