With one foot in tradition and one in the future, the exceptionally diverse, super-polished pounder is at the forefront of a scene that shows little interest in what can’t be done on the drumset. Periphery’s

att Halpern first appeared on the . His star began to rise in earnest cover of Modern Drummer at age when he joined Periphery in 2009, a gig that seem- thirteen. Well, sort of. When visitors ingly left every drummer who shared the stage with Mentered the after-party of his bar mitz- the band an instant convert to his otherworldly vah, the first thing they saw was the young drum- rhythmic ideas and unstoppable energy. Halpern mer’s face on a mocked-up cover of MD. “Matt appears on Periphery’s self-titled 2010 album, the Halpern: Drummer to the Stars!” read the headline, 2011 EP Icarus, and the brand-new long-player, and if the guests were lucky, they might hear the which is also titled Periphery. The first two releases young lion perform a solo on his Ludwig kit. Even were recorded piecemeal, with Matt playing a then Halpern had big goals. Fifteen years later, his V-Drums kit and replicating rhythms programmed musical dreams have come true, and he’s enjoying by guitarist/composer/mastermind , his first Modern Drummer cover story, for real. one of contemporary heavy music’s true visionar- While Halpern is often lumped in with the pro- ies. For the band’s new release, however, the drum- gressive metal trend known as (a term he mer recorded on an acoustic Mapex set. downplays—“It’s simply the sound of a certain type Throughout, Halpern’s playing is an attention of palm muting on a string”), the twenty- grabber. The half-time rhythmic stomp of “JI” is eight-year-old Baltimore native is a fan of drum- matched by the tom fills on steroids of “Make mers as wide-ranging as Dennis Chambers, Mike Total Destroy,” where Halpern’s snare drum slap Mangini, , and Roger Taylor. And and hi-hat slash are as powerful as his double- Halpern’s technique is as unusual as his taste is pedal fury. “Mile Zero” begins with a nearly classic- diverse. Watching him play his stripped-down rock groove, but Halpern’s lockstep with bassist/ three-piece set, you might first notice his some- producer Adam Getgood—his patterns vacuum what bizarre technique. Halpern changes stick grips sealed and madly electronic—are anything but old- constantly, to match the music and to implement school. Elsewhere, Matt double-fists a pummeling ideas that blast from his kit like shooting stars tom-filled attack on “Ragnarok,” revs up his inner across a midnight sky. Whether he’s using a Dave Lombardo for “Scarlet,” and performs a flexi- German, French, or American grip, he bastardizes ble, extremely inspired solo within the slippery each for ultimate fluidity and flexibility, as his groove of “Erised.” drumming flashes through rock, metal, reggae, and MD spoke with Halpern as Periphery was putting jazz styles with equal smoothness and passion. the finishing touches on the album that, years from Halpern first came to many people’s attention as now, will likely be viewed as the breakout perfor- a member of the heat seekers mance of a truly monstrous drummer.

Story by Ken Micallef • Photos by Sahisnu Sadarpo

48 MODERN DRUMMER • July 2012 July 2012 • MODERN DRUMMER 49 “I work out ideas in front of an audience. I’ll think about what I want to play, then I’ll go for it. If I nail it in a high- pressure situation, that proves I can do it at any time.”

MD: Periphery has a great presence getting signed, Misha had released 130 site, Bandhappy.com, which is about on YouTube and on the Internet in free downloadable tracks. That free musicians reaching out to their fans. general. music really built our foundation as MD: When did you begin playing Matt: When Misha Mansoor began an Internet band. Once the album was drums? writing songs for Periphery, he’d also released and we began touring, we Matt: I had my first kiddie set at three; been playing drums. Then he began built on that momentum. All of us in I got a Ludwig kit at six. Through a programming drums with Toontrack’s Periphery [which also includes gui- couple local teachers I learned rudi- EZdrummer and Superior Drummer tarists Mark Holcomb and Jake Bowen ments, time signatures, rates, and programs. Whenever Misha recorded and singer Spencer Sotelo] are very dynamics. One teacher focused on a new song, he would post it on active on the forums—we all teach jazz and Latin fundamentals, and the SoundClick.com. Prior to the band lessons—and I am very active on my other opened me up to Screaming Headless Torsos and that style and feel. I practiced the twenty-six rudi- INFLUENCES ments and worked out of books, and I Queensrÿche Operation: Mindcrime (Scott Rockenfield) /// Screaming Headless mixed and matched different hand Torsos Screaming Headless Torsos (Jojo Mayer) /// Dave Matthews Band Under patterns to replicate the rudiments the Table and Dreaming (Carter Beauford) /// Queen Greatest Hits (Roger Taylor) between the hands and feet. /// Images and Words (Mike Portnoy) /// Around the If you play a paradiddle between Fur (Abe Cunningham) /// Rush Moving Pictures (Neil Peart) /// Metallica Master your hands and feet, you can turn it of Puppets (Lars Ulrich) /// The Police Greatest Hits (Stewart Copeland) /// James Brown Greatest Hits (Jabo Starks, Clyde Stubblefield, others) into a beat. I really focused on the

