NL: I've noticed a lot of drummers have attended your recent shows at Jazzbah in Albuquerque. What do drummers talk about with you when you're on break between sets?
KL: All sorts of secret drummer stuff...[LAUGHS]...usually what gear I use and why do I set up a particular way, how I get my drums to sound the way they do - questions like that. Other times, we just shoot the shit. One of my favorite drummers of all time is a local cat - John Bartlit. He is a few years older than me, but we were in the UNM Music Department at the same time. I DIG HIS PLAYING! When he shows up, we always talk about the old days and what not. It is so nice to get feedback from my peers and friends whom I respect as musicians - a real blessing.
NL: So, you hang out with drummers a lot?
KL: Actually, no. Not at all, unless I'm in Los Angeles or Nashville. I mostly hang out with guitarists and bass players - always have, actually. There's a great young guitarist I've been hanging out with - Claudio Tolousse Perez - really dig his sound. I'm blessed to have my Sez Who bandmates to hang out with, because they are so damned good at what they do.
NL: You mentioned "gear" earlier. Tell me more about your gear.
KL: I use different Recording Custom and old-school Maple Custom - I never used the Absolute series - Yamaha kits depending on where I am and what type of gig I'm on. Lately, I've been mainly using a tiny bop kit for the Jazzbah gigs. It's a small jazz club, so I tried the newer Yamaha Stage Custom Birch drums for a night because I didn't want to ship my Recording Customs from the east coast for two gigs...and ended up keeping them! After spending a few minutes tuning them, they sounded perfect.
For all of the kits I almost always use the Yamaha 800-series mid-weight hardware. I haven't needed heavy-duty cymbal stands since the mid-80s when I actually used rack systems and cages - mainly because my physical style and approach has changed over the years. For the smaller jazz gigs, I sometimes use the student model hardware because it is so light, and I am not a "basher" - meaning I don't hit the plates [cymbals] hard. I have used a variety of kick drum pedals from DW to AXIS and Yamaha's high-end chain drives, but always go back to a mid-level strap-driven Yamaha. I love the old-school Yamaha pedals, but if the gig calls for it, I'll use a Yamaha 9500-series double pedal.
For plates, I don't religiously stick to one brand - I've played most of them, and had endorsement agreements with most of them at one time or another - but I don't think there is a "one stop shop" for metallic sounds anymore. I still love my Zildjian K Darks, but I do use Sabian and Paiste Signatures from time-to-time. My jazz cymbals of choice right now are Bosphorus Hammers - all of them. No matter the gig, I am sticking - no pun intended - primarily with larger 15" thin hi-hats.
