JOHN CHIPMAN: GET TO KNOW HIM AND HIS TOP FIVE RECORDS

Want to understand your musical heroes better?  Search no more. This is the place!

As season two continues, I am thrilled to have John Chipman on the show today.  He has been playing music professionally for over 25 years and has played with an insane amount of musicians from the Resentments (who I so love!), Slaid Cleaves, Band of Heathens, David Grissom (who I think defines what Texas Blues really is), and of course my favorite, Kelley Mickwee.  If you ask me, I think he is a top three drummer here in Austin. He has toured numerous times in Europe and the Far East.  He moved to Austin after studying music and graduating from the University of Oklahoma.  In the 2007-2008 Austin Chronicle Music Awards, he won best drummer.

 

In Modern Drummer, he passes along some tidbits of what he has learned from other musicians:

1. Never ask of music. When you expect music to do things for you, it will not happen. Music itself is the reward. If any success or fame comes as a result of playing music, be forever thankful, because you have already experienced more than 95% of the people who have ever picked up a pair of drumsticks have.
2. The fewer notes you play, the more money per note you are making. Save your big stuff for the last chorus of the last song in the encore.
3. Never play in a trio with a husband and wife.
4. Never cop an attitude. There is always somebody better than you. If you see someone who might not be up to your personal yardstick, watch even closer, they will teach you something you didn’t know.