50 MODERN DRUMMER • July 2012 paradiddle; I would note if a pattern on the cowbell while playing a groove sounded like a paradiddle groove or a with the right side of my body. And I A Happy Band double accent. I also learned albums was never afraid to solo and perform. Makes a Happy by Queensrÿche, Led Zeppelin, the MD: Why the simple setup of just bass Police, the Beatles, James Brown…. drum, snare, and floor tom? Drummer I was in a serious band on the week- Matt: That began when I played in ends; we played Foo Fighters kind of local bars and needed to get offstage “Bandhappy stuff. Before that I played in Dream fast. I enjoyed how easy it was—and came to be out Theater– and Rush-style cover bands. how my performance improved. The of necessity,” Learning the music of those bands is smaller set gave me more room to Matt Halpern says of the web- why I’ve connected with the progres- move around. When you’re touring, site he founded, sive side of Periphery. I learned how to less is more. Because I had played in which acts as an dissect rhythms and songs at a young clubs on a small kit, I was comfortable online market- age. I was recording instrumental with fewer toms and cymbals. I can place for musicians who want to teach or music when I was seventeen. perform all my music on this kit. In a take live lessons. “I needed to support MD: What did you woodshed while in live setting, if you don’t have a roadie, myself financially as a touring musician, high school? it’s hard. The smaller set allows people so I began teaching on tour as a way to supplement my income. On tour with Matt: I’d learn an entire album—Dave to see my emotions and my move- Periphery, I teach students in every city Matthews Band, Pearl Jam, Alice in ments better as well. we play, all over the world. Chains—and practice soloing. I’d MD: There are fills on mounted toms “When I started, I noticed a few things. watch videos by Dennis Chambers, on the new album. Fans and students previously had no other Mike Mangini, Steve Smith, and Matt: I used one mounted tom and way to sit down for thirty or sixty minutes Walfredo Reyes Jr. I tried to learn two floors on the recording. And I had and have a personal interaction with their Dennis’s singles technique, that sweep a bunch of cymbals. We wanted to get favorite artist. In a music lesson, fans can ask questions, learn directly from the around the drums between his right the tones and the vibes. For the source, and build a deeper relationship hand and right foot. From Reyes I upcoming shows, I may incorporate with their favorite players, all rooted in learned how to subdivide the left hand more into the set. education. It strengthens the bond between fans and musicians substantially, and that’s great for both bands and fans.” MATT’S SETUP When Halpern came off the road and continued his lessons with international students, including many touring musi- cians, via video chat, he found that the var- ious platforms necessary to make his 2 teaching business work—PayPal, email, Facebook, Skype—made the process time- 5 consuming and cumbersome. The drum- mer’s solution was to start Bandhappy. C 4 “Whether the individual is an aspiring 3 drummer wanting to learn from their favorite drummer, an up-and-coming busi- 6 ness mind who wants to start a record B label and wants guidance from a reputable 1 A manager, a school music teacher who wants to expand their after-school lesson roster or bring international artists into their classroom, or a touring musician who wants to connect on a deeper level with fans and supplement their income through teaching, Bandhappy offers those opportu- Drums: Mapex Cymbals: Meinl nities. We provide all of the scheduling, 1 A. 6 /2x14 Black Panther 1. 14" Byzance Sand Hats communication, payment, promotion, and Sledgehammer snare 2. 19" Byzance Medium Thin crash lesson tools for students and teachers to B. 16x16 Saturn birch/walnut floor tom 3. 18" Byzance Dark China/ connect live and in person, either via our C. 18x22 Saturn birch/walnut 16" Byzance Thin crash stack custom live video-chat lesson platform or bass drum 4. 22" Byzance Extra Dry ride face to face when bands are on tour.” 5. 18" Byzance Medium crash Currently Bandhappy has attracted Heads: Evans Black Onyx snare batter 6. 22" Byzance China more than 350 teachers and 10,000 (not shown) and clear 300 bottom, G2 students and has lessons taking place tom batter and G1 bottom, and EMAD Hardware: Mapex, including Falcon online and in person in more than a bass drum batter double pedal hundred countries. • Sticks: Pro-Mark 5B

