Peace within the Rhythms
Drummer Kris Thomas Finds Freedom in Music
By Pamela V. Brown
It would appear that high speed drumming would be a frenzied activity, but for professional drummer and percussionist Kris Thomas, it's a voyage into the depth and freedom of music. With his dynamic stick speed, mastery of multiple styles of contemporary drumming from explosive rock and roll and high energy Latin salsa to blues, funk and reggae, Thomas is at peace with it all.
Whether performing on stage or noodling at home on his various drum kits and percussion instruments, Thomas effortlessly explores rhythmic possibilities both by themselves and within the context of other music. "It's all about serving the song," he said.
Thomas, 40, is drummer for the Willie K Band, for the Planetary Bandits who perform with Willie Nelson when Nelson is in town and Rio Ritmo, a salsa band. He also performs twice a week with the Celtic Tigers, a popular band that plays lively Irish music and rock covers, with whom on his acoustic drum set he mimics the effects of the traditional Irish drum, the bodhran.
While onstage, Thomas is a picture of efficiency in motion: all four limbs in constant yet controlled movement. Thomas also infuses flash – stick tosses and no fewer than four types of stick twirls – making it look easy, like it's second nature to him.
And in fact, creating music from rhythms seems to come naturally to Thomas. Witness him examining a new percussion instrument for the first time: his quick-witted stream of consciousness chat slows, he quiets, then begins experimenting with the piece. Tap it here with fingers, there with the heel of a hand, try it with a mallet, combine it with sounds from another instrument, maybe wind chimes, castanets or a gong.
Yet in person offstage, unlike some drummers, Thomas is mellow – no constant rapping on tables or hyperactive bouncing legs. Instead he's calm, respectful and alternates between being wickedly funny and poetically insightful.
A Maui resident for 10 years, Thomas arrived here
by way of
Multi-talented, he has a well-equipped recording studio in his home from where he records, mixes and engineers CDs for other artists and composes and records his own original music.
Thomas began drumming as a child, progressing quickly beating on pots and pans with wooden spoons, to a flimsy toy drum kit that he destroyed in three days, eventually rescuing his older brother's "severely abandoned" drum set. "It was a living entity," he said.
As a child, drumming served as Thomas' escape from school and authority. He soon learned about the gifts available to him through music. The first time he played an entire song through at the age of 12 with a guitarist, "I burst out laughing," he said. "I was so ecstatic to be playing a whole song with another person. That stuff really hooks you in."
Eventually Thomas found himself playing in a band called Trancefusion with a group of 40 year old men – he was 16. They told him he was the best drummer around. "I was a little intimidated because I was the young pup in a pack of wolves, but they kind of took me under their wings, if wolves have wings," he said.
The group didn't have many paid gigs but with them he learned the magic of improvisation, often jamming for three hours straight. "We'd open our eyes at the end and look at each other and know that we shared a bond. We went on a journey."
That musical journey is one through which Thomas simultaneously experiences the exhilaration of freedom and peaceful serenity.
"It transcends time and space. I'm whaling away in a cacophony of bliss and it's as if time stands still." The challenge, Thomas said, is being conscious of the magic of the moment without becoming too analytical thus pulling yourself out of it. If you achieve the right balance, "you feel a stillness."
Holding onto that stillness in the midst of being a full-time musician in a relatively small market can be a challenge, but working with talented musicians helps keep things in perspective. He feels privileged to play with master musician Willie K and American icon Willie Nelson, and has enjoyed doing some drum tech work recently with Mick Fleetwood.
Thomas has learned that music world also creates unexpected magical connections, like the first time he met Willie Nelson. He and band mates in the now-defunct group Planetary Pulse were recording an album in Haiku. The band's guitarist, who was friends with Nelson's wife, invited Nelson to come over. "Lo and behold, in walks Willie Nelson, picks up a guitar and starts playing," Thomas said. "He didn't even say 'Hi' first. We're all looking around like 'Is this real?' It was like in a movie."
With the gift of making a living through creating music, comes the need for accountability – a responsibility Thomas takes to heart.
"It's a big responsibility when you play as an artist," he said. "You can't just be mindlessly banging on your instrument. You have an obligation to say something of value and depth, to be going somewhere with meaning and vision and coming out of it with a sense of bringing something good into the world."
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Drums
of the World Years ago Kris Thomas began accumulating percussion pieces from around the world, eventually creating a one-of-a-kind World Drum Kit that features instruments representing every continent on the planet. "I used to walk around my house and play one of them at a time and set it down," he said. "At that point they were toys. I wanted to make them into tools." Within a year he conceptualized a stand that held his djembe (African drum) and doumbek (Egyptian drum). Imagining the convenience and functionality of having all of the instruments on the stand, allowing seamless movement from piece to piece, he soon saw places to mount other percussion pieces. "The more things I mounted on it, the more places I had to mount more things," he said. The kit now encompasses more than 70 percussion instruments, including a Tibetan gong and an Eastern Indian temple bell, all of which can be played using any number of implements - drumsticks, mallets, hands, fingers, even one that is blown into. The oldest piece
in the kit is what Thomas calls a mortar shell bell, made from a
discarded military mortar shell he found while ditching school as
a 13 year old in |