Russ Miller is one of LA’s most in-demand studio
musicians. He’s recorded with an incredible range
of artists, from Tina Turner and Ray Charles to
Nelly Furtado and Hilary Duff. He has performed
on numerous major film scores like The Hulk and
Resident Evil. He’s produced his own solo
albums, has written an award-winning line of
instructional books and DVDs and has been an
international Yamaha clinician for over 15 years.
And through Yamaha, he has created some of the
industry’s most innovative drum accessories.
Being a session player is hugely rewarding,
says Russ: “I love the fact that if you had a great
day at work it lasts forever, imprinted on a record.
The history of music is made in the recording of
it. You really have a chance to create something
that affects people. And I love the honesty of
recording—you can’t get away with anything substandard. In the studio,
you’ve got to be on your game with every single note.”
There’s a big difference between being a good drummer and
being a good musician who plays the drums, Miller says.
“Sometimes you’ll see guys who have a lot of facility on the instrument,
but that has nothing to do with playing music on the instrument.
As a session drummer, you’re there to serve the composition
and the artist, not do the most incredible drum fill or the fastest double-
bass thing. You’ve also got to read music really well, and you
have to have a personality that people like dealing with—you can’t
walk in there like a rock star!”
Russ’s standard kit is a Yamaha Absolute Nouveau drum kit—
but it’s unusual in one respect. “The toms are birch, and the bass and
snare drums are maple,” he says. “I found that the maple bass drum
has a lower fundamental. I can get a little bit more of a musical tone
from it. Instead of going thump, it’s more of a doom sound—to my
ear, it’s more musical.”
Miller has been deeply involved in creating several Yamaha signature
percussion accessories. “These products stem from me working
every day and discovering things I need in certain situations,” he
says. “For example, the RM Groove Wedge came out of a Christina
Aguilera session where the producer wanted me to use a 12” snare
but play cross-stick on the verses. Well, a 12” snare’s diameter is so
small that you can’t get to the sweet spot of the drumstick to play a
nice cross-stick sound. I thought, ‘man, I wish I had a piece of nice,
fat vintage wood hoop that I could just stick on
here to get that sound’, so that’s what we made. I
actually built the first version myself. The great
thing about Yamaha is that they’re so open to listening
to musicians and facilitating their ideas. I
took the wedge in to them the summer of that
year, saw prototypes by November, and it was
released at the NAMM show in January! They
really have open ears when it comes to working
with musicians.”
Russ followed a similar path in developing
his SKRM-100 Subkick. “I do a lot of contemporary
records, and it's always a challenge getting
the drums to stand up to the programmed
sounds the producers would come in with,” he
says. “Like with Dr. Dre or the Nelly Furtado
records—it’s really hard to match those
humungous samples and get that presence onto tape with live drums.
So we’d use an old recording trick of
taking the woofer out of a speaker cabinet, hanging it on a mic stand
in front of the kick and just wiring it up like a huge microphone. It
works, but it was a little muffled-sounding.
I thought I would mount it in a drum shell and add resonance to it,
and also be able to control the pitch a little. Once again, I made a prototype
at home and then took it in to Yamaha. That Subkick has been
awesome—it's the biggest-selling signature product in Yamaha history!
And to see heroes of mine like Steve Gadd using it has been
really cool.”
Given all the great sessions Miller has done, he finds it difficult
to pinpoint the most memorable ones. “Working with Ray Charles
was definitely one,” he says. “Cher. And, of course, Tina Turner. As
soon as I heard her singing, I was like, ‘Okay, she’s awesome—that’s
why she’s Tina Turner!’ Doing movie scores is great, because you get
to be in the big room with all the strings and brass. But I love pop
records, too, because they’re looking at you going, ‘Please play
something that will make this a hit!’ Along with the melody and the
lyrics, the drums have the biggest effect on the success of a song.
When the groove’s there, it just draws people in.” |