July 2012 • MODERN DRUMMER 51 MATT HALPERN

MD: On the “Improvised Grooves” fills mesh well with the bass drum video at Bandhappy.com, you play because I’m hitting the floor tom at a quick semi-rimclick patterns and use lower volume to match the volume of a fast glancing motion between the the bass drum. And I’m playing ghost snare and floor tom. notes on the snare, so they can be Matt: The hand movement is left to more layered to match the bass right, right to left, left to right, right to drum. I’m not putting a lot of force left. That’s Dennis Chambers’ into it. It’s also the tone, or the ring, Baltimore sweep. He leads with his of the bass drum and snare mixing right hand: snare, floor, kick, kick; together that helps me move between floor, snare, kick, kick. Then with his the drums more easily and at a higher left hand: snare, floor, kick, kick; rate of speed. floor, snare, kick, kick. As you do it up MD: Your technique is so fluid, and to speed, the wrist movements your grip seems to change constantly. become shorter between the two What does that give you? drums, creating a swaying motion, Matt: It’s all out of necessity, though allowing you to go back and forth. It it happened almost by accident. looks as if I’m lightly sweeping each Playing so many styles of music— drum, but I’m kind of bending my metal, where you have to be precise wrist both ways to hit the drums. but you also have to hit very hard; Then filling in with your foot makes rock, where you’re beating the crap the motion more fluid. out of the drums; jazz, where you Dennis did it as top, top, bottom, have to use a softer feel—it’s about bottom. But you can also try top, bot- being comfortable with different tom, top, bottom, or top, top, top, dynamic ranges. So I don’t try to play bottom. The trick is dynamics. If with one grip all the time; all the vari- you’re just playing drum fills, the ables make my style unique. dynamics don’t matter because there My focus is to use a large spectrum isn’t necessarily a backbeat to follow. of dynamics. If I let the stick fall from But in “Improvised Grooves” I’m a high place and I want it to have a playing with a backbeat in mind. The free range, I hold it very loosely. MATT HALPERN

When I’m closer to the drum, I may Toontrack’s Superior Drummer to hold the stick differently from the way program a basic drumbeat. So he’ll I would when I’m farther away from give me a full demo with a drum the drum. When I’m playing a loud part and fills and groove ideas and rimshot, I use more of a whipping sectional ideas that I then make my motion, almost like a Moeller whip, own. There are songs where I com- and when I hit the snare drum I pletely composed the drum ideas, clench up and use an American grip. and on other songs I embellished the But when I’m playing ghost notes, it’s other songwriter’s ideas and made it more of a French grip, because I use my own feel. The final takes are me fingers and a looser wrist bounce. doing three or four passes and getting When I’m playing the right hand on comfortable and then compiling a my hi-hat and accenting an 8th-note drum part from the best takes. downbeat, I may use my shoulder MD: So you assembled your drum to push it and have my hand in a parts. French grip—it depends on the Matt: I’d punch in and redo a section, velocity [at which] I’m pushing the or I’d redo the entire take to get a bet- stick into the hi-hat. ter feel. We didn’t cut and paste drum MD: Do you use a click live? parts in Pro Tools. “Mile Zero” was Matt: Yes. I use a 16th-note click, one take, start to finish. I hadn’t because that way, whether I’m playing played it before we recorded it. We did in four or five, it’s very easy to count quantize the drums after that, lining and feel the different changes and them up on the grid. That’s a big part feels. Playing ghost notes is also a of Periphery’s sound, being very tight great way to feel the spaces between rhythmically. the larger quarter or 8th notes. MD: You’re very precise, but your MD: You’ve explained before that you recordings sound like an actual drum- learned polyrhythms by singing them mer. Some progressive metal drum- to yourself first. Did you approach mers sound too mechanical, too other drumming principles by inter- calculated. You sound natural. nalizing them? Matt: That’s a great compliment. Matt: Often I can’t sleep because I Thank you. I hope that comes across. I have rhythms in my head or I’m recorded the first Periphery album on grinding my teeth to create grooves a V-Drums kit, then we edited the with my mouth. I don’t count them takes in Superior Drummer. So it’s my out first; it’s a feel thing. Often I’ll have feel, but with sounds from Superior an idea and tap it out with my hands. Drummer. It was important this time If I can tap out a full song on my steer- to get all live drum tones. We wanted ing wheel, then I can apply it to the it to sound as natural as possible. drumset. With one hand on a table I MD: Do you lock in your bass drum can copy a bass drum and a snare patterns with the bass guitar in a tra- drum and put it all together and make ditional sense? a groove. If you ask me to play a Matt: The bass is all played, not pro- groove on a book, I can do that. grammed, and we lock. And we have Sometimes it’s easier to learn some- three guitar players. Two play a rhyth- thing on a small scale. mic part, then the other will play a MD: When recording, does Periphery more melodic harmony or layer. On grid everything? Do you do any live “Erised,” I’m following the bass part in takes? And are you replicating Misha the first verse, but in the second verse Mansoor’s programmed drum parts? I’m accenting the vocal lines. In other Matt: On the new album we tracked songs it’s about being truly tight with everything separately with real drums the and bass. That’s a staple of and real amps. We wanted to do a full our music. live album, not in terms of us record- MD: Are there multiple meters in ing live in a room together, but sepa- “Make Total Destroy”? rately the performances are live. Matt: It’s all in four. If you listen to the Whoever writes the song usually has downbeat of the cymbal, you’ll hear an idea for the drum part. Misha uses that it’s 8th notes all the time. But we MATT HALPERN

