You’ve been playing drums, writing about drums and teaching drums for pretty much all your adult life. Looking back on your journey so far, what are some of your personal stand-out moments, gigs or events?
I guess the first stand-out moment was my first show with the band Republica at the T In The Park festival where singer Saffron asked the thirty-thousand capacity crowd to say hello to their new drummer! Since then I’ve played so many shows, all around the world, that searching for individual moments is like flicking through a photo album in my mind. However, in doing that, the two-month US tour with Keith Emerson in the mid 2000s holds many great memories. Playing interesting and demanding music, including a drum solo feature, and touring the US with my friends makes that time pretty special.

To you, why was the School Farm the perfect choice for this session?
I had no idea we had this calibre of studio out here in rural Essex! As an original Essex barn, the building itself is aesthetically stunning with its old oak beams, but also as the studio was designed and built so recently the equipment and facilities are fantastic. And the house engineer Stefano did a wonderful job of capturing everything so well and making it all such an enjoyable experience.

When it came down to selecting the kits and cymbals, what was your and the team’s overall idea?
We wanted kits that featured the whole range of tom sizes and which are iconic in their sounds, from modern, bright and resonant through to older, shorter and more subdued tones. We also wanted to emphasize these qualities with head choices and tuning, so using higher tunings combined with single-ply heads to lower tunings with double-ply heads. As for cymbals, I brought along my main choices for music falling under the “fusion” heading. So, they tended to be larger crashes and rides, with what I perceive as an ideal balance of complex overtones and high-end cut. These were chosen in conjunction with splashes, hi-hats and stack sounds I’ve used for many years. In fact on that note, the stacked cymbal sound was one of the many unique “fusion drum kit” elements which we were keen to include along with the gong drum, octobans, cowbells and alternative snare sizes.

Before joining the team at School Farm, you spent six years engineering at Abbey Road. What lead you to branch out on your own and help in building School Farm? And, in your opinion, what makes this studio so special?
Since I was a kid, I always had the dream to work at Abbey Road, and I feel incredibly lucky (and privileged!) to have spent a few years working in what, to me, is still one of the best studios in the world. It’s an amazing place to work, you see huge talents across all the musical genres walking in on a daily basis, and you never get tired of it. I guess I just wanted to try a new adventure, and probably the desire of leaving London kicked in too back then. I started speaking to a few people, mostly clients who during those years became friends, and Andrew (Andrew Sunnucks, who built and owns School Farm Studios) was the first person I spoke to. He suggested we could build a studio out in the countryside, and he was silly enough to put me in charge of choosing equipment, microphones, etc. So, we (luckily not literally) started building the studio during Covid, with all the fun that a lockdown and supplies shortages bring along, but despite everything here we are. What makes the studio special, and of course I am biased, is the environment, the atmosphere. I find that it doesn’t matter (or it does up to a point) what microphones you have, what compressors you use, how much predelay you put on your reverb. If the atmosphere and, as they call it, the vibe isn’t great, making music is just not as fun. I am INCREDIBLY lucky to be around Andrew and Hester, our wonderful assistant, every day. They make everything such a joy, and the musicians who come here feel the same way – we hope! Yes, it is a special studio also for more “studio-related” reasons: great acoustics, amazing equipment, fantastic pianos, stunning views with alpacas and lakes, and (something that Pete appreciated when bringing all the drumkits here) you can park on the doorstep!

You’ve worked in pretty much any and all fields in the recording industry, from engineering, mixing and producing to playing, composing and orchestrating. Is there one field you prefer and if so, why?
I must confess I would struggle to pick my favorite. Covering several aspects of the music making process is something that always fascinated me, I knew I always want to be as varied as possible. I think that the more musical aspects of the engineering job are as important as the technical knowledge. Having seen some of the best film scoring engineers at work, it’s amazing to notice how “musical” they are. Reading a score, spotting mistakes, general musical knowledge is something I consider being absolutely important for our job – especially if working in film scoring or orchestral music. One of the reasons why I try to do as many different things as I can, it’s also to keep the mind stimulated and never get bored. I always want to learn new instruments and to experiment with whatever makes a sound. I guess that what brought me to approach different fields of the music industry is curiosity, something we should always feed!