BATTERY DRUMMER INTERVIEW : Mike Mitlyng /Jeff Carlson Band

1.What is your name and what band do you play for?

 Mike Mitlyng, Drummer for the Jeff Carlson Band

2.Who made you want to play drums and why? 

I was hooked when I heard Y&T and Quiet Riot in the early 80’s Leonard Haze and Frankie Banali. Their drum sounds and power were huge for me.

3.When did you get your first kit? 

 

4.Where your parents supportive of you and your loud / expensive new habit?

Tell us about it…CB700 I found at a yard sale during a job I worked at a landscape co. in the summer of of ‘85. I never played drums but always wanted to. In hindsight, I wish I would have taken drum lessons as I’m self-taught.  I originally learned to read music on the flute, then the bass clarinet. Drums were my actual passion but there wasn’t an empty seat in drum class so I decided I would do that instead. It was real cool at that time as I was the only guy in a class full of girls so that ruled!

 Great question! I grew up around music. Grandparents traveled the west coast singing gospel, even having a tv show on PBS airing sundays. My mom was a principal singer in Don Arden’s show here in Las Vegas called “Jubilee!”, appeared in Rocky IV during the James Brown number “Living in America”. They were completely supportive.

5.What drum performance on an album is perfection to you? 

Many, one in particular is  Tony McAlpine’s Maximum Security. Deen Castronovo is an absolute monster on this and all of the albums he’s recorded

6.Tell us about your current kit and set up in DETAIL.

 

A Premier Resonator birch kit. Toms are 10, 12, 14, 16 toms 22”X16 bass drum, 14X7 Ddrum ash snare. Sabian HHX Dave Weckl Series cymbals, all DW Hardware.  I’ve owned at least 20 different kits (Pearl, Yamaha, DW, Sonor, Rogers, Mapex, Ddrum, Drumcraft) but very time I bring these drums to a gig, the sound engineer, who ever it is, claim these drums sound incredible and the do. 

7.If you could have a dream kit tell us about it in DETAIL. 

 If I could get a dream kit it would be a Ddrum Ash kit, or a Tama Walnut/Birch in the exact same size and depth as my Premier Resonator with the shell technology utilized today.


8.Name your top 5 drummers excluding Neil Peart and Mike Portnoy.

Leonard Haze,
 Tommy Lee,
 Deen Castronovo,
 Todd Sucherman,
 Bernard Perdie 

9. Do you prefer Live or Studio?

 I prefer live. It’s much more fun for me and get a rush on the crowd/audience. 

10.Do drummers really get all the chicks and if so how do we convince the guitarist?
 No comment, that’s classified information. Let’s just say, drummers use their sticks better…