Rock Notes was pleased to interview Doane Perry and Martin Barre before their performance with Jethro Tull on August 8th. Doane Perry is the drummer for Tull and also has a solo project called Thread (along with Vince DiCola and Ellis Hall). Thread has one CD out on Laughing Gull Records and he mentioned that the next Thread album is already in the works. Doane’s been writing some new material with Vince DiCola and has some stuff already on tape. Doane enjoys having an outlet to write his own music and commented, “It gives me a renewed vigor in my approach to playing in the [Tull] band.”

Doane is from New York City and has been with Jethro Tull for close to fourteen years. He said, “I really do still enjoy it as much as I did right in the beginning. Because it really is very exciting music to play and very challenging to play...it doesn’t get by me that when we’re playing well, how good the band sounds and what a unique band it is.”

What follows is an excerpt from our interview with Doane Perry:

Rock Notes: “Could you tell us something about your tour with Kitaro and Jon Anderson?”

Doane Perry: “I really enjoyed that...I had wrongly pegged Kitaro as perhaps a new age artist. When in fact really it was more like playing with Pink Floyd. It was very powerful and big, with a big production, and big sound. We did a combination of Kitaro’s music from previous albums, we did some Yes material, and then we did some material from an album that Jon and Kitaro did together. We played in the states and in Japan, it was very exciting music. It was very orchestral...It was fun to do...One night Mickey Hart from the Grateful Dead played with us...We had no idea what we were going to play. It was probably the closest I’ll ever get to playing in the Grateful Dead as far as complete improvisation.”

RN: “Do you have a favorite Jethro Tull song?”

DP: “I can’t say that I have a favorite. I have ones that I really like for different reasons and not always just because I like to play them. I mean from Wond’ring Aloud which I don’t play on at all, I just love as a piece of music, to playing a song like Black Sunday which is very involved and not because necessarily it’s a difficult piece of music, but it’s a very exciting, driving piece of music, and I love everything about that, the words, the melody, all the different changes, the moods in it. I think there’s some great stuff on Under Wraps and I have to say that I’m always a little disappointed that was one of the albums with fans that didn’t seem to go down as well.”

RN: “What music do you like to listen to?”

DP: “I grew up listening to classical music and didn’t know what pop music was until The Beatles came along. I played piano before I played drums and I just played classical piano. It was a good thing to have background on keyboards...The other day I had a great thrill. I got to meet Yehudi Menuhin, who is one of my favorite all-time musicians, in the hotel in London. I'm just thinking that if I can play with the kind of joy and vitality that he plays with at his age, then I'll be happy...If I could play any other instrument I’d play the violin...I listen to alot of classical music at home. I listen to alot of jazz. I listen to pop music, celtic, folk, rock. I really don’t have any prejudice against any kind of music as long as it’s well written and it’s well played. If there’s some kind of emotional content there, I don’t care what the label on it says. I love Weather Report, Crash Test Dummies, The Beatles, John Coltrane, Vaughn Williams, Stravinsky, Genesis, Sting.”

Doane is an avid internet user and recommends M&M Music and The St. Cleve Chronicle for picking up the Thread CD. The album is very progressive. It features some catchy lyrics and has a great overall sound. We are looking forward to hearing the next album when it is released.

We would like to thank Doane Perry for taking the time to chat with us.

Interview by Stephanie Perry and John Perry

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