Age: 27
From: Buffalo, NY
Current Band: The Raven Society
Previous Bands: The Wintersleepers, Displaced (substitute drummer for their rotating cast of quitting drummers)
Handed: Right
Favorite Beats/Licks: I prefer situations where the drummer can mix it up and play more than just a four on the floor.
Sticks: Vic Firth Buddy Rich Series, Black Swamp Bamboo series for timpani, and Vic Firth Van Sice for mallet work.
Websites: www.ravensociety.com, www.girlthatdrums.com
Discography:
The Raven Society – Open Letters to No One (Helioperos, 2005)
The Wintersleepers – EP (self-release, 2004)

DG: What inspired you to play drums, and how old were you when you started?
LH: I actually started off on piano, which was my dream instrument. When it came time for grade school band, they obviously didn’t need a piano player. So my mother spoke to the band director about which instrument would be best for me given my piano background, and he stuck me in the percussion section. I wanted to play the clarinet! Thank God I didn’t. I was 10.

DG: How did you learn to play?
LH: At first, I just trained along side the other kids in the band. But as I became a little more obsessed with it, my mother bought some lessons at the local music shop for me. I remember sitting there as my teacher blasted out rudiments in machine gun style, and it was the most impressive thing I had seen. We started off in Chapin Jazz book, and I owe a lot of my current playing style to that teacher [Mark Crimi]. Not sure what ever happened to him.

DG: What was your first kit?
LH: A 1989 Ludwig Rocker I. It started off as just a simple 5-piece, but quickly mutated into a late-80’s hair rock band’s 24 piece kit, roto toms and all. (Thanks, Alex Van Halen.) It was pretty crazy. Luckily I broke it back down to a 6-piece kit later on, which then became a 4-piece when I started gigging more.

DG: What kind of kit do you play on now?
LH: I have always played Ludwig, and currently have two classic maple Ludwig kits:
6-piece rare finish white/pink/grey marbleized finish 10/12/14/16/20
5-piece emerald shadow 10/12/14/24
The white kit usually doesn’t leave the house anymore, unless there’s a studio or jazz gig, and the green kit is my current gigging kit. I almost always play in a 10/14 configuration on the toms, as a 4-piece.

DG: What style of drums/percussion do you play?
LH: I play pretty much any style, depending on the situation I’m in. I like to blend a lot of things together and pull influences from other styles of music into my beats. I’ve been told my current style with The Raven Society is very Bonham reminiscent, but I can find lots of Jazz and Buddy Rich in what I do.

DG: Have you ever taken lessons? If so, where? Would you recommend lessons to others?
LH: I have taken lessons and studied at university, as well as attended several master’s classes. I think lessons are an important way to get an all-around exposure to drumming and music in general. It will expose you to playing situations that you wouldn’t have otherwise put yourself in. I’ve studied for different lengths with Mark Crimi, Tony Miranda (the FingerStix Guy), and Susan Martin Tariq. I’ve also been to several masters classes with Don Liuzzi, Michael Bookspan, Michael Burrit, Alessandra Belloni, Gordon Stout, John Beck among several others. The important thing I think with lessons is to find a teacher who won’t force-feed you a playing style, but let you develop your own while correcting your technique.

DG: Who are your current influences?
LH: I’ll never stop being in awe of Buddy Rich, but I also like listening to Danny Carey (Tool), Jon Theodore (The Mars Volta), Nebojsa Johan Zivkovic (solo artist and composer) and less obvious, but beautiful, drum ambience by people like Orri Páll Dýrason. (Sigur Ros)

DG: How do you carry all your equipment?
LH: Find willing and able people to assist. ? I have a set of SKB Roto-X cases which are a Godsend while on tour, and recently bought a van thanks to a drunk driver totaling my car.

DG: Do you get intimidated when you go into a drum store?
LH: Luckily we have a drums-only shop in town that I’ve been going to for years and years, and the owner knows me by name, so there’s nothing to be intimidated about. If I go into a larger store like Banjo Center, which never has what I want anyway, I often find myself getting so frustrated that I end up sitting down at a kit and playing the fastest, most intricate beat I can come up with to get someone to pay attention to me. Then I get the ever popular, “Wow, a girl drummer, you don’t see many of those these days.”

