Hi I'm Mark Guiliana, I'm happy to be here ICMP today for afternoon class.
I started playing drum when I was 15.
There are no musicians in my family or aniyhing it was kind of on a whim
there wasn't much of a reason start taking drum lessons but it was just kind of another things to do.
Trying to my parents always wanted me to be active and keep busy.
So I started studying with the local teacher his name is Joe Bergamini.
He is an incredibly accomplished drummer himself and again I didn't have many expectations but I was pretty quickly that I realized that there might be special relationship forming with drums and with music and really it was just always a joyful things for so I just kept chasing that feeling and here we are.
There are many important responsibilities of a drummer and across all styles most often were responsible for providing a strong feeling in the music and thats something that can always be improved and be honed and also provide the music with an appropriate sound the great sound for that given music.
I think you know with the strong feeling and strong groove and a great sound.
You can really get foot in the door in a lot of different musical situations and then it only isn't until those things are really delivered that you can start to provide may be your own take on things or really let you own personality enter the music.
So for me it's just I'm always thinking about fundamentals and making sure that those are strong because I will need those every time I enter a new musical situations.
Q:How did you get the gig with David Bowie?
There is an incredible composer,arranger,musician Maria Schneider in New York and David was fan of hers and he reached out to collaborate on a song.
She has like a big band in New York and I... She reached out to me to be a part of song so that was in July of 2014 and one song we did a couple rehearsals with him and recorded one song and that came out as the only new song on like a greatest hits compliaton called "nothing has changed" and then it was after that experience together that he came to see Donny McCaslin quartet play in New York which features Donny playing saxophone Jason Lindner playing keyboards and Tim Lefevere playing and myself.
I believe it actually even Maria's idea she said to David "Hey you should just do a whole album with these guys " and that led to "Black star".
So in many ways it's a very organic typical story of just being around and personal connections and all those things and experience was incredible I can't say enough nice things about him and about his process and it was really incredible start to finish he was very very present.
You know we spent a lot of time and all of the performances on the album are we were playing together and he singing with us and I think that really helped.
You know get the performances of the songs that were the best for record.
It was an exceptional experience.
Q:What would you advise new players?
Single most important things to do is to play with other musicians.
I think of course there's lot of homework we need to do on our individual instruments but that can only get us so far.
You know like to think of it as if you are practicing drums you'll become a better drummer but by playing with other people you've become a better musician.
