Interview: Andrew Booker

Andrew has been No-Man’s live drummer since 2008.

How did you first hear of the band?

I’d heard of Tim first. I’d seen his Flame album (with Richard Barbieri) in Our Price in Muswell Hill in 1995, with artwork by the Bill Smith studio, same as the new King Crimson Vrooom album. I then joined a band that I later found out Tim and Steven were friends with. We were doing a gig in Cambridge in May 1996, and in the pub at some point someone pointed out that the guy in the stripy top was Tim Bowness. I met up with Tim properly a few weeks later and found out about No-Man. Somehow I ended up with at least one compilation cassette, either from him or another friend, and was hooked.

Was there an audition process to become the live drummer or did Tim/Steven ask you?

There was no audition, I was lucky there! I think Tim and Steven both said they would use me if they ever put another live band together. That was back in 1997 or 1998. Tim put a solo band together in 2004 and offered me the job. I was using electronic drums at that point, which worked out well, as they fitted the music and could be used quietly without drowning him out. The 2008 live band was essentially Tim’s live band.

How would you say the live band has evolved between the short 2008 tour and the longer 2012 tour?

I would say there was a significant increase in confidence all round. Tim’s vocals were struggling to compete with the band in 2008, but a year or so later he got himself a new microphone which worked much better for him on stage, and suddenly he was blasting out. Also I think he adjusted his delivery slightly for live singing, and has been sounding great on stage ever since. I think Steven was more at ease with the band in the later shows. He’d not worked with any of us before in 2008. He was more relaxed in rehearsals in 2011/2012, knowing that we could pull off a good show! As for the band sound, there was a bit less of an effort to try and recreate the sounds of the recordings in 2011, not that there was much in 2008. We dropped the likes of All Sweet Things, Truenorth and Returning Jesus, for which we had attempted a similar feel to the originals, and replaced them with My Revenge On Seattle and Beaten By Love, for which we had put together our own band arrangements as we liked, with our own sounds. I’m not sure if anyone else was doing anything especially different, give or take a change of amp. The main thing for my part was that I switched to acoustic drums, which completely changed my game. Also my playing was a lot stronger in 2012. I’d joined Sanguine Hum earlier that year and was getting a regular workout.

When Beaten By Love was revived, did Tim and Steven let you hear the original demo?

Tim sent it round, with suggestions for how the live band could go about structuring a live version in preparation for the 2011 Leamington gig. I’ve forgotten the demo, as we immediately set about making a live band version in our own way, and I now only remember that. The version we came up with initially was quite upbeat. Steven then joined the rehearsals and deemed it far too jaunty, mainly because of what I was doing! Hence the more sombre funeral-march feel of the live version. After the Leamington gig we got together in Steve Bingham’s house and recorded both gloomy and upbeat versions. The gloomy one eventually made it onto Tim’s Abandoned Dancehall Dreams album three years later. 

Any plans on the horizon for the band to tour the material from Love You To Bits?

Not that I know of. Last I heard is that Steven might be willing to play live if the album does well. I’d love to go out and play some more No-Man gigs again, and I demoed some drums for LYTB about five years ago, so some of that material would be familiar were we to attempt it. That’s assuming I’m involved at all. It’s seven years since the last shows, during which Steven has had a constant busy schedule with his solo career, so my expectations of anything happening are low, realistically, I think! But if I get the call I’ll be ready.

How would you say the arrangements of tracks differed from the studio to live performances when it comes to drumming?

In general the live arrangements were a function of the live members’ tastes and abilities. Usually, trying to recreate the detailed production of the album versions just didn’t work, but instead we came up with something that at least had the right chord sequence and structure, and that sounded good. For the drums, my job is to fit the band arrangement, and that may or may not involve playing something similar to the studio version. For one thing, the band needs to be kept in time, when a lot of the original music is drumless. There’s never been a backing track, and the only person who’s ever had a click in their ear is me. Sometimes in the 2008 set, where there was not really a drum part to the original, I covered a tuned part with the electronic pads, for example in Returning Jesus. Sometimes I did both, for example Truenorth begins with a heavily delayed piano sound, and then a single drum figure that comes in after a verse or so. I played both of those parts live (delayed piano on the pad block, drum rhythm with the left foot). Otherwise, in something like Wherever There Is Light, I’ll be playing something light that tries not to spoil the dynamic of the song, but that keeps everyone together. My favourite example of that was Back When You Were Beautiful. The original just has a brushed ride cymbal. Those can get a bit lost on stage, and are boring when done all the time, whereas I found that beating the floor tom and snare drum softly with maracas provided the ideal low-key pulse for the ballad. I loved that live version. Other times, I try for something akin to the original but find it needs to be souped up for the louder band sound. Mixtaped, for example, is a quiet, brooding track on the album. Live, this became one of our typical whisper-to-a-scream pieces, where we absolutely blasted out some of the sections. In the quiet bits I followed the example of the original and played about with beat with some light hotrods. Then in the loud bits I had to give it about five times more power. We often add drops and lifts in the dynamics that aren’t on the record, to make it easier for Tim to sing over. One stand-out example is Time Travel In Texas. The original has a sampled drum loop and a fairly even dynamic. Live, we stick to a broadly similar drum pattern, but take it right down for the verses. Simply introducing the stepped dynamic caused all sorts to happen in that arrangement. We still play it all the time in Tim’s live band, it continues to evolve, and you’re definitely hearing the sound of the band having fun. Occasionally I feel awkward about that, given the lyrics are about domestic violence.