DG: What, if any, is the difference between playing with male as opposed to female musicians?
LH: Something that disappoints me is that a lot of female musicians, either by choice or by situation, are reduced to sex appeal rather than musicianship. I’ve seen more than one band dominated by female musicians that I thought was just completely awful, yet they pack the house each time they play. The reason is because they get up on stage and make all sorts of sexual innuendos. We’re in a day and age where that is your choice, and power to you if you choose that route, but I’ve also seen so many really talented female musicians who get little or no recognition because they’ve chosen to focus on quality of musicianship first. I’m still waiting for the day we can have a 300lb harmonica playing front WOMAN and have them sell millions of records. My only other pet peeve is girls that don’t hit hard enough while playing drums. Come on ladies, do it for Gloria! :-)

DG: Was there ever anything that kept you from playing?
LH: I did get a little bit of burnout after studying in college. At some point, the youthful optimism goes away and your early 20s reality of adult life sets in. Luckily a run away trip to Germany for a few months cleared that right up, and the first thing I did when I got back was start looking for people to play with.

DG: How long were you playing before you knew this was the thing for you?
LH: I don’t think I ever sat down and said “this will be my life.” When I was in grade school and did the band thing, a lot of parents would come up afterwards and ask me what college I was planning to study at. So it was more as if it was decided for me that I would do music, but I do think I would have come to that conclusion on my own eventually. I just had fun doing it. Being a musician in a country so sterilized by pop-music images is really hard, and beats you down every day. But it’s the “you will never succeed” that keeps me going. For all those that said I couldn’t, it makes me try that much more.

DG: Do you have any drum tuning tips?
LH: Why do so many people forget to tune the bottom tom head? It’s all in head selection and that bottom head! I like to keep the kick pretty loose on the 20”, and medium tight on the 24”. My snare is usually cranked as high as it can go for a loud crack due to the thick head I have to use, but my resonant head is about medium. I guess the biggest tip would be to tune cross-wise, and then push your fist into the drum more than once while tuning to seat the head and stretch it out. Otherwise you’ll just be retuning the first song in!

DG: What drumming resources (stores, books, teachers, magazines, etc.) do you recommend?
LH: “Advanced Techniques for the Modern Drummer” by Chapin
“Stick Control” by Stone
“Even in the Odds” by Humphrey

I really recommend going to clinics offered by many professional drummers at local colleges and music stores. College drum departments almost always have one every semester.

DG: Do you have a day job. If so, what is it?
LH: I work for a giant corporate behemoth bank doing accessibility and user-focused web design.

DG: Tell us about your experience leading the 1994 World University Games marching band quint section.
LH: It was a bit surreal, playing in front of 80,000+ in Rich Stadium with the largest marching band I had ever seen. It was a great cross section of talent, and I ran head to head with my greatest rival who ended up leading the snare section. I wonder what ever became of him? He’s probably in some world-renowned orchestra by now.

DG: How did you become involved with The Raven Society?
LH: The bassist and I have been floating between bands trying to find the perfect front-person. We were briefly in an all-girl band that didn’t quite go as planned, and split to form The Wintersleepers. When things began to sour there, Justin had just left his band also so it was sort of a natural progression and I’m happy to be able to drag along my bass player for the fun.

DG: Can you describe some of your touring experiences?
LH: It’s tiring, unrelenting, money-draining, hunger-driven, gas guzzling, and the most fun you’ll have in your life! I really urge anyone who hasn’t toured but has thought about it to just go out and do it. You’re not getting any younger. Sleep on some stranger’s floor for the night and eat weird food you pray is vegetarian. You’ll thank me for it later.

DG: The Raven Society is planning a European tour in 2006. What cities are you planning on hitting? Are you excited about the tour?
LH: Yes, this is very much in the planning stages right now. Since I handle most of the administrative duties of the band, and I’m completely obsessed with Germany, that’s where we’re going to focus this time around. I’m hoping to get into most of the major cities, Frankfurt, Cologne, Berlin, Munich, Hamburg, maybe Dusseldorf. It’s really an excuse for me to get back to the country I love and bring along my band mates for the fun! I’ve been to a few shows in Germany, and there’s just something about the music scene there—they really just enjoy seeing bands there, and there doesn’t seem to be such a focus on if you’re female or not. I could have just been to some odd shows, but that’s my impression. I’m looking forward to how it will pan out.

DG: What do you believe the drummer's role is in a band?
LH: The drummer is the foundation and the backbone. You can listen to the greatest band, but if the drummer isn’t on top of things, or has sloppy time and technique, it just won’t sound good. Likewise, an amazing drummer can make a bad band sound good. A conductor once said “A composition is only as good as the musicians playing it.” That’s very true.

DG: What was the greatest compliment you’ve been given about your drumming?
LH: That I was Bonham stuck in a woman’s body.

DG: What are your aspirations as a drummer?
LH: I’d love for this to be all I do, all day, every day.

DG: What would you be doing if you weren't a drummer?
LH: I honestly have no idea. So much of every day of my life has been devoted to drumming that I can’t really imagine what I would have done had I not become a drummer.

© September, 2005 Happy Mazza Media, LLC.
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