JIM MACPHERSON:

IF I WERE A CARPENTER . . .

"They stole me from another band!" Jim declared at me down the phone from San Fransisco in late February, 1993, where the Breeders were finishing off recording the new album, Last Splash.

"He was in a Dayton band, Ranging Mantras," Kelley told me earlier that evening [well it was something like midnight, UK time, when I phoned, almost teatime in San Fran], "and we saw him play out last Summer. We were doing some demos, me and Kim, and we said, 'That Macpherson guy, he's a good drummer, maybe he'll drum for us'. He did, and we kept him. We stole him!"

"Then they would ask me to come over and practice," he continued. "And then they asked me to play with josephine to see how that went over. It went over real good, so they asked me to do the European tour.

"We all played well together and Kim lied my drumming, so she asked me to be in the band."

Jim's leaving actually broke up his previous band. the guitarist and keyboard player have now got a new bassist... as well as a new drummer. Prior to the Breeders' European tour, Raging Mantras had been scheduled to go into a big studio to record a CD.

Of recording with the Breeders he said, "I had to learn how to play to a click track and stuff. It was a whole new ballgame going into a 24-track. The drums sounded better than on an eight-track. I was just in heaven the whole time we recorded."

Do you feel insecure with job as Breeders' drummer. After all, you're the third person to sit in the drummer's seat in almost three years?

"I was insecure going into the studio about it, but now that I've done recording... at least I've got that over with.

"I'm just going to take it one day at a time. I'm just going to play drums for 'em as well as I can, and let it just take its course. I don't need to worry about the future or nothing."

Did you give up a day-job to join the Breeders?

"Yeah, I did. I was doing construction work. I was just starting my own business too - so I've just put that on hold, because I'd much rather do this."

Were you a brick-layer?

"No. I was a carpenter. I used to do painting. A handyman."

A jack-of-all-trades?

"Yeah [laughs], but I like playing drums a lot better!"

How long have you been playing drums?

"I've been playing for fourteen years, since Fourth Grade. that's like Elementary School - eleven or twelve years old.

"I started playing the snare drum and then it moved on."

Who were you inspired by?

"Buddy Rich, Neil Peart from Rush, and..." The name of King Crimson and Yes tub-thumper, Bill Bruford, escapes him, "I can't believe I've forgotten his name!"

I could hear every brain cell in his brain over the phone, "He's my favourite drummer!"

What about Ginger Baker from Cream?

"I like him. I never listened to a lot of their albums though - I was young when they were rocking. I grew up with the Neil Pearts and stuff like that.

"I really like Kenny Aaronoff. He's a really good studio drummer. He drums for John Cougar Mellancamp."

How fast can you paradiddle, I joked.

"I can paradiddle as fast until my hands will fall off!" he laughs. "I used to be in drum corps, so I used to practise stuff like that a lot."

I then get him to describe a paradiddle, but it's so long-winded that I won't bother to type it up [I'm a lazy sod].

Saying as you're into more progressive rock, I presume you'd be into a much bigger kit than a small basic one.

"You know, I had a seven piece kit with my old band, but now, since I've been playing with the Breeders, I just play with trap kit, y'know, just a five piece.

"I think it's neater when a drummer has a smaller kit. I like to get blown away by a drummer that's got a small kit than a drummer that's got a huge kit."

I seem to remember Neil Peart had a big kit in the late Seventies.

"Yeah," he laughs. "That used to be my goal in life - to always have a monster kit. But it never materialised."

Have you ever had two bass drums?

"Yes, I did have two bass drums at one point. that was back in High School. It only lasted about one year, then I got a new kit and it only had one bass drum."

Have you ever used a bass drum pedal with two hammers on it?

"I don't use them. I like getting blown away by a guy that can do a lot more fast drum patterns than two bass drum pedals on one bass drum.

Getting back to school - would you have been a High School jock?

"No, I wasn't. I was a High School druggie. yeah, I was a dopehead." he laughed.

So you didn't go out with any cheerleaders then?

"No, not at all. I was just burned out severely."

You've recovered obviously.

"Yeah. I'm not a druggie anymore. I don't smoke dope anymore. I get high off watching my little girl now!

"I've just had a little baby girl [or rather his wife had, I presume]. Her name's Caitlin Bettie Macpherson. She's out in Frisco right now. My wife and little girl came out to see me!"

Does your daughter like the Breeders?

"Do you think Caitlin likes the Breeders?" he asks his wife.

"Yeah," he laughs. "She's almost starting to walk. She goes over to Kim's house when we practise. She likes the sounds coming from the basement."

Maybe you could get her to sing backing vocals.

"As a matter of fact, I think she's going to be a drummer! She's real nervous and her hands are always going at ninety miles an hour - we'll work her into the line-up!"

Do you and your wife plan on having any more?

"Sure," he consults his wife one moment, and returning to the phone he laughs. "We're probably gonna have another eight or nine kids!"

You'll have to start writing for the Breeders to bring some extra money in!

"I've been giving Kim lyrics. She looks at them and says, 'Oh, that;s a good idea,' then she gives them back to me [laughs]. So far, Kim hasn't seen anything that she really went crazy for. But I keep trying, I definitely keep trying."

Did she ask if you had any ideas?

"Yeah, yeah. I keep giving her ideas, and, maybe, one day, she'll like'em. At first, I was giving her all these lyrics about death and stuff because my mom had recently passed away. So I was in this real bad spot and all I could think of was just being, like, depressed and bombed out."

Caitlin starts to cry in the background and Jim remarks that she is starting to teethe.

he also asks me what I thought of the Breeders' shows I saw. I tell him that I would have preferred to have heard some new material, to which he replies, "We've got a whole bunch of new songs now!"

What Breeders songs do you enjoy playing?

"Grunge [pronounced grun-gay], Invisible Man, Don't Call Home, Limehouse, Iris... all of the new ones are really fun. I like No Aloha because there's a lot of fills in it [laughs] - I get to go wild!

Who's the coolest band in Ohio, The Breeders or Afgan Whigs?

"The Breeders, definitely," he laughs.

Reprinted from Rock a My Soul #3

Jim has since left The Breeders. He is playing with Real Lulu and Guided by Voices. Try Big Beef and Guided by Voices Homepage  for more info.