Q&A with Bill Bruford
Exclusive Interview by Karen Beishuizen
Photos courtesy of Bill Bruford and Leon Barker
Bill Bruford is an English drummer and percussionist who is a founding member of the progressive rock band Yes. After leaving Yes, he joined King Crimson, as well as touring with Genesis. In 2017, he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a member of Yes. He is currently on tour in Europe and Japan with the Pete Roth Trio as featured artist. If you get the chance go see Bill Live!
KB: Did you always want to be a musician growing up?
No, music didn’t run in my family, so I don’t think I knew that such people existed until my influential older sister introduced me to Elvis Presley in about 1964. I can remember where I was when I first heard Scotty Moore’s guitar breaks in ‘Hound Dog’. The beginning of his second break sounds like metal trash-can lids. From an early age I think I was more interested in the sounds the instrumentalists were producing than the lyrics and the singer. Everything about American music attracted me, but I quickly zeroed into jazz, because that’s where all the drum action was.
KB: What inspired you to take up drumming and which drummers influenced you most?
My sister gave me a pair of brushes and instructed me to swish them around on the back of a thick-card album sleeve. Sounded good. Eventually I graduated to a pair of sticks. My parents were enthusiastic ballroom dancers; both very graceful and rhythmic. They’d roll up the carpet and start dancing. I was the DJ, playing all the hits of the day: a lot of the great American songbook, a little watery British jazz, Show tunes, Sinatra. There was a lot of US jazz on prime time TV in the UK in the 1960s. Among the drummers, I liked Joe Morello for his effortlessness, and Max Roach for his elegance and economy of movement. I’ve been trying to be effortless, elegant and economical ever since.
KB: How did you become part of the rock band Yes?
I was a founding member. I answered a newspaper ad. Got the call back and we played that night. We hadn’t rehearsed, so we played an interminable version of Wilson Pickett’s ‘In the Midnight Hour’. We started as a covers band, although nobody used that expression, and they were pretty weird covers. It wasn’t until our third album, The Yes Album, as I recall, that we felt confident enough to ditch the covers and produce all original music.
KB: You quit Yes and joined King Crimson: how did that go?
It was bumpy. YES was like my first girlfriend; lovely in every way. But as a very young man I needed to see what else was out there. I had to buy my way out of the band, like a professional football player moving clubs, but it was worth every penny. It was time to move to a different space and a different way of making music. I knew how to play and what to do in YES, and I knew none of those things in King Crimson. With Crimson I had 3 or 4 glorious albums and then the thing imploded. It was an invaluable experience. We hooked up again in the 1980s and again in the mid 1990s.
KB: You toured with Genesis. How was it working with Phil Collins?
Phil was both and excellent drummer/singer and a gentleman throughout, as were the rest of the band. It was my first shot at being a ‘session’ touring drummer, i.e. one with no financial or emotional investment in the music or the group. I did my best, but I became bored with the nightly repetition of songs for which I didn’t have much interest. I wasn’t much fun to be with. After being on the road most of 1976 with the band, I was itching to get started making some music of my own.
KB: Are there artists currently you would love to collaborate with and why?
I’d like to continue what I’m doing now, playing with Mike Pratt (bass) and Pete Roth (guitar) in the Pete Roth Trio (PRT). I prefer to play intimate, inventive, interactive, instrumental music in small places where I can see the whites of your eyes. I’m loving the guitar trio format, so if I couldn’t play with Pete, I’d ask Julian Lage or Bill Frisell. I doubt if either would have me! I’d want to play with them because, like PRT, their music is similarly intimate, interactive and accessible.
KB: You can make an album with 7 of your most favorite songs (not your own): which ones would you pick and why?
“Seven Steps to Heaven” – Miles Davis. Everything you need to know about drumming is encapsulated in drummer Tony Williams brilliant 32 bar-solo, a transcription of which hangs on my dining room wall.
“Starless and Bible Black” – Stan Tracey. The track originated from the pen of British pianist Stan Tracey. It was inspired by Welsh poet Dylan Thomas’ extended radio drama ‘Under Milk Wood’ (1954), and given melancholic life by the beautiful saxophone playing of Bobby Wellins. The phrase perfectly described the sonics of the band I was in in 1973, King Crimson, and I suggested it as an album title, which it duly became.
“That’s the Way (I Like it)” – KC and the Sunshine Band. The song perfectly captured the mid-1970s glitter-ball zeitgeist. It should last no more than a few seconds beyond 3 minutes, and it doesn’t.
“The Moors” – Weather Report . This was the first time I’d heard the silvery sound of Ralph Towner’s 12-string guitar, with which I immediately fell in love. I carried that sound around in my head for 30 years before I was finally able to make an album with it’s owner in 1997. The album was called ‘If Summer Had its Ghosts’.
“For Once in My Life” – Stevie Wonder. The harmonica solo makes the hairs on the back of my neck stand up. ‘Nuff said
“I’ve Got You Under My Skin” – Frank Sinatra. Cole Porter’s superb double entendre is a master-class in lyric-writing, after which most others don’t measure up. Is the song about a woman or drugs? It can be read perfectly either way. Throw in Nelson Riddle’s classic arrangement and you have perfect popular music.
“Inter-Are” – Mark Guiliana Jazz Quartet. Poly-rhythmic heaven from one of the world’s leading drummers. Driven by electronic inspired beats, Mark’s new music is presented in the entirely
acoustic format of the traditional saxophone, piano, bass and drums line-up. It’s challenging and experimental.
KB: In 2009 you retired and in 2022 you came out of retirement: what made you return to music and performing again?
First, it became possible to find a way to perform without the historical baggage that’s been round my neck for decades. Most of the people in my recent groups, or those I’ve joined, are unfamiliar with progressive rock, and any part I may have played in its development. As the featured artist in PRT, I don’t have to hassle with musical direction, strategic choices, air tickets, or hotels.
Second, YouTube. The platform has a less good side, but for me, it could show me in seconds what all the great drummers in the world were up to, and how they went about it. Drummers are incredibly generous; we give all our twists, tricks, discoveries and inventions away for free. There had been so many great developments in the drummer world since I’d been away. I began to realize how much I missed the scene. I was thirsting to be part of it again – at any level, except that of band leader. I’m not impressed by celebrity or fame or any of that nonsense. I get on well with musicians who can confidently express themselves in any genre, and I’m working with two of them.
KB: What are you currently up to?
I’m currently on tour with the Pete Roth Trio as featured artist, packing my bags for Japan as we speak. I practice a couple of hours daily when I’m not on the road. I’m watching my grandchildren grow up. I run a music business: Bill Bruford Productions Ltd (BBP). It was incorporated in 1972 to maximize revenues from a) my music performances on record and stage; and b) the marketing of the company’s property and products, principally copyrights held in musical and literary works. The collection of royalties for the exploitation of these properties by third parties has provided a stable, sustainable and substantial income over half a century.
Check Out The Pete Roth Trio’s website: HERE
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