Anyone who has seen Chuck Sabo play live will know that he is master of the groove. But there is far more to the Anglicised American drum dude than that. As Backbeat re-discovers…

Best known within drum circles for his long-standing association with pop starlet Natalie Imbruglia and his delicious grooving at various drum events over the years, Chuck Sabo has a reputation in the wider music industry as a top-notch Musical Director, songwriter and producer. As such he is perfectly placed to fill us in on the inner workings of the industry today and the drummers’ lot in The Bigger Picture. All of which he handles beautifully over a mobile phone line while walking his dog…

Other than domestic duties with the dog, what else are you up to today?
I’m being picked up in a few hours to go and do Graham Norton’s show with Natalie. I’ve been working with her again for the last six or seven months, with the release of the new album. We’ve done quite a lot of promo stuff – live TV appearances and things, which has been good. Oh, and we just shot a video for the next single in the Bahamas. Which was tough.

Oh you poor thing…
Actually those kinds of things are generally nowhere near as exciting or glamorous as you’d expect. Days when you’re shooting are really long and you end up hanging around for hours on end. But this time we were out there for a gig too, so we had about eight days there in total. It was a pretty nice trip all in all.

Aside from Natalie’s stuff, what else have you been up to in the last year?
A lot of my time is spent in the studio, writing and producing, and we’ve been working with a girl called Louise Scott in the last year. She’s really good and, fingers crossed, we’re getting close to the position where she’ll have a deal soon. So that’s been an on-going project, and I’ve also been working with Sophie Ellis-Bextor.

I was MD’ing her band and brought in a load of great players, did some live TVs and a showcase date in London and then when things quietened down with her, Natalie was ready to start getting busy again, so things just rolled from one thing to another. In fact I ended up using most of the guys from Sophie’s band with Natalie, which was great.

You’ve had your fingers in lots of different pies over the last few years. Did you always want to do more than ‘just’ play drums?
I bought an acoustic guitar when I was pretty young and I’ve always been very much ‘part of the band’ as opposed to being a hot-shot drummers’ drummer. So I worked with lots of people early on, just to gain experience and get better as a player and so people got to know my name and ask me to do sessions for them. I started earning money as a drummer, which is always good, but as the result of being involved with other players and really having an interest in how a band works, I’ve naturally been drawn towards the writing and production of the thing as a whole.

And as far as being Musical Director for Natalie and Sophie is concerned, does being a drummer put you in an advantageous position, given that pop music relies so heavily on drum loops and ‘the groove’ today?
One of the most important aspects of the MD’s job is to bring in the right players for the gig, build up a good team around the artist and be able to run rehearsals well, so in that sense it’s pretty much open to anyone. But the position does fit well with drummers in lots of ways – he’s usually the guy counting off the tunes and responsible for tempos obviously, and the feel that the rhythm section creates is so important in music today, so I think there are some very valid reasons for drummers being MDs. If they have all the other relevant skills of course.

Do you find yourself using electronics in your role as a drummer to any great extent?
I try and steer as much towards the full acoustic kit as possible as far as live playing is concerned. Then if there are sounds or grooves that have to come from electronic sources I’ll use the technology to work them in some how. But as far as being an employable musician is concerned, knowledge is power and knowing how to use samplers, triggering set-ups, Pro Tools, whatever is really important.

And it’s as important to know when not to use that stuff to. Just as when you’re learning your playing craft it’s vital to understand when not to overplay, you have to know when to lay off the tricks and sounds that electronics allow you. Otherwise the music ends up taking second place if you’re not careful.

You’re so busy doing so many things now – do you ever work on your playing specifically, or is the only time you sit at a kit when you’re writing, recording or whatever?
I have a kit set up at home, where the studio is, so it’s always there ready to go. But I tend to play when we’re actually doing something, rather than go in for extended practice sessions anymore. But I think that’s quite healthy, bearing in mind what it is that I do. It means that I still play a lot rather than just when we’re rehearsing. But sometimes the kit does call me and I sit down and make some noise just for myself.

And do you see yourself getting to the point where you move away from playing so much and concentrate on the writing and production side of things?
Not necessarily. I still love playing drums and certainly I have no desire to give up that side of what I do. The desire to be satisfied as a writer and producer is what keep me working on projects like Louise’s for example, and the industry needs to have finished product landed on their desks now so it’s a lot of work, but playing is still very important to me.

The thing is, A&R people seem to have forgotten how to actually do A&R somewhere along the line, so we have to do much of the work – find great singers and performers, write the tunes and produce them ready for release. There’s so much pressure on A&R staff now, with people losing their jobs left, right and centre, that the kind of role I’m in involves a lot more than just sitting at home and knocking demos together.

But within all of that it’s the playing that keeps me sane. And so I never want to stop being a drummer.