play around with different rhythms to utes, you’ll find that for every inch make it sound like we’re playing with you go back, the harder the exercise the feel. becomes. That really builds power MD: Periphery plays a lot of odd and agility. I always work on the feet time signatures. together, because you never know Matt: Watching Dream Theater when you’ll need that. rehearse on this latest tour we did MD: Some of your recent YouTube with them, we’d see them messing videos, such as “Improvised Grooves,” around with twenty-six and eleven are as informative as the Periphery and nineteen. We like to incorporate records. One thing is obvious: You those ideas into our music too, and don’t always rely on double pedal. we want it to be digestible so that the Matt: During high school I was in a audience is always bobbing their band playing reggae, acoustic rock, heads. It’s putting odd meters into a and dance music, all of it on a simple certain master rhythm. kick, snare, hi-hat setup. I really MD: “Erised” has shades of Allan worked on my single-kick technique Holdsworth, as well as killer 32nd- to play a dynamic range. I practiced in note fills and a drum solo. live situations playing bass drum pat- Matt: The solo was one pass. Nothing terns alternately with my left and right was planned; it was improvised. I like foot. I never enjoyed practicing the randomness of it. monotonous things like RRRRRR, MD: What do you practice now? LLLLLL. I’d do it live in front of an Matt: I’m always working on creating audience. That forces you to get it new grooves. Mike Mangini can play right. You have to figure it out, and with his left hand in one meter while you can’t screw up. his right hand and right foot are in MD: You didn’t drill Stick Control with another. Then he subdivides more a metronome? meters between each limb. That’s Matt: No. I’d always play songs or inspiring to me, so I’m working on albums or work on freeform soloing, that. I have an upcoming Meinl clinic as opposed to reading a chart or that will include Benny Greb, Mike working with a metronome. I work Johnston, and Hannes Grossmann, out ideas in front of an audience. so I have to pull something out to I’ll think about what I want to play, hold my own. I’m conceptualizing a then I’ll go for it. If I nail it in a high- performance—there will be a start, a pressure situation, that proves I can middle, excitement, peaks and val- do it at any time. Then I go back and leys, and a finish. It’s more event work on it. By improvising I come up focused than technique focused. with things that I can use in songs. MD: What do you do to maintain MD: That’s risk taking. your technique? Matt: I was talking to Mike Mangini Matt: For speed I’ll play on pillows or about this. He spends a lot of time work on wrist exercises. To practice practicing, but he really implements subdividing hands and feet I work on it in front of an audience. Now, I different patterns where I don’t need wouldn’t try to play a really crazy a drumset. I take a basic rudiment or Horacio Hernandez left-foot-clave pattern and apply it to each limb, solo in front of an audience. I don’t go then combine all that. I work on play- off on a tangent and throw people off. ing linear grooves with one hand. On It has to pertain to what I’m doing. airplanes I place my feet in front of But if you have a way to accent a me at a 90-degree angle, so they’re brand-new rhythm that incorporates flat. Then I pitch my heels as high as some of the things you’ve worked on they’ll go, so I’m flexing my calves. but isn’t run of the mill, then go for it. Then I simultaneously drop down the If it steps on the band or confuses the heels on both feet. I do that as fast as audience, don’t do it. I improvise possible, for five minutes. After five where it’s appropriate. But the best minutes I move my feet back one inch drummers are risk takers; you have to and repeat. Doing that for forty min- take the risks to get the rewards.

56 MODERN DRUMMER • July 2012